Polygonflow has released a new update for Dash, its powerful toolkit for Unreal Engine 5, designed to facilitate the creation of detailed and complex worlds. With this new version, Dash has significantly improved its functionality, incorporating more advanced tools that allow artists to create more realistic and customized virtual environments.
Main Improvements in Dash 1.7
One of the main improvements in Dash 1.7 is the new Create Vines on Selection tool, which allows generating vegetation procedurally on any surface. Although originally designed for vines, this tool can also be adapted for other types of vegetation, using textures from the Megascans library.
- Full control over growth, surface adhesion, and gravity.
- Great customization to adapt to various types of vegetation.
Material Blend
The update also brings the Blend material, which facilitates the creation of custom floors by blending three distinct surfaces, as if it were a simplified version of Quixel Mixer. This material allows combining color, height, and noise maps, providing great flexibility for designing unique terrains.
Color Gradient and Scatter Systems
Another important addition in Dash 1.7 is the color gradient system, which adjusts the project's ambiance to match a reference image, whether from a local file or a URL. Additionally, the new Volume Scatter tool allows distributing 3D objects using any mesh as a scatter volume, while 2D scatter tools can leverage landscape paint layers as masks, enabling more natural color randomization.
Innovations in Dash 1.8
One of the most interesting innovations is the integration of OpenAI's GPT-4 model for automatically tagging assets. This improves efficiency and accuracy compared to previous versions, ensuring data privacy thanks to a ChatGPT enterprise plan.
UI Reorganization and New Tools
With Dash 1.8, the user interface is reorganized to facilitate access to all tools, grouping them into clearer menus and consolidating floating panels into a single tool. Tools like Road Tool, Quick Pipe, and Path Scatter have been redesigned to make their use simpler and more straightforward.
"The reorganization of the user interface greatly improves accessibility and workflow, allowing artists to focus on creativity." – Polygonflow
ChatGPT Assistant and New Functionality
Additionally, a ChatGPT-based assistant has been added that answers questions in natural language, leveraging Dash's online documentation. Version 1.8.5 introduces Data Tables, a new functionality that allows overlaying effects and creating terrains more efficiently using height maps or guide curves.
Conclusion: Dash for All 3D Projects
Dash is not only designed for creating video games, but also for animations, visual effects, and architectural projects, offering a smoother and more powerful experience for Unreal Engine 5 users.