9 Setting up Nanite to Build a Bridge — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:07[music]
2. 0:14[music]
3. 0:15>> Welcome back everyone to Unreal Engine 5
4. 0:17beginners guide to building an
5. 0:18environment. In the last lesson we left
6. 0:20it off by getting ourselves all of the
7. 0:22Quixel assets ready to be used within
8. 0:24our bridge area. And this time we're
9. 0:26going to make use out of them and just
10. 0:28set them up in a way to actually just
11. 0:30going to slow down a camera a little
12. 0:32bit. It was a little bit too fast. Just
13. 0:33going to while moving scroll down my
14. 0:35mouse wheel and that slows down the
15. 0:37camera by quite a substantial amount.
16. 0:39Anyway, going back, now that we have all
17. 0:41of our assets, we have a total of
18. 0:45We have a total of seven folders and
19. 0:49that will just help us to make a really
20. 0:51nice bridge for our scene. So, we're
21. 0:54going to start off by getting the small
22. 0:56wood boards. So, let's go ahead and open
23. 0:58this up and right away we're going to
24. 1:00get a bunch of assets. The ones that
25. 1:02we're going to use are the ones that are
26. 1:04named as static meshes and they have a
27. 1:08blue highlighted bar underneath them.
28. 1:11Some of them for me for some reason
29. 1:13they're not showing up within images,
30. 1:15but if I were to open it, I can see that
31. 1:17they are set as normal boards. And
32. 1:20actually once I opened it up it can
33. 1:22actually now refreshes the image and
34. 1:25actually shows me the board within the
35. 1:27preview within the content browser. But
36. 1:29anyway, what we're going to do is we're
37. 1:31going to select the first static mesh
38. 1:33over here and then we're going to select
39. 1:35the last static mesh like this. And then
40. 1:38we're just simply going to start off by
41. 1:39dragging all of those boards into our
42. 1:43scene. So, actually just going to select
43. 1:45it again.
44. 1:46Like so.
45. 1:49And drag it out into the scene like so.
46. 1:51And by default they're actually quite
47. 1:53small. So, to start off right away we're
48. 1:55just going to make them much larger. So,
49. 1:58into the on the right side uh corner
50. 2:00within the details tab, with all of
51. 2:02those small wood boards still selected,
52. 2:04we're going to make a change within the
53. 2:06transformation tab. And to start off, I
54. 2:09think we're just going to lock down the
55. 2:11scale first. That way, all of the axes,
56. 2:14all of the scaling axes are going to be
57. 2:16applied all at once. So, we can change
58. 2:19that from 1 to 4, and we're going to get
59. 2:22them to be much larger. Or actually,
60. 2:23even we can make them even larger,
61. 2:25actually. Let's set them to eight like
62. 2:27so. And although by default they were
63. 2:29quite small, they're actually quite nice
64. 2:31to be used as props, since they do have
65. 2:33a lot of detail within them. And as you
66. 2:36can see within a texture, all of these
67. 2:39eight assets that we have selected for
68. 2:41the boards are actually packed into one
69. 2:44texture map, this one over here.
70. 2:47So, that's actually quite nice because
71. 2:49this entire mesh, when we're going to be
72. 2:51using all of these assets, are not going
73. 2:53to be as performance heavy. So, right
74. 2:55now I'm just going to select one by one
75. 2:57and just drag them out just to see how
76. 2:59they're going to look like. So, right
77. 3:01away I can see that they're actually
78. 3:02looking quite nice. Some of them are
79. 3:04thicker, some of them are thinner, and
80. 3:05that's actually quite all right. But we
81. 3:07just want them to be just to kind of see
82. 3:10how they look like. We're just going to
83. 3:12drag them out like so. And actually,
84. 3:14looking from the side, I can see that
85. 3:16there are a couple of ones that are
86. 3:17actually just straight up really thick.
87. 3:20So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to
88. 3:22grab both of these ones and just drag it
89. 3:24to the side. So, we're just going to
90. 3:26select two of these like so.
91. 3:28And drag one.
92. 3:31Then drag the other.
93. 3:33Like so.
94. 3:34Now that we have the thicker ones on the
95. 3:36side, we're actually going to be making
96. 3:38use out of these in order to have
97. 3:40thicker boards as supports for our
98. 3:42bridge. But right now, we want to set
99. 3:44the rest of them up to be used for
100. 3:46actual bridge area. So, the way we're
101. 3:48going to do it is actually quite simple.
102. 3:50We'll firstly make sure that each one of
103. 3:52them is set up one next to each other
104. 3:54and then actually for the other ones,
105. 3:57some of them are thicker, some of them
106. 3:58are thinner, but we want to make sure
107. 4:00that we have more or less the same
108. 4:02shape. So, what we're going to do is
109. 4:03we're going to click R to go into the
110. 4:05scaling mode within our gizmo and then
111. 4:08we're actually going to expand our
112. 4:10entire section of this single prop. In
113. 4:13this way, it'll just make sure that we
114. 4:15have more or less the same length. We
115. 4:17can actually even turn off the scaling
116. 4:21grid lock as well.
