[Community Project] WIP Weather & Ocean Water Shader

[NilsonLima]

Been playing around with this release for awhile and i just want to say great work! I was wondering though is it possible to make the waves smaller? I myself have not figured that out yet

To make waves smaller you need to play with wavelength and amplitude settings all the way down the parameters in the BP_Ocean blueprint. Reducing the values basically can give you a calm water like a pond!

[skywaves]

Hello,

Another buoyancy question, is it possible to get the buoyancy system to work on another type of object instead of the inbuilt ocean? For instance if I wanted to use a custom deforming mesh for an ocean instead of the inbuilt ocean. Or is the buoyancy heavily tired to the ocean? Would it mostly involve just getting the custom deforming mesh to feed the buoyancy system the height of the deformations, or is it way more involved than that?

Thanks.

[NilsonLima]

Hello,

Another buoyancy question, is it possible to get the buoyancy system to work on another type of object instead of the inbuilt ocean? For instance if I wanted to use a custom deforming mesh for an ocean instead of the inbuilt ocean. Or is the buoyancy heavily tired to the ocean? Would it mostly involve just getting the custom deforming mesh to feed the buoyancy system the height of the deformations, or is it way more involved than that?

Thanks.

The buoyancy system is tied to the ocean solution, because we need the values for the ocean plane height in order to do the math which is simple: How much is the test point below or above the water? With that you can go and apply the correct force on that test point.

If not in the ocean, you can create your own buoyancy looking at this: https://t.co/xFxkjYc3MM and look for Simple Buoyancy Physics and Simple Boat Physics template projects.

[skywaves]

The buoyancy system is tied to the ocean solution, because we need the values for the ocean plane height in order to do the math which is simple: How much is the test point below or above the water? With that you can go and apply the correct force on that test point.

If not in the ocean, you can create your own buoyancy looking at this: https://t.co/xFxkjYc3MM and look for Simple Buoyancy Physics and Simple Boat Physics template projects.

Great, thanks. I'll check these out and see how it goes.

[skywaves]

Been playing around with some more ideas with the ocean and buoyancy component. Anyone know the best way to get the waves of the ocean to effect a skeletal animated object that was exported from maya?

I have animated a boat in maya traveling in a straight line then exported that out to UE, added buoyancy components to the boats BP and I've also added a physical animation component to the boats BP. I'm basically trying to get the boat to maintain the animation of it traveling in a straight line, but with the added effect of it being effected with the waves of the ocean, kinda like an additive motion on top of the boat animation. With the additive motion mostly coming from the buoyancy component reacting with the ocean waves.

Wondering if what I'm doing is the best way to go about it? So far my approach of using a physical animation component seems to almost work, except towards the end of the animation the boat
will lift off the ocean surface. kinda like a plane taking off a runway, either that or the boat will stay on the surface of the ocean but it'll keep going forever. Even when the source animation of the boat as stopped moving.

[NilsonLima]

Been playing around with some more ideas with the ocean and buoyancy component. Anyone know the best way to get the waves of the ocean to effect a skeletal animated object that was exported from maya?

I have animated a boat in maya traveling in a straight line then exported that out to UE, added buoyancy components to the boats BP and I've also added a physical animation component to the boats BP. I'm basically trying to get the boat to maintain the animation of it traveling in a straight line, but with the added effect of it being effected with the waves of the ocean, kinda like an additive motion on top of the boat animation. With the additive motion mostly coming from the buoyancy component reacting with the ocean waves.

Wondering if what I'm doing is the best way to go about it? So far my approach of using a physical animation component seems to almost work, except towards the end of the animation the boat
will lift off the ocean surface. kinda like a plane taking off a runway, either that or the boat will stay on the surface of the ocean but it'll keep going forever. Even when the source animation of the boat as stopped moving.

I would not animate in Maya, but instead would set sequencer to move the boat along the ocean. If you do change only the x and y coordinates and let the z untouched, the buoyancy will adjust the height alone while sequencer will move it along. You can also set a loop in sequencer so you can like do a patrol in an area.

[skywaves]

I would not animate in Maya, but instead would set sequencer to move the boat along the ocean. If you do change only the x and y coordinates and let the z untouched, the buoyancy will adjust the height alone while sequencer will move it along. You can also set a loop in sequencer so you can like do a patrol in an area.

