(UE5/WIN10) Why is my lake appearing at the top of a very high mountain, when I had placed it in a plain?

Development World Creation
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1

I am very new to using landscapes, but have used UE4 a hell of a lot in the past, and used UE5 for one project, but coding only, not graphics creation (landscapes, models, etc.).

Query in brief: Is the water plugin buggy?

Query in detail (see images): Okay, so I place a lake (from the water plugin) in a plain (flat’ish landscape), shut down UE5, then start it back up, and then find my lake at the top of a very, very high maintain. All the terrain has been pushed up to form this crazy high mountain!

This happens even when using the default Open World level, with no changes by myself other than adding in a lake (water plugin).

I have spent many days on this and recreated the project many times.

I place the lake:
LakePlaced

Then shut down UE5 and restart it:
LakeFooksUp

2

Hello Chucksta, thank you for posting your question.

That is QUITE the lake you got there. There are a few factors that go into lakes, oceans and rivers. The most common concern is when the lake is moved on the z-axis. As far as I know, the landscape compensates for the distance from the lake and will attempt to manipulate the landscape to fit the lake’s current location.
If you zero out the location values of the lake, the lake will likely become flat again.

If you do not wish for the water to affect the landscape, you can click on the lake and disable Affects Landscape. You can also just place a Water Body Custom into your level and resize it to your liking. If you create a landscape, you can disable Enable Edit Layers too.

There are a couple of deep dives found in the documentation if you would like to view them.

I hope this helps.

3

Thanks for the reply, @Polite_Muon.

I’ll try your suggestions and see what happens. I’ll post the results here :smiley:

4

I just tried this and the landscape did return to the level it should be, but then when I saved and exited UE5, then started it back up and loaded up the project, the very, very high mountain happened again. :cry:
I will now try the next suggestion. :smiley:

5

This results in the water not showing at all for me - in editor or when playing.

I’ll now try the “Water Body Custom”.

6

Problem solved!
Procedural material was causing the problem!

It looks like you have to apply the procedural material before placing any water (water plugin).

I realised that placing a lake or river, then adding procedural material and changing the material used, resulted in the water being placed at the top of a very, very high mountain (landscape getting warped - see image above).

I could have sworn I tested the placing of a lake on a fresh project’s default Open World landscape. I guess I had not! Going mad, I am!

Anyway, learn by making mistakes! And I can now get on with building the landscape :smile: