UE4 Rope using Bones and Physics Constraints in Unreal Engine 4 & Blender Chain Tutorial How To

[@m0rph3u5.]

Without anydoubt Lusiogenic's channel, is the bible of Unreal engine's physics... another great well explained tutorial that covers everythin

[@f4483]

Great tutorial, kudos! A piece of advice for folks following this on UE5. Your biggest friend to stabilize the rope is going to be the capsules "inertia tensor scale". Bump it to 10 for a stable rope (default is 1).

[@manulaatapattu9478]

Thanks a lot

[@zyfragz5959]

Omg !!!, Finally i found tutorial to grab a bone !!! Thank you so much mann

[@reerjgiorge]

Thanks, for using Blender to do it. I really hate 3ds max and maya lol. Thanks for another useful tutorial.

[@Lusiogenic]

I understand, me too. :) You're welcome.

[@NitrogenDev]

So close to 300 mate! They grow so fast! XD

[@Lusiogenic]

Let's hope so! You're not too far away either. :)

[@Yovry]

Over 3I now

[@thqp]

My physics assests Capsules are massive and can't be scaled down, and it's causing a bunch of buggy behaviour. I'm using Blender 2.81 with UE 4.22 Also messing around with blenders Unit scales and what not does not seem to fix the problem at all :/ You have any tips on how to fix this?

[@topraktunca1829]

its happening to me also

[@doug_richardson]

The warning about no smoothing groups during import into UE4 is because you chose "Compute Normals" instead of "Import Normals".

[@senchi3836]

One of the best tutorials about rigging for the beginners! Good job ! Thanks !

[@IamNeighborlee]

except its not working in blender 3. Snap to vertex is doing nothing.

[@Romeo615Videos]

could you help me make a gold chain for the metahumans? I have the mesh

[@MrPangahas]

Can you please do a tutorial on how to setup IK for bipeds and quadrupeds or even multilegged creatures?

[@Lusiogenic]

I've not worked with IK yet. I'll have to look into that. I'll put it on the list.

[@LutherThie]

Thank you! This is best tutorial making an articulated mesh actor with physics i have found. all the steps work, grateful.

[@leonardm6736]

Can you set / attach the start and end location like the cable Component and can you get set the length of the rope

[@andresmouro7565]

Hey man! Awesome tutorial, I'm having an issue where when I create the bodies for the bones, it just creates 1 giant bone in the middle of the rope and creates really small and wrongly rotated bodies for the other bones. Any ideas how to fix it?

[@hosseinteimouri9369]

Thank you , how can change this chain ? i want use for hook spell like Pudge in Dota2

[@malcriado3d]

Thanks for the tutorial Luisogenic! can you elaborate how did you attach the cubes to the rope that appear at 16:30 thanks!

[@Lusiogenic]

You can simply use a Physics Constraint Actor for that. Just make sure that, for the rope, you fill in the bone name that you want to connect to. It needs that because it's a skeletal mesh. Check out this screenshot drive.google.com/open?id=1cNFLbF7ZvcC8Q17QFv6GFQgDjYX8VGwi The rules of the constraints can be whatever you want, but for simplicity you could just lock rotation and translation for all axes. Please note that the relative position between the two elements before running the game will be considered as the reference.

[@malcriado3d]

Sorry to bother you but i cant lock position and rotation on the constraints. Everytime i pick the cubes from each side i have like a separation from where the bone and cubes are...

[@Lusiogenic]

I'm not sure I understand what's not working, but I will be doing a quick tutorial on this. It'll probably be up tomorrow, so stay tuned.

[@malcriado3d]

@@Lusiogenic thanks mate!

[@Lusiogenic]

Here's a video in which I explain thoroughly how to connect the rope to an object: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3m5Z4l-r7Wkrq8

[@PartigradeCannon]

How are you connecting the boxes to the rope?

[@justVontadeh]

Hi! I was wondering if it would be possible to do this inside an Actor BP? I want to make a grabbable rope but I'm not having any luck making it simulate inside an actor. Any ideas? Thanks for the tut!

[@Lusiogenic]

Yes, just create a new actor and add to it a Skeletal Mesh component that uses the Rope skeletal mesh. Than, you can simply use it inside the actor.

[@NeikarNR]

Can you somehow set diffrient length of that rope?

[@suzukito]

your channel is amazing

[@cancermind]

Does anyone know if I would like to do a whole rope bridge including rope and mechanics that let you shoot the rope, would I do the whole bridge in a single blueprint? or make ropes separately and then somehow add physics constraints between different blueprints?

