I have a rigged prop of a hanging lantern. Lantern has a constraint applied, which is a ball and socket constraint so it can rotate freely. This was done inside the PhysicsAsset window.
Is it possible to have the wind then influence this physics object? So that the strength and speed of the wind will make the lantern swing / animate more (or less) aggressively?
Hi kbelkus -
Your Physics Asset should react to a Wind Directional Source as long as you increase the speed and strength to overcome the mass of the object that you are trying to move.
Thank You
Eric Ketchum
Hi Eric,
Thanks for the Reply. If the physics object is allowed to move around the scene freely, ie a sphere, the wind affects it. However, the wind speed and strength values are in the tens of thousands of units.
I can’t seem to adjust the mass directly of the object. Adjusting the mass scale doesn’t seem to affect the objects behaviour either.
However, in my case I have a skinned object. A lantern, and a hook. The hook and lantern have a ball and socket constraint. The lantern should then be able to swing freely. If I ‘poke’ the lantern in the Physics editor, the results are as you would expect. The lantern wings around freely.
When placed in the editor, however, with a Wind Directional Source (with very very high values) the hanging component, the lantern, does not animate at all and appears to be completely unaffected by the wind.
This is in the latest version of Unreal. If it’s any help at all. I’ve included the Uasset in a zip file in this location.
http://kieranbelkus.co.uk/Lantern_Uasset.rar
Thanks for your time!
Hi kbelkus -
Scratch that first statement. Physics Actors will NOT respond to a Wind Directional Source though that is something we may look at adding in a later update to the engine. You should be able to simulate the effect of wind through a blueprint with your lantern and a Physics Thruster or Radial Force Actor which can be set to push and stop pushing at given intervals to simulate the wind.
Sorry about the confusion and if you need me to explain more let me know -
Eric Ketchum
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Hello Eric, is this wind system related to the ‘Unified ‘wind’ system’ card on the roadmap?
I’m looking at a way to affect physics meshes that are not grass or cloth, those two being properly affected by WindDirectionalSource today it seems.
Thank you.
Hi JMARO,
Yes, this card details how the unified system would affect physics as well. Right now, it’s on the wishlist so hopefully one day!
For the time being you’ll want to setup up some Blueprints that can add a force based on the direction of the wind. You can get reference a lot of settings from the wind directional source like the strength, speed. and gust amount to adjust the amount of force you’re adding to the rigid bodies.
Hi Tim or Eric
Could you explain a little bit more about how to use force based on the direction of the wind or Physics Thruster in BP? I stuck on hanging an object without moving by wind. Thanks in advance.
2018, still no news on wind effects physical assets?
2023, still no news on wind effects physical assets?
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It doesn’t, it never did.
Each actor has to be coded up to take the wind vector into account and apply force to the simulated parts.
Chaos may have changed this - but it also performs 70% worse than PhysX so no one is going to be switching engines anytime soon unless is for testing / indy projects…
Hi Eric. I know it’s been a while. I’ve got a Physics Thruster working on a rigid body in my Blueprint.
[Physics Thrusters] can be set to push and stop pushing at given intervals to simulate the wind.
How is this done? I would like to apply a gentle sinusoidal / random curve to the thruster force, as would be typical of wind.