TL;DR: I need to create a sand material that dynamically wave/bumps as the player “surfs” through it, but am at a loss as to how to do this.
Long version: I thought to myself the other day, “What’s my favorite game?” There were many options as many games fill that category, but I settled upon one game: Journey. This game’s aesthetic was very cool, and I wanted to see if I could recreate a certain level in the game in Unreal Engine. That level was the sand surfing levels, where the sand acts like water basically, and you surf through it to get to the next level. What has me absolutely stumped is getting a sand material (or any material for that matter) to kind of wave, and leave ripples dynamically from the player touching it or getting near it.
This is basically the effect I’m trying to get:
Do you see how the sand sort or ripples past him as he moves?Can anyone help me here? I would really appreciate it!