VICODynamics: a particle based Soft-Body physics Plugin

[VICOGameStudio]

@LenaAlthammer

Actually, this is not the case. If you look at my blueprint above, you’ll see the Print String node (that logged a 0) is placed after the rope was rebuilt.

The rebuild is setup at that point, but is fully completed on the next Simulation Sync due to resource handling and thread handling. I will add a note for that node.

@LenaAlthammer

This is not a solution, as I do want the rope to dangle at the center, just not at the start and end points. After looking through the code, I realized three particles were overlapping the start point when trying to attach to overlapping rigid bodies, while only one overlapped the end point, which caused the different attach effect. I solved it by manually attaching the three last particles manually to their destination:

So I got the desired result, but it feels like kind of a workaround.

Ah! I understand what you meant by dangling. Right, the Attach to overlapping rigids node over compensates to attach particles which may be close enough to intersect with the geometry. Whereas when manually setting up attachment it is up to you to attach the needed particles. I can look into adding a convenience function/node

[LenaAlthammer]

Great, thanks! Sorry if my explanations weren’t clear.

[jojo8026]

Will cloth stay where you put it now? Has the sliding issue been fixed yet?
@

The rebuild is setup at that point, but is fully completed on the next Simulation Sync due to resource handling and thread handling. I will add a note for that node.

Ah! I understand what you meant by dangling. Right, the Attach to overlapping rigids node over compensates to attach particles which may be close enough to intersect with the geometry. Whereas when manually setting up attachment it is up to you to attach the needed particles. I can look into adding a convenience function/node

[jojo8026]

@
Will cloth stay where you put it now? Has the sliding issue been fixed yet?
Sorry for the double post, forgot how to tag people in posts for a minute lol

[VICOGameStudio]

@jojo8026

@
Will cloth stay where you put it now? Has the sliding issue been fixed yet?
Sorry for the double post, forgot how to tag people in posts for a minute lol

I have not released an update yet, so no changes just yet. But I do have someone working on collision now, so it should not be too long until this issue is fully addressed.

[jojo8026]

I have not released an update yet, so no changes just yet. But I do have someone working on collision now, so it should not be too long until this issue is fully addressed.

yay can’t wait for the issue to be addressed

[Mfaroukb]

Hi all

I am trying to attach a rope to a vive tracker. My first trial was attaching the rope to a rigid body and attach the rigid body to the tracker, but the rigid body moved and not the rope. I also tried to attach the rope directly to the tracker same problem. I even tried to move the actor to the tracker position so the actor moves but not the rope component.

Any ideas how to solve this?

[VICOGameStudio]

@Mfaroukb

Hi all

I am trying to attach a rope to a vive tracker. My first trial was attaching the rope to a rigid body and attach the rigid body to the tracker, but the rigid body moved and not the rope. I also tried to attach the rope directly to the tracker same problem. I even tried to move the actor to the tracker position so the actor moves but not the rope component.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Hello,

Wanted to check in with you, did I sufficiently answer your email regarding this?
Hope all is sorted, let me know if I can answer further questions

[fabito_rychter]

Hi, I am using the plugin to simulate a rope swinging with the wind but for some reason, the rope is ignoring the characters colision and physics asset:

Look: https://youtu.be/x3c7GymCXYU

In this scene I enlarged the physic asset to show the rope ignoring it.

[VICOGameStudio]

@fabito_rychter

Hi, I am using the plugin to simulate a rope swinging with the wind but for some reason, the rope is ignoring the characters colision and physics asset:

Look: https://youtu.be/x3c7GymCXYU

In this scene I enlarged the physic asset to show the rope ignoring it.

Hi ,

From the video, it actually looks like a combo of two issues:

1. The ropes do not seem to have proper collision filtering setup and are colliding even with volumes. Ideally, you want to setup collision channels such that the ropes channel only collides with the intended channels and/or objects.
2. The jittering near the attachment points is due to a few particles constantly colliding with the physics asset. This can be fixed by having the particles near the attachment point disable their collision.

Hope that helps and let me know if you have further questions

[David_Chaseling]

Just need to get the plugin itself tested on Android via UE4. Been having issues setting up the SDKs along with the 4.22 update. I will try to get those sorted soon. If you have the environment setup and are up for testing it, let me know. Would appreciate the help.

Hey mate, sorry to keep asking. Did you end up getting around to testing this on Android?

