XU Dynamic Weather System

This is a C++ plugin by Ex Ultra Games. The plugin is an in-game dynamic weather system creating optimised Wind, Fog, Particle & Material Blend visual effects. It utilises and controls niagara particle systems, exponential fog, custom curves, timelines & material functions to create and blend effects; and with the use of custom triggers gives a dynamic changeable in-game weather system. Tested in open world, sidescroller, gravity free, 3rd and 1st person environments.

Add a complete in-game dynamic weather system in <20min. See our Demo Timelapse or QuickStart videos on Youtube.

Create different weather effects and environments: create a cold winter landscape, a hot rocky Martian world, a realistic open world weather system, or a foggy dark haunting sidescroller. The effects are easy to change in-game using custom triggers: a wet cold misty world can dry slowly as the sun comes out; turn a cool winters day into a cold foggy snowy blizzard, or trigger an otherworldly sand storm.

Easy and quick to setup, simply drag the pre-set controller blueprint into the level, add a pre-set particle system blueprint, add some triggers, change some materials and with a few tweaks you will have a unique dynamic weather system.

Contents includes: 9 pre-set (Snow, Sand and Rain) particle system, a Fire & Smoke with integrated Wind particle system, 27 pre-made materials (3 are landscape), and 60 Material Instances, all ready to add different effects to your world. These are easy to customise & modify, and the system can be easily integrated into your own particle systems and materials. It works with foliage painting too.

Add Sound FX to your particle system or Wind, (1 SFX included for demo purposes).

Material functions are used to add many of the effects, simply use one of the pre-made materials and add an in-fill effect to the landscape or wind effect to your trees; or use the material functions to add the effects direct to your own materials. There are lots of demo materials included for your use and to show how to integrate these material functions.

The Fog effect utilises Exponential Height Fog & Post Process for in game blending. Simply set the density, height, speed of blend, curve, colour, vignette, colour temperature for the effect you want.

The Wind effect combines material functions, curves and C++ to give a synchronised global effect. Simply set the min and max effect for your level and blend using a custom curve.

The Particle effect is affected by the Wind and the Fog level; blend in / out via spawn rate or distance using custom curves.

The Material effect is linked to the particle effect and can in-fill any material i.e. in fill cobbled pavement with snow or water.

Blend in / out using custom curves. Custom curves and C++ are used to drive the blend effects, an external custom curve can be used to control each effect.

Custom Triggers allow for quick in-game weather changes either via a single trigger or a volume, these can trigger an effect once, once with a pause (if the trigger is activated again the effect will pause), or flip flop as you require. Each trigger can affect Wind, Fog, Particle or Material blend effects.

Fully Customizable, use the pre-set particle systems and pre-set data tables as a starting point to customize your own weather system.

The system is expandable. The Wind, Fog and Particle variables are all exposed so you can use these to create or modify other effects in your game. Use the material functions or integrate into your own particle systems. See the Documentation for further details. This documentation is an in-depth guide to the system from basic setup through customisation to integration.

The plugin includes 3 demo maps (Rain, Sand and Snow). Each one based on the same level and with some simple changes to the materials, pre-set BPs to demonstrate how easy it is to change the type of weather and feel of the system.

Demo Videos:

• Rain Map 5.4
• Snow Map 5.4
• Sand Map 5.4

Instructional Videos:

• Demo Timelapse
• QuickStart 5.4