Hello. Is it possible to create a random, variable wind force that affects static meshes? I don’t mean cloth or foliage, but regular SM objects. If so, can it be done in blueprints? Thanks for any help!
Most likely there is a way to implement the system better than my suggestion. Create an entity (in the world or game instance or any global point) that calculates the direction and strength of the wind, add to each actor a component that can interact with the wind and in this component read the wind parameters and apply to the actor (shift depending on mass, surface area). I believe Blueprint is enough to implement.
You can consider Community Ocean Plugin (Project). Instead of wind there, a similar system controls the water, but there C++.
You could use pivot painter 2.
It’s extremely finicky to get working right and has very little documentation, but gives fantastic results when it does work.
Firslty
In any material, type simple wind.
use a material parameter collection for the values.
Drive all values to both the MPC and the Wind actors.
For skeletal meshes, you can still use the material so that the wind remains identical and you get no popping during swaps.
secondly, and more to your point.
For static meshes that need to be affected by the wind, you could use physics simulation.
The base idea is you create a master blueprint that generates the physic forces.
You then have this blueprint select the actors that need to be affected (or loop through all actors and affect everything that isn’t specifically marked to Not be affected).
You can apply any amount of force, and so long as the mass is below the treshold to affect it it will be pushed around.
Keep in mind, more things simulate the lower your performance. That’s mostly why stuff is done via materials and you only have very few tumbleweed like things in games.
Thanks for the ideas. Even if the wind force wasn’t global it could be okay. For example, if it was something I could apply just for certain objects that need wind interaction (like wind chimes). It seems like it should be easy to do, but I can’t seem to find how to get started.
Didn’t see your response MostHost LA when I last posted – are there any examples of blueprints applying such a force I could reference?