Cable Components

Having the ability to cheaply add cables, ropes, or chains that can sway back and forth as if being gently blown by the wind can add a nice bit of life to your Unreal Engine projects. In the following document, we will look at how you can use the Cable Component plugin to create, set up, and control how the cables look, react and even collide with objects in your levels.

Simulation and Rendering

To perform the actual cable simulation, a technique called Verlet Integration, which is well known in game development. The idea is to represent the cable as a series of particles, with distance constraints between them. The particles at the ends are fixed, moving with whatever they are attached to. The ones in the middle are free, falling with gravity. For each step, you update the velocity and position of each particle, and then move them to satisfy the constraints. The stiffness of the cable is controlled by the number of times we iterate to enforce the constraints (each step).

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Now that there is a nice chain of connected particles bouncing around, they need to be rendered. To render a cable, a class called FCableSceneProxy was created to represent the render of the cable. Each end of the Sim particles' positions (done on the main thread, inside of TickComponent) is then passed to this proxy via the SendRenderDynamicData_Concurrent function. Next, update is locked on the render thread, and then the index and vertex buffers are updated, making a tube mesh. For each vertex on this tube mesh, we need to calculate a position, a Texture UV, and three Tangent Basis vectors. When doing this, X will point along the cable, Z will point straight out from the cable (the normal) and Y is perpendicular to X and Z. These properties have been exposed to the components, giving you the ability to control the number of sides, the radius of the tube, and how many times the UVs can tile along the cable.

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Enabling the Plugin

By default, the Cable Component plugin should be enabled. However, if it is not, you can enable it by first going to the main toolbar and selecting Edit > Plugins. Then, from the plugins list, go to Rendering and make sure the Cable Component has a checkmark in the box next to Enabled.

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Using the Cable Component

In the following section, we will go over the two different ways that you can add cables to your project's levels.

Using Cable Components from the Place Actors Panel

To use the Cable Component from the Place Actors Panel, do the following:

1. From the Main Toolbar, click Create and select Place Actors Panel.

   

2. In the search box, type Cable. Then drag Cable Actor into your level.

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3. You can now position, rotate, and scale the Cable Actor so that it fits the needs of your level.

Using Cable Components in Blueprints

To use the Cable Component in your Blueprints, create new Blueprint Class.

1. Right-click from your Content Drawer / Content Browser and select Blueprint Class.

   

2. Select Actor as a Parent Class for the new Blueprint.

   

3. Rename your Blueprint to BP_Cable. Then double-click it to open it in the Blueprint Editor.

   

4. From the Components tab, click the Add button. In the list, locate and select the Cable component

   

5. With the Cable Component now added, select it in the components list so that you can adjust its properties through the Details panel. For now, leave everything as the default, and make sure to Compile and Save your Blueprint before closing the editor.

   To make either side of the cable fall, disable the Attach Start or Attach End option from the Details panel. This can also be toggled while the game is running to go along with effects.

   

6. In the Content Drawer, locate the BP_Cable and drag it into your level. Move and rotate it as needed.

   

Attaching Objects to the Cable ends

You can also attach objects to either end of the cable so that the objects will swing along with the cable. To accomplish this, do the following:

1. From the Actors Panel, drag a Cube Actor into your level. Locate it next to the BP_Cable, that you added before.

   

2. Make sure that the Cube has its Mobility set to Movable.

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3. Locate the Cube you want to attach to the end of the Cable Actor in the World Outliner. Then drag the Cube on top of the Cable Actor. After doing this, the following dialogue window will open.

4. Select Cable End, and in the viewport, you should see your Cube snaps to the end of the cable.

   
   

5. Now, select the Cable Actor in the level viewport. Then, in the Details panel under the Cable section, disable the Attach End option.
   

   You do not have to only use the Attach Start and Attach End options to attach cables to Actors. You can also specify a Socket that can be used as the attachment point.

6. After disabling Attach End, your cable should swing freely in the viewport.

   You can dynamically enable or disable the Attach Start and Attach End options at run time, which can make for some interesting effects.

Collision and Stiffness

Enabling Collision and Stiffness will greatly increase the cost of the Cable Actor. Only enable these features if the cable has to collide with something in the world or if the cable needs some stiffness to help make the effect look better. If none of that is needed, it is best to keep these options disabled to save performance.

The Cable Component does have the option to have the cable collide with the world, controlling how stiff the cable is. To enable this functionality, perform the following steps:

1. In the Blueprint Editor, go to the Details panel of the Cable Component. Locate the Cable section and expand its Advanced options.

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2. Enable both the Enable Stiffness and Enable Collision options.

   

3. Now, when you move the Cable Actor around, or if an object collides with the Cable Actor, it should collide with the object it comes in contact with.

Cable Component Properties Reference

This section contains reference information for each of the properties of the Cable Component:

Cable

Cable Forces

Cable Rendering