cause ocean manager doesnt show much through the refference viewer
#ue4-general
restive eagle
vast fjord
hi, where can I go to discuss help with components? looking for helpw ith the cable component specifically
stuck chasm
Can some one help me with blender animations to UE4?
cursive dirge
@worn sparrow simplygon is owned by microsoft, wouldn't expect anything too sketchy
next badger
@worn sparrow it's been free for a long time, before MS aciqution it was even available on Epic's Marketplace
fierce tulip
<_< when you try to solve an odd issue for about an hour and you suddenly notice the mesh was renamed and you kept importing the old one, so no new results
shell jetty
@fierce tulip me that I was thinking how i get commit changes to my git repo as it was hit a db lock but then realized that i just ignore the lock
fierce tulip
heh
cursive dirge
@next badger it wasn't free back then
more like, free to start with and then they wanted 2.5% of the revenues or something like that
next badger
@cursive dirge yeah, was royalty...forgot that thing
@stuck chasm what issues you have with them?
median bronze
any help for newbies (not new to Unreal engine..just new to xbox one develpment) on how to use the custom UWP branch to port a simple game to xbox one dev mode? seems rather complex lol .
a video tutorial or some such would be helpful
fiery harbor
@median bronze are you sure you need the UWP branch for that? shouldnt need to be the case
fiery harbor
you need to be a registered dev and get access to stuff from epic
but that publicly available UWP branch shouldn't be needed at all
that branch is meant for PC I think
median bronze
well xbox one has the dev mode app where if you have a windows developer key you can use (whichi have got with a code) but im just puzzled as to what verson of unreal i need i read for basic non company "devs" using the dev mode you can only use UWP unless your like a liscened development company?ugh so confusing
thinks this may require a tiny bit of rocket science to understand.
floral heart
It's a lot easier to understand if you use periods.
median bronze
....... better?
median bronze
yeah but you need the Unreal branch of it first
fiery harbor
well, UWP is evil
median bronze
aah i see
", you can get access to PS4 and XboxOne with the GitHub source once you have verified with Epic that you are a registered developer with the respective console manufacturers. "
you have to be an "official dev" indy/hobbiest's only option is UWP
eh close enough
i just wanna try to put my simple little gameish concept on the xbox one to try out is all may never make an an actual game. but fun to try ๐
ook well guess ill figure it out. have fun!
fiery harbor
@median bronze if you actually want to ship a game on Xbox, you can become registered developer, even as indie
if you just want to play around, it's easier to not waste time on console stuff and just play around on PC
plush yew
Look at this 3d environment. I know its a still render but, I would buy a game if it was set in this artstyle. looks like a great open world relaxing game https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4eXx8
artist is Juan Pablo
floral heart
And then you get Darwinia.
serene otter
does the build action include baking lighting?
I can not get my point lights to actually light anything. Previews look fine, but when I do a build, they might as well not exist. this is .... incredibly frustrating
hmm, it would appear to be an issue with the way I imported my fbx
next badger
@plush yew i think we've seen some games on last jam in this style
its really simple to make in ue4
serene otter
It was my FBXs. I didn't have a lightmap UV map
serene otter
yep, I went and added it and poof
next badger
you could make one in ue4 directly
next badger
ue4 now makes really nice uvs for lightmaps, i think there was a video about it specifically
serene otter
okay awesome, I had no idea. I'll check taht out. Thanks!
plush yew
@next badger Yes I love those games. If a game is pretty in a unique way then I could play it for hours. I think games were originally meant to just relax, ya know ๐
fiery harbor
hope the meal will end up really good if you spend so much time on it
uneven fractal
eh nope all it adds is a new arrow type
fiery harbor
arrows? aren't those a bit too spiky?
grim ore
Playing D2 lately and I like the way the take enemies just dart around the player making it annoying to fight. Any suggestions on an efficient way of making it where a player can aim at an enemy and then a set time later if they are still aiming at them the enemy would do an action?
uneven fractal
Add numbers to a counter every time a line trace hits an enemy and reset the counter to 0 when the line trace fails to hit an enemy
grim ore
that might work. keep track of it on the player side then just tell the enemy after a set time to dodge.
fluid stag
tawny veldt
I just started packaging a shipping version for Windows, and I noticed in the output log that it started doing a bunch of stuff with the iPhonePackager, why is that? ๐ฎ
tawny veldt
Someone mentioned deleting the Intermediate and Saved folders in my project directory, and so far it seems to be working ๐ฎ
cloud cobalt
Sounds like the UE doc alright
oblique sorrel
So, whoever said "modify the Makehuman character pose so that the bones match Unreal's and replace the skeleton"...
wary wave
nailed it
tawny veldt
Nice horror game
oblique sorrel
Makehuman support for UE4 is the real horror here
ionic sedge
@oblique sorrel Did you move the bones in pose mode and then apply the armature modifier?
It doesn't help if you only do half the things I say. ๐
oblique sorrel
Yes, I did move the bones in pose mode
Didn't apply the modifier, that might be the issue.
ionic sedge
You should end up with something like this when you're done:
The point of posing the character and then applying the armature modifier is changing the base pose for the mesh, then you don't need to modify it too much later manually which is harder.
But you don't really need to match up the bones of each rig, just make sure the mesh "fits" the bones of the UE4Tools rig.
You probably need to scale the whole UE4Tools rig, just do that in object mode and apply the scaling.
If the arm/leg bones of the UE4Tools rig are too long/short you can edit those too, but you need to make sure you enable all bone layers and scale from the correct pivot point. For example if you wanted to scale the upper arm and everything below you would set the 3D cursor at the top of the arm bone, select the upper arm and everything below, switch the pivot mode to 3D cursor and then scale everything at the same time. That way bone orientations won't change, just the proportions.
Anything other than scaling (meaning translation/rotation) will mess up the bone orientations and make your rig more unlike the mannequin rig which will mess up retargeting.
oblique sorrel
Okay, I matched the Makehuman rig to UE4T rig near-perfectly
A moment of truth...
Before applying the modifiers
wary wave
dafuq
oblique sorrel
I'm in a lab at my uni, don't have Discord installed there
wary wave
you still have MS Paint and a web browser
quasi lake
paper kernel
then you just set the bone scale to 0
quasi lake
Eh
paper kernel
to make it disappear
paper kernel
yea
paper kernel
AnimBP
paper kernel
then option B is to modify the mesh
not much you can do in the engine without doing bp or code
quasi lake
You mean modify it in the 3dsmax or maya?
Weird,there should be a way to do the prefab thing in a big engine like ue4
paper kernel
but you still have to do the animbp for the character anyway
vale osprey
Is it a part of a character mesh?
ionic sedge
@oblique sorrel I really don't understand how you end up with that. ๐
Well yeah if you scaled the bones in pose mode and then applied the modifier maybe you could end up with that.
