NVIDIA GameWorks Integration

[Rainoxer]

Yeah, we need some real alternative for all gameworks - NVidia tuned up to be unreliable in this case.

We need Unreal to add features for soft bodies & fluid simulations, or at least we need plugins for this. It's pretty difficult for indies to modify the engine themselves to add Gameworks...

[Gomo]

Yeah, we need some real alternative for all gameworks - NVidia tuned up to be unreliable in this case.

[Wallenstein]

OK, so I was looking into NVIDIA Flow and I found this post here. From what I read it has been abandoned and is not available for any UE version past 4.21, is that true? Because if that is so, we will have to reconsider some of our design ideas.

[0lento]

No worries.To be honest I don't even get why they want to allow you to hide those settings in the first place

[fluffynukeit]

0lento, thanks for looking into this. It was entirely my mistake. Your screenshot helped me navigate and find them in the right spot; I was just not on the correct panel previously. Please chalk this up to my UE4 newbishness. Much appreciated and sorry for the trouble.

[0lento]

fluffynukeit ok, I got it built and checked this thing (also fixed latest VS2019 c++ toolchain build issue while at it). I'm not 100% certain what you are struggling with here, are you talking about the settings you can see after you expand the settings from the arrow next to "Flex Asset" selection?

[0lento]

Based on the above note from your earlier test procedure post, I'm not sure whether this is something you've tested for, and if so do you have any idea what could be wrong with my build or my workflow?

Yeah I don't have enough time to do full QA pass to test every feature on these techs, hence some issues may go unnoticed. I do try to check things if people report some issues though I can check this out but there are really high chances that if it's broken, it's been broken already on the nvidias original 4.19 FleX integration (which is what this 4.21 port is based on).

[fluffynukeit]

0lento, thanks very much for your work on gameworks integration. I have successfully built your 4.21-Gameworks branch. I can run the Development Editor, and I can load up the FlexProject, and I can run it just fine. However, I have an issue with the flex assets themselves.

When I open a flex asset in the asset editor (say, flexBacon) there is a Flex button on the top but no Flex settings panel. See the video link below to see the behavior I am expecting to see: a flex button on top and a flex settings panel in the asset editor (starts 7:45 ish).

https://youtu.be/Ee8TEwZkKpI?t=464

I do see that each flexBacon instance *does* have a Flex settings panel (like in the video), including an "Override asset" button. But there are no Flex settings on the asset itself (or they are invisible), so I don't know what this override button would do or where the flex settings for the instance come from.

This is likewise a problem for when I try to create my own flex assets. I can right click a static mesh and choose "Create Flex Static Mesh". When I open the new "*_Flex" static mesh in the asset editor, I don't see any Flex settings panel, but I do see a Flex button on the top (although it appears to do nothing, while with flexBacon the particle display is turned on and off). But, just like flexBacon, I can drop it into the scene and see a Flex settings panel on the instance along with an "Override asset" button.

- Once editor is fine, I open sample projects from the GameWorks tech I've just merged, verify it works in the editor and usually on both Shipping and Development Windows 64-bit builds. If I'm verifying an engine update instead of new GameWorks tech, I often verify that it didn't break anything by opening random GW projects and building them, just to see there are no new issues on them.

Based on the above note from your earlier test procedure post, I'm not sure whether this is something you've tested for, and if so do you have any idea what could be wrong with my build or my workflow? This is my first time building UE from source, but I followed the instructions correctly as far as I've been able to tell.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!

edit: fixed Olento to 0lento

[catalejo]

@Olento: Thank you for the info!it is kind of sad to not have an alternative for flex moving forward. I wonder if Niagara could do fluids and soft bodies like flex. Yeah it is sad to see these bleeding edge tech just left on the side to rot. oh well.

[0lento]

is there any way to know if NVIDIA developed gamework to ue4 4.22 or last ?

if you have your github linked to epic account (Iike needed with all ue4 forks) you can see nvidias development here: https://github.com/NvPhysX/UnrealEngine/branches/active. As you can tell by looking at that, they only do RTX work nowadays, there's been zero updates to traditional gameworks techs for a long time.

also want to know if you still work on update gamework to 4.22?

I'd like to but the rendering changes kinda make the effort pointless atm. I don't know enough of the gameworks techs or ue4 rendering internals to redo their rendering code for 4.22+. Some of the techs can be ported to newer UE4, like blast, flow and flex, probably hbao+ too but you still wouldn't get things like fluid rendering on flow and flex without the rendering code redo.

Blast is bit problematic as it's being used bit differently now on Chaos, it's technically part of the ue4 now but it doesn't work with physx like the gameworks version did. And HBAO+ usage is quite marginal, especially since UE4 already supports SSAO on forward path now + they have GTAO which is superior to HBAO+ so I don't know if it's really worth the effort to separate it again from VXGI branch just to get it running on 4.24 etc.

[图拉古]

Yes it's basically the 4.22+ rendering changes that stalled this. I have Flow running on 4.22 but it doesn't render anything unless you use it through cascade particles. Porting the actual flow sim to 4.24 is fairly trivial, but the flow's own smoke rendering would still be broken.

I don't know if Epic is cooking anything in regards of the fluid sims (besides those Ryan Brucks experiments).

hi，thanks so much to developed so much nice things. is there any way to know if NVIDIA developed gamework to ue4 4.22 or last ?also want to know if you still work on update gamework to 4.22?

[gregandcin]

Does anyone have any experience with using FleX and Overlap collision events? I am on 0lento's 4.19.2 branch and cannot get them to work as explained in this video: https://youtu.be/GlIVs6SV3Z0

EDIT: Figured out the issue, apparently it just does not work with Soft FleX objects

[MAKSIM]

How with Niagara you can make a liquid (for example, in a barrel), as in NVIDIA FleX?
Or in which branch is better to write this question?

[0lento]

Olento. So 4.21 is still the most complete integration of Gameworks for Unreal that is fully functioning? I assume because of the rendering changes. Does Epic have something coming that might make the effort to get things like FLOW working in 4.23 or 24 a waste of time or something? Just curious before deciding to anchor a new project on 4.21. Thanks. Amazing contributions by the way.

Yes it's basically the 4.22+ rendering changes that stalled this. I have Flow running on 4.22 but it doesn't render anything unless you use it through cascade particles. Porting the actual flow sim to 4.24 is fairly trivial, but the flow's own smoke rendering would still be broken.

I don't know if Epic is cooking anything in regards of the fluid sims (besides those Ryan Brucks experiments).

[DeathYak]

Olento. So 4.21 is still the most complete integration of Gameworks for Unreal that is fully functioning? I assume because of the rendering changes. Does Epic have something coming that might make the effort to get things like FLOW working in 4.23 or 24 a waste of time or something? Just curious before deciding to anchor a new project on 4.21. Thanks. Amazing contributions by the way.