Unreal Engine 5.1 Preview 1 - Are Landscape HLOD's working now? | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Despite some workflow challenges, the landscape HLOD system in Unreal Engine 5.1 Preview can be optimized for better performance.

Key Insights

• 🔁 The landscape hlod system in Unreal Engine 5.1 preview 1 is functional but has a clunky workflow that may change in the future.
• 🎮 Creating a blank UE5 project and making some settings adjustments, such as enabling Shader Model 6 and changing the default rhi to DirectX 12, is necessary to get the system working.
• 🌍 It is important to show engine content in the settings to have a texture to work with.
• 🌳 Adding key elements like a directional light, skylight, sky atmosphere, and exponential light flag is essential in building the landscape.
• 📏 Setting the landscape size and converting it to World Partition is critical for generating hlods.
• 📂 Generating an ini file with specific settings is helpful for the conversion process and subsequent hlod generation.
• 🚧 Generating the hlods without adjusting the lod0 screen size setting results in slower performance and defeats the purpose of using hlods.
• ✨ Adjusting the lod level and rebuilding the hlods correctly allows for efficient loading of landscape sections and improved performance.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: How can the landscape HLOD system in Unreal Engine 5.1 Preview be optimized?

To optimize the landscape HLOD system, you need to create a blank UE5 project, make certain settings adjustments, create a new level test, add necessary components, convert to World partition, generate an INI file, and build the HLODs with the correct LOD0 screen size.

Q: What is the purpose of the HLOD system in Unreal Engine 5.1 Preview?

The purpose of the HLOD system is to improve performance by generating hierarchical level of detail meshes for landscapes, allowing them to be rendered more efficiently based on the viewer's proximity to the landscape.

Q: What issues were encountered with the initial HLOD setup?

An issue occurred where the HLODs were generated at the highest resolution of vertices instead of the lowest, resulting in slower performance instead of optimization.

Q: How was the HLOD setup corrected for optimal performance?

The HLOD setup was corrected by adjusting the LOD0 screen size to a lower resolution, generating the HLODs, and then resetting the LOD0 screen size back to its default value.

Q: What is the Nanite feature mentioned in the video?

The Nanite feature in Unreal Engine 5.1 Preview allows for efficient rendering of high-quality, high-polygon assets, including landscapes. However, the video mentions ongoing research and potential issues related to shadowing and performance with Nanite foliage.

Q: What are some potential challenges with using World position offset for foliage movement with HLODs?

Using World position offset for foliage movement can potentially invalidate the Shadow maps and significantly decrease performance, as the new shadowing system requires caching of Shadows between frames.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The video discusses changes and improvements to the landscape HLOD system in Unreal Engine 5.1 Preview 1.

• The video demonstrates the steps to set up and optimize the HLOD system for efficient performance.

• The video also mentions the availability of the Nanite feature and ongoing research on Nanite foliage and shadowing issues.