SuperGrid - Fast Level Prototyping

[Winterstone]

Maybe a silly question but....

I'm looking to create a basic sewer system for my game. Just a basic level with custom textures. Is there any reason why i shouldn't just use Supergrid for it?

I see references regarding strictly prototyping, but it seems to me this has come far enough to be usable for more of an actual game. I don't know much about performance cost or anything like that so if there is a reason for that I'd love an brief explanation. Thanks

[zeOrb]

Maybe a silly question but....

I'm looking to create a basic sewer system for my game. Just a basic level with custom textures. Is there any reason why i shouldn't just use Supergrid for it?

I see references regarding strictly prototyping, but it seems to me this has come far enough to be usable for more of an actual game. I don't know much about performance cost or anything like that so if there is a reason for that I'd love an brief explanation. Thanks

Hey, sorry for not replying so long, did not noticed replies
Shader is not performance-hungry, it just utilizes data you already have in meshes. Of course there is some cost, but I don't think it might be an issue for performance in packaged games, on my machine with gtx760 I'm able to have 60fps in Tutorial level with a lot of particles, post processing and lighting effects on Epic settings.

[zeOrb]

Guys!
Playable demo is now available on itch.io!
If you wanted to try SuperGrid, but had some doubts - now you can just play and see it for yourself

[oofnish]

Hello,

I've been enjoying using Supergrid in my projects -- such a nice time saver, never start a map without it

I thought I'd share a simple room builder blueprint I put together that works well with the supergrid meshes. Not sure if there's a better place to put it, but here it is for anyone who's interested! You're free to use and include it in your projects if you find it useful.

It's pretty simple, but its features are:

• Creation of a watertight cuboid room out of supergrid boxes without overlapping geometry
• Scale tools to change dimesions of room in x,y,z
• Specify wall thickness (default is 10 cm)
• Specify floor thickness and ceiling thickness separately
• Selectively turn on or off each of the four walls, ceiling, floor individually
• Selectively create a doorway in each of the four walls individually (North door is enabled by default, can turn it off)
• Door can be positioned anywhere along a wall
• Door width can be specified
• Door height can be specified (door header is removed entirely if door height is >= room height)
• Configuring walls and combining roombuilder actors allows the creation of complex non-cuboid room geometry like halls and rooms with more than four walls.
• Specify lightmap resolution for walls and ceiling/floor separately. (all walls are set at once, and floor/ceiling are set at once)
• Using lightmap resolution settings and thicker walls helps reduce light bleed and lightmap seams.

Using it should just be a matter of extracting the zip into the appropriate content directory of your choice in your project. Note, it expects the supergrid box to be located at Game/Supergrid/Starterpack/Source/Meshes/Supergrid_Box. If yours is in a different place, you may need to adjust the mesh references in the Add Wall Static Mesh blueprint function. There are five static mesh components there for the various lightmap resolutions, you'll want to change all of them. Other meshes could probably be used too, but I haven't tried.

Anyway, hope someone finds it useful, you can find it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jgi38e3md4...ilder.zip?dl=0

[Hevedy]

Nice demo man, congrats.

Got a question the demo is using baked lightmaps ? At scale the meshes you're editing too the scale of the lightmaps with BP or manual each one ?

[DJMidKnight]

the SuperGrid_Wall blueprint doesn't seem to function correctly in 4.13. The WIP 7 video shows you using a spline to move and extend pieces off but this does not seem to be functioning either.

[zeOrb]

Hello,

I've been enjoying using Supergrid in my projects -- such a nice time saver, never start a map without it

I thought I'd share a simple room builder blueprint I put together that works well with the supergrid meshes. Not sure if there's a better place to put it, but here it is for anyone who's interested! You're free to use and include it in your projects if you find it useful.

It's pretty simple, but its features are:

• Creation of a watertight cuboid room out of supergrid boxes without overlapping geometry
• Scale tools to change dimesions of room in x,y,z
• Specify wall thickness (default is 10 cm)
• Specify floor thickness and ceiling thickness separately
• Selectively turn on or off each of the four walls, ceiling, floor individually
• Selectively create a doorway in each of the four walls individually (North door is enabled by default, can turn it off)
• Door can be positioned anywhere along a wall
• Door width can be specified
• Door height can be specified (door header is removed entirely if door height is >= room height)
• Configuring walls and combining roombuilder actors allows the creation of complex non-cuboid room geometry like halls and rooms with more than four walls.
• Specify lightmap resolution for walls and ceiling/floor separately. (all walls are set at once, and floor/ceiling are set at once)
• Using lightmap resolution settings and thicker walls helps reduce light bleed and lightmap seams.

