Random Prop Generator for World Building
- Mar 1
- 2 min read
OVERVIEW
As part of my ongoing development in technical art, I created a tool in Unreal Engine that generates a random prop from a collection of assets, allowing users to manipulate properties such as its orientation and scale.
The tool was built to automate variation in world-building, specifically for densely populated virtual environments.
THE CHALLENGE
While a relatively simple idea, the objective was to design a tool that works efficiently to give users the agency to manipulate its various parameters, such as its orientation (rotation), scale, and materials, without having to adjust its blueprints manually.
ROLE & FOCUS AREAS
I assumed the role of a Technical Artist, designing and developing a tool that randomly spawns a 3D mesh from a pre-defined collection of assets
Developing tools like this automates laborious tasks in world building and virtual scene generation, specifically for Virtual Production.
SOLUTION & PROCESS
IDEATION
The core concept aims to develop an automated tool that randomly generates a mesh from a pre-defined collection to populate a virtual scene.
DESIGN
The tool's design and structure are two-tiered. The first tier features a setup that generates a random 3D object based on a collection of meshes. In this setup, the user can define a range for the object's orientation by defining a range for the mesh's yaw value. Similarly, they can define a range within which the object's size can be iterated.
The second tier features a setup that randomly generates materials from a collection pertaining to that specific mesh.
DEVELOPMENT
NODE SEQUENCE FOR RANDOM MESH GENERATION
As mentioned earlier, the first tier of logic randomly selects a static mesh from a pre-defined array of meshes.
Additionally, parameters to set the boundaries to randomise scale (uniformly) and the yaw (z-axis orientation) have been made accessible in the editor, giving users agency to manipulate the object's size and orientation.
NODE SEQUENCE FOR MATERIAL RANDOMISATION
In the second tier of logic, users can set variations of the mesh's material from a pre-defined array whose contents can be changed in the editor. This logic is achieved by comparing the current mesh generated with the mesh array. If the current mesh matches a certain asset in the collection, it unlocks its specific material array.
Hence, depending on the mesh generated, users can generate their respective material variations on command.
PROJECT OUTCOMES & NEXT STEPS
The project was a useful exercise in designing and developing technical tools to automate the world-building process. As a technical specialist with expertise in 3D Environment Design and Production, the tool is useful for rapid prop generation in virtual environments.
To improve functionality and intuitiveness, the tool could benefit from the ability to automatically generate a mesh's respective material collection.
