VICODynamics: a particle based Soft-Body physics Plugin

[VICOGameStudio]

Cool! Thanks for the answers.

Could you tell us how "soonish" will the update come out to marketplace? Like 1 week/1 month/ 3 months? We are kinda on a schedule, we plan to finish the game in about a year, so the sooner I know the better we can plan this out. If it's a matter of 1 month then we can certainly adjust our plans to that. If it's about 3 months then we will probably have to consider some other solutions, altough this would kinda suck.

As for UE version, we plan to migrate to a higher version anyway, because we really need that Nintendo Switch support . We will probably move next month to 4.17.X if Epic releases a hotfix version, because right now I'm simply afraid of all the bugs that might become present in 4.17.0 release.

1 month, hopefully sooner. But like I said, the update is done feature-wise and is available on GitHub now.

I just got a Switch kit, so I'll be testing on it very soon!

[Pablo1517]

We're waiting then ^^ as for GitHub, I might try, but I assume you have to build the engine from source if you want to use GitHub version?

[Karmington]

Greetings. Playing around with the rope, looking good so far. My problem : With basic VDRope I have the Attachment, particle attachments options. But they are not visible in VDDynamicRope? (Trying to change length, width of the rope on the fly. )

[VICOGameStudio]

Greetings. Playing around with the rope, looking good so far. My problem : With basic VDRope I have the Attachment, particle attachments options. But they are not visible in VDDynamicRope? (Trying to change length, width of the rope on the fly. )

Right, VDDynamicRope handles that differently since it recreates itself on resizes. This allows it to add or remove particles, whereas the VDRope cannot do that. Try using RebuildRope* functions in VDDynamicRope to resize it on the fly. Let me know if you'd like me to go into more detail.

[Karmington]

Ah, Rebuild Rope Attached, ok.

[EDIT 1] initialization of the Attachments would be nice and orthogonal to be identical for all rope types. Not a critical issue for me as such though. And I can see how it might be messy when the rope gets resized / recreated... But it would be nice : ) ]

[EDIT 2] Ok, I figured out you can split the struct pin, now I have more options : I am trying to pass the name of the Component Property and StartSocket without Start Attached To Actor with no success.

[EDIT 3] Getting warnings when compiling the blueprint with struct pin split.

[EDIT 4] Not having much luck with this. Trying to make the simplest possible thing, attaching it to 2 Actors. Demo of this feature would be great to look at, preferably with both Actor and Component versions.

[EDIT 5] Attached bp of simple setup test

[EDIT 6] Attempting RebuildRopeAtPoints, getting a crash : Assertion failed: vdParticle [File:\Build\++Portal+Main+Full\Sync\LocalBuilds\PluginTemp\HostProject\Plugins\VICODynamicsPlugin\Source\VICODynamicsPlugin\Private\VDSimulatedObject.cpp] [Line: 65]

[VICOGameStudio]

Ah, Rebuild Rope Attached, ok.

[EDIT 1] initialization of the Attachments would be nice and orthogonal to be identical for all rope types. Not a critical issue for me as such though. And I can see how it might be messy when the rope gets resized / recreated... But it would be nice : ) ]

[EDIT 2] Ok, I figured out you can split the struct pin, now I have more options : I am trying to pass the name of the Component Property and StartSocket without Start Attached To Actor with no success.

[EDIT 3] Getting warnings when compiling the blueprint with struct pin split.

[EDIT 4] Not having much luck with this. Trying to make the simplest possible thing, attaching it to 2 Actors. Demo of this feature would be great to look at, preferably with both Actor and Component versions.

[EDIT 5] Attached bp of simple setup test

[EDIT 6] Attempting RebuildRopeAtPoints, getting a crash : Assertion failed: vdParticle [File:\Build\++Portal+Main+Full\Sync\LocalBuilds\PluginTemp\HostProject\Plugins\VICODynamicsPlugin\Source\VICODynamicsPlugin\Private\VDSimulatedObject.cpp] [Line: 65]

Few quick questions before I setup a sample for you:
Are you using the Launcher version or GitHub version of the plugin? If GitHub, what branch?
What UE4 version?

