Creating and triggering material effects

There are two ways to trigger custom material effects, as explained in the following sections

Automated playback based on physical interactions

When two materials collide due to a physical event, the engine will look up a material effect in Game/Libs/MaterialEffects/MaterialEffects.xml based on the surface types assigned to the materials. This allows various particles and sounds to be played when certain interactions occur.

For example, if a rock collides with wood, we can play a specific sound event along with wood splinter particles.

To start, open MaterialEffects.xml with Microsoft Excel.

Note

Although it's possible to modify the material effects document manually, this is not recommended due to the complicated nature of the Excel format.

You should now see the material effects sheet inside your Excel application. The various surface types are laid out in a grid, and the intersection between the row and column defines which effect to use.

For example...