How do I import a vertex-animated mesh?

anonymous_user_d790c0d2 · September 21, 2015, 11:08pm

I’m attempting to create some assets that allow modular level design with the objects being somewhat deformable. I’m new to programming in Unreal, but I believe blueprint’s construction script should be able to handle the end result. But my current hurdle is being able to import the mesh itself with the animation intact. I’ve included the FBX if you’d like to take a look at it. Created in 2016. The frame is separate and animated by position only whereas the wall was animated by vertex as well as the UVs. Later I may have the frame as a separate FBX so it can be easily swapped out for style.

mbullister · September 22, 2015, 12:07am

UE4 doesn’t support direct vertex animation, but you could store the offset in a morph target and animate that.

anonymous_user_d790c0d2 · September 22, 2015, 4:35am

I’ve tried morph targets but I can’t get the UVs to morph with it. Any workarounds for the UVs?

anonymous_user_2740201c · September 22, 2015, 7:34am

try to use FabricEngine Splice , with that you can easily import alembic files , so you can import vertex-animated mesh and even animated topology mesh :
https://vimeo/137189035

anonymous_user_923c79df · September 22, 2015, 4:25pm

There is a vertex animation tool for 3ds -> https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/Animation/Tools/VertexAnimationTool/index.html

mbullister · September 22, 2015, 5:06pm

I haven’t used the vertex animation tool before, but I suspect it won’t support the UV behavior you’re getting in your gif.

What you could do is use two materials for the wall-- one for the doorway with standard UV behavior, and a different one for the wallpaper which uses WorldPosition to generate planar UVs on the fly.

anonymous_user_d790c0d2 · September 23, 2015, 2:40am

I think you may be right. I’ll have to experiment. Are you by chance aware of any other methods of doing this? I’m curious about Houdini and if that’d fit my needs. But man, to have to learn another software quickly…

What I find funny about this problem is that back in early 2000s I was playing with an engine that relied on vertex animation and only recently supported bones!