Physics Tools

Dash features a set of physics tool that help you realistically place objects, from painting them with realtime collision to individually moving objects, and watching them push their way through.

Physics Paint

With the Physics Paint tool in Dash, you can easily paint one or several meshes and see them fall down naturally within a physics simulation. This is perfect for creating piles of debris and garbage or if you want rocks placed all around an environment in a realistic way. This tool creates an instance actor (HISM), which is optimal for performance. There's two ways to start it in Dash:

1. If you select assets in the Dash Content Browser, then hold CTRL and drag them onto the viewport, you'll be presented with a menu containing a "Physics Paint" option. Click on it, and your objects will now be used for the physics simulation.

2. Select one or multiples meshes in your scene, then in the Dash bar, go to Place -> Physics Paint.

Once Physics Paint has been started, you only need to use your left mouse button to start painting assets wherever you like!

When you start the Physics Paint tool, the Dash bar shows a dedicated set of options to customize it:

• Collision - This one is important, as it could be the case that your painted objects either float above the ground or fall right through your surface. If any of these cases happen, you need to select your surface in the UE outlier and then set its collision to Complex from within the Physics Paint Collision setting. Using the other option Simple is rarely needed.

• Clear - This button deletes all the assets you have painted so far.

• Count - This controls the amount of objects being painted. You can type in a value or slide it to the right and to the left. If you hold CTRL or SHIFT when sliding, you adjust it faster.

• Brush - This controls the paintbrush size. You can type in a value or slide it to the right and to the left. If you hold CTRL or SHIFT when sliding, you adjust it faster.

• Brush Mode

  • Paint - This is the default mode and the one that lets you paint new objects.

  • Erase - This mode lets you erase your painted objects.

  • Push - This mode makes the brush push away the objects as you move the brush

  • Pull - This mode makes the brush act as a magnet pulls the objects closer to the brush

• Orientation Mode

  • Realistic - This is the default mode and here the objects fall down according to their own orientation. If they collide with other objects they can change rotation.

  • Randomized - In this mode the objects fall down with random rotations.

  • Locked - In this mode the objects fall down according to their own orientation. If they collide with other objects they remain in this orientation.

Physics Drop

With the Physics Drop tool in Dash, you can instead drop one or several meshes and see them fall down naturally within a physics simulation. This is perfect when you need to place one or a few objects very realistically. The result of a Physics Drop simulation is individual static meshes. But if you want to combine them together, select all of them in the Outlier and search for Merge in Dash. There exist two ways of starting the Physics Drop tool in Dash:

1. If you hold CTRL and drag and drop one or several assets from the Dash Content Browser you will see an option Physics Drop. This will start the Physics Drop simulation for these selected assets.

2. Select any meshes in your viewport and then in the Place menu in the Dash bar you can also find Physics Drop.

Once Physics Drop starts you will see your meshes drop down to the surface realistically.

As with Physics Paint, this tool also has its own settings that show up on the Dash bar while it's running:

• Collision - This one is important, as it could be the case that your dropped objects either float above the ground or fall right through your surface. If any of these cases happen, you need to select your surface in the UE outlier and then set its collision to Complex from within the Physics Drop Collision setting. Using the other option Simple is rarely needed. If some objects have already started falling beneath the surface, you can use the Select button and then press Reset to get them all back to their initial position.

• State

  • Static - If you select any object in the Outlier and then set it to static in the Physics Drop settings you will make sure this object is not part of the physics simulation and will thus not drop down.

  • Dynamic - If you select any object in the Outlier and then set it to dynamic in the Physics Drop settings you will make sure this object is part of the physics simulation and will thus drop down.

• Duplicate - Clicking the Duplicate button will duplicate all your selected assets.

• Select - This button selects your originally dropped objects and your duplicates.

• Jitter - This button will jitter around all your selected objects in the physics simulation.

• Reset - This button resets the position of all selected objects in your Physics Simulation.