Well, it doesn’t have to be just trees. For example you would want very little of trees in some grasslands, but a wide variety of grass and brush, with particular distribution that takes into account terrain (whether it’s landscape or mesh based terrain), rocks, bodies of water, etc.
This sounds very cool, but something like this would probably require a totally new product & separate system for biome generation - this one is designed only for tree creation 
Looks cool. Godspeed on this one!
Amazing system, looking forward to see this on the marketplace! 
it seems really useful! can you mix a photogrametry trunk base with another part created with the tool for middle and top part of trees?
The generator can use custom meshes, but of course they need to be modular to tile seamlessly. For example, the default modular meshes used in trunk/branch generation are a simple uncapped cylinders, some slightly deformed, some not, but they all fit to each other when distributed along spline.
Hi Slavq,
I’ve purchased all 3 of the previous products: Smart Spline Generator | Dynamic Grass System | Dynamic Tree & Plant Generator. This product makes me kick myself, uttering the words “Dammit Jim, I should have waited!”.
All of my game development involves multiplayer. Thus, I’m interested in how this system works for multiplayer maps, I assume the seeds and random streams are used for this purpose?
Does the system offer Symmetric Generation option for roots, branches & leaves? I desire to produce ‘designer’ trees within my fantasy environments. If not, can it be added?
That intersection blending is impressive. I assume using simple uncapped cylinders designed to fit to each other when distributed along spline makes this possible. Taking this design in to consideration I would like to add custom meshes. I’m very certain a video tutorial for using custom meshes with the system would be appreciated by many.
Yes, it uses random streams with seed values for every ‘section’ of a tree. So for example there are separate seeds for trunk, branches, roots, leaves, etc. to allow for better control over generation. This system is designed to create trees at design time, in editor, not in game (unlike my previous Dynamic Tree & Plant Generator), so this shouldn’t affect gameplay anyway.
At runtime it uses custom foliage components to detect interactive trees and execute all the dynamic features - no networking out of the box for now.
I don’t know what the Symmetric Generation option could do, but I assume that it would e.g. mirror branches from one side of trunk to the other side…?
I’ve made some step-by-step videos that are included with the documentation. Documentation will be available if this pack will be accepted & released, for now I’m still waiting for the review process, unfortunately.
Hi Slavq,
I do appreciate you taking time to answer my questions. In regards to Symmetric Generation option, yes it would be mirroring roots, branches & leaves from one side of trunk to the other side. It will make for some beautiful ‘designer’ trees.
I cannot believe how I’ve overlooked the fact the Dynamic Tree & Plant Generator supports in-game generation. This will be perfect for use in my Multi-user Level/Entity Construction System:
I’ll see if I can implement a mirroring/symmetry feature. I’m still waiting for the review process though.
Update:
It’s already available on the Marketplace: Interactive Tree Creator in Blueprints - UE Marketplace
Update for 4.19 is already being processed by Epic, it should appear soon. Along with 4.19 compatibility, there is a small update/clean-up:
- New demo map character controls, without the need to set up InputAxis manually.
- Cleaned up Details panel by hiding unnecessary default UE variable categories.
- Re-saved maps to remove warnings at startup.
This update has been implemented by now right? Figure I am a little let to the game so Unreal must have put this in by now hopefully. Reason I ask, I am coming across a minor bug with your amazing piece of software. Hopefully you can enlighten me as to what it could be but I better lay it out to you as best as I can to make it understandable lol.
Before I dive into my questions, I want to thank you for creating this. I am such a newb to game creation it probably is half my issue with this bug but your documentation on this product is so thorough that I don’t think my issue stems from the setup I followed per your write up.
What I have going on I tried twice now to rule out things before nagging you but at this stage I have to admit I have no clue what is up here. So far have followed only the section of creating my own tree and as far as the finalizing, I want to create destructable trees but I haven’t gone that far due to some weird LOD issue happening.
When I get to the import LOD Level 1 section at the end, right after collision I am finding after importing all the LODs and Billboard from the exported FBX files that I am getting a fourth material showing up in the material editor that is the basic world gray material. That material seems to be attaching to the collision, looks like a grayed out bubbly mess when you walk out your camera and I gather that is the collision on LOD1 and LOD2 maybe? It doesn’t do this when I am panned on LOD0 but LOD1 and 2 is both with this material taking over. When you pan out to LOD3, the billboard shows up fine so the culprit is something to do with 2 and 3’s FBX’s or something other I am unaware of.
I redid this after playing with the follow through last night to rule out mistakes in setup up but I got it down to every last word in the doc and used that Youtube link you shared in it to verify I was not missing something. I thought maybe it was due to me picking FBX 2018 and wasn’t sure if Unreal has that SDK yet, so I put it back to default FBX 2013 but the same issue still shows up.
I also thought maybe due to having the collision wire frame showing up that maybe when I imported the LODs it attached somehow, like i said I am a newb and not even sure if that is possible but I made sure I wasn’t clicked on that when importing LODs but that weird bubble still shows up. Here is a pic if anyone else seen this before and has an answer what I am doing wrong lol
So as you see, LOD0 (Far Left) is fine, LOD1 (Middle) is bugging out and LOD2 as well is with the same collision looking raw world material visible. I compared the collision wire mesh and it lines up with the artifact so I am lost what is creating that.
Here is the dock with the materials as well, I kindergarten circled the weird material showing up that didn’t appear in your YT video tutorial, so I suspect that is the issue. Not sure how to remove or if maybe I need to redo these again from scratch but any help is seriously appreciated.
