Need help with Foliage display
Hi, I changed the scale of my landscape today and I noticed this issue with the foliage only after I made a lot of changes. I think scale edit is the reason, but after that I'm unable to add foliage in some areas of my map. Is there any way to clean up this issue so that I can add foliage to my level again? If not, if I use static meshes to fill up the level, will there be any performance loss when compared to using them with foliage editor?
Replies
Now that you mentioned the clipping issue with the static meshes, I'll try to make a new landscape. Last night, when I made a new landscape with the same imported height map/layers, foliage still wasn't working. I'll give it one more try with a new material and landscape, while importing only the same height map.
Meanwhile if anyone has encountered the same issue and fixed it, please do let me know. I need to get the landscape fixed before I can move on to the rest of the project.
If you can paint in one area of the landscape there shouldn't really be anything stopping you from painting in another area of the same lanscape when it comes to how the foliage mode works.
I've had tons of different problems with foliage back in UDK but never noticed anything like this. Are you sure there isn't anything blocking your mouse? Such as an transparent plane laying around? Maybe you have unchecked the checkboxes that lets you paint on different types of objects (although this wouldn't let you paint in any area of the landscap).
Can you describe the problem a bit more? Do you get the round, pulsing brush that indicates where you can paint when you hover the mouse over the area where you've having troubles?
Also, when it comes to render distance there isn't any real benefit with foliage vs static meshes, they can both cull out meshes at a distance you set although foliage makes it easier.
The real benefit of foliage mode other than being able to place objects quickly is that it's instanced. All static meshes that are the same within the same cluster in foliage mode are instances which saves a lot of performance. I'm not sure if it would be very benefitial on such a small map as a Chivaly map though, unless you're planning to have tons of the same mesh laying around.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ki1716io8p97hzx/Screenshot%202014-07-10%2009.07.11.png
Either it's a hidden plane as you mentioned, which I'm searching for currently. Or it's still taking part of those coordinates (unlikely, but maybe just one section) from the old landscape before I had it scaled up. Anyways, I'll go through all the actors and see if there's any transparent actor.
I've gone through all the actors. I have 2 landscape gizmos, that I do not remember adding into the map. But otherwise I've cleaned up the couple of meshes that were lying inside some other mesh. Still facing the same problem. I even tried making a new landscape with and without the previous height map layer (according to the dimensions specified at UDN). The issue still persists. This is what it looks like on a plain new landscape:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5eqyw6gaosnrqte/Screenshot%202014-07-10%2012.09.25.png
As you can see, the foliage stops around a certain area and refuses to paint. I can see the glowing foliage brush somewhere above the landscape if I zoom out. I have tried building and saving the level, as well as reinstalling the UDK.
Fixed the issue.