The Best NEW way to Create Unreal 5.5 Environments (Beginner Tutorial)

[@futurefamiliar]

Thanks for checking out the video! If you're interested in more Unreal Engine 5 environment art workflows, let me know what specific challenges you're facing. I'm always learning new approaches and happy to share what works for me. Quick links to resources mentioned: ⌛ Previous Dash overview: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5nFaYN9jNxmrdE 🎙 Podcast episode with Dash founder: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXemh6WXmZaojrc 🔗 Where to get Dash: www.polygonflow.io I read all comments and try to help where I can!

[@kurtissebring349]

I saw the struggle of placement. The end key will drop an object to the surface of the first thing underneath it... for things that will still ned micromanagement i mean

[@IndianCitizen04]

I can't express my joy as I discovered your channel with such a wonderful tutorial. I got what I was searching for longtime - a basic but detailed tutorial on DASH at step by step. Thanks a lot. Subscribed.

[@futurefamiliar]

Really appreciate the comment, I'm glad that the video helps and welcome to the channel!

[@musashidanmcgrath]

10:20 - it looks like you can't link to assets on your local drive? Surely that can't be the case?

[@futurefamiliar]

Yeah you can, that is what I was trying to explain there but didn't actually demonstrate it. Here is the link to the section in their documentation that covers it in more detail docs.polygonflow.io/getting-started/user-interface/content-browser#external-projects

[@nmatthes2927]

Holy moly this tool is epic

[@trueoutlaw13]

Editor Preferences > General > Keyboard Shortcuts: Add shortcuts to things like surface snapping to reduce usability friction if you can't get this plugin. Looks great but quite expensive. Epic also did a stream recently talking about workflow tips and tricks that might cover some of the functionality this plugin may make more obvious.

[@futurefamiliar]

Appreciate the comment will definitely check out the stream! Agreed on throwing surface snapping as a keyboard shortcut probably well worth setting that and a few other things up. Think I probably slow burned the payoff on that one with the most simple of examples up front, a few minutes later in the video I show what I really use most of the time is that in combination with dragging assets into the scene from the content browser and getting instant access to scatter, physics, and the interactive move tool. I think shortcuts can probably be set up like you suggest which would help when some assets are already in the scene but for me at least dragging assets in and immediately getting the options to do those handful of actions has really become second nature, timestamp is if you didn't make it that far: 30:03 Have a good one!

[@trueoutlaw13]

@@futurefamiliar The tool looks very useful, for sure, and your video was good! Wasn't trying to be critical or disparage you, the video or the plugin itself😅

[@ellc84]

This one Sucks a little bit for placement if you have to activate every time, other engines in games industry, Ctrl moves object to surface keeping object fixed up axis Ctrl + shift moves object to hit normal like you showed l. Ctrl + shift + middle mouse scroll rotated object at increment set in snap. This means you can move object in horizontal or snap to axis and rotate really quickly. Another nice short cut was middle mouse click down which puts the object pivot at the ray hit location temporarily until another object selected so you can quickly for example make an array of objects around another object. And one last personal favorite right click with object select and choose select by connected material. This searches in a distance of say 0.5m of the select object for any objects with same material, which is great for say selecting 20 fences close to each other with one click. More power in general is the Houdini or pcg tools for real control which we should be harnessing more.

[@futurefamiliar]

Appreciate the comment! Yeah absolutely, coming from Blender where I felt like a hotkey ninja with all of the add-ons I could find, for some reason I never quite developed a hotkey focused workflow in Unreal, could just be the way I learned the program though. Agreed on PCG and Houdini being incredibly powerful, I really found it gratifying to build out a network in Houdini the few times I've stuck with it long enough to get something working well, though when I'm just wanting to assemble a scene and focus on the art direction I really love the speed Dash is able to offer through surfacing some of the most common things I would want to do with a tool through Houdini Engine or PCG without needing to spend the time building the solution myself. If you didn't make it past the beginning part of the video where I first focused on the simple placement stuff I'd recommend checking out my other video on Dash where I show some of its other features that help speed up various things in interesting ways. May not be for everyone but as an artist just interested in the art direction side of things rather than technical I think as an overall package it definitely can help people get their vision realized much quicker than before :D

[@HussinKhan]

I’m new to Dash, this is super helpful, thanks

[@futurefamiliar]

Glad it was helpful!

[@vertz3d314]

I wonder can i bing in for example MAWI trees or assets and also wondering about snow effects etc. I am new to unreal engine but want to build specific environment from actual place in my city and i ry to get it as identical and realistic as possible. Othe issue i have encountered over all in unreal is that grass looks fake (especially the wind animation) like waves of sea. Looks so fake Any recomendations regarding those assets? As for example in some of those tree assets you could also change seasoning on thiose trees (autum, winter etc)

[@christopher_cdw]

Great ty. Very useful. But given the pursuit of realism, these environments are too gamey for my taste. It's not just about efficiencies in model building because bloom levels and satuation will affect how these placed assets interact with each other, visually. But I'm picking hairs really on what is otherwise an excellent presentation. Thanks again.

[@futurefamiliar]

appreciate the comment Christopher!

[@JieDu-yj2vd]

Can this tool download the assets in megascans? What is the principle and why can it download external assets?

[@futurefamiliar]

It cannot download Megascans directly but it can for other libraries like Polyhaven (using an API integration with Polyhaven I believe) which they also plan to do with more libraries in the future. For Megascans assets once you have downloaded them from Quixel Bridge, or I imagine Fab going forward, you can interact with and place them using the Dash content drawer in more interesting ways than just using the default content drawer in Unreal. I cover this in the section on the content browser in more detail in the video.

[@JieDu-yj2vd]

@@futurefamiliarAre the listed assets downloaded and loaded into the tool in megascans in advance?

[@_casg]

Why doesn’t unreal engine ui work with a pen stylus ? I haven’t used a mouse in years

[@Blue-dq7ze]

Can I use assets from my own asset library???

[@futurefamiliar]

yep, I cover it in the content browser section at 7:29 :D

[@somenoe-com]

Please make the === on the description have equal length. =========================== Where you can find us =============================

[@futurefamiliar]

haha oh man good catch, updated!

[@chrissmichaels]

Can you create me a plain terrain?

[@cser2453]

Grr I hate how everyone lists Dash as the tool to use. Bc I just don’t know if. I wanna throw $200+ at it to buy the life time version or not >.< lol

[@KonradTamas]

The price tho... Its not for my noob ass

[@futurefamiliar]

From what I’ve seen in their Discord they are super gracious with handing out quite extended free trials for those who need more time to get comfortable with the plugin (6 months iirc)

[@KonradTamas]

@@futurefamiliar Sounds good thanks Have you been thinking about making tutorials on other topics of unreal, besides environment design ? Your prez style is good

[@futurefamiliar]

@@KonradTamas appreciate that! Yeah absolutely planning to branch out to more of Unreal and worldbuilding in general. Still getting used to the flow of creating KZbin videos so its been a bit slow at the start but hoping to get faster and be able to post more and better content. Any areas of Unreal you'd be especially interested in seeing covered?

[@chiya_mohammed]

This plugin One Month can get Trail. I just got 15 days' permission because it was used on 2 machines. after can't get any Extending.

[@futurefamiliar]

If you need a longer trial ask in their Discord I've seen them provide up to 6 month extensions before 😄