But it should be fairly obvious that that's not what you need to do if you're seeing both the mesh and the rig at the same time.
It's really hard to see what you did wrong without a video though, maybe you didn't apply transforms before messing with the rig, maybe you scaled the bones in pose mode in the make human rig (you should only rotate/translate), maybe you scaled the UE4Tools rig in pose mode (do that in edit mode), maybe you didn't select all the bone layers in the UE4Tools rig. And so on.
There should be no difference in the mesh when you apply the modifier if you do it right anyway.
regal mulch
@quasi lake UE4 has no prefabs :P
Not like Unity, where you selecte Objects and pull them into a Prefab
oblique sorrel
@ionic sedge Ah, yeah, I did scale some of the Makehuman bones. That must be it.
ionic sedge
I recommend viewing the mesh at the same time as the bones so you actually see what you're doing. ๐
The main point of the posing stage is to match the mesh with the UE4Tools rig, not the rig with the UE4Tools rig.
oblique sorrel
And then to hand-paint the weights, I'd wager
ionic sedge
How the bones look after you're done doesn't really matter.
No, you only paint the twist bones since they didn't exist.
But all of the other weights are done already.
oblique sorrel
But there's a big difference in the spine structure
Or, rather, in the sizes of spine bones
That'd mean areas assigned to the spine bones are not proportionate to the bones they're assigned to
ionic sedge
The sizes of the bones don't really matter, the vertex weights are separate. But yeah if it doesn't match up you'll have to repaint or use the automatic bone weighting thing (select a bone in pose mode, select the mesh, go to vertex paint mode, w, assign automatic from bone).
Weight painting should be easy in general with face masking and gradient/blur.
quasi lake
Why it wont make a bit difference after I modified and saved the mesh?
When I save
Then I open again
Oh maybe it's because this pose reset the scale to 1
And still there's no white stick in the viewport
How should I do to add a weapon
vale osprey
You add it in BP not in mesh viewer
In BP of the character, skeletal mesh will be one of the components, you can add another component - weapon as a child of skeletal mesh and tell it to attach to a socket on skeletal mesh
quasi lake
ok...
So how should I hide a node
Also in bp?
Get the socket then hide its parent in bp?
vale osprey
Not sure what you mean
If that grey rectangle thing is part of the mesh then remove it before you import mesh into UE4
After you can hide/unhide or add/remove components in BP
Just in editor or in real-time
brittle tapir
Hey gents, what are the rules here for self promotion? ๐ I am building a course on C++ and multiplayer and before I break all the rules ... ๐
Eitherway, gauging people's interest pre-launch w/ a form for a launch discount: http://eepurl.com/c_blxX
light thunder
Could someone explain to me a level streaming question, in regards to how lighting is built? I hear you can build lighting in different levels, how does that work when you build it? Is the lighting set to "always load" and it exists in the same transform space as the separate level? So as you unload different areas of a map, the lights remain? Please help me understand this, I've watched the several videos on it but am still confused about this part (like how the direct light should behave)
grim ore
the simplest way to think about it is; where is the light at when you bake it and what can it see when it bakes?
if its in the persistent, its set to static, and you have all the other levels visible when you bake then it's going to affect what it can see
if its in the level itself and only that level is loaded then it's going to affect only that level.
each level has it's own lightmaps that load in when that level is visible
so the question is what do you want it to look like or how do you want it lit.
light thunder
So, to make sure I understand, I have a persistant level that's empty, a sublevel that is always loads as a staging map, which contains my lights and contains my blueprint logic, and maps A, B, C. When I am IN my staging map, I make map A visible but I add lights while in the staging map. I do the same for maps B, C,. Then I make all visible and I bake. Is that basically it?
grim ore
if your baking all your lights, nothing movable or stationary, then you should be fine having one level with all the lights and then each other level visible when it bakes
if you go to your world settings for the level you can see the lightmaps that are being used for that level.
if you have a chance you can check out the boy and kite demo to see how they handled it, they have sub levels for different parts of the world as well as one for lighting. It helps with building and having different people work on the same project
light thunder
mainly I'm doing this for performance reasons....I am by myself so I have no team members to annoy
grim ore
static lighting that you use to bake out lightmaps do not really exist in the game when you run it. it makes the light map then that map is used when the level is loaded.
well it would be better performance as you would have smaller parts of your game world showing at one time for sure
in terms of having lights in 1 level or in the sub levels themselves when baking the end should be the same
about the biggest issue is directional lighting might be an issue across level seams if you are using different directional lights (1 per sub level) rather than 1 in a parent level
light thunder
What about directional lights? I'm confused how you light different levels with it? or is it no different? i'vep layed around and it was dark in one level
these would be teleported (VR) level jumps, the maps are entirely seperated and walled off so no seams to worry about
grim ore
any lights that should affect it all, like a directional, should probably go in the persistent level for baking
light thunder
another thing I'm confused about is location in the worldspace.... essentially I can have maps on top of eachother as long as they will never need to interact right?
(i'm trying to keep the "world" small as possible)
grim ore
you can do whatever you want with sub levels yep
its basically like putting the same objects in the same level in the same space if you let them both exist at the same time
light thunder
what about BP actors? do they need to exist in the BP logic level as well?
grim ore
blueprints are just things that exist wherever you tell them to be
usually tied to a level yep but the persistent level is a level as well
like if you had a general game manager or something that you didnt want to get destroyed
light thunder
I'm still learning more about communication and I've learned the hard way about level blueprints
grim ore
well the easy way is to never use level blueprints ๐
light thunder
it might takes some getting used to, i'm a bit confused about doing things like moving a player actor around a level without touching the level blueprint....I guess it doens't matter where you move them as long as the right level is loaded when you do move them
grim ore
sounds about right yep
you can always put in key locations in the level as well if you need them in specific spots. like a generic BP that is a "level start" that you drop in each level so you know where the player goes for example
clever dawn
My state is setup and key presse are working, but character won't crouch.
If I tich Set>isCrouched? to On, the game starts with the character crouched.
Just trying to get a simple crouch. Everything else seems to be working, I'm just mucking up the CharAMP I cant figure out how to slot in the crouching node
light thunder
@grim ore Isn't that just the level start?