Regarding having attachments in VDDynamicRope: I wish I could have them like in VDRope, but because the particle indices change on rebuild those attachments would not be valid.

[Karmington]

Great to hear! I am using Launcher version of plugin with UE 4.16.3. I can get the GitHub version if necessary.
I wouldn't mind having to reassign the attachment indices manually each time ( since if you have to do the Rebuild function anyway, it would not be a big deal to calculate the particle indices), but it is not critical for my project : I can split up the rope into two, one VDRope with the particle attachments, and one VDDynamicRope continuing from the end of that.

[englandrp]

Would it be possible to dynamically slice a rope using this system?

[VICOGameStudio]

Great to hear! I am using Launcher version of plugin with UE 4.16.3. I can get the GitHub version if necessary.
I wouldn't mind having to reassign the attachment indices manually each time ( since if you have to do the Rebuild function anyway, it would not be a big deal to calculate the particle indices), but it is not critical for my project : I can split up the rope into two, one VDRope with the particle attachments, and one VDDynamicRope continuing from the end of that.

That should certainly work!

I believe I'm getting you GitHub access via email, correct?

[VICOGameStudio]

Would it be possible to dynamically slice a rope using this system?

Yes! In the upcoming Feature Update 2 (already on GitHub, this month on the Marketplace), you can "break" a Rope into arbitrary pieces at runtime. You can even break those larger pieces further if they have enough segments in them.

[NickLadd]

Will Feature Update 2 come out at the same time as 4.17 support? I'm eagerly waiting for the new update before I begin my project.

If I start a project with the current rope will the update cause any conflicts?

[VICOGameStudio]

Will Feature Update 2 come out at the same time as 4.17 support? I'm eagerly waiting for the new update before I begin my project.

If I start a project with the current rope will the update cause any conflicts?

No, the 4.17 update is a hotfix release. Feature Update 2 is aimed towards the end of the month. Both, the Showcase and Examples, projects are now done. Just a tutorial video left before release.

Yes, it may. Mostly the attachment logic and the removal of VDTensionRopeComponent which has been deprecated.

[AddictArts]

New user to the plugin and had some simple issues I hope that don't have answers in the forums.

Rope bend setting to 1.0 the rope still easily bends?
Also a resistance to stretch of 1.0 does not help. Can you make a rope that resists bending unless exteme force?

The parameters have no docs anywhere I can find other than Tool tips which leave much to be desired. Mass, segments, etc. can you provide some docs and relationships between these public parameters? Thanks

[VICOGameStudio]

New user to the plugin and had some simple issues I hope that don't have answers in the forums.

Rope bend setting to 1.0 the rope still easily bends?
Also a resistance to stretch of 1.0 does not help. Can you make a rope that resists bending unless exteme force?

The parameters have no docs anywhere I can find other than Tool tips which leave much to be desired. Mass, segments, etc. can you provide some docs and relationships between these public parameters? Thanks

This is a pretty common question, which I've answered a few times now and should start making an FAQ . The short answer is you cannot get it perfectly rigid and getting bend constraints to withstand high forces will take a bit of work and even then it won't be perfect. Not to mention the performance hit.

The long answer is that the core algorithm behind VICODynamics is an iterative soft-constraint solver. Because of this, rigidity is extremely hard if not impossible to achieve. And this works great for the purposes of this plugin, hence it being a soft-body plugin/library. You can try and get less stretching/bending by increasing the Simulation Iteration property and the Constraint Iteration property in Project Settings -> VICODynamics Settings. This will help, but at the cost of performance.

There are other tricks you could try to achieve the desired result like adding diagonal constraints along the rope to a surface parallel to the rope (this surface can be invisible to the player, obviously) . Never tried this trick, but it should help.

Regarding better documentation, absolutely! It is needed and I need the time to compile it together. I will get it together, but might be later rather than sooner. In the meantime, I'm happy to answer any questions!

[VICOGameStudio]

Feature Update 2 build has just been sent to Epic!

And here is a small shot of what will be shown off next week: