Change Log
Changes made for releases up to this point.
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Changes made for releases up to this point.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
This release brings a long list of small but important features and workflow improvements.
If moving from an older preview version, update version by version.
For example, if moving from 2.0p4, move the project to 2.0p5 first, and only then move it to 2.0p6.
Migration helpers are usually removed after one preview.
Metadata is now asset-based. Existing uses of metadata should be automatically migrated. The auto-created assets can safely be renamed and moved.
Material Channels (Metadata passed into materials as vertex data) have been removed. Materials will have to be manually updated to use the new Get Voxel Metadata node.
VoxelStamp can no longer be used as a Blueprint parent class. Instead, create an actor with a Voxel(Instanced)Stamp component
The Add and Remove blend modes have been removed for Height stamps. Use an override stamp instead.
Rendering latency has been significantly reduced, leading to much smoother edits. You can use voxel.ShowLatency 1 to see how long the voxel world takes to update
Preview meshes no longer duplicate when a stamp is duplicated
Actor names are no longer copied to the Label field when a stamp is duplicated
Parameter default changes now properly update the Voxel World
Metadata is now asset-based
Voxel Graph call stacks have been improved
Significantly improved MegaMaterial UI
By default, a pop-up now asks to add a new material to the MegaMaterial when first used
Various improvements to in-viewport stamp selection
Stamps can now be marked as viewport-unselectable. This can be useful for 'post-process' style Override stamps
MegaMaterialCache now lives in the Developer folder as it should be per-user
Added a Voxel dropdown menu with helpful settings
Added the ability to upload a Bug Report with an asset and its dependencies by right-clicking it in the content browser
Fixed excessive VoxelCharacter inheritance warnings
Fixed various crashes and back-end issues
See full Github changelog for specifics
Voxel Graphs are now created as a single asset type through a Blueprint-style type picker
Added a Voxel Stamp drawer (Ctrl-Q to open)
MaxLOD is now respected
Various back-end optimizations
Improved stamp tree build performance
Improved dependency performance
Added experimental runtime sculpting
Add WaitForVoxelWorld to Collision Invokers to prevent players falling through the world
True by default, does have overhead if you have hundreds of invokers
Default layers to be automatically assigned when placing a stamp can now be specified in the project settings
The stock layers (DefaultHeight, DefaultVolume) are now automatically added to newly created stack assets
Added Layered Materials for automated slope blending
This will likely be extended to include other blending factors (like height) in the future
PCG/BP queries will currently require the layered material for queried positions, not the material selected by the layered material
(Experimental) Added post-process material function to megamaterials
This has a range of known issues related to the use of material expressions present in the rest of the MegaMaterial
MegaMaterials now update without shader recompile when changing float-based parameters
Lumen MegaMaterials now account for emissive materials
Metadata is now queried using the Get Voxel Metadata node
Material channels (vertex data) have been removed
Textures are automatically generated to represent any metadata needed for a given chunk
Fixed SampleCurve nodes not working in MegaMaterials
Non-Nanite MegaMaterials now consider Masked rendering mode (disabled by default)
Made removing vertices with translucent materials toggleable
Main Graph details panel is now shown when nothing else is
Added optional graph-controlled blend mode and layer overrides
Added Sample Stamp node
Nodes now show their current value when a preview position is selected
Fixed copy-pasted Make Value and Parameter nodes not retaining their values
Add Editor Scripting for parameter nodes
Use this to control the state of a parameter in the details panel based on other parameters
This is likely to be extended in the future
The Unpack Materials node now outputs materials rather than indices
This can now easily be used for checking whether a material is present, or even one for another
Added a Pack Materials node to re-pack edited materials in the same way
Updated GetGradient so step size is specified on the node
Added modulo operator for floats
Added Get Transform Along Spline node
This doesn't currently respect the spline's tangents, only actual control point transforms
All function input (sub-)categories called "Advanced" are now collapsed by default
Functions can now be whitelisted to only work in specific graph types, and can have additional search keywords
Fixed an issue where the depth slider would change its position after the preview was moved
The Height Splitter node now takes buffers as inputs
Added a first iteration of sculpt graphs
The PCG integration and dependency tracking has been refactored to be faster and much more consistent/reliable
Safer workflows for stamp spawners and samplers, which previously risked generation loops:
Stamp Spawners now register their stamps immediately, rather than waiting a frame
Voxel Samplers now have a Dependency input pin. This can be used to ensure other parts of the graph are completed first
Dependency tracking can now be disabled per Voxel-querying node
This shouldn't usually be necessary, but can be helpful for specific usecases
Generation loops should be automatically caught, with a warning being thrown on detection
Just like with Preview 5, Mac & iOS are natively supported and a build is available with the Voxel Plugin Installer. This preview also adds back Android support.
VoxelStamp can no longer be used as a Blueprint parent class
This release is only available for 5.5. The plugin will not support 5.4 for any future releases.
This release brings a multitude of new features alongside significant usability and stability improvements.
One of the big new features is the addition of Height Spline Graphs (docs TBD).
The release also adds (experimental!) in-editor sculpting tools (docs TBD).
Lastly, we're introducing an (experimental!) block rendering solution, as well as flat normals (docs TBD).
As extra worthy mentions, this release:
Stabilizes the automatic MegaMaterials that were initially added in 2.0p4
Materials should no longer randomly render black
Material-related errors should be visibly raised on-screen
Various GPU and render crashes have been fixed
Adds support for Android and MacOS
Deprecations & Removals:
Non-asset layer and stack references have been removed.
If you still need to migrate your layers to assets, upgrade to 2.0p4 to do this first.
The previously deprecated Voxel Graphs are now fully disabled. Graphs built in the deprecated ("Complex") pipeline can still be opened as read-only assets, but they will not be useable anymore.
Biome Map assets have been removed.
Improved Layer and Stack UX
Improve Voxelized Mesh placement mode (toggled with Alt-V)
Add world-state stamp debugger
BiomeMaps have been deprecated
Metadata now only has one name field
Named metadata pins will need to be reconnected, and their names manually migrated to the Name field. The old pins should still be visible as (red) orphaned pins
Function nodes will have an orphaned Run Execution pin appear. These can be removed by right-clicking the pin
Improved graph preview UI
Nodes now show their current value when a position is selected in the preview
VPCG point scatter nodes have been refactored
Some manual migration will be required
Ensure StampSpawner stamps are spawned the moment the node finishes
This guarantees stamps will be ready for nodes depending on them that come after
To avoid regeneration loops, dependency tracking needs to be optional. This will be added in a future release
Remove VPCG point normal getter/setters. Use PointRotation with GetUpVector instead
Add GetProgress to VoxelWorld
Refactored all stamp-related API
Lots of back-end clean-up and optimizations
Disable progressive refinement when the game thread is stalled
Don't compute the editor voxel world when in PIE
Fix various ensures
Fix various shader compilation errors
Don't comple ISPC if plugin is in engine
Fix mobile compile/packaging errors
Add more test cases
This release brings mostly back-end improvements like the move from our own threadpool to Unreal's task system, the foundation of the new sculpting system (not yet usable in this release) and layers and stacks now being asset-based. It also introduces automatic MegaMaterials, which lets you use any material that's set up for Nanite displacement as an automatically displaced and height-blended material on voxel terrains.
General Improvements
Remove voxel threads and move to the Unreal task system
This should help avoid scheduling conflicts between voxel and unreal threads
Voxel tasks are scheduled as BackgroundLow, so they shouldn't block the game or render thread in any way
voxel.SetNumWorkerThreads can be used to lower the amount of worker threads to simulate lower-end hardware. Be mindful that this now affects the entire engine's thread pool, not just the voxel threads
Layers and Stacks are now asset-based, instead of being defined in the project settings
Allow for removing parts of the terrain entirely by assigning translucent materials
Fix override blend mode on mesh stamps
Disable bulk data in StampComponents to fix packaged game crash
Fix issues with applying shader hooks
Fix tooltips
Fix Mac compilation
Add static metadata to height and volume graph stamps
Add material overrides to placed heightmap stamps
Fix 2D PCG Projection node metadata values with Update Rotation
Add automatic MegaMaterials
Add tangents (to allow use of tangent space transforms)
Remove support for baking WPO to collision
Add Async Query Layer nodes
Update Sync/Async Export Data to Render Target nodes, to support multiple channels
Add modifiers as sculpting framework
These will be the backbone for the new sculpting system, which is partially implemented but not yet usable
Refactor Get/SetVoxelGraphParameter
Fix stamp serialization
Fix various warnings
Refactor voxel futures
Remove outdated ensures
Add automated tests
Remove
VOXEL_ALLOW_MALLOC_SCOPE
VOXEL_ENQUEUE_RENDER_COMMAND
TVoxelUniquePtr
MakeVoxelShared
MakeVoxelShareable
FVoxelMemory
Fix shutdown crash
Add VOXEL_DEV_WORKFLOW
Improve DEFINE_PRIVATE_ACCESS
Fix deadlock in FVoxelMaterialManager::FindOrAddMaterialIndex
Fix segmented bitmask enum undetermined value
Fix StampBehavior enum
Exclude RF_MirroredGarbage in ForEachObjectOfClass
This release brings substantial UX and performance improvements. The biggest new features are Progressive Refinement and the Instanced Stamp Component (and its accompanying Spawn Voxel Stamps PCG node).
