[FX] StaticMesh not working?

Questions & Community Discussions VFX
1

I am trying to drop a 3D object from an aircraft, using a StaticMesh node in
the effect editor. I have connected the StaticMesh node to the VisualEffect,
specified a mesh per the documentation but it doesn’t spawn anything. To be
sure I don’t miss it, I set Lincoln Memorial to be my mesh, emitted from the
tail of the aircraft. I still don’t see anything. Can one of the devs explain
what I am doing wrong or if it is broken?

2

Hello @SWS-AlexVletsas At the moment the functionalities of the StaticMesh
node are limited. It only works with materials with type CODE_AFTERBURNER.
Also it is meant to remain at a fixed position and consequently it has no
velocity property. You may have worked around that last limitation using a
GetInstanceAttribute node with the Age attribute and plug some computation
into the position. Unfortunately, as I tried that just now, it causes a crash
because the GetInstanceAttribute node expects to be plugged into a particle
emitter block, not a StaticMesh. I will work on a fix for this. Could you
explain a bit more what you are trying to do exactly so we can work out a
solution for you using existing tools ? We are aware the StaticMesh needs
some work to extend its range of possibilities but we can’t concentrate on it
right away :slight_smile: Regards, Matthieu

3

What I want to make is droppable objects, such as a flour bomb that falls from
the aircraft onto a target. I don’t want to use a sprite for that, so I
thought I could use a StaticMesh node to spawn the 3D model, then let it free
fall. Unfortunately I can’t even make the mesh appear, let alone drop it.

4

I have a similar situation. I suspect we’ll have to use a wasm module to spawn
an object?

5

Yep that would do it…

6

Just wondering - has this been fixed? Or is spawning a StaticMesh still inop? I’ve been trying to do this as well, as per documentation, but nothing is spawning.

Thanks

7

Hello MagnanimousHippo,

Old thread, but I was wondering if there was any progress made on this?

8

Hello @TerraBuilderTeam ,

Unfortunately no, this requires a good amount of work to make the VFX static meshes support the same type of materials as the scenery objects. There have been - and are still - other priorities for us, but it is not excluded that we work on it in the future.

Regards,
Matthieu

9

Ok, thanks MagnanimousHippo for the reply! Is there ANY way to dynamically attach/detach SimObjects? I looked at <ModelAttachments> for model xml files, but I am not sure if these models can be attached/detached dynamically, while in game?

I also tried attaching external objects via SimConnect (I have the vector math for precise offsetting), but unfortunately, the sim is always one step ahead when I obtain the position, and this creates positional gap.

Mitch
TerraBuilder Team

10

This would be the holy grail…

R.

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