This UE5 Tool Can Deform Any Static Mesh At Runtime
"Soft-body look, without soft-body cost."
If you want game objects to visually deform when they're touched, hit, or squeezed without relying on simulation, try Shape Cage: a GPU-driven 27-point cage deformation system that deforms the mesh using World Position Offset based on where and how hard it's hit.
It's suitable for multiplayer: the deformation is network-compatible, keeping the server and clients in sync without replicating the deformed mesh itself. Here's how the developer, Woziva, explains how it all works:
"There are points around the mesh, and the deformation happens in the vertex shader as World Position Offset. So no CPU mesh work at all.
The trick is that there's no simulation anywhere. Physics only tells it three things: where it got hit, how hard, and which way. The shape is worked out from those numbers rather than solved, which is also why it replicates in about 12 bytes per dent.
Wrinkles are a normal map driven by how squeezed each part of the surface is, so the cage does the big shapes and the shading does the small detail."
As for performance, it mainly depends on the amount of geometry being rendered and the number of objects actively deforming. There's no CPU-based mesh processing, Skeletal Mesh, or soft-body solver involved anywhere. It works with Nanite and without it.
The plug-in comes with three ready-to-use examples: a cardboard box, a curtain, and a ball, so you can see everything in action. For example, drop a heavy object onto the box, and it will visibly dent at the point of impact, heavier objects will produce deeper deformations.
Shape Cage runs on Windows with Unreal Engine 5.6 or later. No API, account, or internet connection is required to use it.
Purchase it here and check out Softie Collision System, a similar tool for Blender:
Subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform, Discord, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
Are you a fan of what we do here at 80 Level? Then make sure to set us as a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our content in your feed.
Subscribe to 80 Level Newsletters
Latest news, hand-picked articles, and updates
Keep reading
You may find these articles interesting