Either way, right now this is just in hobby mode so no rush, still impressed and happy I purchased this. Probably operator error anyways, I mean it was only 7 days ago I was excited I could code in a world temperature for this concept I am toying with here lol. But mark my words, I will have this on Steam one day lol. Just kidding, I am just trying to learn something new, got bored of cryptocurrency so returning to my gamer dreams lol.
By the way, my setup is Asus Maximus IX Formula with i7 7700k cpu, 2 GTX 1080 TI in SLI with custom water loop. Hardware is fine, no issues there
Little update, I never could figure out what is being put in there with that LOD issue, but I did find out if you put a transparent text material in that extra added material slot you can completely hide the anomaly. For now, just so I can keep chugging along and learn this software I will keep that inputted. I have tried a couple trees to verify maybe this is just the model I choose and I also tried just copying a tree with the duplicate feature and not mess with any settings but every time it ends up with this same issue. I will try to check back in if any users seen this before but I am good in way of figuring out a work around for hiding the issue for the moment.
Oh and I also noticed the untick UV option in the tutorial, had hopes maybe that was the cause but that still also produced this issue. I don’t know, maybe my PC is just going nuts on this lol
@bringer0death I’m glad that you like it, thank you for the feedback!
Yes, the 4.19 update is already available.
Fortunately, this issue with visible capsule colliders is easily solvable, it’s due to recent UE changes in FBX import process.
During exporting the meshes via Asset Actions -> Export, just uncheck the “Collision” checkbox: Imgur: The magic of the Internet
I’ve also added an additional info to the documentation & the step-by-step video about that.
@Slavq I really appreciate that info. I did get it looking good via hiding the collision with the transparent material but I will try this work around. So basically don’t export the collision during the FBX export process and I gather to import the collision I will just need to copy from the merged actors? That way it takes to the provided collision that way after fixing the FBX.
I am still kind of feeling my way around using the engine, very new to it but starting to manage lol. I also had one more question but no rush to have to response from you, sure you are busy. I also moved onto the turning this tree into a dynamic one, I followed all the steps for falling leaves and the choppable trees. I got it into the foliage tool and so far I am only getting the falling leaves. I can’t figure out why it won’t actually chop. I did the Blueprint FoilageComp step by step. Got the ChoppableTop and Bottom models in there as well. But when I hit C, nothing happens on my model. I went into the input side of the settings for unreal, added C in there just in case but still doesn’t happen. Maybe Unreal bugging out there? I did the tutorial you provided a few times on that as well but can’t seem to make it happen.
I decided to go into your provided map with the destructible tree demo and forces, everything works perfect there so I am sure my newb mind on this is missing something lol. I guess its gonna take a few years for my first game but I am not giving up lol.
Oh and just curious. If I do get the trees to chop, there something i can do in the blueprint to let them fall, lay on the ground for a little while then despawn the fallen tree and potentially respawn them after a little time period. I think via a youtube tutorial I seen before I found your marketplace has a few nodes I might be able to implement but I haven’t dove that far into it. Figure take this slow and step by step before really diving into more blueprint manipulation. Over all though, I am close to having this working good, and I will definitely try your fix in a little bit and let you know how it turned out, makes sense, actually read somewhere that others were having issues with collision on version 4.19.1
Anyways thank you so much for taking your time out of the day to help me out on this. I probably will end up getting your other projects on marketplace soon so please don’t get too annoyed with me as I sometimes get lost on stuff with the engine lol.
Yes, every step from the documentation remains the same, just untick the collision checkbox. The collision will be copied from LOD0 mesh anyway in one of the steps.
For the chopping, do you use the included FirstPersonCharacter blueprint? The demo controls (‘C’ to chop) are available inside this blueprint only and it’s only an example implementation. You can check that by e.g. adding a PrintString node right after the keypress event ‘C’, inside this blueprint (Blueprints\Internal\FPP\Blueprints) and see if it prints on screen when you press C. Or check the GameMode in World Settings and see if it uses the FirstPersonGameMode.
Yes, you can destroy the fallen tree, since it turns into a Blueprint Actor after chopping (this way you can also e.g. gather resources or implement other similar mechanics). Storing its last transform (before chopping) and adding a new instance after X time should be definitely doable. It all depends on your game’s logic/mechanics.
Now I see lol, thanks @Slavq for taking the time to learn me up on this. See what I been doing, just because I am learning is I established a basic level and kind of feeling out blueprints still. I haven’t dove into the character side yet, but I was about to start messing with that. I gather due to that implementation not being done yet is why I haven’t gained access to the action button lol. Makes perfect sense now. I tell you I am really new to this, I was just using the project settings input to open up C for action, I probably need to build the blueprint around my character and then it should work.
That helped a lot, I got a better grasp now as to what is going on and the other fix worked so the LOD mesh is fine now
Got it working with the trees lol. I shortcutted by just copying your root BP for it to the main one, didn’t feel like tinkering too much internally yet, just wanted to make sure it would take and it did. I guess I got to learn a little more about it but I have a good start now. I got to tweak it I gather, get the line trace to be hidden and I think I probably won’t need the force option in what I plan to eventually develop here but I think I am good now. Got falling trees, fallings leaves and a lot to read about lol. Thanks for the help and for creating this, helps us new guys dissect and learn very well
Sounds promising. I have used several tree creator/generator like TreeIt and MTree. They all have the same problem: floating branches in the air. Does your Tree Creator connect the branches to the trunk correct?