[HELP] Creating a realistic Tornado

[trueindie]

Hey guys,

This is my first post on UDK forums, I am currently trying to create a realistic tornado physic...However I am very new to physics and how they work with the UDK...Now I have been reading about all of it but am still at somewhat of a loss of how to get started...

Im not asking for anyone to create this for me as I want to gain the knowledge of doing it myself, but simply am asking for guidance on how I would even go about making a tornado physics effect for the UDK similar to the UT3 mod that has the tornado in it from awhile back... I want it to be as realistic as possible for a small project demo I am working on for a portfolio project...

Thanks in advanced!

[Snufkin]

I am sure i saw a tutorial on this but don't quote me on it.

[trueindie]

I found a tutorial on youtube about making a tornado like physic using a cylindrical force actor, however the problem with this is pawns ignore the force actors...

Is there any way to allow pawns to affected by the force actor?

Thanks again in advanced!

[eridan]

I did this by combining a NxTornado and CylindricalForceActor. One of them picks up objects the other one spins them around and if they gain too much velocity they will be launched out of the tornado.

I believe if players walked into the tornado it would ignore them unless they were hit/jumped/changed height/etc. I attached a dynamic touch volume to the tornado that deals 0 damage, but it pushes them. The push is just enough for the tornado to pick the player up.

If I wanted the tornado to move an object in the environment I converted the asset to a KActor. Place some shingles or extra boards to the outside of your buildings and the tornado will rip those pieces off or you can make the entire building separate chunks and let the tornado demolish it.

[trueindie]

Hi eridan,

This sounds like what I am looking for and thanks for the tips...just out of curiousity which one did u use for picking things up?

Also since u brought up the point of a building being demolished, what would be the best way to achieve this? Im working on a small portfolio type project as stated where I am trying to recreate a tornado demolishing a small town... I want it to be as realistic as possbile but am unsure how to go about fully destructable buildings...

The only way Ive thought of seems very unoptimized, which is to model out a building and have each wall be several seperate models of "sheetrock" with entities in the home aswell.. Is there any way to make a fully destructable home that could be stripped away piece by piece to the bare frame and then the frame be ripped away if the tornado is strong enough?

Again im not asking for the work done for me just how I should approach it the best way possible, and thanks again eridan as stated that is what I was looking for =D

Thanks in advanced!

[eridan]

Hi trueindie,

I setup the CylindricalForceActor with radial, rotational, escape velocity, and lift strength. The NxTornado only has radial strength and escape velocity. I would like to point out that I did this last year so there may have been changes with the UDK. I noticed in my old file the CylindricalForceActor and NxTornado have slightly different names.

Anyway, there are plenty of ways to make a destructible scene. My suggestion is to do exactly what you asked. Create modular assets that make a house. Make some basic boards and build your frame piece by piece. Make each board a KActor and make sure it is set to NOT be awake on level start. Setup a trigger in the tornado's animation so when it comes in contact with the house it will toggle the KActors on.

You don't necessarily need to build the entire house. Players wont be able to see every single part of the house and it is getting destroyed by a tornado so I think you could cheat the houses. Optimization can be an issue if you go crazy with the modular buildings. You might want to take a moment and think about the setting for this event. A town might be a bit much, but what about a construction site? You can have houses in different stages of development. Allows you to build the skeleton of the house and ignore the other junk. Just an idea.