Introducing Data Plotting and Paging Terrain in AGX Dynamics for Unreal

Paging terrain, data plotting, and Unreal Engine 5.2 support are some of the new functionalities that have been added to AGX Dynamics for Unreal Engine in recent updates to the software.

From simulation scene to plotted graph. The new plotting component in AGX Dynamics for Unreal Engine lets you show simulation data in a plot window – or save it to a file for later analysis.

During the spring, we made a number of updates to AGX Dynamics for Unreal. In the current version of the software (1.6.0), and the most recent releases before that (1.5 and 1.5.1), the following functions are worth mentioning.

Plotting component enables new views into your simulation data

With AGX Dynamics for Unreal Engine version 1.6, users can start creating high-precision plots from the data generated in simulations. The new plot component can also be used to write data to disk as a CSV file for later analysis. 

In the demonstration clip, the plotting functionality is used to track and graphically present the size of forces and the number of particles involved when filing the bucket of a wheel loader.

For a more in-depth introduction to the plotting component in AGX Dynamics for Unreal Engine, please visit the User Manual or view the video tutorial on our Youtube page.

User Manual: Plotting and data acquisition

Algoryx YouTube Channel: Tutorial: Plots and data acquisition

Introducing Terrain Paging for efficient simulation of large landscapes

Large terrains that don’t eat up all your memory and computing power. The image shows how a simulation scene is set up with a large terrain (green border), but only the terrain areas that are close to the active object (circled) are loaded into the working memory.

Terrain Paging allows a large Unreal landscape to be split into multiple simulated terrain tiles. The tiles are loaded automatically when they are needed and are paged out to disk when they are not. This is useful when a large landscape should be simulated with fine-grained resolution, which would result in unmanageable data sizes using the standard Terrain.

Terrain Paging can be used for both Open World Landscapes and non Open World Landscapes.

Staying up-to-date with Unreal Engine 5.2 

On 15 May 2022 – only days after Unreal Engine 5.2 was made publicly available – Algoryx made a patch release that ensured compatibility with the latest version of the game engine. Currently supported Unreal Engine versions are 4.27, 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2. 

Other improvements in the latest updates of AGX Dynamics for Unreal Engine include:

  • A simpler, more intuitive workflow when using custom terrain render materials
  • The default terrain render material has been revised to look better, show track marks more clearly, and be simpler to customize 
  • Collision Groups can now be added on Wires and Terrains the same way as for Shapes
  • Some viewport icons have been redesigned for improved clarity.

To see full documentation on recent releases, visit the changelog for AGX Dynamics for Unreal Engine.

More news about AGX Dynamics for Unreal

More release notes