The Uniform Sectioned Type is similar to the Uniform Custom Shape Type in that you can manually choose the Cells. The difference is that the Inner Area is restricted to a single Cell, and that Inner Area is sectioned into two or more smaller areas. Each of these sub-areas (called Sections) are able to utilize a unique Loading Pattern.
This is very useful for Asset Chunks that are extremely large because you can modify what Cells are loaded based on where the Player is within the confines of a single Cell, versus the normal method of only changing what Cells are loaded when the Player crosses the Inner Area boundary.
This Blueprint is slightly different than the other Uniform Blueprints since it does not use just a single Loading Pattern. However, even though the Blueprint is capable of using multiple Loading Patterns (one per Section), the set of per Section Loading Patterns remains the same no matter what Cell the Player is standing in. As such, we still categorize this Blueprint as a Uniform Blueprint.
With this Blueprint you can split the Inner Area Cell into two or more Sections that define sub-regions within whatever Cell the Player is in. Each Section has a unique Loading Pattern associated with it, which is loaded whenever the Player is standing in that Section.
It should be noted that since not all Cells are of equal size, the total area or volume for a Section may be different for each Cell that the Player is in, however the width of each Section will always be the same for all Sections on a given Cell. The same goes for the length and height (if 3D) of the Sections.
Within the Pattern Editor, the Inner Area Cell is replaced by smaller Cells representing the different Sections. The dark blue Cell represents the currently active Section, and the Loading Pattern you see is for that Section.
To switch to a different Sections Pattern, you simply have to left click one of the light blue Cells, which represent non active Sections.
When using a 3D Blueprint with more than 1 Layer of Sections, it is necessary to navigate between the different Section Layers using a special slider control called Section Layer To View. You can find this control in the Blueprint Data Window.
Nearby, you can also find settings to change the number of Rows, Columns, and Layers of Sections to use. It is recommended to not set these values to large numbers as it can make the Section Cells very difficult to see in the Pattern Editor!
You should also take care when reducing the number of Section Rows, Columns, and/or Layers, as doing so will remove the unique Loading Patterns associated with Sections that will no longer exist after the reduction. There is no way to undo those changes once the Blueprint is saved!
Uniform Sectioned Blueprints are limited to a single Inner Area Cell. While this does increase the likelihood of Pattern Churn (rapid switching between different patterns), it is necessary to implement the Sectioned Cell behavior.
With the Pattern Editor, this Inner Area Cell is replaced with Section Cells.
When the Blueprint is being used with Assets that interact with the Physics system, especially walkable Assets like Terrain or other ground meshes, it's important to ensure that the Player can cross the boundary of the Inner Area properly.
The best way to do this is to make sure that the Inner Area is surrounded by at least one ring of Cells that use the same LOD. This ensures that those Cells do not change LOD as the Player crosses into them.
If you do not do this, it's possible that the Player will walk into a Cell while it is transitioning between LODs, which may cause the Player to fall through the world or enter geometry that it shouldn't.
This is not a concern with Assets that do not interact with the Physics system.
If you have more than one LOD in the Blueprint, you can change the LOD used by the Inner Area by adjusting the Inner Area LOD slider (or inputting a value directly in the field). You must press the Set button to confirm the change. The current LOD the Inner Area is set to can be found in the parentheses to the left of the slider.
The LOD Change applies to all unique per Section Loading Patterns, to ensure that the Cell the Player is in does not change as the Player moves between different Sections.
It is not necessary to load Cells for the Inner Area, though it is rare you would not want to do so. To accomplish this, simply disable the Load Inner Area option. While you will not see a visual difference in the Pattern Editor, when you play your game, you will notice that no World Cells or Asset Chunks are loaded for the Inner Area Cells (unless some other source is adding them, such as another Active Grid).
This setting applies to all unique per Section Loading Patterns.
By default Blueprints start with a single LOD. Unlike other Blueprints, the option to add more LODs is found in a special Window you can open via the Blueprint Key tab. The placement of the Add LOD Group button here is meant to highlight the fact that when you add and LOD, it is added to all unique per Section Loading Patterns in the Uniform Sectioned Blueprint. The reason for this is that it generally does not make sense to need an LOD for one Section and not another.
Like Adding LODs, LOD Removal can only be carried out via the Blueprint Key Window. When an LOD is removed, it is removed for every unique per Section Loading Pattern, so you should be very careful that you actually want to remove an LOD before doing so.
An LOD can only be removed if it is the last LOD in the Blueprint and not LOD 1. This is because removing LODs that aren't the last one would result in LODs that come after being promoted, since it's not possible to have a missing LOD.
