UE5 World Partition Part 5 System Requirements

[@jamesgtmoore]

Yesterday i estimated the resolution of the landscapes used by Dark Age of Camelot (2003) MMORPG. It has 3 realms Albion, Hibernia and Midgard and each has about 8 zones north to south and east to west although the total area is not square so there are not 64 zones. Each zone, which is square in shape, is about 336 metres wide and each vertex in the landscape has about 4 virtual metres between them so the resolution per zone is about 84 X 84! So small but quite effective back then.

[@demenzunmedia]

Interesting information!

[@jd-foo]

World partition doesn't seems to be production ready at all, actually it seems to be completely unusable, even in development stages. My GPU has 10GB of VRAM only, and it can't handle to convert a 64K (8x8) map, but even worse is that I know people with graphic cards equipping 24GB that are having the same "out of memory" error.

[@demenzunmedia]

It is production ready if you have a 128GB+24GB system, which is all that Epic apparently designed it to work with for importing etc (I am being a bit facetious here). A 128GB system has 64GB of GPU Shared memory, so a 64GB+24GB system can readily handle maximum size heightmaps for their GPU memory requirements. Once you have the World Partition heightmap imported, then you can use a mid-range computer to do the rest of the terrain work. A 32GB+8GB system is usually enough. Epic just did a really sloppy job of the code for the importer and converter, having it require the full amount of GPU memory to convert all of the DXT MIP textures at once instead of logically doing them one at a time. So the World Partition coder is an idiot, and didn't take memory footprint into consideration, he just programmed it the easiest way for himself with the least amount of coding. I had hopes that Epic would fix up the code and make the importer more sane in its memory usage, but their Roadmap says that they are introducing another totally different terrain system in the future, so now instead of simply fixing World Partition, they will have four terrain systems to manage. Idiots. Keep in mind that your GPU can use up to 50% of your main memory, so if you only have 16GB or 32GB of main memory, bump that up to at least 64GB and preferably 128GB. A 128GB+10GB system has 64GB+10GB of GPU Shared memory.

[@jd-foo]

Great input. I have a 32/8 32/10 (Can switch the GPU with another machine) system and as you said, it's not enough for a 8x8 map. I could try to duplicate the RAM but I really doubt that can make it.

[@demenzunmedia]

@@jd-foo- 32GB+10GB will only give you 16GB+10GB GPU Shared memory for World Partition importing and conversion, which really limits your maximum size that you can handle before you get a memory error. IMHO you should have at least 128GB+24GB for any serious World Partition work, and a minimum 64GB+24GB or 128GB+12GB. I do offer importing and conversion services, as I have a Xeon 24-Core 512GB+24GB system specifically for working with World Partition and UE5. If you for example have a heightmap that you require importing, I can do that for you for a small fee. See the Services page on my website. Rates are negotiable. That said, if you can bump up your computer to at least 64GB main memory, you will find that UE5 performs much better with that amount of memory. 32GB is really minimal for use with UE5.

[@jd-foo]

@@demenzunmediathanks for the offer, you know, last night I made a last attempt with a different 8K heightmap and I got it partitioned in like 15 seconds without any problems. This new map doesn't seems to be less detailed than the previous I tried, so I don't know. I'm happy I got it working but I don't really know what to think about where is the problem with this tool. 🤷‍♂

[@demenzunmedia]

@@jd-foo- I cannot say where any issue may be since I am unfamiliar with the full functionality of the plugin. The plugin could be buggy or the Unreal Engine itself can be flaky at times. Perhaps the plugin requires a certain workflow otherwise it can be troublesome. If you have any other questions on TerreSculptor or heightmaps or importing into Unreal Engine, feel free to post here or on my Discord. I'm happy to help. There is a big Free TS2.0 update to be released in a couple of days, that includes bug fixes and the new completed Reference Manual.

