SuperGenius - Weather FX Megathread! (FAQ, Requests, Bug Report)

** Welcome to the SuperGenius Weather FX Megathread! **

We felt it best to create a single, comprehensive thread that hopefully answers any questions that you might have about our pack. It’s best to have an open conversation about our products so we can continue to create high-quality content with the best support. With that, we encourage everyone that purchases our packs to give us feedback; whether it’s a feature request, bug report or a general use inquiry.
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To start things off, we put together a helpful Weather FX FAQ!

  • How do I transition from interior to exterior with the rain or snow fx?

Place the “VFX_Weather_Rain_Point” particle system at any entrance to a covered area then disable the local rain before you get close. In the most recent update, the heavy rain particle system does not rely on the distance cylinder so much and you could probably turn that off altogether.

  • Are the effects compatible with multiplayer instances?

Yes! Just be sure to set the FX to be rendered locally (client side).

  • How do I attach effects to a player?

Since the 1.1 update, we include a blueprint that has the weather FX attached to a player camera. Feel free to use that as a base. (Thanks Stuart Mackereth for the blueprint!)

  • *Do the effects work well with VR? *

Yes! We solidified that even further in version 1.1.

  • Is there a handy video tutorial that describes the pack in more depth and demonstrates the FX?

Funny you should ask! Yes! The video breakdown is located here: SuperGenius - Unreal Engine FX - Weather on Vimeo

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With any sort of software, there is always bugs. Here’s the Weather FX’s fortunately short Known Bugs List.

  • In the more recent UE4 Builds, player movement is causing a slight brightening of the rain particles. We’re not quite sure what is causing this and would appreciate any input.

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As we receive more feedback, I will update this original post with additional FAQs, in progress updates and bug fixes.

In the mean time, if you haven’t checked out our packs yet, please head on over to the Marketplace and take a gander. We’re just getting started and have some great stuff planned for the future. Thank you everyone for your interest and we look forward to starting this conversation.

Link to the Weather FX pack on the web version of the Unreal Marketplace: https://www.unrealengine.com/content/4c7a98b54d9349379b42254ca8df8cba

I can´t get the lightening effect to work in VR (4.8.3). I can see the effect in the editor window, but not in the VR preview. Could you please let me know the settings for VR.

I am making a game based in the northern part of the united states where its cold and snows a lot. does this work to where I just drag and drop and can set when it happens or? is it hard to implement

It’s definitely not difficult to implement. There’s two types of the Snow FX in the pack - one that is sort of a “point area of effect” that only places snow in a certain radius, and the other is a large cylinder that is bound to the player camera that fakes the effect of snow filling the scene. Check out the video at the link above to see it in action. Thanks for your interest!

Make sure you’ve downloaded our latest update. The pack doesn’t automatically stay up to date, unfortunately. So you’ll have to manually do so in your Vault. If that doesn’t work, would you mind sending us some screenshots of your scene or perhaps a video of the issue to “marketplace@supergeniusstudio.com?” Sorry about the trouble, we’ll get it figured out!

Hey Wrack! I just got our DK2 hooked up and tested each lightning particle(and all the other systems) in VR preview mode, and they are all working great for me. I am also using version 4.8.3 for the weather fx.

In the initial release of the pack there was a bug where the collision nodes would register collision(and spawn lightning) in editor mode, but not in play. I was able to fix that issue by reducing the collider’s velocity. So first I would make sure you have the latest update of the weather fx pack, and if that still does not work, then perhaps you could try reducing the velocity even more just in case when in VR preview you are loosing performance that is making the particle collision not register. That is my best guess at least.

You can modify the velocity within the cascade system here:

There is a known issue with the rain(and likely most sprites) that I do not know how to fix. When moving, the intensity/opacity of the sprites appears to be multiplied, so when the player moves it seems like there is suddenly much more rain. It SEEMS like this would be caused by some kind of motion blur in the engine, but I have messed with the in editor and the camera settings within the FirstPersonCharacter blueprint and have had no success in alleviating this. Does anyone have experience with this issue?

Thanks

Hi Warhamster,

thanks for your help. I’m with wrack and we’re trying to get this stuff working.
Unfortunately, your suggestion with the velocity doesn’t work either.

We should have the latest version. We have deleted the local content from the launcher, redownloaded it, cleaned the project from old WeatherFX files and added them again to the project.
We still have the same issue: it’s not showing any lightning in VR.

Alright, take the particle system"VFX_Weather_Lightning_SinglePoint" and place it on top of an object that will receive a collision. Preferably the ground. Make sure there are no objects above within 2000units! That could also make the lightning spawn far up in the sky. I have just double checked testing it with this particle and it works on my end. The SinglePoint assures that the collisions will take place at a single point consistently.