Or does that not matter when you load into the level?
grim ore
@light thunder you can use the level start sure but if you already have a player and are just moving him around from sub level to sub level there is no real need for multiple player starts
light thunder
just use transform data on the player after the level is load? (i probably would have a helper actor that I get it's location from)
grim ore
pretty much yeah. blueprint that I just drop in the level that is just a scene component and maybe a billboard so I can see it. I can just grab all components of that type once I need to move my character, find its transform, and move my player to it
it would let you define player start in each level by just dropping in your blueprint and then when you unload the old level and load in the new you can move your player to that new player start in the new level
@clever dawn how are you trying to set the is crouching on the player? from what I can see there you are getting the current state of is crouching and setting it to the same state
light thunder
Here's a crazy question...I have a map consisting of a bunch of static meshes....a LOT....i'm getting a high drawcount and I am happy where everything is.....can I just merge EVERYTHIGN into one giant actor? will that improve drawcall count?
grim ore
The event you want to call is the Crouch or Uncrouch event on the Character @clever dawn
also you need to make sure you have Can Crouch enabled on the Character Movement Component
light thunder
How do static meshes that are combined into a single actor changed the way drawcalls are handled?
grim ore
No clue here to be honest. I would guess it would reduce the draw calls but you might not be able to cull as well
plush yew
Hi Iโm new here and new to Unreal Engine. Iโve done some very basic Unity stuff in a course that I attended, but all the C# I learned was just scripts the instructor had us copy down. I began writing some of my own code in Unity by reverse engineering the scripts I saw but I would definitely call my self a complete beginner to computer programming. I have a fascination with game design and computer programming and want to learn the skills for it while Iโm still in high school, but Iโm not sure how to start. What is the best way to learn C++ for Unreal?
trim trail
Is 60-80fps on fortnite pvp with 1080p and low/medium settings, expected on gtx1080?
rocky kayak
there are tons of resources online for learning coding languages online, i learned javascript using codeacademy for one. here's 3 good ones that i just searched up real quick on google: http://www.learncpp.com/ , https://www.udemy.com/free-learn-c-tutorial-beginners/ , http://www.programmr.com/practice/ , all free and are great sources
sacred crater
Why would a without warning or errors in packaging anim blueprint and it's childeren not be packaged even though it's stated [2017.11.16-17.33.09:139][647]UATHelper: Packaging (Windows (64-bit)): Cook: LogSavePackage: Display: Finished SavePackage ?
clever dawn
@grim ore Thankyou, figured it out, based on what you said, thanks again
It's so nice finding this room, I spend weeks last year trying to find help from an active community, and in the end, walked away from UE4 because I wasn't making progress
unborn quartz
Did the community stream not happen today?
There was meant to be a Unreal / Houdini thing on twitch four hours ago but I cant find it on Twitch or Youtube
plush yew
@rocky kayak thanks so much I will check these out
clever dawn
If I have a normal walk and a normal crouch, can I combine the 2 into a crouching walk?
fair violet
@unborn quartz was meant to start 10 mins ago- probably just running a bit late!
Started now actually
chrome ivy
@blissful reef Hello! I was wondering if it's possible to add modding support to our projects and release the dev kit on the Epic Games Launcher, in the modding tab. Of course, after the release of our game. Is this possible?
median bronze
so does anyone else have this problem and know how to fix it im on windows 10 creators update and im trying to launch visual studio 2017 and or 2015 to sign in to access the community edition to build unreal ., and it wont let me log in! i cant enter any text on the sign in page. so annoying! ๐ฆ
worn granite
lol nick seems to be the default unrelated epic staff to tag
median bronze
gotta be kidding me if i go tot the "recover account" page in the sign in screen it allows me to enter text just cant enter it for the bloody log in screen for both visual studio 20156 and 2017 withe either the old or new logion screen anyone elese have that issue?
i swear windows 10 is crap if it wasnt required for better support for uhd moniters and xbox one dev mode app deveopment i would go back to 7.
anyone?
ook thanks . again "rolls eyes" might have to resort to a not so...legit version just to bypass the bloody login issue on a version thats supposed to be FREE anyways! love the help here!
worn granite
Also you waited a really long time for responses, so that's why you got so many.
grim ore
I'm using VS 2015 and 2017 on multiple machines without any issue, I can literally be 0 help besides "It works for me" which is... not helpful
worn granite
IDK does it visually appear disabled? As in grey?
Could have just hung the window? VS likes to hang.
harsh tiger
https://gyazo.com/ba7941a9c6b3fd448e549e410381e356 can anyone tell me why this doesnt work? I made a bike model I followed this guide: https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Physics/Vehicles/VehicleUserGuide/1/index.html but the bike won't drive around
blissful reef
@chrome ivy yes, but im not the guy to talk to
@chrome ivy start by sending an email to the custom licensee email on the website
derp
too many mids
harsh tiger
anyone got any suggestions?
fierce tulip
@blissful reef they sure love to pester you dont they
blissful reef
Apparently my name is very pingable
fierce tulip
if you want we could remove your epic status
opal ocean
I'll take it if he doesnt want it anymore
fierce tulip
hehe
blissful reef
it's not like it comes with double prize money
ill keep my status, i generally ignore random pings that aren't UI related, to busy shippin games, aka forgetting i have discord running.
paper kernel
yea, making games > human interaction
paper kernel
๐ฉ this jump velocity math is gonna drive me insane
minor wigeon
i set mine up to be (if moving faster jump higher) (if falling for more than (x) increase to fall speed to (y)) (if fall speed = more than (z) then play (different fall damage))
actully the fall thing works better if you setup a Anim graph that increases it gradually... feels more linear and gives a better sense of physics working
paper kernel
oh no, I want to convert distance into required velocity
as in, impulse 0,0,150 would result a 150 unit high jump
silver crown
minor wigeon
what kind of variable type would be best for a Item ID?
(havnt touches UE4 in like a year and my brain is kind of fuzzy with blueprints)
frank escarp
im watchhing the houdini stream and the chat is hilarious
so many people like https://media.giphy.com/media/zIwIWQx12YNEI/giphy.gif
grim ore
@minor wigeon depends on your goals. making an external file to track them? Int would be fine. using that ID for something else? String might work well. Totally bored, make it an enum!
minor wigeon
im not a coder... and i my plan is to call the Item ID to pull stats from a Data table and show them in a inventory/equip screen
paper kernel
right, so jump multiplier graph looks something like this
grim ore
then if using a data table I would use an int id pulled from a spreadsheet of some sort. You can make sure the column is unique and prevent duplicated and keep them organized easily.
this is assuming your using some sort of fixed item system, 1 item = 1 set of stats and not really dynamic. dynamic is still doable but more work.
it works for WoW so why not ๐
frank escarp
WoW is a data base
in Wow data base, any object has a Primary ID
becouse databases have primary IDs
the reason of numbered primary ids is so you can binary search it very fast
or even instantly by using the ID into an array
data tables dont have a primary ID as a number, but a FName as a primary ID to find the row
personally it depends on your needs
you can just go 1-2-3-4-5-6 etc on your data table
minor wigeon
thats sort of the plan
frank escarp
or use the item name (but what if 2 items have the same name?)
minor wigeon
wooden sword = 1
frank escarp
in that case just do data table
and leave the row "name" to "1,2,3" whatevr
easy to deal with in excel too
minor wigeon
yup
frank escarp
just remember to keep the order
btw, there is also another thing i recomend
might be overkill, but you can sort/process the data table on load
go from a data table into an optimized storage
you essentially would iterate through all the rows in a data table, and process it. Like for example you could create a "brother" array that links Item Names to IDs
and then you can search of the ID of an item easily
or just check if the table is well formed
but that would only really be useful on really big data tables that you need really fast access to.
