VFX
Using VATs with Houdini
Creating vertex animation textures for artifact reveal effect in the «Into the Radius» VR game using Houdini
Description
Project: Into The Radius
Instruments used: Houdini, UE4, Speedtree, Maya
All materials on this page, which illustrate technical configurations, are not part of the game content and do not match the real assets, but have been independently created for demonstration purposes.
Due to its significantly lighter performance impact on the CPU, vertex animation is usually one of the most efficient ways to create in-game animations, especially when it comes to not very complex visual effects. Vertex animation can be set up in Unreal Engine’s Material Editor through World Position Offset, but to implement more complex solutions, such as simulations or even character animations, you can use Vertex Animation Textures. There aren’t many reliable tools to generate VATs, and Houdini in my opinion, has the best instruments for that.
Creating VATs
My task was to create an artifact appearance effect for the «Inro the Radius» VR game. After the player presses the detector button, an unusual structure resembling ribbons or branches appears, then it collapses into pieces and disappears.
Since the game runs on the stand-alone headset MQ2, the effect should be very lightweight for performance. Therefore, it was decided to use vertex animation right away.
First, the general structure was generated in Speedtree. Then, I used Maya to adjust the visual appearance of the ribbons and reduce the triangle count.
Since the game runs on the stand-alone headset MQ2, the effect should be very lightweight for performance. Therefore, it was decided to use vertex animation right away.
First, the general structure was generated in Speedtree. Then, I used Maya to adjust the visual appearance of the ribbons and reduce the triangle count.
Evolution of the main structure
After that, I used Houdini to simulate a destruction effect, create vertex animation textures, and implement them into Unreal.
A significant advantage of the Houdini VAT tool also lies in the that it comes with all the necessary material functions for creating vertex animation in Unreal.
This is an in-game screenshot of the artifact reveal fx on MQ2:
