I was wondering if it is possible to use displacement in 5.4 for making the landscape go down when I dig? I know in the past you could use tessalation to add footprints in the landscape but that method is decryped now.
I know a lot of people recommend voxels but I cannot afford the plugin and the free version doesn’t support foliage.
if it is not possible with displacement I have another soluation I would like to try where I would spawn a dirt actor at the location of the dig then when the player digs again that dirt actor curves with the illusion of digging it but I don’t know how I could do that would I need to use a dynamic mesh that I can manipulate in real time? is that even possible? or would I have to use a spline component on the mesh?
please if there is anyone who could just point in the right direction I have a few examples of what I would like to achieve so you can get a better understanding of what I am trying to accomplish.
Hey there @ripchan! Welcome back to the community! If the use case is a simple displacement that doesn’t need any collision changes (technically the shovel example doesn’t) you could use an RVT method like many use for foot prints in snow or sand. Here’s a couple resources that could be of use:
Disclaimer: One or more of these links are unaffiliated with Epic Games. Epic Games is not liable for anything that may occur outside of this Unreal Engine domain. Please exercise your best judgment when following links outside of the forums.
Thank you for the quick reponse I will look into these videos I believe I had already watched the first one you recommended and get back to you with any results do you perhaps have any idea on how in the second example I showed they maniuplated the spawned dirt actor? as you can see in the link provided it looks like it is being deformed in a way when the player digs? I only ask incase I have no luck in regards to the first idea I had ty again
For the second example, you could just use WPO (World Position Offset) for the deformation of the static mesh on top, then material parameters/dynamic material instances to control how much it is deforming (depending on use case), and using more RVT you could blend it into the ground itself (if you want that).
Disclaimer: One or more of these links are unaffiliated with Epic Games. Epic Games is not liable for anything that may occur outside of this Unreal Engine domain. Please exercise your best judgment when following links outside of the forums.
Hey just to give you an update I manged to get one of the effects working so far it was using the WPO u mentioned and the mesh displacement video gave me a bunch of insight I managed to displace my mesh using a dynamic material instance which allows me to edit the values in real time next I am going to explore the RVT idea you had to and blend it into the ground itself I am still highly interested in looking at the footprints in the sand video you sent me and see if I could do anything with the landscape too thank you so much for your help!
I’m glad it works for you! The RVTs are definitely more towards polish than gameplay components, so it’s totally fine just to deform the mesh with just WPO. If your meshes are well blended, you may not even need the ground blending tech. The footprints setup is also really good at teaching you to modify RVTs at runtime, and can be used for a myriad of things outside of footprints, so it’s a good thing to learn even if it’s not applicable to your current project. Have a great day!