[@kotarosdevgame]

Thanks much for your helpfull Tutorials, just a question again by the side i try to figure out to snap back the rope like a spring as like in Wrestling or Boxing Rings . The rope are fine but it doesnt snap back fast while my Character goes away from it. Did you have any idea i play with every Settings in the PhysicAsset Hours but no luck.

[@dbarr49]

Is there a way to make a variable size rope and have it act in a similar fashion?

[@Lusiogenic]

I was thinkig to do that. Theoretically, it all takes a single piece of string that you duplicate and stitch together. The most important thing is to stitch it together with sockets. I might make a tutorial on this. We'll see.

[@iRedCraft]

Hey, awesome tutorial, much better than the cable component :) I have a problem attaching the skeletal mesh cable to two other actors though. I'm using it as a cable between two plugs, so the hirarchy is Plug1 + Cable skeletal mesh + Plug2 (attached to a socket "CableEnd" which I configured in the skeletal mesh) All components have physics simulation and collision enabled, but once I start simulating, the three components just fall apart and aren't attached to each other. Any idea? Thanks!

[@ParadoxISPower]

The ends need to be kinematic, or they will fall every time.

[@omegablast2002]

freaking outstanding tutorial!!!!

[@HaselnussWaffel]

Your tutorials are awesome, thank you for making them!

[@jackmann1478]

What PM_Rope? Is that a separate tutorial?

[@bartasus194]

Can you explain how to fix a rope to a point?

[@monoham1]

does CCD just not work because its like quantum physics and if you just add millions of bodies it will average out to be like normal physics or is something else going on like cumulative error or something?

[@toevlierpanosh6392]

Ive been trying to get this to work for so long now but inside an actor blueprint. i have a gun with a band hanging from it . It all works fine unless i run around with the gun, the band just remains floating in place... please help!

[@mushudamaschin2608]

How does the last of us 2 make a super long rope then thay looks physics based? That you can hang off of and wrap around things (a bit similar to the hands cables in poppy playtime as well)

[@KeepMeReady]

woow !! Your tutorials are the best !! Is it possible that the rope can be replicated in multiplayer? How could I do it? I have been testing the configuration of the rope between two cubes, all the replication configured in the three components and in the clients does not work ... Could you help me? and in case of not being able to replicate, as I do so that each of the clients calculates the physics of the string separately without replication. Many thanks

[@ngontri9921]

Can i do that with a armor chain mail, or should i go for baking?

[@AlexJamesDean]

I don't understand. whenevr I export I get 1 bone in my physics despite setting up multiple. I just want to create a simple flapper :(

[@viktorianskiy27]

in the skeletal mesh, increase the value

[@Darkyll]

Have you found a solution?

[@viktorianskiy27]

@@Darkyll After all, it didn't work out for me as they say in the tutorial. That's why I just made a rope on a spline)

[@bomi]

@@Darkyll 1. Delete everything in the "Skeleton Tree", 2. Set "Min bone size" to 1.0 3. press "Re-generate Buddies"

[@rushikeshbhandare8946]

Can we create stretchable rope If yes how

[@zondax7628]

i followed your rope tutorial and everything worked perfectly, but i'm having a problem that after i scale down the rope, it starts acting funky whenever it collides with an object. any advice on how i can scale down the rope and still maintain its physics?

[@jayjaygolden5123]

dont. scaling in engine is often a bad idea. Scale it in your modeling software instead.

[@remon563]

great tutorial mate. How would we go around to "cut" a rope ?

[@Lusiogenic]

In this version, you can't. What you have to do is make very short piece of rope with only two segments and only one Physics Constraint connecting them. Then you duplicate those parts and stick them together using sockets. Then you can detatch them wherever you want to "cut" the rope. I wanted to make a tutorial on this. Maybe I will, we'll see. It's quite simple to do.

[@alexgriluk2270]

the physical asset works, but the skeletal mesh is on the spot,why is this?

[@RedStallion2000]

Hi Andre, Great tutorial! Thanks for it. Just wondering if you have any idea why Unreal Engine 4.24 crashes when I try to import either of the Rigged rope meshes you supplied as samples. Maybe I'm not using proper settings in the FBX Import Options window that pops up? Update 2/18/20: It seems that the crash may be due to a bug in UE 4.24 when you try to import an fbx that doesn't contain a material. Is there a chance you can add a material to one of the rigged rope meshes you supplied so that I can test your rope model? Thanks very much. Joe

[@noprotox]

Very good tutorial ! Continu

[@nyxi6689]

do you know any good way to attach the player to the rope so he can swing??

