To do some tests in UE5.0.3 with Brushify and MAWI I placed some ProceduralFoliageVolume onto my landscape. After the tests and deleting the volumes I’m not anymore able to paint foliage in a square area (not of the size of the deleted volume) – this is reproducible. See picture below.
Even if I just move the volumes into a secluded area in the air I have that issue. And in addition I lose control of them. After restarting they are grayed out and I cannot move them back to ground. Or delete them.
The only workaround is to move all the level (landscape, meshes…) away from that area and about 20`000 units higher.
Does anybody know how to delete ProceduralFoliageVolumes clean and completely?
Thanks
Andi
Edit: At the first post I wrote that there is also a problem with steep slopes what couldn’t be overwritten by the foliage settings. That’s wrong. I made a mistake during the numerous attempts to solve the problem.
Hey there @andi-swiss! I’ve seen a number of issues where the experimental procedural foliage volumes mess with mesh instances within their bounds, but much of the time it hasn’t been reproducible! (aside from the crashes)
Your issue is way further than I’ve ever seen so I’m keen to see if we can get the core solved and a bug report sent, as these two systems while technically the same, should not interact that way. I’ve got a bunch of questions!
Are you currently using world partition? If so, unload and reload all actors to possible remove the selection restriction.
I’d hate to ask, but what were the original full steps for reproduction? I’m struggling to get the same effect with my current project.
You’re unable to paint foliage with the foliage tool in the same landscape “chunk” at all, but do other procedural foliage systems put anything there?
I’ll try to answer your questions (I’m not a professional at UE and do not speak English very well).
I am able to reproduce the issue as follow:
Fortunately I did a clone of the project at the last working point. At this point I have three ProceduralFoliageVolume in the level (two are overlapping, see attachment). And I am able to paint foliage where ever I want.
Than if I delete the volumes, save and restart, I have that rectangle where I’m unable to paint on.
In your example the volumes seems to be there (not deleted).
I started with world partition but disabled it. I’m unable to use it. Using the Focus Selection tool crashes any time, immediately. Could be that I set up it wrong…
According to that I’m unable to un- and reload the actors with it.
If I place a new volume to the landscape and fill it, I’m again able to paint foliage on the before blocked areas. (see attachment)
Awesome work and your English is great! I have deleted volumes, hand painted folliage, and non-deleted procedural volumes and blocking volumes to just see how they interact and in my case the procedural volumes (alive or dead) don’t influence each other or the painted foliage. The only interaction is the blocking volumes block the living simulates but that’s as intended so this is going to be a tough one!
What options does the context menu (right click on them in the outliner) produce when you try to interact with them? Since you weren’t using WP before, you also aren’t using data layers right?
This is an aside, but be wary of moving your scene too far from the origin, or you may run into floating point precision issues. These can be alleviated by working with Large World Coordinates (just going into your world details and turning on large world) or by rebasing your world origin to your new area.
I’ve seen that these volumes leave behind data when destroyed sometimes but finding and tearing it out are some of the hardest things to do. I worked with a guy who had infinite coconuts spawned by this system which were no longer selectable, not in any outliner, and weren’t under foliage instances. After ripping out the mesh it referenced it FINALLY allowed the ghost coconuts to disappear, and I know that’s not viable for your case.
The credit for my work belongs mostly to the engine and the place where I live (it’s a imitation of it, which I create to learn to use the engine and want to use later as background for a few seconds of a sequence).
During the search for a solution for sure I read about the coconut-guy. Compared to that I am satisfied with my problem again.
In the meantime I made more tests. Thanks to your firs answer I think I found the solution or even a workaround:
Even when I disabled “Is World Partitioned” in the Project Settings (World Settings: “Enable Streaming” is (still?) enabled), I had to load all cells in the “World Partition” window.
(Fortunately loading the cells was working; unloading them will crash the engine immediately)
After that I’m able to paint foliage everywhere again.
Other workaround are future more:
Place a new volume to the landscape and fill it with something small or invisible → Painting will be able again.
Move all the level away (upwards) from the blocking area. Notice the tip from above about rebasing world origin.
