Vegetation/foilage animation in UE4- Simple Grass wind??
polycounter lvl 10
I am wondering if there is a better way than using simple grass wind. Anyway to simulate better movements in ue4? I am pondering animating this in blender using shape keys or something. I really don't like the movements the simple grass wind provides (too robotic and doesn't move realistically). I noticed there is a speedtree node but I am guessing that works with speedtree models.
So I want to ask, for those of you who make you own trees, foilage, what other techniques do you employ to create good realistic animations? Out of curiousity, does anyone know how the speedtree node is set up to react to wind direction (Simple grass wind does not). I am thinking speedtree has a vertex paint deformation map that moves with the wind or something??
So I want to ask, for those of you who make you own trees, foilage, what other techniques do you employ to create good realistic animations? Out of curiousity, does anyone know how the speedtree node is set up to react to wind direction (Simple grass wind does not). I am thinking speedtree has a vertex paint deformation map that moves with the wind or something??
Replies
https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?3268-Nature-Environment-in-UE4&p=65111&viewfull=1#post65111
You can use vertex color, Z axis of the bounds, or a texture, as a movement weight (so the bottom won't move). This is similar to when you would weight a skeletal mesh, but in this case you'd tell it where it can move, and where it can't. From here, you can use time and a direction, sine, noise, or anything like that, to make it moving.
To randomize the movement, you can use random per instance or actor position. The random per instance works with the foliage painter, because that uses instanced static meshes. The actor position would work better if you would use it on things that aren't painted with the foliage painter. In that case, use the random per instance.
These things should be plugged into world position offset but maybe you figured that already.
@Obscura Speed tree node can work with custom trees?? Would that be with only vertex color maps painted to determine movements because there isn't any slot to plug in textures.
I am thinking of simulating it manually and exporting to ue4 with fbx format. Not sure if ue4 supports vertex animation properly with fbx though. I am reading something about alembic export. Is this format okay to use compared to fbx?
About the speedtree node, I think it has a weight slot. Thats where you could plug your weight that could be a texture or vertex colors, or something generated.
I am wondering if the vertex color information speedtree uses is grayscale or particular colors it identifies for leaves, branches etc.
Yeah, alembic would be taking things too far especially since getting good fps is important. What would be the best way to export baked or vertex animation from a 3d app to ue4. Say you have a mesh you have simulated or animated and you create an animation cycle. I am reading about exporting the vertex animated mesh skinned to one single bone and exporting with fbx format, and ue4 will recognise the vertex animation cycle?
Also, have you tried "simple grass wind"?
That sounds very straight forward on cards.
Maybe I need more practice with it.
@Obscura Trying the simple grass wind again. This is what I am getting after painting vertex colors. For some reason, all the leaves are moving at the same time with the same motion.