For an item array that you only need to look at from time to time, its not worth it
minor wigeon
if it comes to that... i will setup a item tier system and use a small table to navigate to Tiered tables
fierce tulip
minor wigeon
ahhh... first world problems @fierce tulip ๐
fierce tulip
ikr
minor wigeon
is there a way i can create a custom drop down menu in for data tables?
uneven fractal
Is there a quick way to anchor a static mesh to a skeletal mesh such that it moves with the skeletal meshes animations?
fierce tulip
look into sockets @uneven fractal
uneven fractal
aw I was hoping there was an easier way but no dice I guess
clever dawn
Can you blend a normal woal and a normal crouch into a crouching walk?
fierce tulip
sockets are really easy to set up though
uneven fractal
I know 0 about animations and skeletal meshes though
fierce tulip
rickclick on a bone > add socket. you can even preview a mesh on it
uneven fractal
oh that does sound easy
I thought I was going to have to do something like edit all 50 or so animations for this dino
fierce tulip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hW9D1omBKQ while an animtrail tutorial, the first few steps are adding a socket
minor wigeon
๐ฆ no help for me T- T
fierce tulip
i wish i could help but zero clue about it :p
minor wigeon
its ok
sort of have a plan to reduce data useage <.< a custom drop down will just stop me screwing up
grim ore
The closest you could get to a custom drop down menu without resorting to wackiness is probably an enum
uneven fractal
Alright so I've got my socket in my skeletal mesh now
How do I actually add a static mesh to the socket?
fierce tulip
im not too familiar with that outside of using it for cascade, but trough blueprints.
uneven fractal
huh
minor wigeon
-. - every time i select my custom Enum it just changes to a byte ๐ฆ
it doesnt like me
wait <.< working now
minor wigeon
ok have an idea of what im doing now <. <
gonna have a Pickup Data Table, Equipable table and Craftable Table <.<
pickup directs to either the Equipable/Craftable if the item has them set to True then asks for their E/C Item ID
that way i dont need stats on random items that dont need it <.<
half mango
hey guys
anyone know about smoothting groups importing from blender to UE? nothing works for me
tried bevel modifier and it really messes up some of the more complex objects even with angle limit
minor wigeon
in edit mode... select all the faces and turn on "smooth"
its awkward but thats all you need to really do
make sure you dont have Ngons (face with 5+ verts)
half mango
ok ill try
smooth when pressing T?
in edit mode and i see smooth vertex
thats it?
i can also turn on smooth shading in object mode but i dont think that does anything
edges is still sharp oit';s just an illusion
lunar palm
Question; if you want to be a level designer, should you post pictures/videos of enviornment art that you've modeled and textured on your own on your portfolio?
fierce tulip
nah, can also use premade stuff and show of you can work with assets made by others.
shows versatility
lunar palm
When you say "nah", does that mean you don't have to, or?
Just wanted to be sure haha
coral crane
Hey guys
half mango
this edge smoothing shit is extremely annoying
every single tool does not work in blender
all work in some way but with huge problems
is 3ds max better for this?>
radiant fable
light thunder
What should a person check for when they are comparing a hit/overlapped actor to an asset but it keeps returning false, despite confirming it was the correct asset
there is an overlap happening, so collision is working, but the == is never found to be true
gentle crypt
hi where can i download pivot painter? i only see tutorials on how to use it but not where to download it from.
blazing elk
@light thunder Equality comparisons are referential equality. I assume you want to verify that the type of the asset is the same as the hit actor? Like... Did mario really touch a mushroom, or might it have been... a GOOMBA?
In which case the typically safe clean way is oddly enough through a cast. Actor -> Cast To Mushroom
equality comparisons DO make sense between Classes, if you do... actor -> get class, and compare it to the class you have in mind, but this is a less safe approach
by referential equality, I mean... if you were to say == mushroom... you mean a specific mushroom. That one there. You know the one. I'm pointing at it. No other mushroom will satisfy!
blazing elk
@plush yew ๐
plush yew
also where is the correct place to ask c++ questions?
blazing elk
the cpp channel under programming.
plush yew
Ahh thx
tulip vault
would anyone be able to tell me why my scene starts lagging hard when i add a landscape to it?
I mean i know each landscape adds a bunch of triangles, but it happens even on the lowest resolution
lucid jetty
I am not sure if that's related or not, but I am getting massive frame drops on Unreal 4.18.1 .
Is anyone having that aswell? I checked GPU temp etc, I am all fine in 4.17 .
lucid jetty
I can't believe this.. It was Geforce Experience that was causing the frame drops.. seriously..
floral heart
I can believe it.
pallid compass
this is why im too spooked to upgrade
paper kernel
Question: how can I simulate framerate drops?
frank escarp
@paper kernel have a function that calculates 1000 traces downwards
call it from time to time
paper kernel
no I dont need some random stress
I need to put it into timeline or something to see if my deltatime math holds up
well, I guess that has to do for now
also I needed like 25000 traces to make a difference
floral heart
Next time use sweeps. You won't need 25000. ๐
paper kernel
well, the good news is it's not exploding totally
unless the fps is like 2
interesting
smoothed 60 and fixed 60 gives totally different results ๐ค
paper kernel
I guess the math checks out ๐คท
cursive dirge
t.MaxFps is what I used for low framerate testing
paper kernel
didn't work for some reason, had to go to project settings
weary basalt
You can if you want. Its not mandatory.
quasi lake
So I can write a socket name in that "Attach Point name "slot?
weary basalt
Yes
weary basalt
Change location to snap to target?
quasi lake
trying
nope
I guess it's because of the hit component
emmm
thanks for answering anyway
frank escarp
blender when
would it be able to use this stuff to improve blender to ue4 pipeline?
pallid compass
@frank escarp u ever heard of fire sprite studios?
frank escarp
no
cursive swift
Hum hi there i have a tiny tiny question and i wonder if someone could answer hit here :D
Just a question reguarding vistas....
I know it will osund stupid but... there's no need for colisions on those right ?
Like background vistas
surreal viper
most likely not but it depends on the game
cursive swift
Cool yeah i guessed so... specially when the guys who created those use complex colisions instead of none >.<
fierce tulip
<_< when suddenly basic math in ue4 doesnt work anymore inside varable inputs
cursive swift
Because reasons
fierce tulip
at least a reboot solved it
paper kernel
I think I saw one weird bug yesterday
float value from some default math function couldn't be connected to print string
quasi lake
Help,I got a problem about camera
Every time I get close to another character,my camera just gets extremely close
Can I check how camera goes while editor playing?
