1a – How the System Works

The Etherion Physics system works by swapping out foliage actors for a matching blueprint when the player or a physics object comes in contact with it.
The blueprint that the foliage gets swapped with, will have a skeletal mesh inside it which simulates physics.
This happens so fast that you won’t notice it while playing, making it seem like all the plants are always interactive. 
When a player or an object moves away from the Foliage blueprint, it triggers an event that seamlessly transitions the skeletal mesh’s simulated physics back to the plant’s default static pose over a set period of time.

This static pose is stored as an animation sequence, and only contains 1 frame.
After the blend is complete, the blueprint gets swapped out for the foliage actor, and the blueprint is removed.

The great thing about using blueprints, is that you can customize it to create a number of desirable effects, which we will cover in the next tutorial playlist in this series.