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Errant Biomes 1.5

· 4 min read

This release focuses on enhancing our biomes functionality, improving usability, and addressing key performance issues. Key changes include more control for species randomization, new tools for mask-based species creation, and significant stability improvements in Unreal Engine 5.3. We've also fixed several bugs based on user feedback.

New Features​

  • Errant Biomes Mask View: This release adds the ability to display Biome Masks from Errant Landscape and Errant Paths in the Mask Tool.

Image showing selection of what masks to show

Old Material Params

  • Value Mapping for Masks: We've enabled value mapping during mask painting/previewing, allowing visualization of values outside the 0-1 range and even controlling the mapping of values to colors via a curve.
  • Mask Brushes Saving/Sharing: You can now save and share mask brushes.
  • Errant Biomes Assets Icons: We've introduced icons for Errant Biomes assets.

Image showing new asset icons in the Content Browser

  • Asset Name Display in Species List Header: Asset names are now displayed in the species asset list header for easier identification.
  • Mask Operations Shortcuts: Tooltips now contain shortcuts for mask operations.
  • Easier Mask Asset Creation: We've added Biome Mask asset creation from the asset picker.
  • Mask-Based Species Creation Tool: This release introduces an easy way to create species with growth limited to a mask.
  • Species, Biomes, and Sub-Biomes User Notes: We've added a property for user notes in Species, Biomes, and Sub-biomes.

Improvements​

  • Biomes Weightmaps Optimization: Biomes now accesses and copies fewer weightmaps (only those which are used in Species/Sub-biomes), which leads to faster generation.
  • Visualization Mesh Update Optimization: We've optimized performance by not updating the visualization mesh when it's not displayed, especially in PIE mode with Errant Biomes editor mode active.
  • Dependency Graph for Invalidation: We started using a new dependency graph for more granular detection of modified elements, which improves generation speed by skipping generation of elements that haven't changed.
  • Units in Properties: We've added units in properties where applicable.
  • Actor Template World Partition Settings Accessibility: We've made world partition settings always accessible in our actor template.
  • Biome Configuration Widgets: You can now reset values to default.
  • Warning for Rotated Landscapes: We implemented a warning for when a rotated landscape is detected.
  • License Key Parsing: We improved handling of whitespace characters when parsing license keys.
  • Data Validation: We now use IsDataValid for all validations, allowing biome assets to show errors when added to source control changelists.
  • PCG Auto Refresh Control: This update adds a console variable to disable PCG auto refresh, beneficial in some situations where your PCG systems aren't supposed to be updated in the editor while still relying on Errant Biomes data.

Bug Fixes​

  • Memory Usage in UE 5.3: We've addressed excessive memory usage in Unreal Engine 5.3.
  • Actor Bounds Feature: The issue with actor bounds functionality returning incorrect data has been fixed.
  • Garbage Collection Crash Prevention: We've fixed a crash that occurred after garbage collection was called during biome generation.
  • Compilation Issues in Engine Directory: Compilation issues when the plugin is placed in the engine plugins directory have been resolved.
  • World Dirtying on Clearing Mask Data: We've fixed an issue where the world was incorrectly marked as dirty after clearing mask data.
  • Mask List Update After Deletion: Masks are now removed from the list upon deletion.
  • Mask Paint Crash: A crash that happened when a mask asset was deleted during mask painting has been resolved.
  • Biomes Partition Actor Crash: A crash when changing properties in the Biomes Partition Actor template has been fixed.