Like in unity there's a scene view
I can see how all stuff are running
Simulation mode seems not really playing the camera
whole quarry
If you play the game in viewport (not in its own window), you can pause it and eject to fly around
quasi lake
oh I'll try
whole quarry
There is none difference I think
When you play it in the viewport, you in the place of that play button a pause button
When you press that, you can Eject and fly around and see what things are doing at that moment
pallid compass
@grim sinew do u still live fam
fierce tulip
pallid compass
omg luos
quasi lake
@whole quarry
whole quarry
First you press Play to play in the viewport, then you press Pause (its the same place as where the Play button was previously), then you press on Eject. They're all in the toolbar ๐
whole quarry
It looks like the eject button
whole quarry
You're welcome
plush yew
Where do I ask a question about drawcalls according to Splines? #graphics ?
Or to be precise: How can I effectively reduce the draw calls which are created for my spline? So far I used "Merge Actors", which results in the following:
normal spline = 462 Drawcalls
merged spline with every single material =228 Drawcalls
merged spline with merged materials = 2 Drawcalls
Unfortunately the merged spline with every single material has 222 material slots with 221 unfilled, because the engine somehow doesn't recognise the materials. So I would have to refill them manually....
And the merged spline with the merged materials has minimum drawcalls but everything now has only one color, because and not, how it should be, only two colors (one for the electric wire and one for the tiny christmas lights)... Does someone know how I can fix this? Should I merged the spline with 222 materials, refill them and afterwards try to merge the same actor again including merging the materials as well? This appears to be kind of tedious
turbid tulip
Loop through and set the materials on each one in the blueprint?
opal ocean
is the UE4 Live Training Blueprint generating procedural rooms video worth watching?
pallid compass
Havent swen it but imo all live training iv watched is worth it
opal ocean
I forget which one, but I watched one recently and it was a bit out of date, and didnt end up working anyways
ohhh, it was the tank one. He skipped over so much stuff, important stuff
lunar palm
@quasi lake Haha is that Emil from TOS2?
Never thought I'd see him in UE4 as a template
rocky kayak
Tried out the TopDown example and found a bug: the character keeps moving to the spot you clicked if you jump. If you jump past where you clicked, the character will do a 180 and run back to the spot after landing. Any fixes besides disabling movement after landing and quickly re-enabling it? Stop Movement will completely negate the jumping velocity so that can't be used. Wish there was a simple "cancel move-to" function.
grim ore
yeah that is one of the drawbacks of the simple move to, its a fire and forget.
you can code your own move to function to get around this
I think your idea is usable tho, nothing wrong with when they land disabling movement for a frame then re enabling it.
pallid compass
dam son, no block friday sales on market place D:<
tall pendant
Well, its not the 24th right?
serene otter
erm, weird noobie question: I'm adding torque to my static mesh to rotate it. However, it has a child spring arm/camera, and for some reason, it's rotating around a pivot somewhere between the mesh pivot and the spring arm pivot. This has to be a solved problem, but I'm not sure where to look to fix it
the static mesh pivots are all in the right place, and I need the spring arm to be the mesh's child so it follows it. The behavior fixes itself if the mesh isn't the arm's parent, but I kinda need that
also, I'm now aware that a black friday sale in the marketplace is a thing. I can feel my wallet quaking in fear
opal ocean
block friday sounds more like a minecraft thing.
median bronze
"sighs so close yet..." I really wish someone would make a binary downoad of the currently UWP branch trying to figure out how to compile the bloody thing is so frustarating considering i just complied the WRONG version twice lol and now............. i get this error:
with the correct version
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\MSBuild\15.0\bin
Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(1988,5): warning MSB3245: Could not res
olve this reference. Could not locate the assembly "Windows". Check to make sur
e the assembly exists on disk. If this reference is required by your code, you
may get compilation errors. [C:\unreal uwp\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBuildTo
ol\UnrealBuildTool.csproj]
Platform\UWP\WinMDRegistrationInfo.cs(4,26): error CS0234: The type or namespac
e name 'Metadata' does not exist in the namespace 'Windows.Foundation' (are you
missing an assembly reference?) [C:\unreal uwp\Engine\Source\Programs\UnrealBu
ildTool\UnrealBuildTool.csproj]
GenerateProjectFiles ERROR: UnrealBuildTool failed to compile."
anyone?...
grim ore
do you have the required sdk's and such installed in your VS?
median bronze
as far as i know. got the C++ stuffs the uwp stuffs the latest windows sdks. it did seem one of those errors may point to net framework so i just installed that part on it just now ...and ill try to rerun that to check...
other then that i posted it on the uwp looong thread in the forums and the reddit so thats all i got so far. if not i might just give up and use unity as they have support for uwup without needing to bloody compile a special version of the editor LOL we'll see. so close yet so far,..........
yup same error . sighs. why the hell doesnt they have a prebuilt option that gets updated once in a while so we dont have to deal with all the complining crap for people who dont understand it LOL. sighs.....gotta love technology making things more complicated then they need to be.
ah well unreal has pretty graphics and all but unity sure as hell has a lot more asset support lol so maybe ill just have to switch to that even though i bought a ton of unreal assets lately oh well...........sighs
grim ore
Microsoft is the one that handles the UWP is why, it would be up to them to offer the pre built
gray basalt
What s the standard way to persist players data, writing to a database every x seconds ?
grim ore
depends on what you mean by persist? if local you can write out to a savegame state. If multiplayer, database remotely probably
grim ore
probably something like that yes. your clients connecting to the server. the server keeping all the data and keeping it up to date on your server as needed
I did something similar to test with using Node.js and a MongoDB
gray basalt
is there an integrated api in UE for that ?
glossy flame
It's somewhat tangential to the question, but I would warn against connecting directly to a database over networks like that
gray basalt
why ?
glossy flame
You're exposing the database to the network, and you have little control if a breach were to occur or something of that sort
If you write a simple API that does the interaction for you, it's a lot safer
gray basalt
game server and db server are on the same machine
grim ore
theres nothing built in directly that I know of. I was using the Socket.io plugin to connect my client to the server itself.
glossy flame
Okay, well in that case that's fine
wild kestrel
woot? discord becoming online game service ๐ฎ
this could become great alternative for steam
opal ocean
wut
opal ocean
huh
wild kestrel
It has enough features to make OnlineSubsystem for this in UE4
pallid compass
dam discord in game would be sick
@grim sinew my hoe iv got something funny to show u laterr
wild kestrel
Hmmm but it seem it doesn ot have seassion tracking, but maybe this will provide that https://discordapp.com/developers/docs/topics/gamebridge
obsidian nimbus
I still say epic has to take on steam ๐
wild kestrel
That does not matter there can be more then 1 onlinesubsystem for devloper to decide to use
in fact oyu can run 2 in same time
if im not mistaken
tall pendant
lol thats not going to happen. epic is not ready to tackle stuff like steam.
