7 Minute Photoreal Forest! Procedural Content Generation PCG in Unreal Engine
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2023
- Create a photoreal forest in 7 minutes with the NEW Procedural Content Generation Framework (PCG) in Unreal Engine 5.2.
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This was mentioned in the first tutorial... felt like it could be mentioned here as well. Density Noise is now called Attribute Noise.
Right on🤙 yeah unfortunately out this up before the change, but new videos will have the update.
Love how you did the part that I need behind the scenes. Very helpful
I love your tutorials, high quality, clear, and concise. Instant sub!
Thank you! I am so happy to hear that🤙 More to come!
You nailed it, it gave me more answers than the ones I was seeking to solve initially when I clicked this video.
I am so happy to hear that!! That is a exactly what I am going for👍
If you're missing the "Landscape" pin, then select your input node and configure the settings on the right to have a custom pin that takes a Landscape. Similarly, select your SufaceSamplerNode and set the "ExecutionMode" dropdown to "Debug" to see the cubes in your editor.
Exactly my issue, and this is a great starting point, thank you!!
Edit: So apparently the Input node is almost deprecated. The current dedicated solution is to use the "Get Landscape Data" node and pipe it into surface instead of the Input node.
bravo! geez bro this has to be the best explanation of PCG and the settings! you explained exactly what each setting does, thank you
Thanks so much for saying that! I am so happy you found it helpful. I love teaching, so I am glad it comes through.
amazing video, helped a lot
Your tutorials are awesome very informative short on point
Thanks
Absolutely! I am so happy they are helpful. Rock on👍
I'm literally earning a college degree on RUclips. Thanks 🧘🏾♂️
This is so amazing to hear! That is really my goal. I want to spread the knowledge so more people can make amazing creations!!! It shouldn't be limited by paying for an expensive education.
Me too. I am literally gaining an entire profession from just these videos. I will be able to do digital real estate 3d tours, video game maps, cinematic scenes for film or short films, I mean... this information, this industry... it's so ripe and fruitful! I am so thankful to be alive to be able to have access to this stuff. The images in my mind can finally come to life, apart from the need for a paintbrush or what have you!!!
@@azielarts keep it up💯
@@2834E will do! Y'all keep me going 💪
Thank you so much, you are a life saver!
Absolutely! Happy to help!
straight to the point!
Thanks!! That's what I aspire to!
great video, thanks
Keep up the great videos!
I will!! Thanks for the encouragement 🙏
@@azielarts As a long time player, and recent content developer I find your tutorials enlightening, informative, succinct and professionally presented. Thank you so very much!
This is great, thanks!!!
Right on 👍 Happy to help
@@azielarts Curious is it possible to have this as a blueprint to use over and over? I have not created this yet, have it on your patreon or sale?
Dude this is such rich content keep going! Also would love to see how to get the best photorealism out of Quixel nanite mesh. That's the part where we struggle right now, One suggestion was for super close up shots you need a 16k texture on your main props to the foreground. Cheers!
Yo! Amazing! That is such a great question. I will add that to my video list. 👍 There is definitely some strategy involved there. I am also still learning it myself :)
@@azielarts and also can you talk about common problems/ bugs/ mistakes can a beginner faces.
Right on, I will see what I can do!
@@azielarts😅3e3 单元62呃3染发而非儿童等等等等放入入味6😂也要去饭店调查2是2 0:22 😅😅
@@aegean410г5😅к3р😅к3р
Thank you man, very cool tutorial, simple and clear! Good luck to you
Absolutely 👍 I am glad it was helpful
@@azielarts Help..I cant get the pcg when i go to plugins i put in procedural and the only one comes up is the mesh component the outher 2 arnt there i got 5.3..What do i do?
what if you dont want to use landscape but instead an alembic or obj you imported to generate onto?
awesome presentation Sir! i like the organization of your video. You never got off topic and you never jumped around to different things. This helped me understand the basics. Im looking forward to watching more of your content! Thank you!
Great!
Thanks dude❤
you got it 🤙
I see you set the volume well into the landscape, If one is making an island, if the volume is set up a little to say just above the water line I guess theres nothing below, there for noting in the water or on beach's where there would not be growth?
Yes you can use the placement of the volume to cut off the sim. However for the situation you are describing I would mask the points by hight so that it would only sim above the water line.
