Track terrain in editor

[SAR704]

This value exists in the Blueprint editor under the field called 'container component'. Does any one know what it does? Here's a screenshot.

SS.jpg

It doesn't have any effects on the rendering of lofts does it?

[wacampbell]

I am not aware of it having an effect on lofts. In fact I don't think it appears in the loft blueprints anywhere.

Its used to make child objects sit on the ground. For example if you have a blueprint that consists of houses on a residential block, you might make each house a child component of the block blueprint. Normally those houses would all be at the same elevation so if you were to put the block on sloping ground, some houses would float in the air. But when you check "Track terrain in editor", the houses will drop to ground level and properly sit on the sloping terrain.

Use this feature for example, a row of cars in a parking lot, or a bunch of corn plants in a field.

[SAR704]

Thanks for the explanation Wayne. This certainly gives me a more accurate understanding of this feature.

I do see these huge blocks of buildings in payware routes and wonder to myself if they're just blocks that are rotated, or not. The Pacific Surfliner is one example of this. I'm not sure how useful it will be. But it's down to experimentation, and personal experience.

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

It's a very useful feature for quickly populating scenes. Especially if you have certain models that you know you will use a lot in batches -- like rows of houses. It just saves a lot of time in the long run to go through the trouble once to put a number of these houses into grouped asset blocks in the blueprint editor (via the method Wayne described) and then placing, rotating and aligning only dozens of these groups in your route instead of hundreds of individual buildings.

Cheers,
Michael

[SAR704]

The only drawback to this is that the areas I'm modeling are sparsely populated. The towns are unusually small compared to American cities, and houses are not always directly adjacent, or placed at consistent intervals.

It's basically desert. But slightly less arid until one ventures further north closer to Central Australia (no plans to go past Marree at this stage).

But thanks for confirming.