wild kestrel
Then somebody else will do it
obsidian nimbus
they have a lot in place allready ๐
tall pendant
maybe. if someone else wants to put in a bunch of money
well. fortnite already breaks their system ๐
plus steam is a whole different level
as a whole system
wild kestrel
All it needs is onlinesubsystem implementation
it a lot easier then maintaining platfrom support
obsidian nimbus
think of all the money thats goin too steam that could be goin too epic ๐
tall pendant
to tencent ๐
obsidian nimbus
yea
becuz a lot of big titles use UE they are one of the few that can do it ๐
frank escarp
just saying but an "unreal online subsystem" would be fucking awesome
i would pay for that
a online subsystem that is completely cross plataform?
oh fuck yes
wild kestrel
i bet they will open it up one day :>
frank escarp
if its compatible with steam/psn/others to offer possible crossplay, it would be awesome
wild kestrel
maybe with indie game selling platform?
obsidian nimbus
hell they should make their own console too ๐
platform monies yo, thats where the dollah are
tender glacier
Hello Iโm new to this discord and ue4
Does anyone know any good tutorials for beginners?
fierce tulip
learning tab in launcher, google, youtube. (i.e. unrealengine channel)
tender glacier
Thanks mate, is it good to learn c++ separately or with ue4
fierce tulip
both I think, though I am far from a coder.
Tom Looman has a c++ tutorial but thats about all i know
weary basalt
UE4 C++ is heavly reliant on Macros and API. If you have no programming experience, it would be more benificial for you to start with regular C++ to understand the basic fundamentals and then transition to UE4 C++
tender glacier
Thank you for the useful info ๐
weary basalt
Your welcome, good luck!
pallid compass
no not at all
gray basalt
i'm using this : https://wiki.unrealengine.com/UE4.10_How_To_Make_HTTP_GET_Request_in_C%2B%2B
But how should use it from other class ? All class services should inherit from actor ?
gentle ivy
I think this implys you should add it to another actor you plan to make calls from
it does say "You can create it in a separate C++ component and use it wherever you want but I will leave that for you." which again is silly
gray basalt
as member ?
gentle ivy
personally I would just use VARest
gray basalt
what is VARest ?
gentle ivy
its this stuff but in BP
gray basalt
ah, i'm using c++ only
gentle ivy
well then AHttpActor::MyHttpCall is all the code you really need
AHttpActor::OnResponseReceived is also useful
but thats all you literally need is just to create the request and send it off
gray basalt
but if i want to make a request in my playercontroller, i should add a component to my PC ?
gentle ivy
you could or you could just do it directly in the PC
whichever you feel is better design wise for your case
gray basalt
well i begin with UE so i have no idea if my design is good or not ๐
too many weird things
gentle ivy
its probably horrible but the only way to get better is to keep designing them
don't worry mine are horrible too but maybe just a little less
gentle ivy
yes I would not design it that way
gray basalt
all examples i found was doing this so i thought it was normal
gentle ivy
I would maybe spawn it into the persistant world or consider a uobject instead
gray basalt
yep
gentle ivy
yeah a lot of UE4 examples are done by people who have a solution and don't consider other solutions necessarily.
which is fine, its good to share solutions specially if you think parts haven't been done
but for sure just placing an actor in the world that you will need to rely on... thats iffy
gray basalt
yep, but when you begin it s kinda hard to find good practices
gentle ivy
yeah I mean I could point at style guide and UE4 docs that say some of this but you won't cover half of it in a month
just too many docs with tons of fluff and at times misleading examples or just sort of examples to "get it working quickly"
but people here and specifically over in #cpp will be really good on directing the typical usage
gray basalt
yep, i guess my first project will be awful code lol
gentle ivy
I mean its fine specially if you learn and take a lot away from it
and trust me no code you release to the public will ever be not in an "awful" state in some way... just give it enough time ๐
gray basalt
y, atm i'm just trying to understand how stuff works to use them, first time i use those replication system
gentle ivy
yeah the replication system is a bit different than the http stuff but its really cool and fun stuff
making your own movement component typically goes really far to teach people replication.
gray basalt
all engine are designed like UE ?
gentle ivy
not entirely
gray basalt
was weird to me to have client and server in same classes too
gentle ivy
but they share some common ground
ah yeah
its a bit odd but you get use to it
makes it easier to see the back and forth process
gray basalt
yep i m trying to stop compare to what i know and it looks pretty cool indeed
gentle ivy
heh what do you already know?
gray basalt
without tons of macros lol
gentle ivy
I started with normal C++ stuff so I know a bit of what you mean.
messed around with C++ and SFML for a bit
gray basalt
i started with a c++14 engine, was easy to use
gentle ivy
nice which one?
gray basalt
it s an amateur project called Nazara
gentle ivy
lots more french
gray basalt
well i found it on a french forum ๐
gray basalt
i'm on a discord with him, he is making a game with his engine atm
gentle ivy
nice thats the best way to flesh it out
and you can watch as UE4 gets better when epic pushes changes from rolling out a game or in 4.19s case a game mode within fortnight
worn granite
@gray basalt likely not purely BP
gray basalt
ok
worn granite
Best practice is the "hard stuff" in C++ and then BP for the things that you can just snap together with some wiring.
gentle ivy
BP is good for a lot of things and is seemlessly intregrated with C++
worn granite
or so they say
gray basalt
i'm just using BP for graphic stuffs
gentle ivy
like materials?
gray basalt
yes or for example a button, i make it with the editor then i bind the widget to c++
gentle ivy
nice yeah thats a good way to do it
but say for like an actor parenting from a C++ class to a BP class is typically how I place actors in the world
gray basalt
you place them from the editor ?
gentle ivy
yeah
or even a really common one I do is items
one C++ class and bunch of BPs from that
which I guess isn't a placed actor, it's spawned
gray basalt
ok
gentle ivy
well really depends on how your game works actually but either way
like weapon logic usually isn't different
if it is it's usually sorted via checkboxes and maybe a tad bit of BP
gray basalt
what is the equivalent of Anhttp http; with UE ?
gray basalt
i mean, class_name object_name;
gray basalt
yes, i m trying to make http request from other class
gray basalt
i know
but i would like to have something like http::request(str, &callback);
is the module static ?
wild kestrel
did you looked on my anwserhub anwser?
also there a test in UE4 source code which is good example of using HTTP module
gray basalt
so i can write my own class using the module i guess
wild kestrel
you cna use it anywhere :p
just remeber to add HTTP depency
in build script
FHttpModule::Get() can be called from anywhere
oblique sorrel
Okay, I'm trying to replace the Makehuman rig properly this time, no bone scaling shenanigans. One problem, though: UE4 skeleton hands are longer than Makehuman hands.
