Quick Start · Souls Destruction Framework

This page takes you from a freshly installed plugin to a prop that breaks in Play In Editor. It uses the shipped presets and the default output policy, so nothing has to be configured first.

See it working first

The plugin ships a complete showcase level at /SoulsDestructionFramework/Demo/Maps/L_SDF_Showcase — titled stands for every preset family, ready to Play In Editor. Opening it before authoring your own props shows what each family’s break looks and sounds like.

Install the plugin

Use the package that matches your engine: SDF 1.0.0 is prepared as two separate Win64 editions, verified on Unreal Engine 5.7.4 and 5.8.2.
Put the SoulsDestructionFramework folder in your project’s Plugins/ directory. The prepared archives contain source code and content, not precompiled binaries: the project must be able to compile the plugin with Unreal’s supported Visual Studio C++ toolchain, even if it is otherwise Blueprint-only.
Open your project and go to Edit → Plugins.
Search for Souls Destruction Framework and enable it.
Restart the editor when prompted.
Confirm the engine plugins the descriptor enables are not disabled in your project: Geometry Collection, Fracture, Niagara, Procedural Mesh Component and Enhanced Input (plus Control Rig on the 5.7.4 edition).

Full details, including the toolchain, Blueprint-only and C++ project notes, are in Installation.

Create your first destructible

Import or select a Static Mesh in the Content Browser. A crate, pot or barrel is a good first test.
Right-click the Static Mesh.
Choose Souls Destruction.
Choose Create Destructible…. The authoring tab opens with the mesh already assigned.
Select a Preset — one of the ten shipped presets; Wood, Ceramic, Stone or Generic for a first test. See Authoring presets for the whole family, including the semantic barrel and the glass paths.
Select a Fracture Density — Low, Medium, High or Custom. Start with Low: it is the fastest to generate and the cheapest to simulate.
If your preset has no interior material, or you want a different one for this object, set an Interior Material override in the Advanced section.
Press Generate. The plugin analyses the mesh, builds an authoring plan, stages the fracture, validates it, and only then publishes the assets.
Drag the generated Blueprint Actor into your level.
Press Play and send a destruction hit at it.

Sending the first hit

If you have no combat code wired yet, the fastest test is a Blueprint that calls Apply Destruction Damage on the Actor’s SDF Destructible component with a Damage of 100 and a Destruction Power of Massive. See Destruction hit.

Try it: a pot on a crate

New generations simulate physics by default, so a prop resting on a destructible support falls when that support breaks. This short test shows the whole behaviour, including landing damage.

Generate a crate with the Wooden Crate preset, and a pot with the Ceramic preset. Leave Physics on Simulated (section 4. Runtime Profile) and keep the advanced Generate Simulation Collision if Needed option on.
Read each generation report. If a mesh had no usable simple collision, the report says the Blueprint uses an SDF-owned copy named SM_SDF_<Name>_Sim (SDF-AUTH-PHYS-004); your source mesh is not modified.
Place the crate on the floor and the pot on top of the crate, resting on it — not floating above it, not sunk into it.
Press Play. Both props should stay where you put them: they are simulating and asleep on their support. If a prop tips over or sinks at rest, check its collision (see Troubleshooting).
Destroy the crate with a hit strong enough for its profile.
Watch the pot drop to the floor. Its landing can break it: Ceramic generations enable fall damage with a 60 cm safe distance, and add 50 damage per metre of drop beyond it. The drop is measured on the pot’s centre, so place the crate high enough — or stack a second crate — if nothing happens.
To read the numbers, print the pot’s Get Last Fall Height Cm and Get Last Fall Damage after it lands.

Now repeat the test with a statue generated with the Stone preset in place of the pot. The statue falls when the crate breaks, but it does not break on landing: Stone generations keep fall damage off by default. Enable it on the statue’s profile if you want heavy props to crack on impact.

The full contract — physics modes, collision requirements, the support wake, the fall-damage formula, older setups and diagnostics — is in Intact physics and fall damage.

Expected generated assets

For a source mesh named SM_MyCrate, generation publishes four assets. The SM_ prefix is stripped to build the base name, so the outputs are:

GC_MyCrate
DA_SDF_MyCrate
BP_SDF_MyCrate
DA_SDF_Authoring_MyCrate

Asset	Type	Role
`GC_MyCrate`	Geometry Collection	The fractured representation Chaos simulates when the object breaks. Contains the generated interior faces, collision and cooked simulation data.
`DA_SDF_MyCrate`	`USDFDestructionProfile`	The runtime data asset: health, destruction power gate, presentation mode, budgets, audio, VFX, decals, propagation.
`BP_SDF_MyCrate`	Blueprint Actor	Optional ready-to-place Actor wired to the intact mesh and the profile. A `Simulated` generation derives it from `ASDFPhysicsDestructibleActor`; `Static` and `Keep Existing` generations use `ASDFDestructibleActor`.
`DA_SDF_Authoring_MyCrate`	Authoring manifest	Editor-only ownership record: every input used, plus fingerprints of the source and each generated output. Required for Validate and Regenerate.

When a Simulated generation needs simulation collision the source does not have, a fifth asset is published beside them: SM_SDF_MyCrate_Sim, the setup-owned mesh copy the Blueprint uses.

The prefixes are project settings and can be changed under Project Settings → Plugins → Souls Destruction Authoring.

Where the assets are written

With the default output policy, Source Sibling / Generated / SDF, assets are written to a Generated/SDF folder next to the source mesh. When the mesh lives in a conventional Meshes, Mesh or StaticMeshes folder, that folder is stepped out of first:

/Game/Props/Crate/Meshes/SM_MyCrate
/Game/Props/Crate/Generated/SDF/GC_MyCrate
/Game/Props/Crate/Generated/SDF/DA_SDF_MyCrate
/Game/Props/Crate/Generated/SDF/BP_SDF_MyCrate
/Game/Props/Crate/Generated/SDF/DA_SDF_Authoring_MyCrate

The other policies are Project Default Folder (/Game/Generated/SDF unless you change it) and Custom Folder.

What happens to the source mesh

Nothing. The authoring service captures a signature of the source Static Mesh before staging and compares it afterwards. If the signature changed during generation, publication is blocked with issue SDF-AUTH-SRC-007 instead of shipping a setup built on a mutated source.

Change it later

Not happy with how it breaks? Right-click the placed actor, its Blueprint or the source mesh and choose Souls Destruction > Modify Destructible…. Pick another preset, density, number of cuts or collision shape, then Apply Changes…: the destructible is rebuilt in place and every copy already placed in your levels updates. See Modify Destructible.

Next steps

Authoring overview — every editor operation.
Authoring presets — what each preset does.
Intact physics and fall damage — props that fall and break on landing.
Modify Destructible — change how a placed prop breaks without starting over.
Batch authoring — process a full prop library.
Melee integration — wire it to your combat.