Also, within the particle system check each node for the Detail Mode and make sure it is set to Low. I have had this set to medium and make emitters not show up in game before due to performance settings.

If this is not your issue, then we can try making the lightning spawn normaly rather than being generated on collision(which is what makes sure it is contacting the ground). You can do this by turning the Spawn node on for the lightning and the cloud emitters and changing the spawn rate and rate scale to your choosing. Just do 1 for testing purposes, should spawn each second.

I have a cave in my level. When I have lightning in the scene, it lights up the cave no matter how deep I am. As if it’s coming right through the ground, not reflecting from the outside… Any way to resolve this? I could disable it when entering the cave, but I would like to still be able to see it outside when the entrance is visible.

Also, I do not seem to have the issue above in my project of rain getting brighter while moving (4.8.3).

Hey Vaelek, I have played with the light module in the Lightning emitters, and the problem is these lights are not casting shadows. I also cannot find an option to make them cast shadows within cascade. I think the best alternative would be to make the particle system a blueprint and spawn a dynamic point light via the blueprint rather than the Cascade particle system. I have wanted to turn the weather effects into blueprints for more flexibility and better usability for awhile now, so hopefully I will be given the time to do so. I will pitch it to the up and ups today. :slight_smile:

Hey Vaelek, I am still wrestling with a blueprint version of the lightning flash. It is taking me longer than I expected, I have been running into odd issues with my blueprint/dynamic material instance relationship. It seems the changes in my blueprint will only affect one emitter within my cascade system(even though each bolt uses the same mat instance), so I will need to separate each part into a separate system. Unfortunately I need to jump onto another project here at SG so my lightning blueprint will only get pecked at during my breaks etc.

For the moment, I would recommend duplicating your lightning particle system and disable the light in your duplicate. Then when you enter a structure switch from the original emitter to the non-light generating emitter. I will let you know when the blueprint lightning update is ready. :slight_smile:

Hi.
I’m wondering how the clouds work with your asset as I’m interested in purchasing the Ultra Dynamic Sky (UDS) marketplace asset, and I notice your lightning effect (very nice by the way) is lighting local clouds higher up.

Are they a locked in part of the lightning effect or are those clouds created separately (so if I had the UDS asset making my overcast sky would your lightning effect interact with those clouds - which are not volumetric rather a projection onto a skydome?). I don’t mind if your effect comes with those local cloud effects as it would probably blend in with the overcast sky required and supplied by the UDS. I hope my question makes sense!

Regards

Slinky

Very nice pack. Is there some “official” suggestions how to prevent rain inside buildings? I currently check what is above player, but need to disable the effect compeletely. Would be fun to be able to rain visible when e.g. watching out of window.

Hey Slinky! Currently the clouds in the lightning effect are simply a sprite being spawned within the particle system. You can easily turn those emitters off if you so choose. That being said, while I will be releasing a new updated to the weather fx pack soon that contains a lightning blueprint that spawns a dynamic spot light that casts good shadows from the source of the bolt, even this would not reach your skydome, which is where the clouds live in the ultra dynamic sky. What I would recommend, is to replace the texture for my clouds in the lightning clouds material with a cloud texture that is similar to the one he uses in the UDS package, that way it should blend nicely.

If you have the latest update there should be a standalone rain particle system that only has colliding rain. I would place that particle system at your window or entrance to covered area and then turn off the rain that is following the player when you get close to it. In the update there will also be a blueprint for the heavy rain that will allow for its spawn rate to be increased and decreased at will(through blueprints) allowing for a ramping up, down, and general control over the rain amount.

Sounds good. I’ll probably wait to purchase when updated.
Regards
Slinky

Sounds superb addition, will also try that window thing.

As small possible bug noticed that the rain ground splash effects are often some meters above player’s head. On some locations those appear right. What could cause it?

Hi Supergenius, the plugin is great - my preferred solution for weather FX. Could you update it so that it is marked compatible with 4.9? It would be great to be able to use it in the newer project.

Hey guys! I just sent the 4.9 update off to Epic, so hopefully that will get turned around soon!

As far as the splashes above the head, I am not too sure. The splash location is spawned from collision of the rain drops(with an event generator), so there may be some player collision above the mesh of the player that it is interacting with. However, I have also noticed less than perfect recognition as well in other areas instances with particle collisions, so it may be that the current Cascade collision is not super accurate. The new lightning contact location is dreived using raycasting in the blueprint instead of collisions from Cascade, so the new lightning blueprint should be pretty solid. :smiley:

This is probably a silly question, but just to be sure, is this system appropriate for use in a third-person game? I read about issues surrounding raindrops falling through roofs/solid surfaces up-thread, and want to be sure there wouldn’t be weirdness with the models obviously fighting with/clipping through the particle emitters.