Thank you for a very informative video! I have a question about abstracting PCG 5.3 (not 5.2) static mesh spawner sets into the details panel so that you could reuse graphs for different models - do you know by chance how can we achieve that with built-in nodes?
hello, very nice video! just one question why can't i find the "density noise" in 2:15? in both UE5.2 and UE5.3
Hey I am running in to that as well ! just put up a video on it ruclips.net/video/GnpaBZiwExA/видео.html
@@azielartsthankkk you mannn much appreciated !
First thing first. Your way of explaining the base root of PCG is one of the best i found so far. Its all clear to follow, and most of all, You explain whats happening and why. More people should take those videos as starting point of how to teach others.
Now my question is, how to add in to PCG setup, a single mesh ? so basically, a part of having all the bushes, floor, rocks etc., i want to have a tank as well. The tricky thing for me is how to spawn only "1" mesh (tank) within my PCG setup so that it always stays with all the rest of elements and also it moves and "changes" when changing the PCG actor position.
@azielarts
if anyone wants to follow this tutorial but spawn everything on a static mesh instead of a landscape, in the PCG connect the "landscape" to the "bounding shape" in the Surface sampler and connect a "World ray hit quarry" to the surface. The rest can be the same
Awesome tip👍
@@azielarts looks awesome, except that currently there is no landscape (IN node) to drag off. The PCG Graph does not recognise the landscape (it's overlapping)? Are you using a special map, not the starter examples?
@@MushroomFleet ruclips.net/video/RiEUQQXa4xA/видео.html
Very cool
🤙
super cool. thank you for such a detailed explanation
Absolutely! Glad it was helpful!
Молодца! 👍🥳
👍
Thanks, do we need to convert the assets to nanite ? Especially for the ground plate
Yeah I would recommend to do that
A very useful tutorial! Thank you! subscribed
Hello do you know how to add a tag to the spawned static mesh ? I need that for gameplay. thanks !
Hmm good question. You might need to create a blueprint asset, add a tag to it, and then spawn that instead ?
Hey, thanks a lot for the video. I'm getting awesome results, but there's one issue. The trees grow aligned to the ground and on slopes look weird. Do you know how to fix this in static mesh in PCG ?
common issue, you have to change to global rotation instead of surface, then they will all point up.
Nice video. What exactly do u mean by "make sure the pcg overlaps with the landscape"? I see the spawned rectangles, but for some reason all the transformations dont work (like filtering and rotation), so i guess it is because i didnt "overlap" them.
I mean the PCG volume cube needs to overlap with the landscape otherwise it won't have any points to simulate
how do i make the mesh be lined with the curves of the hills? My mesh is all in a straight line and goes through the hills. Hard to describe, sorry.
Hmm It should follow the shape of the landscape by default. I believe there is also an align to surface node. Also are you sampling the surface of landscape?
I am using UE 5.2. I have now created a PCG forest, but I have these blurry textures in the debug ! Is that normal or can I turn it off somehow. I use Ultra Dynamic Sky as lighting.
Looks good !
Anyway to quickly blend everything with RVT BUT without going through the RVT process ?
Haha lol I wish. You still have to go through the set up process for RVT to blend the assets that way. Although I have noticed that if you up the density of the ground plates to completely cover the landscape material the blending is more seamless.
@@azielarts Yes that would be a workaround ! But how could I do so with a snow landscape ?
Just saw your storm NS video, I'll use it as a blizzard effect !
@@daviddelayat-dnapictures ooh snow! I honestly have less experience with that biome. May need to get back to you on that one. I know RVT would work well. You would probably still scatter snow banks or piles, but you might need a more advanced Landscape material that shifts between snow materials based on steepness so that snow is only in top of things. Also in my Niagara weather effects course I cover making a snow storm. Not sure if that is helpful
@@azielarts Thanks for the advice !
I've never thought about decals for snow, there might be some good ones out there as well that could do the trick !
Nice tutorial, thank you.
👍 you are welcome!
If I don’t want PCG contents at certain areas, is it possible to exclude that area? Like.. if I have houses or structures at some areas.
Yes absolutely, two way are the easiest. Use a simple invisible cube or something as a blocking volume, or run PCG through landscape layers so you can paint out areas where you don't want it to spawn. I actually have a video coming out on this in about a week and a half
This is great. But what if you wanted to make, say, a stone path through the forest, and not have vegetation on that path? Yet have the path be a controllable spline that can blend into the dirt landscape on the sides?
Is there a limit for the amount of instances?
I am quite new to all of this, i was wondering why even when using the bounds modifier all of the trees are still touching and intersecting with each other. I've tried restarting like 5 times and i am not sure what to do?
