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[Charlizd]

Hi all,
I don't want to compare Hero to other engines but my time using Unity a feature i loved was Mass placement of trees, you basically selected your tree and input the amount you want and BAM!!! your heightmap is populated with that amount of trees, making Forest was such a breeze, of course you had to delete some here and there but 95% of the time it worked out perfectly, MY Question now is Does hero support a function like this or can it be done, I have not done alot with Hero for over 12 months so there has been some improvements i am sure.
I have tried googling an answer and come up with nothing.
Any help would be appreciated.

[PN-Dwight]

We have a current Asset Placement Tool in place, and it is very much so doable to create it.

We basically select the tree's we want to place, how many of them, what their minimum scale should be, their maximum scale, as well as their rotation over the 3 axis, and in what area (depicted as a lightblue circle) they should be placed randomly. Placing either goes by using the heightmap-normal or just the random rotation.

Lastly, we have the ability to create "presets" for all developers to use by using the spec system.

All in all, it's a great time-saver

[Charlizd]

We have a current Asset Placement Tool in place, and it is very much so doable to create it.

We basically select the tree's we want to place, how many of them, what their minimum scale should be, their maximum scale, as well as their rotation over the 3 axis, and in what area (depicted as a lightblue circle) they should be placed randomly. Placing either goes by using the heightmap-normal or just the random rotation.

Lastly, we have the ability to create "presets" for all developers to use by using the spec system.

All in all, it's a great time-saver

Can you explain in detail how this is done? I know how to use the tool to place the trees but do not know how to select the amount of trees, height e.t.c?

[PN-Dwight]

This is a custom tool we built. HeroEngine is natively not able to place trees massively and randomly (talking about 100's and 100's per click)

[Charlizd]

This is a custom tool we built. HeroEngine is natively not able to place trees massively and randomly (talking about 100's and 100's per click)

Yeah i thought as much i have come up with a temp solution of grouping a bunch of them and adding the group to the library, cannot randomize, scale, or rotate them tho till after the fact

[FI-ScottZ]

Dwight,

Out of curiosity, did you guys end up leveraging the library commands that can be attached to library assets for that placement?

Charlizd,
Check out this forum topic for some insight:
https://community.heroengine.com/forums/index.php/topic,948.msg4459.html#msg4459

[PN-Dwight]

Dwight,

Out of curiosity, did you guys end up leveraging the library commands that can be attached to library assets for that placement?

Charlizd,
Check out this forum topic for some insight:
https://community.heroengine.com/forums/index.php/topic,948.msg4459.html#msg4459

No, we do nothing with the library. This tool uses the spec system.

There are no commands attached to the library; I will post a video about the APT. Will upload within the hour for you to check it out

[Charlizd]

Dwight,

Out of curiosity, did you guys end up leveraging the library commands that can be attached to library assets for that placement?

Charlizd,
Check out this forum topic for some insight:
https://community.heroengine.com/forums/index.php/topic,948.msg4459.html#msg4459

I was just looking at that thanks

[PN-Dwight]

This is how we do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6rFnxsOKOA

[Charlizd]

That is an awesome tool, exactly what i was after Let me know if you guys ever decide to license it out to other developers

[HE-Cooper]

The library and random rotation and scale tools will let you place any amount of randomized objects like forests. And provides far more detailed control than many other "make my game for me" solutions in some engines. :-)

[Jrome90]

This is how we do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6rFnxsOKOA

You can can use all assets if None are selected.
If you select one asset then you can use page-up, and page-down to select the next/previous.

[Charlizd]

The library and random rotation and scale tools will let you place any amount of randomized objects like forests. And provides far more detailed control than many other "make my game for me" solutions in some engines. :-)

Are you referring to the Tool PN-Dwight is talking about or Hero's Native tools? because i don't see anything within hero that can allow you to do that, sure i know how to grab selected items and group them in the library but how do you randomly scale and rotate them at the same time as placing them? and if there is then maybe a Tutorial would be handy.

I don't see it has a "make my game for me" tool, i see it as a tool to help take the boredom out of placing tree after tree, and tbh i think some of the maps i made in Unity using that said tool has produced some of the better game environments i have made to date, but meh that's unity and this is hero so who cares right

[HE-Cooper]

Make distributions of trees as auto snap groups in the library.
You can either randomize their scale and rotation before adding them, or you can use the asset panel or editor selection to later select them and randomize.
you can use the dynamic placement tool to spam placement, or use the standard tool and be able to rotate them as a group in world space as well, or you can rotate them all in model space.

Personally, forests are a bad idea to just plunk down and randomize, as you are either sacrificing gameplay or performance, if you aren't making specific decisions, but that's just my experience.

[Jrome90]

Personally, forests are a bad idea to just plunk down and randomize, as you are either sacrificing gameplay or performance, if you aren't making specific decisions, but that's just my experience.

I agree .
I wouldn't recommend randomly placing trees either.