Hello, our studio has been having serious issues when importing trees into the engine.
We're using SpeedTree version v7.1.7 and Unreal 4.18 for our pipeline. Our trees are usually around 7-11k so we need to use LODs so it doesn't heavily impact performance. Within SpeedTree, the LODs work fine and change smoothly from one LOD to another depending on camera distance.
The problem is when we import them to Unreal (Enabling all options and importing them as painted foliage). When importing as painted foliage, the Smooth LODs don't work and don't match the LODs 1,2 and 3 thus producing popping. Please see screenshots provided. The smoothing works but it doesn't match the LOD changes.
When importing as individual actors, the screen size scale is reduced greatly so the LODs only start to work at a very long distance.
We don't know what's causing the issue. We tried to work with the very limited LOD settings in Speedtree that only let us change the screen area scale, but it doesn't affect the LODs in the slightest once imported into unreal. The SpeedTree compiler doesn't give us any other options either, and trying to manually set the LODs in unreal (By importing a speedtree tree with no automatic LODs) crashes the engine. The only solution we have seen is to manually set the screen size scale in the mesh properties, but that would cost us too much time we can't really afford.
Is this a known issue? Are there any solutions? Is it possible to set the LODs manually in SpeedTree or is there no other option?
We'd appreciate any input or advice.
We're using SpeedTree version v7.1.7 and Unreal 4.18 for our pipeline. Our trees are usually around 7-11k so we need to use LODs so it doesn't heavily impact performance. Within SpeedTree, the LODs work fine and change smoothly from one LOD to another depending on camera distance.
The problem is when we import them to Unreal (Enabling all options and importing them as painted foliage). When importing as painted foliage, the Smooth LODs don't work and don't match the LODs 1,2 and 3 thus producing popping. Please see screenshots provided. The smoothing works but it doesn't match the LOD changes.
When importing as individual actors, the screen size scale is reduced greatly so the LODs only start to work at a very long distance.
We don't know what's causing the issue. We tried to work with the very limited LOD settings in Speedtree that only let us change the screen area scale, but it doesn't affect the LODs in the slightest once imported into unreal. The SpeedTree compiler doesn't give us any other options either, and trying to manually set the LODs in unreal (By importing a speedtree tree with no automatic LODs) crashes the engine. The only solution we have seen is to manually set the screen size scale in the mesh properties, but that would cost us too much time we can't really afford.
Is this a known issue? Are there any solutions? Is it possible to set the LODs manually in SpeedTree or is there no other option?
We'd appreciate any input or advice.
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