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Migrating from Voxel Plugin Legacy

An overview of the most important things to know when moving to Voxel Plugin 2.

TIP

Skip this article if you're not coming from Voxel Plugin Legacy.

Fundamental Changes ​

Voxel Plugin Legacy (also known as Voxel Plugin 1.2, or VPL) and Voxel Plugin 2 (VP2) are completely separate pieces of software. Not a single system from Legacy exists in the same form in VP2.

Two core features from Legacy do not exist in VP2:

  • Voxel Physics (detecting floating pieces and making them fall).
  • Cubic and MagicaVoxel workflows.

There's also a big difference in how to approach creating your worlds:

In Voxel Plugin Legacy, the Voxel World 'owned' all data. If you wanted to assign a generator, or to apply edits, those changes were applied on the Voxel World.

In Voxel Plugin 2, the Voxel World is only a 'manager' instead. It holds no world data. The world data (graphs used to generate the world, for example, or sculpt data) is held by Voxel Stamps and `Volume/Height Sculpt Actors'. A scene can have as many stamps as you need, and they can be moved around individually. The Voxel World combines them all and generates the terrain from the result.

Overhauled Features ​

  • While both VPL and VP2 have a graph system, they are fundamentally different. VPL graphs cannot be migrated to VP2. C++ Generators do not exist in VP2.
  • Voxel Spawner Actor / Voxel Foliage Actor have been replaced by a PCG integration.
  • Materials have been overhauled; the plugin no longer uses Single Index or Multi Index materials. Materials must be reworked for VP2.
    • Materials no longer need to be built specifically for use with voxels, as long as they use sample textures using world position instead of UVs.
  • Data Items and Data Assets have been replaced by Voxel Stamps.
  • Landscape importer (and most other importers) do not currently exist in VP2. Heightmap data can be imported as a regular texture and used in a Heightmap Asset.
  • Voxel Physics does not exist in VP2.

Migrating an Existing Project ​

DANGER

If you are not using Source Control, create a back-up copy of your project before migrating.

Assets from Voxel Plugin Legacy cannot be migrated to 2.0. This includes Voxel Save data; sculpt information will be lost!

Delete any files and assets related to Voxel Plugin Legacy. Then, uninstall Voxel Plugin Legacy from the project and/or engine; VPL and VP2 cannot be installed simultaneously.

All Blueprint and C++ logic tied to Voxel systems will be broken. It will need to be redone to work with VP2's API.

Once this is done, you can move on with the rest of Getting Started.