[@Lusiogenic]

Not really sure about that. Since the player character doesn't use physics, it's not as simple as using a physics constraint to link it to the rope. You will have to make a new movement mode and update its location relative to the movement of the specific bone of the rope that it's attached to.

[@nyxi6689]

I managed to socket each constraint and I attach the player to each one and move him up and down the chain if he inputs W or S, the only thing left is that my character gets attached to the constraint through the capsule component ofc, and when the rope is swinging too much, the animation I had made for the player of him holding the rope gets offseted, as the capsule component always connects at the middle not the top where my player has his hands, do you know a way where I can attach the rope constraint to the hand of the mesh. Keep in mind no collision is placed for the player once he connects. Thanks a lot btw for your reply and your videos are amazing!

[@nyxi6689]

And is it possible to maybe make 2 bones on the rope act like one so they act more like a straight line held by the character?

[@Lusiogenic]

If you're using the Attach to Component function, make sure to set the Location, Rotation and Scale rules to Keep World. This will attach the player character to the rope's socket, but keep it's world location, so it will not be attached to the center of the capsule. Depending at what moment you trigger the attach, you might want to adjust the character's location in relation to the rope. Please note that the character will only collide using the capsule component, all other collisions will be ignored, including that of the skeletal mesh.

[@Lusiogenic]

To keep the bones straight, you could put the constraint that's linking them to locked, both in linear and angular movement. Depending on the forces that will be applied to them, though, it might not stay really straight in some situations. The only other method I can think of is setting the bone to Physics Type: Kinematic, then updating its location continuously relative to its parent bone. But in this case, you would have to make a separate collision channel for the rope so that the kinematic bone doesn't collide with the simulated bone.

[@colinericburriss]

Can your rope be shaped to run as a conveyor belt or tractor treds?

[@Lusiogenic]

You technically could, but I'm not sure it would actually work. You would have to put in too many segments. As the rope becomes more complex, it becomes more and more unstable. I've thought of doing this a lot of times, but I feel it has low probability of success. The point of making a conveyor belt (or pulleys, as another user asked) is so that you actually carry weights with them, but I don't see that happening with the current implementation of the physics constraints. That's because the force that an object applies gets scaled by its mass. So a piece of rope (which is really light) will not be able to pull an object of 50 kg, let's say. The only solution would be to make the rope heavy as well, but that introduces other problems. So it's a vicious circle. I can't think of a hack that would make this easier. If you do try it out, please post back the results, I'm very interested in this.

[@Lusiogenic]

I just realized I didn't actually answer your question. Yes, you can shape the rope like that, simply by changing the mesh in a modeling software and changing the constraints to not bend sideways. But you would probably have to use it only for the visual representation because of the problems that I talked about in the previews comment.

[@azizkurtariciniz]

How did you make that gravity gun that can control skeletal meshes?

[@Lusiogenic]

Here's the tutorial for it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6POZoF3qquDg8U

[@Darkyll]

Hello, I am in despair, I have followed everything exactly as in the tutorial, but whenever it then goes from Blender to U4 I have the problem that in the PhysicsAsset only one bone is there. Does anyone have a solution for this? I just want to have a light wobble for my project :(

[@jtr0nic336]

I have a similar problem, the bones shown to have physics constraints is only a fraction of the total bones. Using blender 2.9 and ue5.

[@jtr0nic336]

I figured it out. Just had to reduce the Min Bone Size according to the length of my rope.

[@flexcg675]

THANK YOU BRO!!!

[@jackmann1478]

The mesh goes right through the character's hand on BeginPlay

[@plasid2]

Hi how make cut this rope by gun bullet?

[@Lusiogenic]

That is not possible with this implementation. It has to be constructed with sepparate segments of skeletal meshes that you can detach in certain points. I'm thinking of making a tutorial on this. I'll have to try to make it work first.

[@ВасилийЗипунников-н8ь]

I liked it very much, thanks for the video. But please explain to me how you attached the rope to the cube? Is this done in Blender or in the engine itself? Can this Blueprint?

[@ВасилийЗипунников-н8ь]

I found a way, thanks for the video!

[@m.kazemakhgary1336]

Very good explanation. You are awesome! Substepping can make interactions between heavy objects and light objects more stable. I was disappointed by CableComponent. it doesn't interact with forces and is just for aesthetics. I made the rope in c++ instead by creating spheres in a loop and connecting them with physics constraint component.