117. 4:23If we turn this off,
118. 4:24we have much more control over how this
119. 4:26is being scaled up. And as in regards to
120. 4:29the thickness, I think we can leave this
121. 4:31as is. Actually, I quite like the way
122. 4:33this breaks up the edges. So, we're
123. 4:35going to leave it as is. And then for
124. 4:38the rest of them, this one for example,
125. 4:40this one is not wide enough. So, I'll
126. 4:42actually make it just a little bit wider
127. 4:44just so we could actually have more or
128. 4:46less the same type of a look. And we got
129. 4:48to make sure we're kind of careful with
130. 4:50how we're extending the scale for these
131. 4:53ones because we don't want them to be
132. 4:55stretching out too much. Otherwise,
133. 4:56they're going to give us real nasty
134. 4:58results for the textures. So, right now
135. 4:59for example, if I were to extend this
136. 5:01way too much like so, we can see all the
137. 5:03type of stretching within our texture
138. 5:05and that's not obviously not going to
139. 5:06look quite as nice. So, whenever we're
140. 5:08doing any type of manipulation for
141. 5:11stretching within the scaling mode, we
142. 5:14want to make sure we keep more or less
143. 5:16the same ratio and we only do a minimal
144. 5:18amount of stretching for our assets. So,
145. 5:21I'm going to keep this as is, I reckon.
146. 5:24We can even make it a little bit more
147. 5:26like so. Not too much though. And
148. 5:28actually for this one, I'm also going to
149. 5:30squish that up because the sides are not
150. 5:32going to be quite as visible. We can
151. 5:34actually make use out of that and just
152. 5:36squish it up by quite a bit. And even
153. 5:39I'll just extend it just a little bit
154. 5:41more like so. I think that's going to
155. 5:42look quite nice.
156. 5:44So, all in all, they're looking more or
157. 5:46less the same kind of wave. We don't
158. 5:47want to make them to look exactly the
159. 5:49same width, exactly the same shape. So,
160. 5:51we're going to have some variation
161. 5:52within them. And then the next one is
162. 5:54going to be this one over here. So, I'm
163. 5:56just going to again connect it to the
164. 5:58side like so. We don't have to worry
165. 6:00about it too much in regards to how the
166. 6:03width is going to be like in this area
167. 6:05over here. For now, we're just making
168. 6:07sure that they look quite nice with one
169. 6:09another. So, I'm just going to extend
170. 6:11this just by a little bit like so. And
171. 6:13then we're going to
172. 6:15kind of broaden up the width as well.
173. 6:18And I'm thinking that maybe we could
174. 6:21Yeah, let's go [snorts] ahead and make
175. 6:22it just a little bit wider. So, it
176. 6:24wouldn't be just going constantly going
177. 6:26downwards. So, some of them will be
178. 6:28shorter, some of them will be longer.
179. 6:30And that just helps us to break off the
180. 6:32edge of the bridge, which is going to be
181. 6:34quite nice all in all. So, we're just
182. 6:36making sure that they look quite nice
183. 6:38all together.
184. 6:40And I think this one has to be a little
185. 6:43bit more to the side. And that's going
186. 6:45to be pretty much it. We're actually
187. 6:48There is another one
188. 6:49that's going to be a complete square
189. 6:51one,
190. 6:52which I think is going to look much
191. 6:54nicer if you just Yeah, let's just put
192. 6:56it to the side. And we're going to make
193. 6:58use out of it in order to break away
194. 7:00some of the shape because these ones
195. 7:02that we're going to use in order to
196. 7:04support our bridge, although they look
197. 7:06quite nice, they don't have any way to
198. 7:07break off any of the shape. And this
199. 7:09one, however, has a nice kind of a way
200. 7:12to
201. 7:13give us a really good silhouette with
202. 7:15its chipped off type of a wood shape.
203. 7:17So, I quite like this one. And actually
204. 7:21now that we have it like so,
205. 7:23we're actually going to go ahead and
206. 7:25check how the wire frame is going to
207. 7:27look like. So, within the upper left
208. 7:29corner, if you were to change it from
209. 7:31lit and select wire frame, we're going
210. 7:34to see the amount of wire frame this
211. 7:36has. And we need to determine whether or
212. 7:38not that's going to be good or we
213. 7:41actually need to optimize it, which is
214. 7:42actually relatively easy to do using
215. 7:45Nanite technology.
