Embedded Files
This tab is where you can easily edit and modify existing volumes. A variety of tools are available:
Edit individual points on a volume, manually changing the shape
Regenerate volumes with modified generation settings
Recalling generation settings from a volume
Reset the location, rotation and scale of the volume to it's original location
Update the volume's colour (if using Voluamtor's opacity system)
Subtract (cut away) one volume's shape from another volume
Run a suite of repair functions on the volume mesh
Change the class of a volume
Combine volumes together to create a single one
Separate previously combined volumes back to their original shape
Most of the functions on this panel require the volume to have a valid Volumator_Data component, this is enabled by default, but it does mean you can't use these features on volumes not created with Volumator.
As a reminder, each setting mentioned on here will have more detailed information in the appropriate Settings page elsewhere on this site.
Edit Tutorial
Edit Vertices On Volume
This powerful feature lets you directly modify the individual points making up the volume.
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.
Entering Edit Vertices shows a spline made up of the processed points making up the volume. Here we have one of the vertices selected in the bottom right.
After deleting the point in the previous image we commited the edit. You can now see the corner of the volume has been cut off. As always, a quick test has been run on the generated volume and you can see some warnings being displayed for this area.
In this example, an extremely acute angle has resulted in a major problem
Entering Edit mode, we can see the problematic vertex, highlighted above
We physically move it to the location we want (or delete it)
Then we commit the edit and that section has been fixed
As the editing process circumvents the 'generation' part of volume building, any regeneration of the volume after you've edited vertices 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.
If you attempt to regenerate a volume that you've previously edited, Volumator will warn you that you'll lose those changes and ask for you to confirm the action. You'll have a few seconds to confirm by reclicking, at which point the volume will be regenerated as requested and your edited points will be lost. You can of course re-edit the volume at any time.
Vertex editing is not available in Voxel mode as there is no perimeter to edit. It is however available on vertices-only mode and allows you to directly manipulate the vertices you added during building.
Regenerating Volumes and Recalling Settings
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.
Regenerating a volume with Resolution at 200
Regenerating a volume with Resolution at 500
Note the complexity difference between the two volumes as a result of regenerating with different resolution.
This change can be achieved by a simple button press, no need to rescan the area again
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.
Reset Volume Transform
A simple tool to reposition the volume's location back to it's originally detected location. It also resets scale and rotation back to 0. This will effectively reset any adjustments you've made back to the originally created/detected ones.
This can be handy if you've previously adjusted the volume's location/rotation/scale 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 transform is somewhat important as quick tests and validation system may result in incorrect results otherwise you may get false positives... but you do you :)
Change Opacity Color
If you're using non-simple volume opacity (i.e. Volumator's opacity system, which is the default) you can chang the color of the opacity, and thus the apparent color of the volume. This can be super handy to help you identify different volumes.
Pressing 'Change Opacity Color' will change the color of the volume's opacity to whatever the current color is specified in Generation Settings Advanced / Opacity Color.
In order to correctly see the opacity, you should ensure that the following settings are also applied:
Opacity on Create (true) - When a volume is created, opacity is enabled
Use Simple Opacity (false) - Uses Volumator's opacity component when setting up opacity, this allows color selection
It's also worth noting that you can store presets of settings, which includes the opacity color. This means you can, for example, create different presets for different volume classes, and ensure their opacity is a different color, allowing you to easily identify them in a map. Or different complexity amounts as different colors, or any other way you want to separate volumes into colored groups. It's a handy system.
On the right, we see the three opacity settings and below a volume with pink opacity color.
Subtract Volume
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.
Here we have two volumes, one is overlapping into the adjacent room and we want to carve out the shape using the other volume
We select the problematic volume first, the one with the shape to be removed. Then we select the other volume, which will do the 'subtracting'
After pressing Subtract the first volume has had it's shape changed so they will no longer have any overlap
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.
The volume here is cutting into the wall on the right a little. We can subtract the wall from the volume; by selecting the volume, then the wall, then clicking Subtract Volume.
As you can see, the volume now closely matches the shape of the wall. However the complexity is very high and it's also likely that warnings will be generated on that wall. However, it can be helpful in some edge cases to do this.
Repair Volume's Mesh
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.
Change Volume Class
With Change Volume Class we can easily change the... umm... class of the volume, obviously. Importantly this will retain the shape of the volume, so means if you have different volume classes for different purposes, you can freely switch between them without losing any shape work you have done in volumator.
An example of this would be Audiokinetic Wwise's different audio volumes, such as AkSpatialAudioVolumes and AkReverbZones, where later in development you may need to switch from one to the other.
Importantly the original volume remains in the map after the new one has been created. This is a deliberate choice so you can copy/paste any actor-components from the old volume over to the new one if you need. So, remember to delete the old volume if you don't need it!
You can get this function to auto-delete the old volume by searching for the 'change volume class' function and hooking up the clearly labelled red section.
Combine Volumes
An important feature is the ability to combine multiple volumes to create a single one. This can help with awkward shapes, connected areas or areas with differing shapes at different heights.
We select any number of volumes and then press Combine Volumes. The first selected volume becomes the parent and absorbs the others.
When combining volumes, remember that the new parent (the first selected volume) is the one that will have the variables on it (e.g. any sounds, vfx, other volume variables), so you may want to select your first volume appropriately.
The volumes must intersect (overlap) in some way, Volumator will tell you if they don't and refuse to combine. This is to ensure that the two volumes do actually combine into a single shape.
Here we have an area made of two 'floors' of differing dimensions. If we needed the bottom floor to respect it's similar smaller dimensions we need two volumes
We make two volumes for the two floors, as you can see they have different sizes to reflect the two floors
Pressing Combine Volumes converts the two volumes into one, perfectly creating the space.
A volume that has been combined cannot be regenerated in any way (e.g. Regenerate Volume, Edit Vertices, any of the Tweak controls will not work). In order to carry out any regeneration, you first have to Separate the volume back out (see below).
A combined volume can also have further additional volumes combined into it if you need... although it typically better to combine in one go if you are able.
There is a column in the report that will allow you to easily identify any combined volumes (see image on right).
On the right of the report you'll see the 'combine' column
Separate Volumes
A previously combined volume can be separated back out to it's previous multiple volumes with Separate Volumes.
This should preserve everything as it was prior to combining, so location, rotation, scale and shape should be remembered correctly.
Using separate you can split a combined volume apart, make changes to the separated volumes and then recombine them back again into a single volume.
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