[@Lusiogenic]

Thanks! Unfortunately, the cable component is calculated with particles, which run on the GPU. The physics run on the CPU. So, in order to make the cable component work with physics, a syncronization between the GPU and CPU would have to be made directly in the engine.

[@RWOproduction62000]

I'm trying to attach both ends to my rope with cubes, am I missing something? can't figure it out

[@Lusiogenic]

Try this tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3m5Z4l-r7Wkrq8

[@KacperWons]

Where did you get that physical material for rope? Or how did you make that?

[@Lusiogenic]

I've created the physical material myself. I forgot to show it in the video. Here's a screenshot of the settings: drive.google.com/open?id=1Kb97BO_AwJKjCrGQazVdEuAGQWi20VTV

[@McHornet7]

how do you make the cube hold the bone?

[@Lusiogenic]

I've made a tutorial for that. Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3m5Z4l-r7Wkrq8

[@ChuahTeongLeong]

Hi sorry to necro an old video, but could you share how you used the cursor to interact with the object dragging them around in Unreal's play mode? Thank you

[@Lusiogenic]

There is. Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6POZoF3qquDg8U I welcome comments on any of my videos. That's a good thing on KZbin. :)

[@wouwou9146]

What is this PM_Rope? What does it include?

[@Lusiogenic]

It's a physical material. Check the video description to find out how to configure it.

[@wouwou9146]

@@Lusiogenic Thank you. Keep up the good work. Your tutorials are helpful.

[@AlexanderBasov]

Incredible tutorial. Thanks!

[@justbeyourself846]

How you move them?

[@Lusiogenic]

Here's the tutorial for that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6POZoF3qquDg8U

[@edcatmull9253]

I love your videos! Is it possible to constrain a physics bone chain to the bone of another mesh? I want it to follow his keyframe animation. I tried doing this with constraints and specifying the joint, as per this video, but it isn't moving with the keyframe animation.

[@jimbotht1091]

Very interesting thank you

[@Lusiogenic]

How to attach the rope to an object: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3m5Z4l-r7Wkrq8 Rope swing tutorial using Cable Component: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIWTm3l3p7Wnfa8

[@pawprinting]

Is it possible for wind to effect these constraints?

[@Lusiogenic]

@@pawprinting No, wind only affects mesh deformation.

[@pawprinting]

@@Lusiogenic Yeah after some time I eventually figured that out. As it just so happens, UNREAL already has physics systems built in to specifically address all of these areas individually. I learned the differences between using Cloth, the Constraints and then even AnimDynamics which is best suited for rigs with wind animation.

[@spaceidiot200]

having bones parented under each other in a chain tends to cause precision issues that can lead to instability; as the chain has to continually calculate its positions based on all its parents movement. better to have all the joints in the chain parented under a single root, and let the physics bodies do the work of maintaining the chain.

[@loremipsum3147]

I was thinking about this several days ago. Do you have any resource for this, that we can validate this theory?

[@spaceidiot200]

@@loremipsum3147 not for Unreal specifically, sorry. This is more of a rule of thumb for me as I've had to create a lot of rope setups for animation or physics (sometimes both)

[@hdf6kr74j3d]

Rope can created without bones if use only phys constraits

[@manulaatapattu9478]

Noticed that in 5.1 the object colliding with a rope was pushed to one side. This was due to propagation.

[@jahon8899]

Thanks for tutorial. Will it work on Android device?

[@Lusiogenic]

It should, if you have physics fully enabled. Not sure if it's somehow restricted on mobile, though.

[@BadLuckLex38]

Thanks for this, it really helped me get my chain working. I have another question though, how could I make this chain react to wind?

[@Lusiogenic]

The wind works only for mesh deformation and particles, I think. It doesn't affect physics objects. You would have to implement it yourself. Have a loot at this tutorial kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGrPh3R6rslrkLM it should help.

[@marciosalvaya1710]

Creat crane cable pleasa...

[@Lusiogenic]

I've put it on the list for future tutorials. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@Lusiogenic]

I actually developed this during a live stream today ( www.twitch.tv/videos/334240827 ). I've implemented a proof of concept. Will have to polish it for tutorial.

[@hiddenkonitsu9909]

Rope theory ==> ⊙﹏⊙ Thks for tutorial !

[@IamNeighborlee]

This is almost four years old. You have to select , Use toa's ref pose, or you will get an error.

[@curtisnewton895]

physics setups like yours are to unstable to use in a video game

[@UraNuSGM]

is nice video but dont show how conect the skeletals with phisical constraint actor = useless...

[@insanecuckooman8342]

fucking blender changed the interface, i cannot find anything in it, cannot follow the tutorial.