Edit

Edit Tutorial

With a volume selected, click Edit Vertices On Volume, a new actor called Volumator_Spline will appear in the map. It extracts the perimeter points making up the currently generated volume. You can then select and move the individual points to create new shapes. You can also delete problematic points too. 

Once you have finished editing, press Commit Edits, or Cancel Editing to quit. Commiting the points will generate the volume as if the generation system had processed the points to create that outcome. You can even enter point editing again and make further edits, picking up where you left off.

As the editing process circumvents the 'processing' part of generation, any regeneration of the volume after editing will revert the shape to it's original form. So typically you would want to tweak your resolution, expand, simplify, etc settings for the volume first, and then use Edit Vertices as a final step to perfect the volume if needed.

To be clear, the following processes will clear out your vertex edits and revert the volume's shape to it's pre-edited shape:

• Regenerate Selected Volume

• Expand tweak 

• Resolution tweak

• Simplify tweak

So in the event you want to wipe your edits and start again, just press the Regenerate button (possibly with 'Recall' first to ensure the volume's generation settings are retained)

Vertex editing is not available in Voxel mode as there is no perimeter. It is however available on vertices-only mode and allows you to directly manipulate the vertices you added during building.

Regenerating allows you to rebuild the selected volume with new widget settings. Volumator provides a huge amount of adjustment to the shape and definition of the volume. By regenerating we can optimise our volumes to suit our needs. The below is examples of what can be changed:

• Height

• Simplicity (3 different methods)

• Size (expand/contract)

• Force to concave shape

• Various error reduction techniques

Regenerate always uses Volumator's current settings when updating the selected volume. However, you can recall the settings that were used to create the volume using 'Recall Settings From Volume'. This allows you to tweak only the values you care about, by recalling settings and then changing only what you need.

Recall Settings will update most of Volumator's Detection, Generation and Generation Advanced settings. Other settings not related to the volume will not get updated, such as Validation, Drone, Tester and Widget settings, it should all be fairly intuitive when using.

A simple tool to reposition the volume's location back to it's originally detected location. This can be handy if you've previously moved the volume's location for some reason. It's nice to know that you're free to move the volume around knowing that this button will snap it back into position.

The volume being in the correct location is somewhat important as quick tests (both those run from the Quick Test button and when regenerating the volume) rely on the volume being in it's expected position, otherwise you may get false positives... but you do you :) 

Another simple tool to rest the rotation and scale of the volume. This can be handy if you've previously change these settings on the actor for some reason. It's nice to know that you're free to move the volume around knowing that this button will snap it back into position.

If you're using non-simple volume opacity, there can be certain operations that cause the opacity's mesh to get out of sync with the actual volume shape. This button will update the opacity mesh to match the volume shape.

An example would be undoing a regeneration. If you change, say, Resolution of a volume, regenerate it, the volume will change shape. If you then undo that operation, the opacity will not be undone, resulting in a wireframe volume that looks different to the opacity shape. This is a limitation of Unreal's undo functionality unfortunately, but can be fixed by pressing this button. It is purely cosmetic and the functionality of the volume is always correct, it's just to ensure it looks correct to you.

A regeneration always runs this process and so you'll likely rarely need this button, but it's there if you get stuck for some reason.

You can attempt to repair the geometry of the volume with this tool. This can help fix, clean up or generally repair volumes with bad geometry. It is usually not necessary as a suite of operations are run during Volumator's generation process, but it can aid non-Volumator volumes or subtracted/combined volumes covered below.

This button also locks in any scale or rotation changes you've made to the actor as it rebuilds the mesh based on current settings. So after using Repair, the scale and rotation on the actor will be default and Volumator's reset buttons will return the volume to this shape. As with everything, this can be totally wiped by using the Regenerate button. 

Repair runs the following operations:

- Welds edges - will fill in any missing faces

- Raycast occlusion test - removes any hidden geometry inside the mesh

- Self union - repairs self-intersections, further removes floating geometry

- Simplify - cleans up any mess caused by the above

Note: Repair does not regenerate the volume using Volumator data, instead it works directly with the brush component. Therefore, regenerating the volume after running repair will restore the volume to it's previous (bad?) state.

It's rare that you'll need this button, but it can be handy with edge cases such as when subtracting and combining volumes causes some weirdness.

In cases where volumes are overlapping, it can be helpful to simply subtract one volume's shape from another.

Selection order is important here, you must first select the volume that will have it's area removed. Then you select the volume that will be used to subtract. With these two selected, press Subtract volume and the first volume will have it's shape changed, with the shape of the second volume cut away from the first.

The volume height is respected, so you may need to scale up height of the second volume to ensure it cuts away all of the height of the first volume. You can always copy/paste the second volume, scale up the copy's height, use the copy for subtract purposes and then safely remove it, leaving the original.

The multi-volume testing can aid you in finding areas with volume overlaps. This can help identify areas that could benefit from either volume subtraction or vertex editing.

As with Vertex Editing, any regeneration of the volume will return the volume's shape to it's original generated shape, so again it's best to see this as a polishing or final stage.

Subtract volume can also be used with static mesh actors aswell, in that you can remove the shape of a static mesh from a volume, e.g. a piece of wall geometry can be removed from a volume. However this isn't usually recommended unless the geometry is very clean, as typically the resultant volume will have too much complexity, see below example.

Similar to the Subtract Volume feature, we can combine two volumes to create a single one. This can help with awkward shapes, connected areas or areas with differing shapes at differint heights.

Like the Subtract feature, we select two volumes (order doesn't matter here) and then press Combine Volumes. The second volume gets 'absorbed' into the first. The second volume actor then gets deleted, leaving just the single compost volume occupying what was previously the first volume. 

As with Subtract, the Data component doesn't get updated, so tests and regenerates will not longer work, they will simply assume the volume is still the original shape of the first volume. Therefore, it's best to do any volume combining last.

The two volumes must intersect (overlap) in some way, Volumator will tell you if they don't. This is to ensure that the two volumes do actually combine into a single shape.

This handy section allows you to easily nudge the Expand (enlarge), Resolution and Simplification settings on the selected volume.

It's the same as Recalling the settings on the select volume, adjusting the particular setting slightly and regenerating the volume. 

Using these buttons you can rapidly tweak the volume to improve it how you need. As always, a quick test is run after generating the volume, you so you can easily see the change in warnings and errors that your changes make.

The 3 Reset buttons will reset the volume back to the setting that was used when you first generated the volume during the detection phase. This again means you're free to play around with it, knowing you can return to it's original settings.

If you'd like to learn more about Expand, Resolution and Simply, check out the page on settings.