I don't think I can really avoid not creating the initial motion in maya first. The boat traveling in a straight line example can be done without maya, I'm mostly using the straight line idea as simple base to start from and if that works then I scale up from there. As the end effect that I'm trying to achieve is going to be a lot more complex than a boat moving in a straight line.

I've been playing around with combing physical animation node with a buoyancy node, it almost works but need to fiddle around a lot with the physical animation settings till it starts doing the
effect that I was after. My main problem now is that the boat just doesn't stop at all when I need to stop, even if I set all the physics animation node settings down to 0.0.

[NilsonLima]

I don't think I can really avoid not creating the initial motion in maya first. The boat traveling in a straight line example can be done without maya, I'm mostly using the straight line idea as simple base to start from and if that works then I scale up from there. As the end effect that I'm trying to achieve is going to be a lot more complex than a boat moving in a straight line.

I've been playing around with combing physical animation node with a buoyancy node, it almost works but need to fiddle around a lot with the physical animation settings till it starts doing the
effect that I was after. My main problem now is that the boat just doesn't stop at all when I need to stop, even if I set all the physics animation node settings down to 0.0.

I still vow for the Sequencer idea, you can do complex stuff with it, not to mention there is less things to worry regarding assets moving between Maya and Unreal. Im quite busy working on the new ocean version or I would demonstrate this in a video and post here. When I am about to finish here I will contact you and if you didn't find a solution I will make the video.

[AmbiguousInt]

Seems like there is some flickering on the shader in 4.20.

EDIT: This is how it looks like: https://gyazo.com/05d251a68fb64733bce7753d5f8a535d

[skywaves]

I still vow for the Sequencer idea, you can do complex stuff with it, not to mention there is less things to worry regarding assets moving between Maya and Unreal. Im quite busy working on the new ocean version or I would demonstrate this in a video and post here. When I am about to finish here I will contact you and if you didn't find a solution I will make the video.

Thanks, NilsonLima. Just getting back into this and started playing around the the sequencer idea further, but I was getting some odd results. Which is probably caused by me probably doing it wrong. So far I've had the most success with using forces to push the boat around.

Also, does anyone know if the advanced buoyancy will work on a skeletal mesh as well? Tried it out with a skeletal mesh instead of a static mesh and with skeletal mesh I just get an
error saying "mesh missed".

Thanks.

[NilsonLima]

Thanks, NilsonLima. Just getting back into this and started playing around the the sequencer idea further, but I was getting some odd results. Which is probably caused by me probably doing it wrong. So far I've had the most success with using forces to push the boat around.

Also, does anyone know if the advanced buoyancy will work on a skeletal mesh as well? Tried it out with a skeletal mesh instead of a static mesh and with skeletal mesh I just get an
error saying "mesh missed".

Thanks.

I have played with skeletal meshes and the buoyancy like 2 years ago, so I really don't remember all of it, so I guess if I can't find the project I messed with it I will need to recreate one from scratch, but I do remember I made the 3rd person character float, thou not in a perfect simulation because I have wrongly put test points in the hands and feet, which is not correct, the test points needs to be put in head, torso and hips.

Hopefully I will get rid of some work Im almost finished and I will make a video to show how to approach the solution. If possible, I will deal with the Sequencer for the boat animation aswel, maybe a separate video for it too.

[AmbiguousInt]

I have played with skeletal meshes and the buoyancy like 2 years ago, so I really don't remember all of it, so I guess if I can't find the project I messed with it I will need to recreate one from scratch, but I do remember I made the 3rd person character float, thou not in a perfect simulation because I have wrongly put test points in the hands and feet, which is not correct, the test points needs to be put in head, torso and hips.

Hopefully I will get rid of some work Im almost finished and I will make a video to show how to approach the solution. If possible, I will deal with the Sequencer for the boat animation aswel, maybe a separate video for it too.

Any update on the issue of 4.20 I posted above?

[script526]

Excuse me for stupid question but there is no instructions on Github. Should I merge the OceanProgect with UE4 source code and compile in order to make this work?

[NilsonLima]

Excuse me for stupid question but there is no instructions on Github. Should I merge the OceanProgect with UE4 source code and compile in order to make this work?

If you follow this video is enough to migrate the project and make it work:

[script526]

NilsonLima thank you!