Generating Procedural HexGrid Maps in Unreal (Devlog)

Описание

We're finally adding some structure (landmasses and oceans) to our randomly generated hex grid map system!

In this video, I show how to use multiple layers of procedural noise in Unreal Engine (UE4/UE5) to create an infinite number of hexgrid map variations. These procedural generated maps make use of one instanced static mesh that is created at runtime and shaped according to multiple layers of procedural noise that are projected onto to the hexgrid to determine tile elevation.

Once tile elevation has been determined, a material uses the absolute world position of each tile to assign the tile to a terrain category: underwater, sand, grass, plains, rocky, mountain, snow.

The old water tiles have now been "demoted" to underwater tiles to provide ocean depth and a single plane mesh is being used to represent our water, along with a new material that uses depth fade to show that new ocean depth.

The effect is an early prototype of a randomly generated terrain map on a hexagonal grid.

I'm looking forward to adjusting the visual style of the hexgrid and beginning to add more character to the tile terrain types and finer details.

I've included the Unreal Engine 5 project files in a link below.

If you enjoyed this Unreal Engine tutorial, please like and subscribe!

Other HexGrid Episodes:

E01 - Creating a HexGrid System in Unreal Engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-1O4BHdkfA
E02 - 250,000 Random Terrain Tiles in Unreal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVX1tfmWqrA
E03 - Generating Procedural Hexgrid Maps in Unreal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVp-tDwZkes
E04 - Top Down Camera Made Easy in Unreal Engine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGoSZb13V-U
E05 - One Easy Way to Manipulate Instanced Meshes
https://youtu.be/vR_SFvSPXYw

If you would like to download the files for the Unreal project, you can visit the StayAtHomeDev Discord and check out the # tutorial-files channel.

StayAtHomeDev Discord: https://discord.gg/dmYbvFYQRQ

Resources:
FastNoise Library - https://github.com/Auburn/FastNoise2
FastNoise Unreal Plugin - https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/fast-noise-generator?sessionInvalidated=true
ColdBlaze Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qfPIYfXOvg0SDAc8Z68WA

Chapters:

0:00 Start
0:25 Getting FastNoise Working with Blueprints
1:37 Integrating the Noise into the HexGrid Map System
2:17 Using Instance Transform to Determine Noise Coordinates
3:16 First Layerof Procedural Noise Projection
3:50 Adding Depth to Our Water
5:17 Using Tile Elevation to Determine Terrain Type
7:40 PerInstanceRandom Node
8:25 Finalized First Layer of Procedural Noise
8:51 Adding a Second Layer of Procedural Noise
10:02 Realtime Generation of HexGrid Maps with Different Seeding

PC Specs:
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-core CPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Programs Used:
Unreal Engine 5.0.3
Blender 2.8
OBS
DaVinci Resolve
Adobe Photoshop
PreSonus Studio One

My Gear:
Panasonic G7
Panasonic 15-33mm lens
Shure MV7X XLR Mic
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2
Samson Boom Mic Stand
Elgato Stream Deck Mk II
Elgato Cam Link 4K
Elgato Multi Mount (camera)
Elgato Key Light Air (2x)

#proceduralgeneration #unrealengine #map