[@sertac6588]

Hi direct question, why dont you seperate them to 2x2 or 4x4 parts? I ve watched your all videos but 3 days passed and i can not find answer of this question anywhere..I made 8 parts of landscape total size is 16x16km so each part is 2x2km ,when i looaded all maps i dont figure it out how to close non used landscapes in game mode becouse its drain all memory so noone can play like this. Using streaming landscapes but its hide static meshes not the landscapes. Can help me please thanks.

[@demenzunmedia]

Splitting a heightmap into 2x2 or 4x4 Tiles makes no difference on Importing. All Tiles are combined into a single heightmap in Unreal Engine and then split into Landscape Streaming Proxies for the size of the terrain. If you mean to use 2x2 or 4x4 *separate* Landscape actors, then the issue is that you have no proper way to connect the edges of the Landscapes together. So you will have seams between the Landscapes, with no way to paint or sculpt or texture across them. However, when played, if you have the Streaming Source set up correctly, the Landscapes outside of the Streaming Distance should stream out of memory. But this is a really bad way to work. If you want a large open world you simply must have the proper computer system to create and edit the initial world levels. If you want a 16km x 16km world, then you require a computer powerful enough to cerate and edit a 16km x 16km world. There are no shortcuts. Once you have completed creating the levels, then people with lower-end computers can play on them, because the streaming system will allow them to.

[@sertac6588]

@@demenzunmedia Thanks for your answers. İm using 2. Method you said and i was also looking merge seperated landscapes but as i understand i cant so that its bad thing.. Maybe virtual Texture blending mode works for merging? When im edit mode im choosing unload maps so my fps rising but when move test play fps droping and memory making buttleneck becouse editor loading all landscapes but you also said i cant choose max range viewdistance on editor game mode its also shame.. Best way to work opening as new level them 1 by 1 and merge for finnal product . İs it possible what you think?

[@jamesgtmoore]

@@sertac6588 Just import a 8161 x 8161 heightmap into UE5 and set the x and y scale to 200 (200%) to result in a 16km x 16km landscape with 2 metres between each vertex. Don't like the lower resolution? Then just add lots of static meshes to hide the lower resolution e.g. rocks, small hills, large hills, soil walls with overhangs etc. This is what Bethesda do in Fallout 4 etc. Their heightmap was much smaller. You can run across the whole map in less than 20 minutes. Its about 2 miles x 2 miles (3.14 km x 3.14 km) in size.

[@sertac6588]

@@jamesgtmoore thank you james this solution enough for me mate i ll try take care 🤟

[@demenzunmedia]

@@sertac6588 - You could always try using World Composition instead. It allows you to create massive terrains by importing the Tile Sets in chunks. You don't have to import the entire terrain in one set. You can have four Tile Sets and import them one at a time, and arrange them in the World Composition dialog. The terrains will also snap together in the World Composition editor. That way you get the benefit of having a lower memory requirement, and you end up with a single Landscape that has streaming levels.

[@AHabib1080]

Will the requirement remain high after Shipping the project? and is World partition is Game Ready? I mean, Do you recommend it for Large Open world games?

[@demenzunmedia]

The System Requirements in these videos are for creating and editing the world. Editing with Unreal Engine always has higher system requirement than what a shipped game does for playing. The larger your world and the more assets like meshes and foliage that you have on the Landscape, the higher the system requirements will be. Don't expect a dual-core 8GB GTX1650 system to get more than 30fps with World Partition. You will have to profile everything that you create, use proper mesh and foliage design for optimization, for whatever low end system requirements that you are targeting. World Composition and World Partition can be used in shipped games, but the system requirements for the shipped game will be higher the more complex and dense and larger your world becomes. There are simply too many variables for me to give an exact answer to shipped game size. In the World Composition Video Series I do discuss performance on various level computer systems with a packaged exe of just a Landscape and foliage. World Partition will be similar.

[@AHabib1080]

@@demenzunmedia Alright. Thank You sooo much for replying ❤️❤️