Any help would be appreciated!
So i had to turn the bounds on my density filter to 0.04 and 0.08 to get the density roughly where yours was in this video, but my terrain is still covered in the little grey and black node boxes which wasn't the case in yours, has that ever happened to you?
Can anybody tell me what the best way is to handle procedural foliage? Master material where foliage placement can be layer based or procedural foliage tools or PCG? To me it seems like doing it through a master material is an older method.
hi, i cant find the density noise and density filter, i have version UE 5.3
A great and easy to follow video that has made my life in unreal much simpler. Any pointers to help get leaves on the forest floor, is it basically the same process?
When using PCG instead of the foliage tool, how do you keep trees vertical that are on a slope?.
Just add a transform points node and check on absolute rotation
@@azielarts Thank you.
This tuto is amazing!!, ONly works for meshes? or also with blueprint actor as well?. I have kitbash3d buildings group in blueprints and I look into build a wide aerial shot from a city 👀
Yep works with blueprints as well.
Having trouble using Surface Sampler in debug. It just won't show, but if I use a Select Points from the Landscape input it will show cubes... any help please?! Thanks!
Hmm strange, maybe try restarting the engine, and hitting compute on the PCG graph in your level? It could also be that the PCG volume is not overlapping the landscape. Or it could be that the actual points are too small to see, In which case you can try adding a bounds modifier after the surface sampler multiplying the point bounds till they are big enough to see
@@azielarts Thanks for the reply! I thought by dragging it over the landscape it would overlap like in the video, but the scale was still very small so I figured that out by watching your other video on PCG. Thanks!
@@artofminh Absolutely! That has happened to me also, don't worry.
Great guide, and done me good. But, is there a way to make the trees stay straight up in a slope? Doing a project exam now and bit of a nickle this
Yep just check on absolute rotation in the transform node
@@azielarts Dang, thanks! That's all I need to do?
In my input node there isn't any green Landscape input that I can use for the surface sampler, all I have is the "In" parameter. Anyone got any idea how I can change this? This is the default unreal project with the semi mountainous default landscape.
The pins under the Input were deprecated. Right click in the graph and add a Get Landscape Node. Drag out from the output of that Get Landscape Nodes output and add the Surface Sampler node suggested in the video. Should be what you need.
How do you regenerate the meshes at runtime?I mean without moving the volume, how do you spawn them randomly everytime you start the game
Great question. You can actually expose variables from the PCG graph, just like other blueprints. So you could expose a float connected to the seed of the surface sampler or even the density filter and modify that on load which would give you a random output.
You don’t want to use at runtime unless it’s small, pcg checks everything and if you you have a large pcg doing anything at runtime will create huge lag
@@MichaelEmbers I just want it initialized at game begin went once, basically I want it to be randomized everytime I start the gamelevel
awesome man thank you
You are very welcome!!! Do you have any other questions or problems that I could help with?
my pgc is not changing anything can you help me whenever i change density or anything nothing changes and the mesh is not applying either
Thanks for the great video, i have a couple of questios. 1) There dosent appear to be a density noise node? 2)Is there a way to stop spawning assets on raised hills? Thanks
can't find it either
use attribute noise, it seems to be the new name in UE 5.3
@@gambello1195 Thank you so much!
How can I get my trees to only orient up and down versus with the normal of the terrain? I may not have reached this answer yet in your videos, but figured I'd ask.
Hey..This is great tutorial! short and precise...I'm curious, what should one do, if they don't want trees in certain part of the area?
Create a spline path. There's tutorials on that.
Yes I agree, spline paths are the way to go. Lots of great tutorials out there, I am also working on one now👍
@@corvidgamesstudio I figured it out right after I posted this comment..
@@azielarts I figured it out the way to do it, right after I posted this comment..still I'm looking forward to your video on how to do it..
@@thegreatSalu Solid, nice work!
Grazie.
Thank you so much!! I appreciate you!
Amazing tutorial, @@azielarts thank you! I I only had one issue and i was wondering if you knew the problem: When I insert others mesh entries for the trees in the static mesh spowner (min 6.67) the trees start moving blurry (seems on the z axis but i am not sure)!
@@flaminiacavallarii think I did run in to that aswell. I it was fixed by switching to the other tree type in the pack. I can't remember if it is the "simple wind" version, or the "pivot painter" version. Just whichever you have, switch to the other one and that should fix it.
thanks a lot i will try!@@azielarts
Is there any possibilities about a PCG tutorial where we use medieval cities instead of trees ?? Thanks in advance.
