Spawning vs. Instancing

Development Rendering
,
1

Hey all,

I am working on a Jungle scene that is spawned/destroyed via Blueprints.
For the trees, I am using the Black Adler beta from the market, then some plants from Megascans as well.

I am using the 3D grid macro to create the jungle.

Is there any cost difference between spawning the trees as blueprints (adding one tree to a blueprint then using Spawn Actor From Class)
or, using Mesh Instancing?

Thanks in advance

2

Why would you make them blueprints?

Instancing is the standard way.

Using the foliage tool or procedural spawner ( or one you’ve made ), you can add them as HISM ( hierarchical instanced static mesh ).

If you’re interested in performance, you want to get the poly count right down. The Megascans stuff is not at all low poly.

1 Like
3

I think the foliage tool is not available to be activated via Blueprints, or maybe I got it wrong?
With the 2D/3D Grid Macro that is built in UE I have more control about the placement.

Does HISM work in 4.26 as well?
I wasn’t sure if the Black Adler asset works with this method as it has wind built in.

The MegaScans assets have LODs so I figured I’ll use 05 which seem low poly

forgot to mention that the jungle is rather small, doesn’t have to be a huge area, more for a single camera view which is locked

Thanks a lot!

4

If it’s a small scene, you could probably get away with just putting meshes there :slight_smile:

5

I want the user to have control over the amount of trees, that’s why I am using Spawns atm to create it, but if I understand correctly that Instancing is better, I will try and switch.

If the wind won’t carry through, then BP Spawns will be fine at least for the closer trees.

Thank you

1 Like
6

If it’s just a small area, blueprints or meshes will be fine :slight_smile:

1 Like
7

Thank you :slight_smile: nice to see you here again! been a while.
Maybe Instancing in this case, is better for something like grass and plants which show way more duplicates.

1 Like
8

Nice to see you too :slight_smile:

All good with the lightshow?

9

I got the MegaGrant for this project! super excited about. (switching to Skype)

btw is there any way to attach an instance to a null/actor same way as you do “Attach Actor to Component”?

I want the whole jungle to be able to spin on an axis, so all the trees/plants should be linked to a “Scene” object similar to a null, vs. moving the camera.

With BP I can do it but instancing, not sure

1 Like
10

Great! :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t recommend trying to rotate the forest!

Rotating an actor with anything more than a few meshes attached is extremely inefficient! ( like 0 fps inefficient ).

Much easier to rotate a camera around :slight_smile:

1 Like
11

It gets too messy with moving the camera, so I have separate controls for rotation, camera angle, camera dolly.

Then once it rotates, you move another parameter and the axis is getting messed up

12

Well, you can try moving the ‘jungle’, but I think you’ll find it’s more of a pain than getting the camera BP right :wink:

1 Like