Overview

The pre-baked physics pipeline allows you to bake out a physics simulation in a 3D asset creation package to keyframe data, and load it into CRYENGINE. Once the pre-baked physics are in the engine, the pieces can be detached from the animation and become physicalized.

The Destructible Object

• The model should be broken up into pieces in an interesting way (The break points should make sense, think about how the material would break).
• The pieces should have very low-res physical proxies, try to use boxes whenever possible.
• Make sure the Crytek Shader material for all objects is set to "physical".

Setting Up the Simulation in 3ds Max

Creating a Rigid Body Collection

• Select all of the objects that you would like to be simulated and then select reactor -> Create Object -> Rigid Body Collection.
• Any object that you do not want to move can be set to "unyielding" in the .
• It helps to put a large flat cube down as an "unyielding" floor.
• In the reactor utility roll-out you can give your items "mass" and other properties.

Applying a Force to the Rigid Bodies

The reactor is very simple when it comes to applying a force to your objects, there are two basic ways:

• Wind: You can create a Wind force by selecting reactor -> Create Object -> Wind.
  • Wind values can be keyframed over time when changed in autokey mode.
• Animated Objects: You can animate other rigid body physical objects to collide with your object in order to create an interesting simulation.
  • Animated items should be set to "unyeilding" in the reactor utility rollout, if not, upon hitting a rigid object, they will start to simulate and not stick to their keyframed animation.
  • Character bones can be physicalized and used if you have a cinematic sequence where a character interacts with your breaking object.
  • Spheres can be used to break apart buildings, simulating explosions (delete these spheres after the simulation).

Previewing the Simulation

• Select reactor -> Preview Animation... to see a preview of your simulation.

Baking the Simulation to Keyframe Data

• Select reactor -> Create Animation and wait for it to bake your simulation to keyframe data.

Exporting to CRYENGINE

Here are some things to keep in mind when exporting your pre-baked physics into the engine:

• You will export the animation as a CGA:
  • All the position and rotation controllers of the objects in the CGA need to be set to TCB. The easiest way to do this is with the CryAnim Tools (On the General Tools rollout).
  • Select merge all nodes in the export options.
  • Turn off all bone export options, but tell it to export every '1' frames.
  • Select one object that is not moving and parent all the other pieces to it. This object can be one you set to "unyeilding". In buildings, use the foundation.
• You can add special metadata to your individual CGA objects, either through the Meta Data Editor found in CryTools (Rigging Tools), or by using these flags in the User Defined Properties of an object:
  • Mass
  • Box
  • Entity

• The current animation will show up as Default in the CGA you export, no CAL file is needed to play it.
• Name your CGA with the same name as the original object, this way the material will work with it.
• Open your CGA in the Character Editor and play the animation labelled "Default", you should see your animation play.
• As always, obey the Character Rigging Guidelines for CRYENGINE; pay particular attention to having no scales and transformations.

Creating an AnimObject Entity

Once you have exported the CGA, place it into the engine as an AnimObject.

• Drag in and place an AnimObject from Entity Panel -> Physics -> AnimObj.
• Remember that ActivatePhysicsThreshold is a fraction of gravity, thus a heavier piece will be harder to activate since the gravity force that acts on it is stronger.
• Mass is the overall value for the entire CGA, for instance, a Mass of 100 on a CGA with 100 pieces would yield 1kg per piece.
  • You can set the mass in the UDP metadata of your CGA as mentioned above.

Entity Properties