Realtime Simulations for Unreal

Hey guys,

As a newbie to VFX I am slowly working my way through the basics of Cascade.

I was wondering is it possible to create Real-time simulations in Unreal. For example is it possible to create water that is reactive to a player or fire that is reactive to wind?

I’m aware of plug ins such as NVidia Flex but I’ve had issue with getting it up and running. Are there any other plug ins that will offer similar functionality?

Is it possible to create such simulations without a plug in?

I’m aware this all might be a little high level for an absolute beginner but I’m just curious about the engines capabilities.

Thanks guys :slight_smile:

Yes, but not native to particle systems or cascade. You can fake it visually, but to have it dynamically driven, that will take setup both in the material you’re using, and in conjunction with one or more Blueprints. Actual simulations in real time, even with NVIDIA’s physX stuff is a long way off in terms of practicality for games.

Is it possible to do simulations? Of course. Is it easy? No.

I steer clear of nVidia-specific solutions. They’re very cool, but tend to run on nVidia cards only. I’m not an AMD fan, but I try not to encourage lock-in. Also there are significant engine changes that can make it hard to get up and running on different platforms. You would also have to reconcile those changes with every update you pull from Epic.

If water simulation is central to your gameplay, go for it. If not, fake that interaction with a visual effect.

More support for realtime simulation is definitely coming down the pipe though. I’m guessing in a few more years…