I am testing the new dataless Mutable workflow in Unreal Engine 5.7. When replacing the old Skeletal Mesh node with the new Skeletal Mesh Parameter node, the cloth simulation stops working.
I may be doing something wrong, so I prepared a small repro project containing both versions (old vs. new).
To test: Play in editor and press `T` to switch between the two setups.
In the old setup (with the classic Skeletal Mesh node), cloth works as expected.
In the new setup (using Skeletal Mesh Parameter), the cloth becomes completely static.
Is this expected, or is there a specific setup required for cloth to work in dataless Mutable?
Thanks in advance — any guidance would be appreciated.
Currently, why this happens: we temporarily flag the mesh with EMutableMeshConversionFlags::IgnoreSkinning in GenerateMutableSourceMesh while data is being gathered about the mesh from the UCustomizableObjectNodeSkeletalMeshParameter nodetype. Later, when we go to build the cloth, that flag prevents the system from building it. If you want, you can try removing that flag, but there may be other side effects.
Cloth simulation support is almost ready and will be available soon in Main.
The dataless workflow available in 5.7 is in its early stages, and some basic features are not yet supported. We’re currently working on adding missing features and improving the workflow itself, and it’s advancing at a good pace.
Regarding clothing, there are two significant changes apart from performance improvements.
We lifted a restriction to merge sections with cloth and sections without cloth. It’s still not possible to merge two sections with clothing (this feature may be added in the future).
Meshes with clothing will transfer the clothing to the final mesh by default (no need to have the simulation on specific mesh sections).
General improvements for dataless and non-dataless workflows. These changes are designed to simplify graphs while allowing for deeper customization when necessary. There’s a huge list, so I’ll only mention a few.
Ability to work at the skeletal mesh level. E.g. Merge Mesh_A with Mesh_B without caring about the number of sections or their properties.
Ability to work at skeletal mesh LOD level. E.g. Create a mesh with LODs 1, 3, and 7 from Mesh_B.
Replace or modify materials from material slots by Material slot name. E.g. Extract the material from the material slot ‘eye’ and replace a texture, color, or scalar by name.
thanks, those are awesome news! can you already tell how it will work, and will there be limitations such as needing to have the simulation on the same mesh section of every mesh or things like that?