216. 7:47So, just by looking at it,
217. 7:50we can see that it has a reasonable
218. 7:52amount, I'd say. It depends how well
219. 7:55we're going to use this, but if we're
220. 7:57going to use this as a lot of props, I
221. 8:00think we should definitely switch it up
222. 8:02to a Nanite. We have to determine when
223. 8:04we use Nanite whenever we have more
224. 8:06intricate shapes within our meshes, and
225. 8:09for these cases, when we're basically I
226. 8:12think in these cases, we can actually
227. 8:14make use out of Nanite, and it's
228. 8:15actually rather simple to do. All we got
229. 8:17to do is we got to make use out of the
230. 8:20static meshes, so let's go ahead and
231. 8:22select all of them, and then all that we
232. 8:24have to do is we need to just right
233. 8:26click, and then go on to the asset
234. 8:29actions,
235. 8:30or actually, sorry, we need to go on to
236. 8:32the Nanite and select enable. And with
237. 8:36this, we'll be able to convert all of
238. 8:38these to Nanite meshes. So, now just
239. 8:40take some time to prepare the shaders
240. 8:42and just reapply all the textures, and
241. 8:44then right away, we're going to get a
242. 8:46different type of performance. So, I
243. 8:47think in these cases,
244. 8:50if you want to see how the mesh is being
245. 8:51affected with Nanite, we can go on to
246. 8:54the upper left corner, click on lit, and
247. 8:56then change this from lit mode to Nanite
248. 8:59visualization. We have a lot of ways to
249. 9:01visualize our Nanite, but we're going to
250. 9:04make use out of the triangles, and if we
251. 9:06were to just click on it, we'll be able
252. 9:07to see how it behaves, and that
253. 9:09basically shows the way it interacts
254. 9:12with our mesh, and if we were to zoom
255. 9:14zoom out a little bit, we can see that
256. 9:17it actually starts changing up the way
257. 9:19it behaves, and it is actually quite a
258. 9:22nice of a functionality.
259. 9:25And there are a lot of different other
260. 9:26ways we can visualize it actually, like
261. 9:29for example, clusters. We can see the
262. 9:31way they're being clustered up in our
263. 9:34scene, all of the triangles within our
264. 9:37Nanite,
265. 9:38Or even if you just click on overview
266. 9:40and see all of them at once, we can see
267. 9:42that there's a lot of things going on
268. 9:44behind in order to optimize the mesh
269. 9:46using Nanite. So, that's quite nice. We
270. 9:49can now go back onto the lit mode
271. 9:52and make use out of the planks as is.
272. 9:54And actually, I'm just going to hold
273. 9:56this to a bit to the side.
274. 9:59Get the final piece in set up.
275. 10:01I'm just going to drag this a little bit
276. 10:03closer, stretch it out a little bit even
277. 10:05to the
278. 10:07to the side just a little bit more like
279. 10:08so. And we get ourselves a nice kind of
280. 10:10a pattern to use on our bridge. Now, in
281. 10:13order to make a full use out of these
282. 10:15planks, we're actually going to select
283. 10:18all of them at once, all five of those
284. 10:20like so. And actually, we're going to
285. 10:22hold Alt and drag it to the side with
286. 10:25the gizmo like so. This way, we're able
287. 10:27to make a duplicate out of it. And it
288. 10:29seems I didn't make a selection, so I'm
289. 10:30just going to click Ctrl and Z and undo
290. 10:32it. Just going to make sure I have the
291. 10:35previous selection sorted like so.
292. 10:38And just clicking
293. 10:42I'm going to try to move it to the side.
294. 10:43And yes, as we can see that there's
295. 10:45another one that we haven't selected.
296. 10:46So, let's go ahead and do that.
297. 10:48I'm just going to make sure all of these
298. 10:50are selected. So, now if we move it, all
299. 10:52of them are selected. And now we're
300. 10:53going to hold Alt. That will make sure
301. 10:55that we're getting a duplicate out of
302. 10:57them. Just drag them to the side like
303. 10:59so. And now we're getting ourselves the
304. 11:02same kind of pattern that we had
305. 11:03previously. So, in order for us to make
306. 11:06the best use out of this, we're going to
307. 11:08click E and rotate it 90°. Let's make
308. 11:11sure that snapping is enabled and it's
309. 11:14set by 10° like so.
310. 11:17And with this, we can just turn it
311. 11:19around all the way as 180° and it'll
312. 11:22just completely flip all those assets
313. 11:24up. And actually, we are just going to
314. 11:25drag them up just a little bit more more
315. 11:28up like so. So, we get more of a
316. 11:30straight kind of a pattern. And this
317. 11:32way, although this is the same as that
318. 11:34plank, because it's the other side,
319. 11:36we're not going to see as much of a
320. 11:38repetitive type of a pattern. So, as you
321. 11:41can see, we have basically the same
322. 11:43plank over here, and that's just going
323. 11:44to help us to break up a bit more the
324. 11:47bridge itself. So, there we have it like
325. 11:49so, we can go ahead and make a selection
326. 11:51out of all of them just like that, each
327. 11:54one by one like so. And actually, since
328. 11:57we're running out of time, we're going
329. 11:58to continue this on in the next lesson.
330. 12:00So, thank you so much for watching, and
331. 12:02I'll see you in a bit.