I made my first grass mesh with Blender. After some searching around this forum, i ended up using Decimate Modifier to see what kind of changes it makes. And then i realized i was making my grass way too high poly. But i was learning with tutorials that were not about making grass for Game Engines, but for 3D modeling. So now that i got a hang of it, i wanted to ask some advice:
1.) Currently my grass batch has Tri count of 49. I think mentioned it was possible to make grass batch with 6 tris, how in the world? :o Or was that for making grass with planes?
2.) I only have Vector Parameter for color and SimpleGrassWind for my material. Is there something i could maybe enhance the look or performance with?
I meant with plane meshes -> but why do you want to use real blades for your grass?
use the 4.7/4.8 foilage shading blend mode + add some colour variation -> take a look at the shaders from my free vegetation pack (in my signature) or wait till I’m back home (then I will send you a pic)
From your package i see you used only plane meshes. Did you first do the grass in Blender, then somehow make it a texture and then apply it to the mesh? I tried to look for a tutorial for this too, but didn’t find any. I’m all open for ideas, it’s still all alphabets to me!
And what i see from bushes and trees that you made, they are made with plane meshes too? I actually downloaded an older free_kit you provided and took a look at the .blend files there, but couldn’t figure out how you did it. I guess my problem is how to make the texture to use on the mesh…
for plane grass, take a look at this tutorial: ?v=q7IZStYmImY (not the best one, but it will give you can idea how it works)
I created it like that:
-made a pic of a “real” grass blade
-in photoshop I removed the background
-I made a grass plane texture -> so I just moved the blades so that it looks like a grass patch
-created an alpha channel
-in blender I added a plane + UV mapped it + adjusted the plane
-exported and imported it
-created the materials
The trees and bushes were made the same way -> but those are pretty bad ones, it’s better when you create a trunk + branches and after that add some “branch texture planes” (so some branches + leaves)
so you have already added a colour variation to your meshes + use a more natural colour
in photoshop select the grass brush (single blade)
Make the background black, make a new layer
paint (in white) the blades for your grass brush/grass bundle)
Select the grass layer and copy it into the alpha layer of your map.
Clear the RGB and make it green (color variation if you want/more detailed)
Save it as TGA
Make a plane in Maya or other 3D program and add the texture to it.
Make the mesh to your liking (a cross, or 3 planes etc, just keep the polycount in mind)
Export the mesh and import it into Unreal (and the texture)
Check if the scaling is correct, if so, paint away!
I was able to make my grass batch by following 's instructions and some googling. There really isn’t too noticeable difference with a Mesh Batch than with a Plane Batch on how it looks. Performance is of course a lot better with Plane. So back on the horse, gotta round up some trees…
Here is my current batch, waiting for better trees Thou i think i want to add more variation too. Foliage Paint Tool is just great!
Just some suggestions:
-use the speedtree colour variation node to get a good colour variation
-make them a little bit brighter
-desaturate them a little bit -> for me personally they look a little bit too saturated
-add a little bit more “size variation” in the foilage tool
That Speedtree variation node is great and simple to use! Made the overall colour a bit brighter and played around with the size variation. The original texture is too colourful, i need to remake it to get rid of saturation.
I was wondering if there is a setting for getting rid of things going on top of each others? Like you can see with the stones in this screenshot.
I’ve actually seen that before, but it was too far away from Blender at the time. I’ll have a better look at it once i’m making a second run with my grass!
To :
I’ve used Foliage Paint Tool for putting rocks and grass so far…
I got the Landscape Grass Type working. But does it have any possibility for height variation? And what are the common usage for these two different approaches?
You mean the Static Meshes option under Paint Settings? I unchecked that but still my grass and rocks appear on top of each other. OR is it actually better to say they are overlapping. No matter if i painted them separately or at the same time. I also tried the Collision With World option, but it didn’t help.
I have two types of rock and one type of grass and they all use Complex Collision as Simple.
Hmm, normally then they shouldnt appear on the rocks (you have repainted those grass meshes?) + how large are those patches?
Otherwise you will have to manually delete them
I first painted the rocks and then painted the grass. It seems to work if i place my rocks each separately but not if i use Foliage Tool in placing them. Grass Patch is 160x155x40 (with variation). Manual deletion it is then!
Is there a way to get good looking grass without Skylight?
If i turn it off, i get black spots to my grass, as in the picture below. I was making a Day/Night Cycle and i need to turn off Skylight to get darkness during night. Another option would be to make the Skylight fade in and out, but so far i haven’t been able to do it.
You always need a skylight to get rid of the very black shadows (or you use GI, but for that you also have to add a skylight) -> here is how you can create a day night cycle with skylight: https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?58487-Day-and-Night-Cycle (just download the project from and take a look at it)
Although, it was a bit too complicated for me… I did find the parts with Skylight, but the overall flow was something i couldn’t grasp yet. But i’ll have it now and will look into it again!
Now i’ve made my Grass Texture again, with Blender. I’ve also made some progress with my Birch Trees. I currently have only one model for Birch. It’s all painted with Foliage Tool.
I think i’ve managed to get a good balance with the colors. But there might be someway to improve still? Then i thin it’s time to add some flowers etc.
-> but why do you want to use real blades for your grass?
I did find the parts with Skylight, but the overall flow was something i couldn’t grasp yet. But i’ll have it now and will look into it again!