[Visual Effect Graph] Spawn particles from skinned mesh surface

[LukeDJ]

@LukeDJ

Can we expect skinned mesh sampling in a later version of 2019.3? I had a look at the release notes & played around with the latest version but couldn’t find any references to it. Very excited for this feature

1 year anniversary!!!
In all seriousness, it’d be nice if we could get some kind of confirmation that this feature is either delayed or cancelled so we can all move on

[pbritton]

@LukeDJ

1 year anniversary!!!
In all seriousness, it’d be nice if we could get some kind of confirmation that this feature is either delayed or cancelled so we can all move on

Next year for sure.

[ctedin187]

Still nothing? I’d really love to use something that was built into Unity. It’s a bit of a hassle installing and using Keijiro’s tools. I’ve had some errors.

[ctedin187]

On a side note, does anyone here know how to rotate (over time) a point cloud “emitter”? It seems that a static point cloud would handle rotation, but all I see is scale and translate x,y,z. Thanks again.

[rustinlee]

Can’t find static mesh sampling in 2019.4 / 7.3.1. Can you really not emit particles from the surface or volume of even a static mesh in VFX Graph?

I can’t use the point cache baking utility because these meshes are procedurally generated at runtime. This was an important feature of Shuriken.

[Cell-i-Zenit]

if it helps you i had the same problem with my procedural spawned terrain. I just used the same height map in my vfx graph to spawn grass

[zeropointblack]

epic lawl bump

[Artromskiy]

@JulienF_Unity

Hi Alexandre,

Mesh sampling is not yet implemented in VFX Graph. Static mesh sampling (no need for point cache anymore to spawn on vertices) will be in 2019.2 and skinned mesh sampling is planned for 2019.3.

The only workarounds to spawn in skinned mesh at the moment are either by generating / uploading a point cache of the skinned mesh at each frame and use it to spawn or by rendering the skinned mesh in a offscreen render target and use its zbuffer for projection.

We need info about it.

[arturmandas_1]

Necro-resurrection: is the VFX graph prev 10 only supposed to support static meshes? (considering smrvfx or prev 10 for a project)

[alexandre-fiset]

@arturmandas_1

Necro-resurrection: is the VFX graph prev 10 only supposed to support static meshes? (considering smrvfx or prev 10 for a project)

Apparently the skinned mesh sampling is in 2021.1. Did not try it out though but would be curious to know if that works well!

[arturmandas_1]

@alexandre-fiset

Apparently the skinned mesh sampling is in 2021.1. Did not try it out though but would be curious to know if that works well!

Anyone having too much time?

[LukeDJ]

Just checked, was added in 2021.1.0b10/2021.2.0a9
Looks very promising!

Now to figure out how to use it…

[michaelybecker]

did you figure it out? also, where are you seeing this node? can’t find it in the same version (URP)

[mfolsom]

You might have to enable experiemental blocks in preferences/visual effects. I attached a skinned mesh on init, it works like the previous mesh, but so far i can’t get it to update / animate. If I put it in the update node it gives strange results.

[LukeDJ]

@michaelybecker

did you figure it out? also, where are you seeing this node? can’t find it in the same version (URP)

Yeah as mfolsom said you need Experimental Operators/Blocks enabled.
I’ve managed to achieve good results with a Position (Mesh) block with its Source Mesh setting set to SkinnedMeshRenderer, but haven’t yet figured out how to replicate its behaviour with the Sample Mesh operator in order to get outputs other than position.

[michaelybecker]

thanks for the helpful replies! alas, I’m blocked by the fact both versions seem to fail to build to Quest using Vulkan - crashes on start - which means I have to stick to the previous Unity version and perhaps Keijiro’s solution (GitHub - keijiro/Smrvfx: Skinned mesh sampling with VFX Graph). But I’ll give this a try as soon as these crashes stop happening!

[JJRivers]

@ctedin187

On a side note, does anyone here know how to rotate (over time) a point cloud “emitter”? It seems that a static point cloud would handle rotation, but all I see is scale and translate x,y,z. Thanks again.

Since nobody answered I’ll necro this, you can transform any set of positions by using Get Position Current > Transform Position (use the transform fields to manipulate) > plug into add or set position block.

[LukeDJ]

@LukeDJ

Yeah as mfolsom said you need Experimental Operators/Blocks enabled.
I’ve managed to achieve good results with a Position (Mesh) block with its Source Mesh setting set to SkinnedMeshRenderer, but haven’t yet figured out how to replicate its behaviour with the Sample Mesh operator in order to get outputs other than position.

Wish I’d seen this tweet from Paul Demeulenaere sooner! Exactly what I was after
https://twitter.com/PaulDemeulenaer/status/1376977896309465095

[alexandre-fiset]

@JulienF_Unity

Hi Alexandre,

Mesh sampling is not yet implemented in VFX Graph. Static mesh sampling (no need for point cache anymore to spawn on vertices) will be in 2019.2 and skinned mesh sampling is planned for 2019.3.

The only workarounds to spawn in skinned mesh at the moment are either by generating / uploading a point cache of the skinned mesh at each frame and use it to spawn or by rendering the skinned mesh in a offscreen render target and use its zbuffer for projection.

Now that it appears to be supported in 2021.1, is there any chance of seeing that feature backported to 2020 LTS?

[A_Gamgie]

Hello all ! I’m using this wonderful feature to sample mesh in realtime. But, I wonder why it is not available to emit from a volume instead of surface, vertex and edge.
Any idea why ?
(because actually I would exactly emitting from a volume like the basic geometry we had before)