[anonymous_user_6a619fcd]

Hi ,

From the video, it actually looks like a combo of two issues:

1. The ropes do not seem to have proper collision filtering setup and are colliding even with volumes. Ideally, you want to setup collision channels such that the ropes channel only collides with the intended channels and/or objects.
2. The jittering near the attachment points is due to a few particles constantly colliding with the physics asset. This can be fixed by having the particles near the attachment point disable their collision.

Hope that helps and let me know if you have further questions

Hi, I was wondering if this plugin could be used on characters for hair (like 2 or 3 braids- not very many)?

[Mfaroukb]

Hello,

Wanted to check in with you, did I sufficiently answer your email regarding this?
Hope all is sorted, let me know if I can answer further questions

Yes your feed back did helped me a lot to solve the problems. Sorry not getting back to you, I got involved in another urgent project and I had to leave the project with the rope for a while.
Now I am having trouble with collision between the rope and mannequin.

First the particle size is big so the collision starts with a big space between the rope and the object. When I decrease it dose not decrease the particle size and hence the collision distance. My rope has width of 1 and the particle is 5.

2. While dragging the rope it jiggles also it is dragged to a certain limit then pass through the mannequin hand. I enabled the “per poly collision” for the skeletal mesh.

My scene contains a rope attached between two cubes in a vertical position. I need the mannequin hand to grab the rope and it rest in the hand of the mannequin till it is released.

Thank you again

[VICOGameStudio]

@David_Chaseling

Hey mate, sorry to keep asking. Did you end up getting around to testing this on Android?

Not just yet, I’m sorry for the delay. My own game has been taking priority lately.
It’s only the plugin that needs testing, the actual physics library is good to go for Android. I’m going to try and get it all wrapped up end of next month. I should make that, but please take it as a rough estimate as things may come up on my game.
And please do check in with me more often

[VICOGameStudio]

@tapirtoon

Hi, I was wondering if this plugin could be used on characters for hair (like 2 or 3 braids- not very many)?

The tough part here is collision with the moving character, the way collision detection is currently done means that the particles only ever get a snapshot of the scene every timestep. They then react accordingly to any collisions. But the issue is that a moving collider has no clue about the particles, so when it moves the particles will only see it on their next timestep as a collider at a new location. They are not made aware of the colliders trajectory. This results in inaccurate collisions.
I do have a plan to improve this, but I do not have an eta on getting that implemented yet.

[VICOGameStudio]

@Mfaroukb

Yes your feed back did helped me a lot to solve the problems. Sorry not getting back to you, I got involved in another urgent project and I had to leave the project with the rope for a while.
Now I am having trouble with collision between the rope and mannequin.

First the particle size is big so the collision starts with a big space between the rope and the object. When I decrease it dose not decrease the particle size and hence the collision distance. My rope has width of 1 and the particle is 5.

2. While dragging the rope it jiggles also it is dragged to a certain limit then pass through the mannequin hand. I enabled the “per poly collision” for the skeletal mesh.

My scene contains a rope attached between two cubes in a vertical position. I need the mannequin hand to grab the rope and it rest in the hand of the mannequin till it is released.

Thank you again

I will follow up with you on the email you sent over regarding this since it has a bit more detail. And I’ll post the results/solution here after

[Dreika]

Hair settings add
https://forums.unrealengine.com/community/released-projects/1638095-kawaii-physics-simple-fake-physics-to-sway-bones-more-easily-and-more-cutely

[fabito_rychter]

Sorry to write again with the same issue but collision is really not working… Look:

Gravity Outline 03

Sometimes it decides to respect the collision and at times it doesn´t. I checked the collision channels and everything is setup correctly.

Have I reached the limits of this plugin? Was I supposed to use it only as a static rope with no or little movement?

[VICOGameStudio]

@fabito_rychter

Sorry to write again with the same issue but collision is really not working… Look:

https://youtu.be/81-uQ8cvzm4?t=41

Sometimes it decides to respect the collision and at times it doesn´t. I checked the collision channels and everything is setup correctly.

Have I reached the limits of this plugin? Was I supposed to use it only as a static rope with no or little movement?

No, it still looks as if it’s attempting to collide with a rigid body there. Is that intended? If so, we could workaround that.
The problem is that the only interface into PhysX collision I have is via sweeps/traces and overlaps which is very limiting. I really wish there was a way for me to ‘inject’ bodies into the broadphase of PhysX’s pipeline and get callbacks for hit detections, this would make collisions near perfect.

[fabito_rychter]

Getting the rope right is the only thing missing in my project. What do you think I should try now? Would you help me investigate what could be wrong? We could do it via Quick Assist or similar…