So I am trying to learn the ins and outs of the spline system and I am trying to wrap my head around how splines work.
You have Add Spline Component, which lets you set world points for whatever spline component you spawned.
Then you have spline blueprints with nodes targeting self which let you set start, end, scale, etc.
It seems like you would really want all of these working together but I am not sure how you do that. The content examples seem to use each of these methods independently. They can be combined right? The blue inputs on a lot of these nodes are not compatible with the same variables.
Also, can you merge and branch splines using the current spline tool?
So I have been looking at the Vine Growth example since it looks to have almost everything I need to implement my River Splines.
I seem to be missing one key feature though.
I basically need the functionality of the Set Start and End node for the Spline Mesh, but applied between every World Point on the Spline Component.
I need to update the Tangent at dozens of points along the Spline Mesh, but it appears that I only have the option to do this twice; at the Start and at the End.
My only alternative seems to be using dozens of Spline Meshes per river instead of one per river as I had hoped. With dozens of Spline Meshes I lose the smooth transition of a single Spline Mesh, and it makes the placement significantly more complicated. Anyone have any ideas?
I recommend looking at dokipen’s tutorial for creating a road tool. He essentially does what you say, using multiple spline mesh components along one spline component. He also shows how you need to scale the tangents to make sure to eliminate seams and harsh edges.
Thanks, that tutorial got me to the point where I can use 1 simple BP to make seamless rivers through my map.
Still have a few areas I feel could use more work regarding splines though, which I will repost in the feedback forum as well:
Spline Merging/Branching. Need a way to have Spline Components with multiple branches. I can drop splines on top of each other, but the overlapping meshes have lots of visual artifacts and don’t necessarily fit properly. It would be better in general if the Splines worked in a coherent branching fashion anyway.
Spline Mesh World Points. Using multiple meshes leads to tiling which is very obvious, especially with water textures. Would be great if we had a third option that combined the Spline Mesh Component with the Spline Component so that we could tinker with the tangents at multiple points along a single Spline Mesh instead of only Start and End.
Spline Instancing. Need an InstancedSplineMeshComponent to reduce draw calls. Preferably one that works with the above features.