LandscapeGrass and DistanceFieldLightning

Is there a way to affect the grass instanced by the LandscapeGrass node with Distance Field Lightning?

Hi DavideParadisi,

Landscapes do not currently support Distance Field shadowing. This makes sense for things like the landscape grass type to not support it as well. For things like grass you also want to keep make sure that you’re not using distance fields for these types of meshes since there are so many it can easily reach the limit.

Distance Field Ambient Occlusion is still supported for these though since the landscape uses a heightfield to generate the AO.

-Tim

Thanks for the reply, do i have to generate the AO manually? Because right now my grass doesn’t have any occlusion from the skylight

If you’ve got Distance Fields enabled and a movable skylight in your level it generates on its own.

You can visualize it by going to the main Viewport > Show > Visualize > Distance Field Ambient Occlusion

I have a simple tutorial on my personal site that shows you some of the settings for the DFAO that you can adjust: http://timhobsonue4.snappages.com/distance-fields-ambient-occlusion

Also keep in mind that Ambient Occlusion really only shows up in more softly lit areas underneath areas and in cracks/crevices. When something is directly lit by the light you’ll not notice this effect as prominently.

Hi again, i think the editor is set up correctly and i have DFAO on my dynamic meshes but the landscape isn’t generating any heightfield.

That’s only using the Mesh Distance Field visualization. You won’t see Landscapes in there like that since they aren’t supported. They generate a heightfield which is not represented in this view.

Comparison of a scene with a landscape with grass and DFAO visualization.

Now i see… thank you, is there a way to lift up the value of the AO for the landscape?

You can use the Contrast setting in the Skylight under the Distance Field Ambient Occlusion section to adjust how much contrast there is.