Grass Generation

Here you will understand how to put the entire infinite grass generation system with tiles to work.

Last updated 1 year ago

Grass Generation

Here you will understand how to put the entire infinite grass generation system with tiles to work.

First of all, you need to define a physical material to restrict the birth of grasses only on the generated ground.

To do this you need to go into the project settings, this is very simple:

In the top bar, select the Edit button;
After that open Project Settings page;
On the project configuration page, look for the physics tab and scroll down to the end:

To set this you need to put any name, preferably "Ground" or "Terrain", this will serve as I said before, restricting the generation of grass only to the generated terrain.
Now you must create a physical material, to do this just follow the image below:

By default, the plugin already comes with this pre-configured file, if you want to find and use it, just search for "PM_Terrain", however it normally does not come with the project configuration that we set above, here is how it will go by default:

In "Surface Type" you must select what you just created in the project settings.
After that, you need to place this new file in the material you selected for the terrain. By default, the plugin material already comes with this file implemented:

Since we have completed this step, let's now move on to the generation itself, you must place the "BP_GrassSpawner" actor in the scenario and define the variables:

Grass Types: It is the variable that controls the types of grams you want to implement, it is from the Static Mesh Foliage domain and is an array.
Grass Components: This variable is exposed in the blueprint for debugging purposes only. You don't need to care about her.
Supported Surface Type: This is where you will define that physical material configuration that we made in the last steps, just select the one you created in the project settings.
Start Distance: This variable controls the minimum distance from which you will start to see foliage. The higher its value, the further away the foliage will be visible, but it affects performance MUCH less, now the lower its value, the closer the foliage will be visible and the GREATER the performance. The ideal is to find a middle ground (between 5000 and 7500 has a good result).
End Distance: This variable controls the maximum distance from which you will see the foliage, it helps to make the player's view more beautiful. The higher its value, the further away the foliage will be visible, but it affects MUCH less performance, now the lower its value, the closer the foliage will be visible and the GREATER the performance. (between 10000 and 20000 you will have a good result).
Cell Size: This system was made based on “pieces” called cells, that is, this variable controls the size of the grasses’ birth cells. By default it comes with a value of 5000, decrease it to increase the number of grams.
Sub Cell Size: This variable serves as a subdivision of the cells, something like a grid. If you want to increase the number of grams born, just decrease the value of the variables.
Sub Cell Random Offset: This variable controls the randomness of the location of grass foliage.
Cell Count: This is the number of cells that will be placed near the player's location. The lower the value set, the higher the performance will be.

This could be the result you have:

That is all! The plugin is probably already working!

Last updated 1 year ago

First of all, you need to define a physical material to restrict the birth of grasses only on the generated ground.

To do this you need to go into the project settings, this is very simple:

In the top bar, select the Edit button;
After that open Project Settings page;
On the project configuration page, look for the physics tab and scroll down to the end:

To set this you need to put any name, preferably "Ground" or "Terrain", this will serve as I said before, restricting the generation of grass only to the generated terrain.
Now you must create a physical material, to do this just follow the image below:

By default, the plugin already comes with this pre-configured file, if you want to find and use it, just search for "PM_Terrain", however it normally does not come with the project configuration that we set above, here is how it will go by default:

In "Surface Type" you must select what you just created in the project settings.
After that, you need to place this new file in the material you selected for the terrain. By default, the plugin material already comes with this file implemented:

Since we have completed this step, let's now move on to the generation itself, you must place the "BP_GrassSpawner" actor in the scenario and define the variables:

Grass Types: It is the variable that controls the types of grams you want to implement, it is from the Static Mesh Foliage domain and is an array.
Grass Components: This variable is exposed in the blueprint for debugging purposes only. You don't need to care about her.
Supported Surface Type: This is where you will define that physical material configuration that we made in the last steps, just select the one you created in the project settings.
Start Distance: This variable controls the minimum distance from which you will start to see foliage. The higher its value, the further away the foliage will be visible, but it affects performance MUCH less, now the lower its value, the closer the foliage will be visible and the GREATER the performance. The ideal is to find a middle ground (between 5000 and 7500 has a good result).
End Distance: This variable controls the maximum distance from which you will see the foliage, it helps to make the player's view more beautiful. The higher its value, the further away the foliage will be visible, but it affects MUCH less performance, now the lower its value, the closer the foliage will be visible and the GREATER the performance. (between 10000 and 20000 you will have a good result).
Cell Size: This system was made based on “pieces” called cells, that is, this variable controls the size of the grasses’ birth cells. By default it comes with a value of 5000, decrease it to increase the number of grams.
Sub Cell Size: This variable serves as a subdivision of the cells, something like a grid. If you want to increase the number of grams born, just decrease the value of the variables.
Sub Cell Random Offset: This variable controls the randomness of the location of grass foliage.
Cell Count: This is the number of cells that will be placed near the player's location. The lower the value set, the higher the performance will be.