Allows creation and manipulation of vector fields using Blender particle simulations and vector math operations, as well as import/export of the FGA file format used in Unreal Engine 4.

New Documentation is available here: https://github.com/isathar/Blender_UE4_VectorFieldEditor/wiki (or the wiki link on the side)

• Still wip, but almost finished.

Example .blend file with a few different vector fields available here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/6t00h4g25ikxq5i/VF_Examples.blend

Archive with some .fga files exported from the above: http://www.mediafire.com/download/4x174fgf8lmec6g/VF_Examples.zip

Vector Field Editor:

• Saves current particle system velocities and blends them with saved results using one of the following methods:
  • Replace, Average, Add, Multiply
• Particle velocities used in these calculations can be obtained using the following methods:
  • Velocity, Offset Distance, Angular Velocity, Custom Vector, Point
• Curve Force tool that uses wind forces to move particles along a line.

Importer + Exporter for FGA files for use in Unreal Engine 4

• Extract to your addons directory
• Enable it in the addon manager (named FGA Vector Field Tools)
• A new section called Vector Fields should be available in the tools panel

• Blender may stop responding during the Create and Calculate operations, but shouldn't crash.
• On vector fields with a density of less than 128^3, operations should take less than a minute, with lower density fields (<64^3) taking a few seconds at most.
• At maximum density (128^3), creating a new vector field takes about 20 seconds on my mid-range Core i5 based PC, and calculating velocities can take up to 2 minutes (after recent tweaks).
• Performance while editing reasonably sized (< 1 million vertices) vector fields is good, while a 128^3 volume can be painfully slow under the right circumstances.
• Display of velocity lines on large fields (>64^3) is very slow.

• Editing a 128x128x128 vector field requires a 64-bit system and Blender install, as well as a large amount (> 6-8 GB) of system memory.
• This is due to the amount of particles that need to have their dynamics cached
• To avoid running out of memory while editing very high resolution vector fields, you may want to lower your undo history steps.
• Using a disk cache for your particles may help, too.

• While creating new vector fields, the following messages will appear in your console window:
• CustomData_copy_data_layer: warning null data for CDOrco type (...)
• CustomData_copy_data_layer: warning null data for CDMVert type (...)
• It looks like these appear because there is no face data in the vector field and can probably be ignored.

• v1.0.1 (current):

  • renamed curve path tool to Wind Curve Force
  • added editor for created curve wind force strength, distance + falloff
  • the Ratio property should now work (apparently forgot to use the variable)

• v1.0.0:

  • General:
    • tools panel category renamed to Vector Fields
    • saved data only includes velocities now (removed position, index)
      • files made with old versions are still compatible
    • cleaned up ui panel to reduce clutter, added section toggles
    • some code cleanup
  • Import/Export:
    • moved import/export to standard menu
    • made import/export properties local to their functions
  • Editor:
    • performance tweaks for creating new vector fields + calculating velocities
    • removed slice selection tool (redundant, easily done in edit mode)
    • matched default scaling to (grid units x field density)
      • distances were at half scale before
      • density variable used for creation is now distance between particles
    • added undo functionality to Generate function
    • new velocity mode: Point
  • Curve Force Tool:
    • changed curve force tool to create an object group to remove scene outliner clutter
    • fixed curve force fields' parenting issue
      • all transformations to the curve force object should now work
    • curve forces now display an arrow pointing in the force's direction

• v0.9.5:

  • Editor:
    • added new calculation method: Multiply
    • added different methods for obtaining velocities
    • reorganized the main editor
    • added calculate for selection
    • added invert all button
    • seperated normalize function from calculation - it's a button again
  • Import/Export:
    • moved density variable to object space for export script
      • allows multiple vector fields in the scene during export (still exports one at a time)
    • added ability to use object locations as offsets + import/export them
    • scaling tweaks
    • manual bounds option
  • General:
    • added ability to undo slice selection, calculation, curve tool, and normalize
    • select x,y,z slice
    • created index by axis for velocities list for slice selection and upcoming features
    • switched bpy.context to passed context where possible
    • description text for all variables + operators (some may be vague)
    • added bug reporting url to addon manager (Github)
    • readme formatting

• v0.9.1

  • added different generation modes: Replace, Additive, Average
  • added trail option for curve path (fade influence with curve position)
  • changed the way invert and normalize work
  • slight calculation performance tweak

-v0.9

• another performance tweak
• added invert, normalize, disable gravity options

-v0.8

• added import functionality
• massive speed improvement

-v0.5

• initial upload