Like the title suggests, I’m wondering whether it possible to create a groom asset without alembics. The current pipeline suggests that alembics are the source for groom assets since they need guides/curves data.
But what about situations where we do not want strands, and only want cards for a groom? Currently we import a random alembic, remove the strands, and make it cards only with a specific static mesh, but the bounds computed for the groom are from the random alembic we used just to create the groom asset.
Ideally, we’d like to have the bounds based on the static mesh we provided for cards.
Creating a groom asset from scratch and giving it the cards mesh and the associated material doesn’t seem to give us a valid groom asset (since it needs curves data?).
What pipeline would you suggest for creating pure card based grooms with correct bounds?
Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention - it used to be possible to create an empty groom but that no longer appears to be the case. I’ve created Unreal Engine Issues and Bug Tracker (UE\-354433) which should visible publicly soon for tracking. This was somewhat of a gray area so we’re not certain how we’re going to address it yet but will investigate.
Can you provide more information on how this has been addressed.
Since we can already create a groom asset from scratch with the content browser, but it’s invalid since it doesn’t have curve data, I assume that fix relaxed that validity check a bit as long as cards were provided in the asset?
Would there be a path to upgrade this groom to a strand based one later on?
When would this fix be public to attempt a preport in 5.6?
You should be able to integrate that change into 5.6 and be able create grooms without strands/curve data. The change makes it where dummy hair strands data is used if no hair description exists and a couple other conditions for cases where you need to rebuild with card only data.
As for upgrading the groom to strands later on, you should be able to add strand data but it isn’t a workflow we’ve done much testing on. Please let us know if you run into any issues with the changes or workflow.