You can however disable all Cells in an LOD by pressing the D button next to the LOD (found in the Cell Pattern Data Window, which will cause no Cells to be loaded for that LOD when using this Blueprint.
When removing an LOD, all Cell's that are currently set to that LOD will be disabled. If you wish to keep those Cells enabled, you will need to manually select them and change them to a different LOD before removing the LOD.
The Cell Indexes (R2 | C4, R1 | C1 for example) do not actually correspond to World Cells from a World Grouping, since the Uniform Sectioned Blueprint is intended to be used universally across all Cells. However, you can think of the Indexes as representing the Cells that would be loaded if the Key Cell (bottom left cell in Inner Area) were Streamable Grid Cell Row 1, Column 1, Layer 1.
By default these indices represent Endless Grid Indices, however you can change them to show Streamable Grid Indices via the View Controls window. You can also hide the Cell Indexes, change their placement, or make them bigger/smaller using the View Controls window.
We do recommend using the Draw Endless Grid Indices option, as it better represents the Pattern and shows you the Cells that would be loaded regardless of the Streamable Grid size the Blueprint is used with.
In order to manipulate Cells you must first select those Cells.
You can select a single Cell (by left clicking it) or select multiple Cells (by left clicking, holding down the left click, and dragging the mouse - release to lock in the selection). This operation will clear any previously selected Cells.
If you already have one or more Cells selected, you can add more Cells to the selection by holding the Shift button while performing those two actions. In the same vein, holding down the Control button allows you to remove Cells from a selection. Use the following colors to identify which type of operation you are performing:
New Selection: Selects new Cells so that Cells already selected are cleared.
Additive Selection: Adds the selected Cells to the Cells already selected.
Subtractive Selection: Removes the selected Cells from the Cells already selected.
Once you have released the left mouse button, the operation will be confirmed and the new Cells, added Cells, or remaining Cells will have a white outline. You can clear the Selected Cells by clicking anywhere in the Pattern Editor (not over the Controls Windows).
You can change the default White color of Cells that have been selected, or any of the operation colors described above (plus many more colors) via the GlobalEditorSettings asset, which is found in the Assets/Editor Default Resources/Deep Space Labs/SAM/ScriptableAssets folder.
Once you have selected some Cells, you can Enable them by setting them to a specific LOD. While you can do this using the Set button found in the Cell Pattern Data window and within the Cell Pattern Color Key area, it is usually much easier to use the number keys on your keyboard to do so instead.
By default, the 1-9 keys directly correspond to LODs 1-9, while the 0 key corresponds to LOD 10. You can change this default behavior by modifying the LOD Paint Offset value, which sits just below the Add LOD Group button.
The Offset value you specify is added to the number key you press (with 0 representing 10) in order to form the final LOD values that the number keys correspond to. For example, if you set the LOD Paint Offset to 10, 10 is added to each number key, so that pressing Key 1 sets the selected Cells to LOD 11, while pressing key 0 sets the Cells to LOD 20.
This is very useful when working with larger LODs.
Of course, pressing a number key only works if the LOD corresponding to that key exists in the Blueprint, so make sure to add the LOD first!
You can Disable selected Cells either by using the Disable Selected Cells button or by pressing the D Key on your keyboard. By default, Disabled Cells appear red in the Pattern Editor, although you can change this via the GlobalEditorSettings asset.
You can also disable all Cells that are currently part of a specific LOD by pressing the D Button next to the LOD in the Cell Pattern Color Key. Be careful when using this option, however, as it will disable all Cells on that LOD even if currently they are not viewable.
Drawing Cells in the Pattern Editor is not a free operation. For very large patterns with 100's or even 1000's of Cells, editor performance would drop to a snails pace if we drew every Cell. At the same time, when using a Blueprint where you can manually select Cells, we want to give you a large canvas of Cells to choose from. The Viewable Area is an imperfect solution to this problem and can be found in the View Controls Window via the Viewable Area tab.
It defines the region of Cells that are shown in the Pattern Editor and that are selectable by you and which can be manipulated. You can change its size to as large of a value as will work for your computer and you can change the region of Cells that are shown by modifying the Cell Start and End Values. The <, <<, >, and >> buttons allow you to shift the Viewable Area by a single Cell or by the entire size of the Viewable Area.
Do not worry about navigating away from already Enabled Cells. Once a Cell is Enabled, it remains Enabled even if it is not currently being shown in the Viewable Area!
To help you in identifying what region of Cells the Viewable Area corresponds to, you will notice that the first, middle, and last row/column/layer of Cells is marked. These values represent the indices of the those Cells on a theoretical Endless Grid, where the Inner Area Cell is Cell Row 1, Column 1, Layer 1.