Good question 👍 I will look in to it
@@azielarts Thanks man already subbed so looking forward to it.
@@zenparvez 🙏
You're doing a great job thanks a lot for the tutorials
Thanks so much for that ! You rock
Hello, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, you are truly a great teacher. Currently, we are working on a project, in which we must create many roads. For optimization reasons, we are evaluating the possibility of creating these roads with PCG. We have problems with the meshes, they do not deform correctly in curves. Do you know if it is possible to make roads with PCG and have them deform correctly in curves?
Mind Blowing 😍
Thanks so much!
Thx!
🙌🤙
COULD NOT RESIST THE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON... U ARE AWESOME MAN
NO YOU ARE AWESOME!! This made my day!
Wow, thanks for the tutorial! Could you also show how to add spline road in your PCG to open up paths in the forest?
Yep absolutely, I will add that to the video list
That’s is one awesome way to explain PCG!
Very cool. How can I avoid vegetation to popup black in distance? I think its an LOD setting...how can I avoid that ? Thanks
Yes definitely an LOD thing, try switching the foliage to nanite or going in to your foliage assets and adjusting the lod settings and turning off mipmaps on the textures
Great! Really got me fast to the point. A question to not spawn Rocks and Grass into the trees or each other , how do I accomplish that?
Great question, by using a difference node set to binary. This will cut out one set of points from another.
@@azielartsThanks alot, I actually saw how you did later in the Warzone video.
@@azielarts Hi again! I have also a second question, is there a way to flatten the landscape with pcg when placing buildings with it?
@@astralstormgamestudios1259 yep if you flatten your landscape with any of the landscape tools, PCG will just adapt to the new shape
@@azielarts Isn't there any logic where the landscape gets flatten out before pcg spawns? Since my landscape is 32x32km I can't do it by hand.
2 questions! I don’t see density filter and followed the steps but don’t see the cubes for the population area
can i use this to make a maze? or interior walls?
Any mesh could be placed with it. A maze specifically I am not sure. I am sure there is a way. Alot of the applications I have used so far are for scattering and randomness. It might actually work to have maze sections. Like little squares with maze walls in different configurations. Then you could use this to lay them out those sections randomly.
Which one is better? PCG method or autolandscape material with procedural foliage?
I personally prefer PCG driven by landscape layers, since I can make more complex logic with more types of foliage, or foliage growing on other foliage, but it is really up to you.
Can you create a tutorial on that? PCG using landscape layers@@azielarts
@@TheAlbifly yes absolutely, I am actually working on one right now ;)
Thanks. Pls do from scratch
the density noise node doesnt appear for me. would you know why?
ME TOO, did you find a solution?
Hey I am running in to that as well ! just put up a video on it ruclips.net/video/GnpaBZiwExA/видео.html
can you do a video for good performance on this a big scaled forrest is impossible
What do I do if I don't have the Density Noise node in the selector? (UE 5.3)
Edit: Never mind! Found your other video explaining that it is now called "Attribute Noise" in UE 5.3!
up
Nice,but how to erase some area for add house etc ?
You can use a spline like in this video.ruclips.net/video/STqt92VF3KM/видео.htmlsi=7BU3mZ98TFczJ36n Or connect it to landscape layers. I have. A video coming out on that soon.
So I'm curious if there is a way for one to spawn other meshes like the grass and flowers on top of the ground plates if it happens to be on top of it, then on the landscape normally, adjusting to the slope and ground mesh.
My PCG Input have no sub items such as actor, Landscape etc in UE 5.4.1
TY Please respond to this. I am creating a horror game project and would like to know how you did that animation at the end of the video. Was that in ug5 or blender. I need the same animation for my own intro for the project Ty
Hey whats up! No problem. I did it straight from Unreal Engine. I made a level sequence, added a camera, and just animated it flying through the PCG Forest. Then I rendered it out with the movie render que.
no density noise option in ue 5.3
please help
ruclips.net/video/GnpaBZiwExA/видео.htmlsi=z9uwhsCLHaR7RGK3
Is it possible to do PCG on custom meshes?
Hey yep it can use any mesh
How@@azielarts
@@deepeshsubhash7915 you have to sample the surface of the mesh. I think this video shows it. ruclips.net/video/qKlWZjfkuRY/видео.html
I will try to make one on it as well
density noise or points doesn't show up in 5.3, reissued, renamed, removed :) not sure
Yep, ran into that also, here is the fixruclips.net/video/GnpaBZiwExA/видео.htmlsi=Np9orGieYYMfog7Y
i followed all the steps but it still shows all the cubes... I did this in a very big environment could that be why?
