SuperGrid - Fast Level Prototyping

[Neutronux]

Will stretching it excessively negatively affect anything, like lighting, once you start adding in more detail to the map?

Usually you have (at least) 2 UVmaps for a static mesh. One for the texture and a further one for the lightmap (which could be created manually in your 3D app or automatically from UE4 if you import your mesh). You could choose which UVmap should be used for the lightmap and you could set the lightmap resolution individually for every mesh. Supergrid material function just prevents the streching of your texture but it doesn't do anything with the UVs from the lightmap. If you think lightning gets worse on a big mesh then just open your static mesh and change the value for the lightmap resolution like you would do with any other mesh as well.

[namrats]

Question! I'm pretty new at UE4 still, and love SuperGrid, but I'm curious about something...

With a SuperGrid material applied to the SuperGrid mesh, you can scale the mesh, and it doesn't look stretched out - that's the whole point, right? lol.

But... is there a limit to how much you should stretch it (within reason, of course)? Will stretching it excessively negatively affect anything, like lighting, once you start adding in more detail to the map? In other words, in terms of SuperGrid, is it perfectly okay to use stretched meshes for my level geometry, or should I be using more modular pieces?

Since SuperGrid materials look fine when they are scaled, I'm guessing it doesnt matter, and there doesn't seem to be a major difference... But I could be wrong =P

[zeOrb]

what about just deleting faces? rather then subtracting, that would speed it up for me, when I am crating a static mesh it also crates duplicate faces

Deleting faces/subtracting requires is basically the same process underneath, I will investigate possibilities but I can't promise anything on that part

I cant do a video but, it's not a Big deal
but in a but shell it dose not make a static mesh al all

Seems like there is a bug in engine(or intended behavior, not sure at the moment) which reset scale to 1,1,1 if you trying to convert single mesh. If works fine if you're selecting multiple meshes so it most likely bug rather than a feature. Worth an answerhub report, I guess!

Also when I am crating static meshes the new mesh dose not line up with the grid, it moves the origin to a different place witch changes the location off the line of the grid

Converting to single mesh "bakes" scale information into the new mesh so SG can't utilize all this data anymore to show grid properly. Instead of having different scale values for different meshes it has just 1,1,1 for everything. I see one method which might help in this case, but it will take some time to investigate if this doable

Thanks,
Dmitry.

[WeekendWarrior]

what about just deleting faces? rather then subtracting, that would speed it up for me, when I am crating a static mesh it also crates duplicate faces

I cant do a video but, it's not a Big deal
but in a but shell it dose not make a static mesh al all,

Also when I am crating static meshes the new mesh dose not line up with the grid, it moves the origin to a different place witch changes the location off the line of the grid

[namrats]

This is a beautiful add-on to UE4. I downloaded the demo.... and bought it less than 5 minutes after. It's that good =P

[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.

[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

[Scigor]

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

[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

[Zireael07]

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

[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.

[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

[DJMidKnight]

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

[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]

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.