Just created grass with speedtree.Is there a way to populate it round a landscape or it has to be done manually by duplicating and moving around gradually?
Nope I created the grass using the speedtree modeler, compiled it and imported into udk.The foliage brush does not work with speedtree in udk as I tried to drag it into the tab but nothing happened.
I then created a static mesh of a clump of grass in Maya and it worked with the foliage brush and I filled my landscape with it. Problem is the lightmass is taking very very long to build.
I had the build run for over 2 hours and it still had a very very long way to go.
I have seen a lot of games and videos posted here of environments done with udk with grass blowing in the wind populated over a large landscape.I am guessing it doesn't take that long for the lightmass to build lighting for these scenes?
When you want grasses which are moving in the wind, then you want to use dynamic lighting for them. If you want to do this, disable the use pre-computed lighting on them, and enable the cast dynamic shadows, and the dynamic lighting channel. The dynamic shadow's parameters are adjustable under your lightsoure's properties. If they wouldn't move, then you'll have to stick with the baked lighting, which can take time to build, for sure. You can adjust the lightmap res to reduce it a bit, but long building time is usual with large scale terrains. Running out from memory can also happen. Distributed rendering can help.
Thanks guys.Is it acceptable for one to use grass meshes animated in Maya.I have been watching vids of Watch dogs and I am wondering how they got grasses over huge terrains and they don't take so to load in the game.
I think I will stick with speed tree grasses.Its gonna be painstaking but I will move it all around the landscape.I have seen works done here where animated grasses are used in udk. I am guessing speedtree was used and they had to be moved and duplicated by hand.
If I use speedtree and I save the level and package,will the speed tree show up if it was imported into a new level with the package?
You're not going to want to use SpeedTree assets for grass over a large area like that. The foliage tool, while great for painting meshes quickly, is more valuable because it batches "clumps" of grass for faster rendering. Your draw call counts are going to go through the roof if you manually place a ton of grass assets and your framerate will be awful.
If Lightmass is taking a long time to build after you've placed static mesh grass models, make sure your lightmap resolution on that mesh isn't set too high. Usually on foliage like grass you only need a 16 or 32 px lightmap.
Animation should be handled via vertex deformation in the material. Joint based animation from Maya will kill your performance very quickly as well.
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I then created a static mesh of a clump of grass in Maya and it worked with the foliage brush and I filled my landscape with it. Problem is the lightmass is taking very very long to build.
I had the build run for over 2 hours and it still had a very very long way to go.
I have seen a lot of games and videos posted here of environments done with udk with grass blowing in the wind populated over a large landscape.I am guessing it doesn't take that long for the lightmass to build lighting for these scenes?
I think I will stick with speed tree grasses.Its gonna be painstaking but I will move it all around the landscape.I have seen works done here where animated grasses are used in udk. I am guessing speedtree was used and they had to be moved and duplicated by hand.
If I use speedtree and I save the level and package,will the speed tree show up if it was imported into a new level with the package?
If Lightmass is taking a long time to build after you've placed static mesh grass models, make sure your lightmap resolution on that mesh isn't set too high. Usually on foliage like grass you only need a 16 or 32 px lightmap.
Animation should be handled via vertex deformation in the material. Joint based animation from Maya will kill your performance very quickly as well.