Shin Megami Tensei V is a fantastic video game, but have you noticed how good the hair looks? That’s all thanks to Unreal Engine 4’s “Kawaii Physics” plugin, used to animate things like swaying hair and clothing, such as skirts and dresses.
In SMTV, Kawaii Physics is used to animate Nahobino’s long blue hair. Nahobino’s a pretty active protagonist who is viewed mostly from behind, so you get a lot of time to admire their flowing locks.
The plugin itself was developed by Kazuya Okada, a support engineer at Epic Games Japan, and he’s been posting about its inclusion on Twitter:
The recently released Shin Megami Tensei V makes use of the Kawaii Physics plugin I made! Thank you so much! (It’s apparently used to control the protagonist’s hair! I couldn’t believe it when I heard that lol)
It is said that Kawaii Physics is less hassle to use than Unreal Engine 4’s standard “AnimDynamics” feature, as it supports collision detection and boasts a simple algorithm that has a lower processor overhead than Unreal Engine 4’s standard system for handling this kind of thing.
It has also been used in Scarlet Nexus, Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier and Trials of Mana, and can be deployed in Unreal Engine 5 games, too.
[source automaton-media.com]
