Impact Designer is an Unreal Engine plugin that integrates all the features you need to manage projectile physics, such as a bullet from a firearm and trigger effects according to impact type and surface. You can also create your own events that react to the properties of the impacted surface or the projectile used. Impact Designer integrates a number of modules to meet the needs of most use cases.
Main Features
IMPACT CONTEXT EDITOR
A custom editor allows you to easily modify the Impact Context asset.
- Add or modify physical surface
- Edit physics properties of surface
- Add module to create effects
PROJECTILE RICOCHET
The Impact Projectile Movement manages ricochets. For each surface, you can set whether and how a projectile can ricochet. You can :
- Set the maximum entry angle.
- Define maximum exit angle.
- Define the force lost by the projectile.
- Whether the projectile inflicts damage.
PROJECTILE CROSSING OBJECT
Impact Projectile Movement manages the penetration of a projectile through an object. For each surface, you can set whether and how a projectile can pass through. Impact Designer lets you use this feature very easily. You can :
- Define the maximum thickness of the object to pass through.
- Define the angle of deflection.
- Define the force lost by the projectile.
- Define how many objects the projectile can pass through (Optimization).
PROJECTILE HOMING
You can influence the trajectory of the projectile by specifying a target in the Impact Projectile Movement. The projectile will modify its trajectory to reach the target.
You can :
- Define the target.
- Define the force applied to the projectile to modify its trajectory.
PROJECTILE POOLING SYSTEM
This feature allows you to optimize memory consumption and performance. Instead of constantly creating new projectiles, this system will recycle them. When the life of the projectile has expired for whatever reason, it is not destroyed but placed in a pool. When the Impact Projectile Spawner component needs to launch a new projectile, it will search this pool and reset that projectile so that it matches the new parameters. This process is faster than creating a new projectile from scratch.
IMPACT PARTICLE EVENT
Impact Designer includes an interesting feature for creating effects when a particle collides with the environment or an object. This feature is taken into account by the module that spawns a niagara component. All you have to do is create an Impact Effect Actor. You can then :
- Recover impact information for each particle.
- Recover the physical properties of the surface impacted and the surface from which the particles originated.
- Recover information about the projectile.
- Use all this information to create a new effect or trigger an event.
PRE-INTEGRATED MODULE
Impact Effect Module is the base class for adding an action upon impact on a surface. You must add these modules to the Impact Context asset in order for the action to occur.
The plugin integrates several basic modules which you can use as is or as a basis for your own module.
- Spawn Niagara Component
- Spawn Mesh
- Spawn Sound
- Spawn Decal
- Spawn Velocity Projected Decal
IMPACT TRIGGER
This class was created to allow you to trigger an event if the projectile enters and leaves a volume [Sphere, Box, Capsule]. You will also have the possibility of influencing the simulation of the projectile by modifying its velocity or time dilation, for example.
AND MANY OTHERS
Gallery
Current state
What's next ?
Impact Designer is still in development and new features will be added with each update. See all the features we plan to implement on Impact Designer!
Any ideas? We’d love to hear and discuss it!