Blueprint Randomization?

alexworx

Hi all,

I am new to BP and I am looking for some advice on how to create some procedural meshes. I have successfully created the first part. I have imported 6 buildings ( as one mesh not 6 individual meshes) and I have created a BP to generate it on the X,Y. As you can see it looks very repetitive.

How would I go about making something that would shuffle the order of the meshes? Is that possible?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Alex  

Blue

Obscura

Sure. plug a "select" node into the set static mesh node. This will allow you to define a list of multiple meshes and choose randomly. random int and random int from stream nodes can help you generating a random number, that you can use later to select a random mesh from your list. You could also just make an array of static meshes, generate a random number, and get that entry of the array.

alexworx

Thanks for the comment! So that will work even though its 1 single mesh made of of 6 building's? Its not 6 induvial buildings?

Obscura

No... You need 6 individual building meshes.

alexworx

Yes I do.  I want to be able to have the order of the buildings random when I increase the X and Y values. So its not always the same building order.

Obscura

alexworx

wow, thats awesome! Thank you. Let me go throw this and see if I cant get this working. Appreciate it.

alexworx

what version of UE4 are you running?

Obscura

4.25.why?

alexworx

I ask because your static Meshes and InstancesSMComponents in the variables look like they are arrayed? They have a different symbol then mine when I make them define the type 

Obscura

yeah those are arrays. and actually thats a hierarchical instanced static mesh component array.

alexworx

ok I just figured out how to do that. Make a interger / change to array and then change the type.... Told you never used BP before...thanks

Obscura

Cool. You could change the first loop to be a for each loop, to end up with less nodes.

alexworx

so far so good. Im going to try the first way you sent over. Thanks.

alexworx

OK I got everything in there but when I compiled it I got the following error message.

What did I do wrong?

Obscura

alexworx

One more dumb ass question. I have set the static meshes with my buildings. How come when I drag the BP into the vp and I change the X,Y nothing shows up?

Obscura

I think its because you have one more error in the blueprint. you have the min-max of the random integer connected wrong.

alexworx

Kristof your the man! Its working. Thanks so much for your time. 

Now I want to get to work and get it a bit more refined. Notice how some building's are on top of one another. Is that because of the pivot points? How can I have better control over the spaceing?

Obscura

Their pivot should be at the bottom center of each building.

alexworx

Yup I moved them and reimported and that took care of that issue. Let me ask you something in regards to the materials. Lets say I have 3 different materials for each building. So Bld A has 3 different texture maps...one shows the buidling in brick, one shows it in wood and the other is stone, just as an example. Whats the best way to go about applying and randomizing the material applied to each building? Thanks

Obscura

It can be done in a similar way to how the building were randomized. But due to the instanced static mesh components and the way they work, you would need to create 3 ISM components for each building type. so if its 5 different meshes and each could have one of the 3 materials, then its 15 ISM.

alexworx

Hmm that seems like it could add up to a alot of work any other options?

alexworx

Hey Kristof another question for you. ( I am back on this project again ) if I wanted to make the spacing not so uniform what would I need to do? Also may change the rotation of things? Would I need to add something to the transform?

Thanks
A

Obscura

generate a random 2d vector and subtract it from the final position. multiplying that value by a float will set how far these random offsets can take the building relative to the original location. but. im not a blueprints manual man, use your brain please

alexworx

thank you for your help and time.