Using it should just be a matter of extracting the zip into the appropriate content directory of your choice in your project. Note, it expects the supergrid box to be located at Game/Supergrid/Starterpack/Source/Meshes/Supergrid_Box. If yours is in a different place, you may need to adjust the mesh references in the Add Wall Static Mesh blueprint function. There are five static mesh components there for the various lightmap resolutions, you'll want to change all of them. Other meshes could probably be used too, but I haven't tried.

Anyway, hope someone finds it useful, you can find it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jgi38e3md4...ilder.zip?dl=0

Ooh, this is rad! Thanks for sharing, [MENTION=26342]oofnish[/MENTION]!
I wanted to create such tool too, but handling windows was such a pain I just never finished that one
Thanks again, really useful stuff!

Nice demo man, congrats.

Got a question the demo is using baked lightmaps ? At scale the meshes you're editing too the scale of the lightmaps with BP or manual each one ?

(Here is my very well-timed response )
Yeah, but lightmap resolution is a manual process due to BP limitations :/
However AutoLightmapUEr might be just the panacea!
Just purchased, will test it and report how it is working along

the SuperGrid_Wall blueprint doesn't seem to function correctly in 4.13. The WIP 7 video shows you using a spline to move and extend pieces off but this does not seem to be functioning either.

Hello, DJMidKnight.
Hmm, I checked latest version and it works fine, but I noticed a little issue which might confuse(and I will change it in next patch). Seems like starting and end points are swapped and you have to alt-drag starting point instead of ending point. Is it the case?

[DJMidKnight]

yes thanks also height gets funky if you try to use it after you've stretched both ends out

[T0wser]

Hi,

I've just downloaded it and it looks great. My question is how do I add the content to one of my pre-exisiting projects? Sorry of the answer is obvious - I can't figure it out yet as I'm still a bit of noob with these things :-)

Cheers and best of luck with it as it looks great

[TacoShank]

Hi,

I've just downloaded it and it looks great. My question is how do I add the content to one of my pre-exisiting projects? Sorry of the answer is obvious - I can't figure it out yet as I'm still a bit of noob with these things :-)

Cheers and best of luck with it as it looks great

My guess is that you would simply make a separate SuperGrid project and then migrate the "SuperGrid" folder into whatever preexisting project you want to use. The tutorial folder can probably also be safely deleted unless you want to use any of the tutorial level specific assets.

[Zireael07]

Sorry for possibly stupid question, the thread title promises a free demo, so where do I find the demo?

[zeOrb]

Sorry for possibly stupid question, the thread title promises a free demo, so where do I find the demo?

Hey Zireael07,
Seems like I forgot to add a link to first post, thank for mentioning it!
It's available on itch.io

[Scigor]

As new customer I must thank you!
Finally I can "see" what I'm doing..

[WeekendWarrior]

Hi, don't know if anyone as ask this but
is there? or could you? add a additive and subtractive system to the grid, much like the BSP, I really think it would make exporting meshes much cleaner?

Edit @ also when I crate a static mesh with a simple Box 0.5x0.5x3.0 it crate the mesh as the stranded Box 1.0x1.0x1.0, when I crate the mesh with a few objects it crates the right mesh just when it is a simple Box

I am using 4.14.3

[zeOrb]

As new customer I must thank you!
Finally I can "see" what I'm doing..

Hi, thank YOU! =)

Hi, don't know if anyone as ask this but
is there? or could you? add a additive and subtractive system to the grid, much like the BSP, I really think it would make exporting meshes much cleaner?

Edit @ also when I crate a static mesh with a simple Box 0.5x0.5x3.0 it crate the mesh as the stranded Box 1.0x1.0x1.0, when I crate the mesh with a few objects it crates the right mesh just when it is a simple Box

I am using 4.14.3

Hey, WeekendWarrior!
I've considered different solutions for subtraction in the past, but it usually end up as being too cumbersome utilizing BP's, especially for current drag'n'drop workflow. Maybe it will end up in something else, like C++ plugin.

As for problem, I'm not sure I understand it correctly... Could you elaborate or show the video?

Thank you,
Dmitry.