Tinkering… I don’t get to do it much. However, when I do I will try to share a few things here.
Figured I would add a picture to the initial post (copy from image below):
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I am building a mechanical thingy mc-doohicky. It needs lots of mechanical stuff.
So I am writing a suite of tools to do the modeling for me (partially)…
Started a wire automation tool in 3ds max last night. I wrote a few path finding algorithms to get the wires to behave in different ways. Going to take another day or two and make it more robust. Here are a few screen shots of some tests.
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Took some time last night to build an automated rigging system for the wires. By simply checking a “Build Dynamic Skeleton” checkbutton on the ui, a full rig with physics constraints will be created and ready to simulate. The simulation uses proxy geo to maintain performance when running 50+ wire rigs.
Here are a few tests:
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Hmm, first thing that comes to mind is to use something like this for sprite/mesh panning things.
Though, the wire-setup is sweet as-is!
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I am not sure I get what you mean by :
Can you elaborate a bit?
Hi jbaldwin,
The wire rigs are looking cool! I wonder if there is a way to make something similar within UE4. I’ve seen people make spline scripts that conform to geometry, but I’ve never used physics with a spline before. Random thoughts. 
I believe what Luos_83 is talking about is panning a texture across the wire mesh from one end to the other, kind of like how electricity would flow through a cable.
Spent almost 10 hours on this total, so I am moving to the next tool as I am running out of time.
I added another feature today and flushed out the ui really fast.
Primary features supported:
- Path Finding
- Dynamic Skinning and Simulation
- Projections
Here was a test using a dead space path set:
There is. With programming, (almost) anything is possible…
Ah I see. If this is the case then yes. Each wire is built with custom uv’s for the attributes generated.
I refuse to call it… blaarghsoulerblaarghcoaster.
These are physics based: Messy, hanging, multi-cables on Vimeo
So you should be able to combine that with the pathfinding and Bob’s your uncle.
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ryan brucks made a procedural vine system in ue4. there’s a livestream about it too.
Love it man! Looking really cool!
Awesome. Looking forward to seeing it when it’s all done!