Should I scale up the mesh hands, or shring the skeleton bones?
I'm amazed at the bot here, though. How it managed to see a nude body amongst this mess of bones and stuff
rain mortar
does anyone know if you can print out material nodes to a printer or just the text if you copy and paste
oblique sorrel
You can ctrl-A ctrl-C and ctrl-V them anywhere as plain text
rain mortar
damn was hoping to print ount the nodes to see what i am scewing up ty for the reply
oblique sorrel
I mean, you can make a screenshot..?
south ridge
Boobies
oblique sorrel
Or try this https://blueprintue.com/
south ridge
@oblique sorrel I would suggest shrinking bones and then doing re-targeting etc
oblique sorrel
Yeah, that's what I did
Now I can't get the mesh to stay in the pose, though
Even though the armature modifier is applied
frosty copper
That website shouldn't use RMB for navigation. x_x
warm bluff
Ey all! I got a problem, every time I preview my project with server and client (2 clients on Dedicated Server) My game runs in slow motion for some reason o.O this doesn't happen if I run directly on the server (singleplayer) this happened earlier today, i really didn't write much code today I checked it all that I made today and seems to not be at fault, anybody got any ideas? Or is this an engine bug? Thanks lots!
https://gyazo.com/e89066ea128b8b1457932114aad698c3
weary basalt
Is your computer an potato?
golden bramble
Hey guys, super new at this so sorry for the dumb question.
I'm currently doing the landscape quickstartguide.
In section 4 it asks me to double click a material to change some properties. My window is lacking most of the sections theirs is though.
Not sure if this is a version issue or if there's some options I can't find that I need to turn on.
golden bramble
I think I've solved the issue.
paper kernel
@warm bluff if your framerate is capped at higher than your system can output, it results a slowmotion
use smoothed framerate option in project settings
warm bluff
Now time totally stopped in my game o.o i press play i posses the character but nothing moves at all TICK IS NOT RUNNING XD
carmine crypt
Where do I get help
Who's experinced in blue prints? i have a problem dm me so i can screen share you..
well
i guess not..
weary basalt
Just ask your question and someone who maybe able to help will answer.
carmine crypt
Oke ๐
weary basalt
If it is about Blueprints then it would be more appropriate in the #blueprint channel.
unreal shore
weary basalt
Welcome @unreal shore
silent frost
Morning all. Has anyone worked through the UE video tutorial of the advanced timed racer? I'm about half way through but my car's physics appear to be wrong. Car bottoms out, flips like crazy and doesn't make the looped section (it slows down and drops). Need help.
carmine crypt
How Do I make an actor a child.. for another actor
I Want GUN_AK To become a Child for itemdata how?
misty wyvern
@carmine crypt as far as I know you can drag and drop it into your blueprint
quasi lake
How to call the tick event of the base blueprint?
Addcalltoparentfunction found it
nvm
oblique sorrel
Yeah, it's a nightmare with enabled browser gestures
quasi lake
Damn
I found a bug of ue4
After I delete an aseet,that asset still has reference in the editor
oblique sorrel
RMB on a folder in the content browser -> fix redirectors
Unless that's not what you mean
upper heart
Right mouse button
quasi lake
@upper heart thanks
Can I modify the ground fraction value of character movement?
Found some parameter in movementcomponent
fair violet
Best feature of 4.18- being able to remove that annoying extra comment bubble
Looks so much cleaner when looking at a blueprint at a glance
stuck chasm
Can someone please tell me why there is a big patch light green there?
open isle
haha! Maybe the same question. I was just wandering why I have that too!
It disappears with unlit mode
open isle
if you build your lighting is it still there?
open isle
lit mode
open isle
nice! np
stuck chasm
Does anybody know how I could get the last actor/character?
open isle
What do you mean?
quasi lake
How to change a const notify blueprint into a non-const one?
Why are all the notify BPs I created const ones?
stuck chasm
@open isle I am trying to do a PUBG type styled game
open isle
and?
stuck chasm
I need to know how to get the last man standing
open isle
no idea, that's a very specific question
obsidian nimbus
if all other actors are deleted just get 0 from the array ๐
storm snow
lunar palm
Haha when the programming works
pallid compass
Anyone here had issues with depth offset for mesh decals? i see rather afew people claim issues, but im using them rapidly and cant reproduce the issue on 4.16.3
plush yew
Anyone used Plastic SCM?
nice to meet u
nice to meet you too
@plush yew I'm a jack of all trades, good at a ton of shit, not great at any
How are you today
issues with plastic scm
oh nice!
no not nice xD
I created a workspace from right clicking on our project in repo, default repo is the cloud, after i choose the path and name i created it. I made a sync view, and i pulled from that Source was local and destination was cloud (I couldnt do the other way around since i got the error connection cannot be made). I clicked pulled (10gb pulled) and it got too 100% done, i check branches and nothing is there. Nothing that i pulled is anywhere on my pc, 10gb just vanish.
@plush yew Yeah sorry i havent used that
what is that anyways
its like github. Able to pull from other peoples branches that you are working on a game with
yeah
i see
carmine crypt
What crosshair color do you guys think is good ?
๐
i'll make it customizable in future
but what do you guys think
opal ocean
something that either contrasts, or blends in with the dominant color of the background ๐
or if your enemies are all red, make it red >:)
carmine crypt
Allright ! ;D Thanks!
opal ocean
blending in of course being for if you want to infuriate your players ๐
safe rose
@storm snow That's cool...but all you did was package a blank project? https://i.gyazo.com/81791a7ed542f25dedd870bcdd08fd4c.png
Or template perhaps. Not sure, never packaged a template as soon as I created one.
Or a blank project.
plush yew
hey im a level designer would i consider calling myself a game developer?
plush yew
well im working with a studio
safe rose
ok?
plush yew
HEADLESS Studios
safe rose
so?
plush yew
and were creating a game
plush yew
Am i developing a game?
safe rose
That is correct. Not the hardest question ever I assure you.
safe rose
I doubt everyone here is salty, least of all me.
plush yew
ok
pallid compass
Victor is 100% the most salty here ๐
safe rose
But, really...it's not a hard question to answer.
pallid compass
then you could say
safe rose
Salty is not even the right word.
opal ocean
bitter?
pallid compass
"I dev levels for a game in dev, ez"
safe rose
Bitter? No...wtf lol
opal ocean
๐
safe rose
No...
pallid compass
nah hes not bitter lmao
safe rose
Anyone who is touching ANY part in the game...is a developer....
ANd it's a game...so he's a game developer...
