Foliage Interaction/Harvesting

Interactive Foliage has been updated to version 1.3
The update has been sent to Epic, not yet processed

  • Now supports respawning of harvested foliage, this can be configured on/off and you also have a setting on how often foliage should respawn, this feature respawns the old instance with the same scale, rotation and location (transform).
  • Added settings to DT_Resources datatable to set which resources that should simulate physics
  • Added a setting in DT_Resources to apply impulse on depletion (useful to make trees tip over)
  • Added a function to find a resource actor in your level in case the resource actor reference in the struct array is invalid (useful if you want to save/load)
  • Disabled movement replication on BP_MasterResource to save on bandwidth when simulating physics, physics will be handled locally on the clients
  • Added a function to make sure an instance actor is valid, possibly eliminating dedicated server crash, needs more testing

This update is NOT compatible with any old version of the Interactive Foliage, it has a lot of changes and improvements in both blueprints & structs, a complete update is required!

Thank you for your input, however, the latest version of the foliage system (1.3) has support for this :slight_smile:

Nice job this update…too bad Epic staff is slow with processing/validating updates…hopefully the update is gonna be online before the weekend… can’t wait to update this great foliage system! :smiley: Thanks again for this update!

You’re in luck! The Foliage System has been updated today!
If you have any feedback, throw it at me :]

Oh yeah, thanks! I just saw it and directly downloaded the update…to bad I have to work first now…but tonight I’m gonna start with updating/replacing :slight_smile:

I wish everyone for this weekend happy eastern!

Last night I updated the Foliage System (integrated into MSGT following your previous tutorial) succesfully! :smiley: For anyone interested, i just migrated the updated version to my project (to a new folder, I made some changes so I didn’t overwrite the ‘old’ version so I could copy over some blueprints) and then followed the tutorial again (with a little bit reverse engineering) and changed all previous links to the ‘old’ Foliage System to the new Foliage System. The Foliage System works now great… again :slight_smile: Thanks again for your great work!

I’m glad it works! Thank you for reminding me that I have to update the integration tutorial!

I have a strange thing after building…have to say, when I build your example map everything works perfect, so its definitely something on my site! :slight_smile:

I have the new Foliage System integrated with MSGT, everything works perfect when running from the editor, but after building, the Update Instance Transform in the Remove Foliage Instance function returns false. For me that’s strange behaviour, because when running in the editor it works fine and the same function returns true. Al the other ‘things’, like converting the instance to blueprint seems to work, als when I cut the tree it false down, but the ‘first’ tree is still standing there…

Maybe someone can throw me a bone where to look at :slight_smile: (btw, I’m using UE 4.18.3)

All have a great weekend!

Do you happen to use Discord? If so, please join my discord server, it’ll make debugging this easier

I do have a Discord account…but haven’t used it that much… but I will join :wink:
Some extra info, I also did try to migrate the project to UE 4.19, but then it has the same problem…

If someone has the same problem as me (the foliage is not removing when package is build, but in editor it removes fine), see the link below. For my project I needed to enable “Use Dynamic Instance Buffer”. I solved this within my project…so far it seems to work fine after enabling this option.

Looking through the Engine Source I see that they force the Dynamic Instance Buffer if you are in editor, which is my guess to why it was working for you in editor but not in a packaged game. My guess is that Updating the transform of an instance requires a DIB compare to before when I was just removing the instances. I’ve never used the DIB setting in any game or project and never encountered this issue, so I’m a little confused as to why this is happening to you.

I was also expecting a PM from you on Discord, but I’m glad you sorted this out on your own :slight_smile:

Thank you for verifying this…nice to see it is somehow explainable because of the settings in the Engine Source… (sorry for only joining on Discord…but I guess we had to ‘speak’ to each other on Discord…and my english…at least when spoken…is a disaster (it’s very Dutch-English), so I thought let me dig a little deeper by myself and search the heck out of the UE forum and save you some time :)) Glad I found a solution!

But…as you wrote “never used the DIB setting in any game or project” makes me thinking…what could I have changed so that now I need this DIB setting…I always make backups and keep those for a while, so I went back to the first time importing the Interactive Foliage (the older one whithout respawning trees) and when I create a package from this it has the same problem (not removing the tree)… below are the steps took before:

0.0.0.5 [14-02-2018]

  • Imported Interactive Foliage
  • Imported Newtonian Falling and Momentum Damage System
    0.0.0.4 [14-02-2018]
  • Imported and configured (default) Ballistics FX
  • Imported and configured (default) EasyBallistics Plugin
    0.0.0.3 [13-02-2018]
  • Created landscape, demo level
  • Configured Fabrik Node for weapons and tools, left hand fix
  • Started with offset weapons
    0.0.0.2 [12-02-2018]
  • Completed first animations
    0.0.0.1 [12-02-2018]
  • Started with animation configuration
  • Imported MoCap Animations (unarmed, pistol and rifle)
  • Imported Animated Weapon Pack
  • Imported props for landscape auto material
  • Created new project from SGT

It could be that the integration I followed from the developer from MSGT for Ballistics FX or EasyBallistics changed something so that the DIB setting is needed (I realy didn’t do something special…but yes…I’m just a beginner, so I must have done at least something!)…I will try to dig a little deeper into it next weekend, because I now need to know why I need this DIB setting to be set! So thank you for that!! :smiley:

Anyway, thanks for your support!

Urgent bug: In a packadged game, When a foliage is used , there is concern that other foliage actors of this same type become invisible in the same landscape tile. This happens only in packadged games not PIE.

note
this is an under realistic load bug
ie 100,000 foliage over 10km map
so you may not see it in personal projects as they may not hit a load level needing engine under hood effeciency changes.

The vital takeaway is the used action on foliage removes; but the other foliage of the same type and mesh becomes at times invisible ; but is still
interactable and appears if you use the spot where it was

In 3 packed version tests foliage DOES remove but doing so seems to create loss of visibility in foilage in the same landscape tile.

Visibility changes in such a way it suggests lods are the issue. Ie some untouched foliage becomes invisible when getting close to.
some appears if you stabd 1000 units from it but not if you close to 600 units of less

Ive wasted 2 Working days on this trying to isolate.
i NEED this resolved asap as i have a pressing deadline.

im not a c coder and would rather this updated by the plugin and marketplace creator so it works as meant to, than make dynamic instance buffer changes myself as per poster above. I have 100,000 tress bushes and plants and do not want sudden game thead surges .
ie if pack creattor truly has packadged games that dont need a dynamic buffer i woukd orefer that solution or a solutuon that does not pollute game thread

Hi vista how bad does this hit performance?

now sure if this is the right place to put this was hoping to make a new topic but what i am looking for is any help on tree harvesting getting the wood let say 4 small chunks or more with the size of the tree but leaving the tree intact and have its wood respawn later in the day so i let say in the morning chop on the tree get my wood then cam back later in the day and get the wood but still leaving tree intacted hope this comes thought what i am trying to say and thanks for any and all help