Could be a few things. You might need to find the node and hit the D key to stop debugging. That will hide the cubes. It might be that they are overlapping your meshes.
@@azielarts please help me! when I press D key....Nothing :-(....don't appears a cubes....I dont understand the problem?? thanks
@@carlosapiens Hey, so if you see any cubes it means that one of your nodes is set to debug. The D key is a toggle for debug view that only works if you have the particular node selected. So first go look at your graph and find the node that has a blue/green Dot on it(that means it is in debug mode). Just select that node first and then hit the D key to turn it off. The Dot should go away as well as the cubes. You also might have cubes showing from multiple nodes at once in which case you need to select each of them and turn off the debug mode. Hope that helps
@@azielarts Thank you very much! Perfect tutorial!
hey man, amazing content! I know this is hard for you to answer a comment when you have many, but I would much appreciate if you can fix my issue which is the PCG environment that I made in this video is vibrating making it look like a bad filter on the environment. like I am not getting the good quality that you are getting, ( and i have a good GPU: GeForce RTX 3090, CPU: Intel i7 12th generation 12700) but everything is vibrating. And massive respect for helping many of your audience in the comment section!
If by "vibrating" you mean noise, then change AA to TAA or TSR. If you mean that stuff is moving, like due to wind, there is a setting on static mesh spawner named Evaluate World Position Offset along with World Position Offset Disable Distance which you can use to tweak or fully disable the wind effect that exists on your foliage material.
If you meant something else, you'd have to elaborate. If you figured out what's the problem, please share so others can benefit as well if they find themselves in similar situation.
@@mars_9t195 thank you so much, i will test it tomorrow, the problem is that stuff is vibrating (moving), and colors are not the same when in play mode, thanks for helping i will try to fix it tomorrow, i still haven't figured the solution, i moved passed it and aim to create new worlds with the hope of not facing that problem again😂. I know it is wrong to avoid the problem, i will try your way and thank you.
What's the performance? Good for mobiles?
Performance is great for pc if you set it up efficiently. Probably not good for mobile, though I really have not tested it.
UE 5.3.2 Density Noise Not showing ?
can you tell why this is happening
Made a video on it👍 ruclips.net/video/GnpaBZiwExA/видео.htmlsi=vW17V1MmymUqmtoo
cant see the mesh in my project, cant find density noise too.
Hey, what mesh are you referring to. Also I'm recent versions of UE the density noise node was replaced with the attribute Noise node
@@azielarts hey aziel, yess now the name and color of node changed right? So my mesh in the final, are all white and some artifacts are appearing. Not so clear to me what node must be on on debug.
❤
👍
Can you tell me how to spawn this meshes not on other meshes? :)
Great job on this, thank you. How can we add a spline to this so it isnt just a square?
yo guys I did this and now I have some random trees floating up and down any ideas why?
Why this don't work in unreal engine 5.3 ?
It should work. What part is not working for you exactly?
@@azielarts The boxes do not appear on landscape even though I do the same, It does not appear on any of my projects or new project, Debug or generate does not help also. Could it be a issue with my unreal engine 5 and need to reinstall it ?
@@azielarts I forgot to say that I installed Dash to scatter, maybe this is an issue that PCG does not work ? it must be a reason, but what ?
Hello!
What's Up! First comment star ⭐
@@azielarts I am fine! Just saw your video and wanted to take a look. I would need this video before my finals but still thanks for project saving tips 👍
@@aegean410 Absolutely! I hope it went well.
@@azielarts I am not sure to ask a question here but, are you working in some companies or studios?
@@aegean410 Ask away 👍 I have in the past work as a 3D Generalist in commercials, then for a few years in architecture, eventually as a creative director. Now I work for myself:) I also still do freelance here and there.
The thumbnail.
Great tutorials but you really can make yourself smaller... seriously :)
Don't be like these people when they want to photograph something but their face is covering 1/3 of the photo.
In the free course, I can't scroll the video
bro, this isn’t the same in 5.4 🤦♂️
it ain’t generating no damn cubes for nun. when i do the pcg i get a graph & graph instance -i did graph like you said, it ain’t giving me no generations. 🤦♂️
i dont understand why developers make things work in one update but completely destroy or gut similar for incompatibilities. bruh- my graph should generate as yours did regardless of my .4. 🤦♂️