VICODynamics: a particle based Soft-Body physics Plugin

Regarding Flex: Ha, yeah it’s not far off, is it?

Regarding that behavior, could you record it? Could help figure out what is going on there.
Are you using tension constraints?

Huh, that’s a strange one. Are you able to replicate the issue in a fresh project? If so, could you send it over for debugging? You can email it to ujen@.com

Did you setup the spline component reference? If it’s not setup, the rope skips construction. Let me know if you’d like more information on setting it up.

Not yet, but I’ve sent you a mail about it now though. Im using a different user name there

Hey all! I wonder if it would be possible to use this plugin for a soft body car collision deformation, and if it is, could you elaborate a bit. Thanks!

Sure thing, I’ll send the footage over on [EMAIL=“ujen@.com”]ujen@.com?
I’m not using tension constraints at all actually, it’s just plain old rebuild rope attached (dynamic) between the hook point and the hand-socket.

I have access now, but where in the github repo is there a linux compatible build? (If there is one)

I assume it is master, but when I try to do “UE4 from launcher” I retrieve a big error list during the build part.
I also haven’t built UE4 from source so I haven’t tried the “UE4 from github” part. Are you certain “UE4 from launcher” works with master? Im using UE4.24

Not in its current state. It will require a different constraint system where the constraints are directional and more rigid. Doable, but will require adding functionality to the core physics library.
Definitely something I’d like to add down the road!

Got the email, thank you! Looking into it this week, I’ll reply to your email.

Linux libs are not in the plugin repo just yet, but have been getting some good testing done on them recently. Let me get you a custom build of them, can you drop me an email on vdue4@.com?

Hey, great plugin! How do you use the “Fill location Cache” and Use Location Cache on the cloth component. I want some cloths to be pre drapped over chairs and tables. What would be the best way to grab a cloth at a specific point? Thanks! What im going for is a horror game effect where players can pull the cloth of different objects, and one of those object with be laughing and slighty moving underneath. I want to have the player grab location to be where ever they click on the cloth, and start dragging from there, in same way a bit as you imagen with the physics handle component

edit: I have found how to use the fill location cache. 1) Press place until cloth falls how u want it. 2) press button use location cache 3) Copy location cache array. 4) after stopping game, paste it back in.

Any tips on best way to grab the cloth would still be appreciated. Also any tips to keep mesh from gittering when it falls to floor?

edit 2: currently testing - getting particle closest to click position. Moving particle with set location method.

How to you disable simulation? would only like to turn it on for meshes player has clicked on.

Hello! The plugin looks amazing and I’m very interested in the potential it has to offer!

I have a question regarding the cloth mesh (the cube-like or sphere-like objects in the demos). Would the plugin allow to do some fake soft-body tissue deformation that allows stretching when pulling from specific points that would return to rest position when you let go?
Also, can one create 'internal constraints between parts of the mesh? So, instead of constraining two different objects to each other, you constraints parts of the same mesh together so that one can effectively ‘cut’ through the constraints and separate these parts.

I am trying to achieve a soft-body incision effect, where you have a volumetric mesh which you can pull from any point the user interacts with, and said mesh has a whole in the middle which has been pre-cut, just so happens to be constrained together (making the illusion that it isn’t cut yet), so the user can cut through those constraints regardless of the state of the mesh.


I hope this pic makes sense, I tried to make it as simple as possible (obviously don’t take mesh resolution into consideration, made it so to avoid confusion) - The big square would be this flexible soft tissue (where you can pick and pull from multiple points) and the middle part is a hole which happens to have the vertices ‘stuck’ together. When cutting through the (red) constraints, this hole becomes more apparent.

Thanks! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I am having a problem when I try to create a component in c ++. After adding #include “VDMeshClothComponent.h” , it gives the following error:

Code.png
https://forums.unrealengine.com/core/image/gif;base64

Also, is it possible for a soft body to respond to linear traces? I’ve tried changing the collisions, but it looks like the trace doesn’t recognize the mesh.

Replied to your email, great suggestions! I’ll follow up here with what we get setup/implemented. Thanks

Replied to your email, thank you for clarifying how you are looking to use the plugin. Based on the use case you described, VICODynamics should fit your needs with a few additional logic additions for the stitching and cutting of the stitched constraints.

The plugin does require PhysX to be used by the engine (for now, I’m getting rid of this requirement soon) so this masyu be the issue you are seeing. Does your project target a platform which does not support PhysX?

UE4 traces do not work because the soft-bodies are not part of UE’s physics system, but you can either use the two queries that come with the plugin or attach hidden trace colliders to the soft-body for use with UE’s traces. I can go into more detail if you’d like

Thanks for your reply.

  1. Can you tell us more about how to connect the plugin so that it can be used with C++? Now I just added “VICODynamicsPlugin” to the PublicDependencyModuleNames in my build.cs file, and I think so that I am probably missing something. Supported platform for project is Win64.
  2. It would be nice if you could give more information about this two queries.
  3. This question was already above, can you suggest a more convenient way to grab cloth? How to you disable simulation?

I have seen that the volume preserving soft body feature is still upcoming, do you have an ETA for this/is the beta version available? Also, with that feature, do you allow vertex resampling? Like let’s say I have a 50k vertex mesh that I want to display, but the simulation runs on a LoD or something else so it only simulates say 5k vertices? Thanks!

Edit: Also is this all supported for skeletal meshes?

Volume-preserving soft-bodies were part of the previous update :slight_smile: .
Resampling is not implemented yet, but definitely will be! A client actually got it all implemented for their game, but was unable to share it fully.

Skeletal meshes are not supported at this time, but this is another big feature that I will be adding.