Pages in Documentation
Books
Doors
1 Overview
2 UI Features
2 Railings
6 Manage Clients
3 Get Started
4 Info Map
5 BP Actors
8 Tutorials
7 FAQ
UI 1
UI 1 - Part 1
Ui 1 - Part 2
Part 1: Generic Meshes On Spline Documentation
A Blueprint that gives you many possibilities to place meshes along a spline.
Content:
This blueprint gives you many ways to place instances of meshes along a spline. Examples are shown in this picture:
- Railings
- Bushes in multiple rows placed with random scale, location and rotation
- A building facade
- The roof of a building made out of 2m x 2m modules
- A row of pillars
- Steps and paths made out of small pieces
Placement Logic
The hierarchy for this blueprint is as follows
- Sets - A set extends over the full length of the spline
- Sections - Sets can be split up in Sections
- Placements - Sections can have multiple Placements on top of each other.
- Mesh Sequences - or a single mesh are placed through the Placement logic over the length of the Section.
Sets and Sequences can have copies. A copy would be a direct replication of the Set or Sequence. For example multiple rows of chairs in a theater. All mesh copies are rendered in a single draw call to improve the performance of the scene.
Mesh Sequence
| > Meshes | ||
| > Mesh Sequence | 3 Array elements | A sequence (group) is either a single mesh or a sequence of different meshes that repeat within the placement. |
| > 0 | 2 Array elements | The first sequence (group) of meshes. Can be a single mesh. |
| > Mesh | 1 Array element | The meshes for this sequence |
| > 0 | 7 members | first mesh of this sequence |
| Description | Window 270 | a note for you about this mesh |
| Static Mesh | P_ WinAlu01 ... | Pick a mesh from the browser |
| Amount | 3 | how many meshes will be repeated within the sequence. Here there are 3 windows between each metal pole. |
| > Materials | 1 Array element | Optional list of replacement materials per material id |
| Orientation | 90.0 degrees | Use the drop down menu to align the mesh correctly along the spline |
| Overlap | 0.0 | This will overlap the next mesh instance with the current one. |
| > Mesh Transform | Location Rotation Scale |
This can compensate any misalignements
with the spline Do not use the Z rotation. Use Orientation instead Scale the mesh here. It will effect the placement calculation |
| GroupGap | 15.0 | This makes room for another placement at the end of this mesh sequence. |
Section Sets
| > Sections | ||
| > Section Sets | 2 Array elements | A Set extends over the entire spline. Sections are subdivisions of Sets. |
| > 0 | 6 members | The first set for the spline. You can have multiple sets per spline. |
| SetName | lower windows | Just a note for you. |
| > Set Transform | Location Rotation Scale |
This will transform the Set and all its content relative to the spline. Only location and Scale transforms make senes here. |
| StartOffset | 0.0 | Use this to inset the sets content at the start of the spline |
| EndOffset | 0.0 | a note for you about this mesh |
| > Sections | 1 Array element | Add sections here. See next chapter. |
| > SetCopies | 1 Array element | Copies of the entire set. You can have multiple arrays of copies here |
| > 0 | 2 members | The first set of copies |
| Copies X | 0 | How many copies you want. Location offset will be incremental for each copy. |
| > Location Offset | X Y Z | Incremental offset for the set copies. |
Sections
| > Sections | 1 Array elements | A Set extends over the entire spline. Sections are subdivisions of Sets. |
| > 0 | 7 members | The first section of the set. |
| SectionName | Just a note for you. | |
| Section Distance Type | Fill Remaining | The section will grab a part of the remaining unfixed space based on the SectionDistance |
| Fixed Distance | A fixed distance given as Section Distance. | |
| From Placements | The section size will be set to the largest placement's size of this section. | |
| Fixed Gap | A fixed empty gap. Remove all placements from this secion to make this work. | |
| Section Distance | 100.0 | A fixed distance or the relative distance for section set to fill the space. |
| Section End Offset | 0.0 | Will offset the next section effectively making this section shorter. |
| > Section Transform | Location Rotation Scale |
This will transform the Section and all its content relative to the spline. Only location and scale transforms make sense here. |
| > Placements | 2 Array element | Add Placements here. See next chapter. |
| > Section Copies | 1 Array element | Copies of the entire set. You can have multiple arrays of copies here |
| > 0 | 2 members | The first set of Section copies |
| Copies X | 0 | How many copies you want. Location offset will be incremental for each copy. |
| > Location Offset | X Y Z | Incremental offset for the Section copies. |
Placement
| > Placements | 2 Array elements | Placements of meshes or sequences for the current Section. |
| > 0 | 10 members | The first Placement of the set. Placements are put 'on top' of each other. |
| Mesh Group ID | 0 | The ID of the Mesh or Mesh Sequence you have set up in the Meshes section. |
| Rotation Mode | Look at next instance | The mesh will line up with the next instance along the spline |
| Spline rotation | The mesh will be rotated like the spline rotation. Use for poles. | |
| Default | The rotation set in the Mesh Sequence transform | |
| Placement Mode | Fill and stretch | The Section will be filled with the closest number that fits and then all meshes will be stretched to fit exactly. |
| Fill but don't stretch | The Section will be filled with the closest number leaving a gap at the end | |
| Fill with amount stretched | The Section will be filled with a given amount and the meshes will be stretched to fit exactly. | |
| Fill with amount | Add a given amount equally spread over the Section. For poles, trees etc. | |
| Manual | Add a given amount of meshes and leave the rest empty. | |
| From Placement ID | Use the logic of another Placement ID | |
| Spline Mesh | Use a spline mesh that can bend along the spline. The mesh will need extra sub divisions to be bend. The Spline will need extra spline points for a smooth curve. | |
| From Placement ID | 0 | The ID of another Placement used for the current Placement's logic. |
| Amount Of Instances | 1 | Amount for manual placements (excluding the end point) |
| Place On Start Point | true | The first mesh will be placed |
| Place On End Point | false | A final mesh will be placed at the end of the section. Good for poles or trees, etc. |
| Use Random | false | If true every mesh (group) will be randomly transformed with below values. |
| > Random Transform | Location Rotation Scale |
This wil randomly transform every instance. For example a location offset X=20 will transform a random value between -10 and +10. |
| > Incremental Offset | X Y Z | Incremental offset for the Placement copies. |
Work-around for copying in 4.26.0
In version 4.26.0 of the editor duplicating or copy/pasting this blueprint will crash the editor. Here is a workaround until this is hopefully being fixed:
Place a new empty blueprint into the level. Then select the blueprint you want to copy and right click on the 'Mesh Sequence top line and choose copy from the context menu. Then select the new mesh and paste the content into the 'Mesh Sequence' there.
Do the same for the Section Sets.
Hopefully this will be fixed soon by Epic. It's always risky to jump onto a 4.xx.0 version of a new engine.
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