Build wall with megascan and cube shape, but need more polygons for tesselation to show correctly

Development World Creation
1

Hello there!

I wonder if it is possible to add more triangles/polygon count to a default cube or box brush in Unreal? I am trying to build a brick wall system for a castle using megascans, but when I tessellate the megascan material upon the default cube, it looks odd, since the default Unreal cube (and box brush) has very few polygons.

If there was a way to use the default shapes with increased polygons that would be awesome since I can easily change the width, height, depth, etc etc, and in that way I don’t need to import custom meshes from 3rd party sources.

Is this possible perhaps, or do I need to use for example Blender for this task?

I appreciate you help,

Cheers!

2

Just increase the max tessellation factor in the shader files:
C:…\Epic Games\UE_4.xx\Engine\Shaders\Private\FlatTessellation.usf => Replace 15 with 64
C:…\Epic Games\UE_4.xx\Engine\Shaders\Private\PNTriangles.usf => Replace 15 with 64

3

Hi Mars007!

Thank you very much for your help!

Just one question regarding replacing the numbers, so that I don’t do this the wrong way.

When navigating to the shader files that you mention, in notepad, I cant seem to search for 15, but had to find it by inspecting the code.
I did find 3 parameters, which are:

PNTriangles.usf
CompositeTessellationFactors = clamp( CompositeTessellationFactors, 1, 15 );
[maxtessfactor(15)]

FlatTessellation.usf
CompositeTessellationFactors = clamp( CompositeTessellationFactors, 1, 15 );

I guess the “1, 15” codes are the ones to update to 64, but should I update the [maxtessfactor(15)] to 64 as well? Just want to make sure so that I don’t break the engine or something.

I appreciate you help,

Cheers!

4

There should be 2 parameters in each file and both should be replaced.
When the editor is restarted, the engine will recompile your shaders.

5

Doesn’t make sense. For a better and nicer tessellation you need higher polygons, increasing max factor for tessellation totally isn’t achieving this.
I am searching for answer that I can’t find on google about how to increase polygon count on something like plane and cube, so that I can get the equal quality of tessellation I see in the Quixel Bridge previews of texture surfaces.

6

Here is a styp by step guide:

  1. If you didn’t activate tessellation in your material, activate it!
  2. If tessellation factor of 15 (engine max) is not enough, modify the shader files!
    I use tessellation factor 64 with distance-based tessellation.
  3. If you still need more triangles, combine a plane with high tessellation with the high tessellation material.
8

That’s the whole point - how to get the plane with higher tessellation. And what do you mean by “combining”, explain it.

9

Regarding point 3
You have to create a mesh (in Blender or Maya) and subdivide it.
Import it into Unreal and apply the tessellation material, which tessellates the mesh even more.