Get Started Making Games with Realtime PCG

Unreal Engine 5.4 has introduced real time PCG functionality. While some of this functionality existed in the past, we couldn't actually package the projects with it. Now we are able.
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Patreon: / procedural_minds
Discord: / discord
Twitch: / krozjin
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Chapters:
00:00 - Demo
00:43 - Enable PCG
00:54 - Platform BP
02:34 - PCG Setup
09:30 - Platform Blueprint Overlap
15:19 - New in 5.4 and Performance Note

[@TorQueMoD]

Awesome video! Thanks so much for sharing :) I'm curious why all of the artists at Epic suck at simulating wind in their materials. In UE4 we had all foliage moving in circles, and now we have it bouncing up and down. lol.

[@Procedural_Minds]

Yeah I noticed that as well. This is from megascans and since Epic owns them now from what I recall, I would have guessed the base wind movement would have been much nicer.

[@MarioCola]

not true, change the Transformposition node inside the ObjectPivotPoint (engine) to Instance and Particles, apply and voilà, wind is more beautiful than ever on megascans..

[@turningcog]

That would be so evil to make a random maze that resets on a trigger like that

[@Procedural_Minds]

Doesn't even need to reset on trigger. You could have it generate a new maze each time and instead of separate levels it can all happen inside a single one. :)

[@kmtsvetanov]

I created a PCG from blueprint that generates rooms with biom and AI.

[@Procedural_Minds]

Really cool, nice job!

[@JoachimPileborg]

Very good PCG tutorials. But, if it's possible, perhaps a tutorial on using PCG on a mesh-terrain instead of landscape?
A game I'm planning is going to be using a rather large continent, and I've heard that large landscapes aren't especially performant, even with world partition, and that it would be better if using meshes. But if I loose the ability to use PCG I need to rethink that.
Other than that, keep up the good work!

[@Procedural_Minds]

Most of my tutorials, including this one, use a mesh and not a landscape. Is there something specific you're trying to figure out with a mesh base?

[@JoachimPileborg]

@@Procedural_Minds Oh... Maybe I should have started with some earlier ones, and not the latest. 😁

[@lucianosantoro7849]

interesting but would be possible to make some more dynamic adjustment, like interactively spawn plants and so on ( kind of motion design stuff )

[@Procedural_Minds]

You can use PCG to spawn bluepints so you're able to even spawn interactable things using it. For example you can spawn Ore nodes that go away after being used but after some time it regenerates them.

[@ElPajaroLoko]

Thanks! ... How can I create a selectable LIST type field, where I can choose different PCG environments, such as Jungle, Forest or Desert? After selecting the option, the PCG changes and the environment is redrawn.

[@Procedural_Minds]

Check out my video on PCG Data Assets. You can setup your different biomes in data assets and then just swap the data asset with a BP before re-generating.

[@ElPajaroLoko]

@@Procedural_Minds You are a genius, thank you!

[@charlieashwood]

When I go to sample my points I can't see them. Any idea why that would be? I followed your instructions to the T. I tried resetting everything under "Show" in the viewport. Also restarted UE5.

[@Procedural_Minds]

Try doing a generate from the PCG node. Maybe somehow it hasn't generated the graph so nothing comes up.

[@charlieashwood]

@@Procedural_Minds Okay I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

[@DronX_]

Is there a way to activate collision only where the player look?

[@Procedural_Minds]

You would need to setup a trace from the character or camera depending on what you need and then modify the collision based on what it overlaps. At least from the top of my head that's one way to accomplish that.

[@MarioCola]

Challenge: you tell me how to create a single point on a landscape with no custom blueprints and i subscribe and donate

[@Procedural_Minds]

If you want a single point, you can set a get actor data to Single Point and it'll be just a single point. You can drag the PCG volume into the level too and have it set to single point.

[@MarioCola]

@@Procedural_Minds i subscribed but didn't donate yet, because I already have a getactordata node set to all world actors by class "landscape" and single point, but i still think it's not working properly
for example, if i spawn meshes on that point those would be multiple meshes on the same spot, easily fixed by a prune node set to remove duplicates.. yet when I spawn an actor instead, let's say a player start actor it still spawns multiple actors
it can be done right with a blueprint for sure, but am I missing something here? also I didn't get the "volume and have it set to single point" part, is there such option in the outliners detail tab too for the volume (not just on the getactordata node in the graph)?

[@MarioCola]

@@Procedural_Minds i also found that each regen it keeps in memory the instance number, so for example on my case it spawns 4 playerstart instances each regen, so first regen would be PlayerStart,PlayerStart1,PlayerStart2,PlayerStart3 and then, if i regen even flushing pcg cache.. it goes PlayerStart4,PlayerStart5,PlayerStart6,PlayerStart7 all in the same exact spot
Again with a static mesh spawner it's one mesh since it's one point.. amazing, or better, unreal

[@Procedural_Minds]

@@MarioCola I was mis-remembering the volume sampler having the single point. But yeah the Get Actor Data has the Get Single Point mode. So you can just create a PCG Graph, use a Get Actor Data node, and then have a single point whose bounds are those of the volume you set. So if you attach some kind of spawner to it, like a static mesh spawner, then you only get one things spawning whose size and is based off of the volume its in.