Animated Mesh to UE4

   5006   2   1
User Avatar
Member
5 posts
Joined: Jan. 2015
Offline
Is it reasonable to create a procedural mesh like this growing tree generated by an LSystem into UE4? I believe HDA's are for baking static meshes in the editor. So would I use FBX/Alembic animation? Or will that be impossible to texture/UV nicely anyway?

Just looking for some basic direction or if I should abort this mission and try something more realistic.

Thanks
Edited by MrBrad - June 1, 2019 11:46:32

Attachments:
TreeGrowSlow.mp4 (3.9 MB)

User Avatar
Member
5 posts
Joined: Jan. 2015
Offline
I managed to do this by exporting an Alembic file from Houdini…and then importing Alembic into UE4 using a Geometry Cache input setting. So fun!

This video helped me understand why Alembic is so powerful and perfect for this kind of mesh deformation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHxxk0y2D4 [www.youtube.com]
Edited by MrBrad - June 1, 2019 22:01:57
User Avatar
Staff
534 posts
Joined: Sept. 2016
Online
Hi,
Yes, if you need any kind of animated mesh, I'd recommend against using the Houdini Engine plugin and instead use Alembic/FBX exports with vertex caches, or have a look at the Vertex Animation tools in the Game Development Toolset.
  • Quick Links