Not fucking hard science here folks.
plush yew
ok thanks for answering the question
opal ocean
beyond my skills
pallid compass
lmfao
plush yew
ยฏ_(ใ)_/ยฏ
safe rose
Well, I didn't mean it in the way you're probably reading it anyway.
What I mean is...it's just a title. Who the "f" cares
safe rose
Ah, well, you should definitely "title" yourself appropriately
If you are strictly looking for jobs in Level Design
Then use Level Designer
plush yew
yeah
safe rose
Even though everyone that is part of the process can be considered a game developer, you wouldn't necessarily title yourself that while looking for a job. As, you want to be very specific about your skillset.
frank escarp
@plush yew build yor lights
plush yew
still learning
frank escarp
in every screenshot
also everything seems to be on dynamic light as the light is terrible
plush yew
ok
safe rose
that is such a huge no-no
If you are still learning...
Don't put your "learning" stuff in your portfolio
plush yew
alright
safe rose
@plush yew Also..
plush yew
yeah
safe rose
what are you trying to achieve with your pics?
All you did was use someone else's art assets
plush yew
yeah?
safe rose
But you are not showing your actual "level design"
where are the docs?
the reasoning
the etc etc etc
pallid compass
good spot there lmao
safe rose
I mean, no one is going to hire you as an LD just because you can place some modular blocks together and take a screenshot
You need to do some research on how other LD's do their portfolios
paper kernel
I wonder are they showing those old unreal tournament panel talks in schools about level design
plush yew
ok
safe rose
At the very least you'll need an LD Design Doc
frank escarp
for LD, the best you can try to do is to do mods
like UT maps
or CS maps
or skyrim modded dungeons
and put those public, get feedback
paper kernel
custom CS or TF2 maps
frank escarp
or UT, wich is inside ue4
plush yew
i will im going to get going thats for the help!
frank escarp
thats great
fierce tulip
having that name is a good opener for any job interview
plush yew
Question
pallid compass
hey vlbanco
i got a question for u fam
Whats the cost of using an extra UV channel and a alpha channel on top of a RBG-A tga that is used as mask
plush yew
As a level designer do I need to know how to make 3D models etc like assets for a level?
pallid compass
Was thinking of splitting Uv's in half and having double the resolution for scratch and grime masks.
fierce tulip
extra uv-channel is a few kb
pallid compass
Lets go off the basis that at most we would have say 100 Ships on screen
Using this methord and adding another uv channel + alpha channel
Are we talking any noticable impact?
fierce tulip
will the alpha channel be added to an existing texture?
pallid compass
it be used as a mask, Current have a texture file that is RBG-A
R - Grime mask
B - Scratch mask
G - empty
A - Empty
Thinking of having two grime masks, two scratch masks in that RBG-A to double texture resolution on the scratch and grime so its sharper
fierce tulip
@plush yew its def. helpful, that way you can easily fix something or make a quick mesh-mockup for the modelers. not knowing it is imho a limitation.
why not put it in G then
ah
pallid compass
Yeah
Im not sure of peformance costs for this
It seams like it would be rather next for the increase,
fierce tulip
the alpha channel will take up same memory as rgb combined, but if its in the same texture its also in the same lookup
pallid compass
ah
fierce tulip
i personally wouldnt be worried about it
pallid compass
Gotcha
I might have space in another G channel actually
Right now on average i have this
fierce tulip
different story if the meshes have multiple materials
tall pendant
@plush yew nope. Usually the LD isn't involved in 3d art creation anymore.
Its a more technical job tbh.
pallid compass
ID MAP 1
R ID 1
B ID 2
G ID 3
A Empty
ID MAP 2
R ID 1
B ID 2
G ID 3
A Empty
Scratch and grime
R - Grime mask
B - Scratch mask
G - empty
A - Empty
There are 3 Materials on each ship.
fierce tulip
so with a total of 100 ships thats 300 drawcalls
pallid compass
wait, i also have a 4th i forgot to say Dbuffer Atlas decals(mesh decals)
frank escarp
@pallid compass its kind of hard to overload a normal material
usually you will be bottlenecked by lighting or drawcalls
pallid compass
These materials do run on MF with tiling textures etc
frank escarp
remember Paragon characters have something like 10+ textures
on semi procedural layered materials and other shit
fierce tulip
and multiple materials
pallid compass
True, but they only run on around 12 char's a map right?
plush yew
@tall pendant technical ?
frank escarp
thats absolutely no issue whatsoever
pallid compass
10layer blend, Material functions ID masks and scratch and grime.
very similar to paragon pipeline
frank escarp
dont bother with the optimization, as you can LOD it if needed.
what color is it on "shader complexity"?
pallid compass
Gotcha, just didnt want to do anything stupid
tall pendant
@plush yew Yup. Its more about creating a good game pacing and scripting all the events etc. you need to achieve this.
pallid compass
Sitting in dark Green
frank escarp
then its perfect
how much of the screen does this cover?
again, the biggest cost will be lighting
if you have too many ships, you should look into instancing
have all the ships of the same type be 1 instanced mesh component
pallid compass
Using 1 more Colour channel and 1 more alpha channel and second UV space would allow me to double my scratch and grim resolution, which is not alot, but doing it on 100 ships, with 300 materials might be alot?
frank escarp
that way the GPU will render every single ship at once
pallid compass
Good point.
tall pendant
i suggest getting http://kristianduske.com/trenchbroom/ and start on some level for Quake 1. it greatly helps to get the basics of good level design with limited resources and/or possibilities IMHO. @plush yew
frank escarp
btw, normal instanced mesh, not hierarchical
hierarchical is much more expensive to move/add/remove
as it needs to build its hiearchical tree
normal instanced is pretty much FREE to edit
pallid compass
Can you instance skel mesh's of ships, if they have dif colours each from materials changing them?
pallid compass
crap the ships are skel mesh's as they are rigged and boned
frank escarp
then nope
pallid compass
Rip me
frank escarp
what about using the instanced method when the ships are far?
pallid compass
yeah i could do actually
Thats a good idea
swap skel mesh out
The animation is only for small things u couldnt see at distance
Wings moving, weapon hatches, engine's, air break's, etc
I mean maybe it might be better to bring the ships too two Material Slots, and do the extra uv slot and two channel's
than 3 material slots each
might end up with more resolution + 1 less draw call maybe
fierce tulip
what kind of animations?
pallid compass
Panel's opening, Heat plates coming out, thruster control's, radar, multi wing area's moving, weapon plates coming out etc
Really hard surface tech'y animation stuff
mechanical would be the better word, nothing huge though
so stuff u would not notice at distance
I was at first gonna do it all in bp's, but then realised all the draw calls was just a no, too many small moving parts
pearl night
Lol can you guys help me? For some reason my emitters are going nuts on this guys feet and not stopping. But all I want to do is hook it up to his feet so when his leg pushes off the ground it makes a dust cloud. But instead its just constantly going and over lapping...