Okay. Jumping back into Dash, this time
Okay. Jumping back into Dash, this time doing deep dives into various features. This first post relates to "Surface Scatter". Struggling with a few things here and looking for advice. I've read through the docs on this and watched a few videos. Nothing seems to answer what I am encountering.
1) I'm having trouble keeping the Tools Panel in the viewing area of the screen. It keeps jumping up above, so that it is impossible to access the upper portion of the window. I finally figured out that if I drag the UE window down to the lower part of the screen, it will pop down like it is following it. But as soon as I max the UE window again, it jumps back to the top. I've tried moving it, "X" it and then reopening, and making the Tools Panel smaller. Nothing seems to work. This is very frustrating when needing to access the upper section of the window.
2) I created several (5-6) surface scatters in my level and tried to rename them. But every time I edit one of them (the actors), it immediately changes the name back to "Surface Scatter". Is there any way to tag them so that I know which one is which, and so that it keeps those names after editing?
3) I'm also having trouble getting the Tools Panel to select the Surface Scatter that I want to edit after the scatter is initiated. I've tried closing the Tools Panel, selecting the Surface Scatter that I want to edit, and then click "Edit". That doesn't guarantee it will pick the right scatter. I tried selecting the Surface Scatter AFTER bringing up the Tools Panel. That doesn't seem to work. Since all of the scatter actors are named the same (see #2 above), I've had to go into the Scatter "Edit Table" and click the arrow icon to select what objects are scattered to know which one I'm working with. I'm clearly missing something. Is there a consistent way to select the scatter actor I'm working with?
4) Sometimes I can save the level, close the project, then when I reopen it, not all changes are there. What am I doing wrong?
5 Replies
Hey @jdhart.
Just wanted to say I have seen your message and I will get back to them when I am back at the office on Tuesday đź‘‹
Adding the screenshot of message nr2 here so we got all context in one thread
Okay. I'll delay uninstalling/reinstalling Dash until you have had time to read through my post here. Thank you.
Here are a few more things happening with surface scatter that I cannot find much on.
5) Scattering some Quixel foliage on landscape (e.g., trees) results in the foliage flying up and down. With some research, I found that it has to do with the wind settings. But the only "fix" that seemed to work was to just deactivate the wind settings all together. Is there something within Dash to fix this problem so that I can get wind effects?
6) It is possible that the problems noted above (#2 and #3) may be related to a pointer issue, maybe caused by attempting to rename the scatter instances (actors)? I deleted all of the scatter actors and started over. I'm still working through it, but when I select the actors, the Tools Panel seems to be changing with it.
7) UE5 does not save all of the settings for surface scatter actors. For example, I can add a Proximity Mask with the Tools Panel to an existing scatter actor, save the changes, close the project. When I reopen the project, it shows "0" objects in Proximity Mask. I have tried everything to ensure changes are saved before closing, but nothing seems to work.
8) I added a variety of trees to a landscape in the "Scatter" tab of the Tools Panel using the "Edit Table" feature. I added them separately using "+" so that I can set the densities for each type of tree differently. But when I close and reopen the project, the scatter instances are collapsed into a single entry with all of the instances in them. The result is that all of them have the same density setting now. Again, similar to #7 above, the settings reloaded are different from those I am attempting to save.
Here is how the instances show up.
Hey hey @jdhart. 🙂
Let's see if we can figure your issues out 🙂
(Btw thanks a lot for the good structure in your messages, that makes helping out much easier🙏 )
1. Hmm, that's very strange! Can you share with me some details? Screensize and resolution, if you are using multiple screens, and if you are using a custom UI layout in Unreal🙏
2. I think there is a naming bug in 1.9.0, but it seems to be working now in my internal build of the next Dash version, so should be solved when we release this version in a while. (Until then you can try renaming the Surface scatter from the tools panel instead of from the Outlier, it may help)
3. The main idea is that once the Tools panel is open, you should only need to select the result in the scene, i.e. your scattered rocks, to have it auto open your Rock Scatter for example. But important to note, if a tool is pinned with the pin icon in the tools panel, that tool stays open even if you select another scatter result. See video 1 below. And then of course you can select the result from the outlier as well, and then the naming bug is very annoying 100%. Opening the list of active tools in the tools panel, is like the backup, if you can't easily select the result in the scene/outlier.
3b. And based on your other example message, you may be dealing with an issue of a broken tool connection (that will make the select-auto-open stop working). And a broken tool connection is when one or both inputs to SurfaceScatter has been deleted from the tool. And most common reason is that users delete the actual original mesh or the surface. In these cases you can see if the tool is still in the list of active tools and then re-assign the scatter object/surface to get it fully working again.
4. Hmm, did you use save current level and save all? In general both seems to be needed in UE sometimes in my experience.
5. Yee the tree problem is a common one, not sure what is actually wrong with the trees wind setup, but it is something. But, most MS trees ship in two versions/folders, so if you try the other one, those usually work just fine.
6. Naming should not affect it no, but most likely it is what I mentioned in 3b
7. Hmm, what object did you set in the proximity mask? And is this happening even if you try another level? And in another project even? If it happens in a new level even, could you setup a scatter and a proximity mask object and then export that scene and send it to me? (You can save the level, then select it in the UE content browser and then search for export in Dash, it will zip up your level)
8. Also very strange, does not happen to me and haven't heard of it before. is this happening even if you try another level? And in another project even? If it happens in a new level even, could you setup a scatter and a proximity mask object and then export that scene and send it to me? (You can save the level, then select it in the UE content browser and then search for export in Dash, it will zip up your level)