General Improvements
Add progressive LOD refinement
Change LODs to be set by Quality (higher is better but slower) instead of Screen Size
Quality is set using a range slider, with progressive refinement starting at Min and stopping at Max
Add separate LOD settings for Editor and Game worlds
Improve Stack and Layer picker widgets across the plugin
Add Wait For Lumen toggle to decouple Lumen Scene updates from mesh updates
Add Wait On BeginPlay toggle to stall the game until the voxel world is done generating
Add automatic in-editor thread allocation
Move stacks to be named, and defined in project settings
Substantially speed up navigation and collision generation by adding dedicated meshers (>3.5x)
Substantially improve details panel performance when many stamps are selected
Add Nanite Component settings (includes VSM Invalidation Behavior, which is now set to Rigid by default to prevent VSM invalidation)
Add LOD setting to all Query nodes
Add Query Height/Distance/Material/Metadata nodes
Add RaymarchLayerDistanceField node (VPG only), similar to PCG's Projection nodes
Fix suggestions in the node search menu in 5.5
Add MakeRotationFromX/Y nodes
Re-add support for GetLOD
Add UnpackMaterial node for retrieving material weights
Add GetPreviousMaterial and GetPreviousMetadata nodes
Add IsValid output pin to GetPreviousHeight, GetPreviousDistance and add IsFinite node
Add more keywords to various nodes for better searchability
Add double positions to graphs
Improve stamp details panel UX
Add customization for blend mode
Update property order to make more sense
Add LODRange to control which LODs are affected by any given stamp
Update and improve Voxelized Mesh Asset preview
Fix endless compute loops in Voxelized Mesh Assets
Allow drag-and-dropping Voxelized Mesh assets into the world
Add stamp placement mode where static meshes dragged into the world are automatically placed as mesh stamps
This mode is activated by pressing Alt-V
Add automatic stamp actor labeling to automatically renames stamp actors when their configuration changes
This functionality can be tweaked or disabled entirely from the Project Settings
Improve Call Voxel Graph
Use the graph name as node title
Expose graph as pin
Allow to have multiple point set outputs
Refresh PCG graph on Voxel PCG Graph change
Add Voxel Query node for querying arbitrary layer data
Add support for updating rotation when projecting to Height layer
Add automatic conversion between G8 and G16 compression
This means MegaMaterial compression type errors are no longer thrown when all textures are set to Grayscale compression
Fix Marching Cube shader hook on 5.5
Add Query Voxel Layer nodes
Add Stamp configuration nodes, allowing data source, layers, smoothness, etc. to be modified
Allow VoxelStampComponent access in blueprints
Rename VoxelGraphCore to VoxelGraph
Fix CoarseStreaming Nanite crash
Fix FVoxelTextureBufferPool::ProcessUploadsImpl_AnyThread
Fix seed migration
Unify VisibilityCollision, Nanite and Mesh rendering into one subsystem
Rename VoxelRenderChunkTreeSubsystem to VoxelRenderSubsystem
Add voxel.MaxChunksToProcessPerPass
Add ShouldGenerateChildren
Fix promise tracking on Linux
Add FVoxelUtilities::ResetPreviousLocalToWorld for static meshes
Switch to FForkProcessHelper::CreateForkableThread to support forking on Linux
Refactor FVoxelStampQueryParameter
Return infinite bounds if intersecting
Check IsLoadingAssets in stamp component
Make UVoxelMeshStampPreviewComponent transient
Cleanup StampComponent child components
Fix UVoxelVoxelizedMeshAssetUserData::GetAsset when asset has invalid tags
Fix UVoxelMegaMaterial::PostLoad
Cleanup task dispatchers and add voxel.VerboseTaskCount
Remove voxel.DebugNaniteMaterials to fix materials when Substrate is enabled
Add customizations for stamp blend modes
Fix height stamps being offset
Fix invalid reserve in FVoxelRenderSubsystem
Remove FVoxelStampArray
Add FVoxelLayerRef
Fix invalidation issue
Move query code to FVoxelQuery
Fix MipData crash
Fix DumpToLog
Fix PreviousChunkKeyToNavigationMesh not being cleared
Fix voxel tickers not ticking during loading screen
Remove VoxelActorBase and disable VoxelWorld tick by default
Move components to voxel runtime
Add SegmentedEnumCustomization and SVoxelSegmentedControl
Add framework for automated testing
Add ForEachAssetDataOfClass
Add FVoxelTestManager
Execute Then_GameThread inline if possible
Add implicit TVoxelFuture casting
Add geometry utilities
Add GetEnumDisplayName
Fix DEFINE_VOXEL_COUNTER in namespaces on Mac
Allow having TVoxelSet
Faster zip writer
Increase log verbosity
Optimize FVoxelMesher::CreateMesh
Fix FVoxelInvokerCollisionSubsystem::Compute not being parallel
Add heightmap weights edit support
Add FVoxelTransformRef::Make constant support
Remove FVoxelTransformRef from stamp components
Change graph stamps LocalToWorld to not use component transform
Optimize bulk stamp invalidation
Rename AABBTree functions
Fix UVoxelStampComponent::FindComponent
Fix expand structs button
Fix SegmentedEnumCustomization perf
Update VoxelLayerRef customization
Update LayerName and LayerRef editors
Layer, Graph and Metadata assets now have
(Experimental!) Added first iteration of
is now available for MacOS
Any existing systems using Stamp APIs will need to be manually migrated. See the for a (very) brief guide to the new API
Unrelated to this release, but worth mentioning, is that we've spun up a new , where we track bugs, crashes and (small) features we're planning to add.
Add
Add Voxel Stamp Spawner node, which spawns stamps using an
