UE5 Procedural Grass Using Bezier Curves pt. 6: Per Blade Randomness

Here we look at using PCG data packing to create values that our material can use to drive per instance parameters while retaining artist direction.

[@Stygmire]

As always, thanks for the skills-session. Also, a shout-out for how you explain the various parts, what happens if you make a mistake, etc. Those little side-comments here and there do really add value, gives one a better sense of confidence for when they do it themselves. I find the 'better', more-valuable-to-me videos do this vs just walk one through click here, etc, etc.
It's a fine line between that and pedantic info-dump, but you do it well. Thanks.

[@TechArtAlex]

I appreciate that. It's definitely a fine line, if you assume your viewers have too much knowledge, then the video might not be helpful. Too little, and you'll waste their time.
Videos that just tell you what to do with no explanation might get you the end result, if you're lucky, but rarely build any skill to solve future problems.

[@EagleTopGaming]

It for sure is pretty. Thanks for walking us through your process.

[@TechArtAlex]

Thanks! Yeah sometimes I find myself just tweaking values and staring at it, pretty relaxing haha.

[@AaronFhd]

This is looking great

[@TechArtAlex]

Thanks!

[@pandalovercrumxoxo6637]

is there any way to add interactions with the grass?

[@TechArtAlex]

Yes, this can be done the same way you would with any other grass system, typically by writing to and sampling from a render target. That render target can then be used to rotate and/or bend the grass.
I'm not sure if I'll get into that on video at this point, since it is a topic that is already pretty heavily tutorial-ized. But I might if I have something worthwhile to add to the topic.

[@oliverbendsen]

looks like the PCG got Updated, or maybe im just missing something. add attributes looks way different

[@TechArtAlex]

Are you in 5.4? Make sure you're using the correct add attribute node as there are two.
But yeah, PCG is getting updated regularly so if you're on a different engine version some nodes may look quite different.

[@oliverbendsen]

@@TechArtAlex im using 5.3 currently. Should i update to get it working?

[@TechArtAlex]

@@oliverbendsen You should be able to do it in 5.3. When using the create attribute node in 5.3, instead of an object path, you'll need to create a string attribute. Then you can paste a reference to the mesh in the string value, which can be read by the mesh selector.
Then the add attribute node should work like normal, even though it looks a bit different.

[@oliverbendsen]

@@TechArtAlex i can’t get it to spawn anything, so i just put the grass in a landscape grass type. I hope you will explain how you orient the blades to the direction og the wind with some randomness. I tried myself using the rotateaboutaxis node and got it to work somewhat, but i can not for the life of me make it so it does not look so uniform

[@TechArtAlex]

@@oliverbendsen If nothing is spawning, the node should be giving you an error message telling you why. If you aren't using PCG, you'll need to create some random values in another way. Once you have a random value, you can use that to offset the rotation in some way. For example, you could give the grass a +- range in the direction of the wind, instead of just facing the wind direction. Or you can just give them a max rotation allowance, or both.

[@BooneyTune]

This continues to improve and look better. Thanks

[@TechArtAlex]

Thanks!