Spline Loft Actor?

[Adam]

Is it possible to change the shape of a static mesh using this SplineLoftActor? I noticed that there is a Deform Mesh field, but nothing much happens when I put something in there. I checked the UDN for info about this but didn't find anything.

[Slainchild]

They aren't used with static meshes.

From what I've gathered, they are meant to be used alongside the crowd system, to give them a smooth spline to follow rather than blindly heading towards a destination.

[NightClucker]

Is it possible to change the shape of a static mesh using this SplineLoftActor? I noticed that there is a Deform Mesh field, but nothing much happens when I put something in there. I checked the UDN for info about this but didn't find anything.

You need atleast two points.

Steps to create a basic spline loft actor:
1. Open the Editor
2. Open the Content Browser
3. Select the Actors Tab
4. SplineActor > SplineLoftActor
5. Add a SplineLoftActor to your World
6. Open its properties (F4)
7. Find a static mesh in the Content Browser
8. Set the Deform Mesh to a static mesh
9. Alt Drag the Z translation widget upwards

You are expected to see the static mesh now. You can adjust the spline using the white handlebars.

[online|offworld]

Hey NightClucker, I managed to figure out how to do what you explained above, but I couldn't figure out how to orientate the mesh to follow the loft...

http://www.showmethatagain.com/posts/091210_173500_udk_loft.png

[Dooley]

Orienting this is seemingly impossible! It continues to loft in one direction despite my best efforts.
What am I missing???

[IllpIll]

Epic should really pursue this actor further so we can loft roads onto terrain like cryengine 2 does.

[Dooley]

Okay, read my mind, that's exactly what I'm trying to do.
I've got a road, and the loft actor will only loft in Z (upwards).

What do I do reorient the loft path axis?

[IllpIll]

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/6814/roadsplinemesh.th.jpg (http://img121.imageshack.us/i/roadsplinemesh.jpg/)
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5536/roadspline.th.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/i/roadspline.jpg/)

ok so I was very curious about this particular spline loft actor and come to find out its very near useful, only problem is if you want a road loft you need to model your road piece with 10-20 segments standing on its side so it follows the z axis which is odd. Another problem is that there are twists in the mesh if the spline handle is bent a certain way, as well as not having a proper method for putting collision to the model being used. if we can just get epic to repair these items this would be an amazing tool to help people build simple road systems or racetracks for a racing mod, whatever.

EPIC MAKE THIS A PRIORITY FOR A FUTURE UDK RELEASE!?

EDIT:
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/9195/roadspline2.th.jpg (http://img63.imageshack.us/i/roadspline2.jpg/)
ok so it looks like a simple mistake in code is causing the flipping of the normal in the spline loft tool as this picture indicates, Either its a simple modifying of the classes to get it to work right or its native code that epic needs to address to get working properly I do not know exactly, maybe someone at epic that knows about this can clarify to us if the need to fix it or we just need to extend and fix it in our own custom class? This bug reminds me of the lightmass glitch they just addressed in the January build that reversed the lightrays in one of the axis.... get back I'd love to know if you guys are still working on this loft tool! THNKX

[Dooley]

Hey awesome, I really feel dumb now. lol!
I'm surprised... no, completely appalled that I didn't do that myself.
Thank you man. You win @ UDK!

[IllpIll]

Yeah Man, no problem, I am planning a project down the line that involves a large city and any small tool like this would be amazingly helpful to me.
The fact that I didn't even know this actor existed until it was posted here on the forums, although I did know about the regular spline actor for Ai pathing and whatnot. I am actually quite surprised epic hardly mentioned something like this.

This is very useful tech.

[Dooley]

This may seem a dumb question, but does yours show up in game?
If so, does it have a collision model upon it?
I'm going to remove my collision model and try again...


Yeah Man, no problem, I am planning a project down the line that involves a large city and any small tool like this would be amazingly helpful to me.
The fact that I didn't even know this actor existed until it was posted here on the forums, although I did know about the regular spline actor for Ai pathing and whatnot. I am actually quite surprised epic hardly mentioned something like this.

This is very useful tech.

[IllpIll]

its 2:35 am here and the creative energy is flowing and it would be easier to talk about it real time, do you use instant messaging? I will send you a pm, I use msn messenger.

[IllpIll]

Ok so I have found out how to rid the road of the twists. So it appears that most of the functionality is here but collision is still unknown.
You can create a road system by following the rules in the image below.
This is showing turns in both positive and negative x and y values.
also make sure the spline actor tangent handle z position is set to 0 to allow the segments to line up properly.
the second image shows the values to apply to World XDir properties to remove the twisting.
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7941/example2.jpg
By guyb (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/guyb) at 2010-01-21
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/333/example1hb.jpg
By guyb (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/guyb) at 2010-01-21

Now to figure out how to use this to connect to intersections and freeways.

[Dooley]

I thought you said you were going to bed? :D

[IllpIll]

Anybody with knowledge on this please feel free to share it.

[IllpIll]

bumping this.

[RedFive]

I second the bump

[MasonThird]

I would like to see this one too. A roads system, similar to the one in CryEngine 2, would be amazing.

[MasonThird]

maybe a tutorial on this?

[IllpIll]

So far it may seem epic do not want to talk about this tool at all until they have it fully developed. So for now we must play with it on our own, if you read the posts in this topic you can see I have already experimented with it and got it somewhat working. Bear in mind collision is non existent.

[RedFive]

That is very unfortunate. I would even pay money to have this developed. It wouldn't even take them much effort!

[MasonThird]

Any news on this?

[dazdaryl]

wow this looks really usefull for creating more natural roads