Calysto Smart Scatter revolutionizes asset placement in Unreal Engine 5 using powerful PCG-native workflows. This tool allows artists to achieve stunning, data-driven environments quickly and with high artistic control.
Achieving highly detailed and realistic environments often requires scattering millions of individual assets across expansive landscapes. Traditionally, this process has been incredibly time-consuming and often involves complex manual placement or rigid systems. Fortunately, the advent of procedural tools is changing that.
Introducing Calysto Smart Scatter, a powerful new utility designed to transform asset placement in Unreal Engine 5. Created by developer Michael Simard, this tool fully leverages Unreal Engine’s native Procedural Content Generation Framework (PCG) to deliver stunning results with precision and speed.
Simard designed the system to combine data-driven logic with robust GPU performance, allowing artists to bypass manual processes and generate complex biomes with just a single click. The result is a non-destructive workflow perfectly suited for modern, large-scale maps utilizing World Partition.
The Power of PCG-First Scattering
Calysto Smart Scatter is built from the ground up to be PCG-native. This is crucial because it ensures a non-destructive, modular, and order-independent workflow. Artists can easily iterate and refactor content without needing to re-author entire scenes, providing a massive efficiency boost, particularly in Level Design and production pipelines.
One of the greatest benefits of utilizing PCG is its ability to handle immense scale. By allowing artists to choose between CPU and GPU mesh spawning, the tool ensures peak performance regardless of the scene complexity. Furthermore, the tool includes a sample of Nanite vegetation, ensuring that even the most complex, photorealistic scenes run smoothly within the engine.
Essential Features for Unprecedented Control
What makes Calysto Smart Scatter truly *smart* is the level of control it grants over every aspect of asset distribution. The developer has integrated features that directly address the challenges artists face when seeking natural, believable placement:
- Smart Cluster System: This feature uses procedural patch/cluster masks and customizable thresholds. This is vital for achieving natural variation, avoiding the uniform, often fake-looking distribution common in simpler scattering methods.
- Angle Bands & Slope Filters: Users can define specific rules based on world-space controls, determining exactly what spawns on floors, walls, and ceilings (using customizable angle bands from −180° to 180°). This level of definition is paramount for accurate Photorealism.
- Surface-Aware Placement: The tool handles alignment to normals automatically, offering multiple rotation modes like *AlignToNormal* and *RandomYaw*. It even includes a *Force Look-Up* option for ensuring attached meshes are placed correctly.
- Data-Driven Presets: Define custom asset *Groups* (such as grass, rocks, or flowers) with unique scaling ranges, density levels, and noise settings. This allows rapid creation of consistent biomes across multiple scenes.
- Row/Spline Generators: For specific stylized or agricultural needs, the tool can auto-generate highly even rows (like crops or farms) within a given volume, complete with parity offsets for realistic staggering.
Compatibility and Availability
Michael Simard has also ensured that Calysto Smart Scatter integrates seamlessly with his other asset tools, including Calysto World, Calysto Dungeon, and Calysto Village. This offers artists a comprehensive suite for rapid Procedural Generation within Unreal Engine.
To use this powerful system, artists must have several standard Unreal Engine plugins enabled, including the Procedural Content Generation Framework (PCG) and related Geometry Script and Scriptable Tools components.
Calysto Smart Scatter is now available for purchase on the Fab Marketplace. For detailed instructions and further technical insight into the modular kernels, the developer provides comprehensive Documentation.
Conclusion
For artists and Game Design studios looking to push the boundaries of virtual world creation in Unreal Engine 5, Calysto Smart Scatter presents an essential upgrade. By shifting the complexity from manual labor to smart, procedural systems, Simard’s tool allows creators to focus on artistic vision while achieving high-quality results faster than ever. If you’re invested in the future of scalable environments, exploring this robust PCG-native solution is highly recommended. To discover more innovative technology for large projects, check out our general Unreal Engine content or dive deeper into Environment & World Building resources.
Source:
Calysto Smart Scatter — Smarter Scattering for Unreal Engine 5 and PCG
