🧱 Physical Materials

Overview

In Unreal Engine, Physical Materials (PM_) are typically used to define physics properties like friction and restitution. However, in the ImpactFX framework, they serve a much more important role: they act as the surface identification tags.

When a bullet hits a wall, the system needs to know exactly what that wall is made of. The Physical Material is the "bridge" between the collision event and the final visual output. Without Physical Materials assigned to your environment, the system will not know whether to spawn metal sparks or concrete dust.

Included Surface Types

ImpactFX comes out-of-the-box with 27 distinct Physical Materials, covering almost every scenario required for modern AAA games. They are located in the ImpactFX/Core/Physics folder.

Hard Surfaces & Architecture:

• Asphalt, Concrete, Brick, Ceramic, Glass, Bulletproof Glass

Metals & Synthetics:

• Metal, Rusted Metal, Carbon Fiber, Plastic, Electrical

Wood & Fibers:

• Wood, Wood MDF, Paper, Fabric, Leather

Nature & Terrain:

• Dirt, Sand, Mud, Grass, Snow, Ice

Liquids, Organics & Hazards:

• Water, Flesh, Acid, Lava, Oil

How the System Reads Physical Materials