Super Crowd User Manual

Purpose

Super Crowd generates static crowd instances inside a closed spline area. It creates points by target count or target density, assigns Static Mesh characters by type weight, and can optionally snap placements to the ground.

Use it for audience visualization, event crowd density previews, and front-of-stage placeholder crowds.

The plugin ships 13 VAT crowd characters, each with two animation material sets (Anim_V1 / Anim_V2) and base plus emissive layers; the character meshes carry LODs. Two placeable objects correspond to them — Super Crowd V1 and Super Crowd V2 — differing only in which animation material set is applied. Both fill CharacterTypes with those 13 characters automatically when it is empty.

You can also assign your own licensed Static Meshes and materials in CharacterTypes; anything you set there is not overwritten by the automatic fill.

Basic Usage

1. Place a Super Crowd Actor in the level.
2. Edit the Actor spline so it encloses an area.
3. Add at least one enabled entry in CharacterTypes and assign a Static Mesh.
4. Set TargetCount, or enable bUseDensityMode and set TargetDensity.
5. Enable ground snapping, random rotation, and scale options as needed.

If there is no valid character mesh, the Actor will not generate visible crowd instances.

Character Types

Field	Description
Mesh	Character Static Mesh.
MaterialOverride	Optional material override.
Weight	Random selection weight. Higher values are more likely to be selected.
Scale	Base scale.
ScaleVariation	Random scale variation.
FootOffsetZ	Foot height offset.
BaseRotationOffset	Base rotation offset.
DisplayName	Display name in the editor.
bEnabled	Whether this type participates in generation.
bCastShadow	Whether this type casts shadow.

Generation Parameters

Parameter	Description
TargetCount	Target number of people. Actual count may be lower.
SafetyRadius	Safety radius between characters, in centimeters.
BoundaryPadding	Empty space kept from the spline boundary.
RandomSeed	Random seed. The same settings can reproduce the same distribution.
bUseDensityMode	Uses density mode. When enabled, target count is calculated from area and TargetDensity.
TargetDensity	Target density in people per square meter.
PoissonAttemptsPerPoint	Number of attempts per sample point.
GroundOversampleMultiplier	Oversampling multiplier when ground checks are active.
bRelaxSpacingWhenCrowded	Allows the safety radius to relax when the target is too dense.
MinRelaxedSpacingScale	Minimum scale that the safety radius may relax to.
SpacingRelaxationPasses	Number of spacing relaxation passes.
SplineSampleSpacing	Spline sampling spacing in centimeters.

Ground And Appearance Parameters

Parameter	Description
bSnapToGround	Enables downward ground raycasts.
GroundChannel	Collision channel used for ground checks.
RaycastStartHeight	Raycast start height.
RaycastDepth	Downward raycast depth.
DefaultGroundHeight	Default height used when not snapped to ground.
GroundOffset	Height offset after ground placement.
bAlignToGroundNormal	Aligns placement to the ground normal.
bRejectSteepGround	Rejects ground hits that are too steep.
MaxGroundSlopeDegrees	Maximum allowed ground slope.
bFlattenToSplinePlane	Flattens placements back to the spline plane.
bRandomYaw (Enable Yaw Variation)	Enables yaw variation — a controlled offset either side of the base orientation.
GlobalMaxRotationVariation (Yaw Variation Range)	Yaw variation range, 0–180 degrees, default 0.
bFaceSplineCenter (Face Spline Center)	Face the centre of the spline area. Off by default.
bFaceAwayFromCenter (Face Away From Center)	Face away from the centre. Off by default.
GlobalScaleFactor (Global Scale Factor)	Global scale, 0.1–10, default 1.0.
GlobalScaleVariation (Global Scale Variation)	Random spread on the global scale, 0–0.5, default 0.
bCastShadows (Cast Shadows)	Casts shadows.
bEnableInstanceCollision (Enable Instance Collision)	Enables instance collision.
OverrideMaterial (Override Material)	Material override.
bOverrideAllMaterialSlots (Override All Material Slots)	Override every material slot.
bShowSpline (Show Spline)	Show the spline.
bDebugShowSafetyRadius (Debug Show Safety Radius)	Debug-draw the safety radius.

Statistics

The Actor updates:

• ActualCount: actual generated count.
• NormalizedWeights: normalized character weights.
• CrowdStats.TotalCount, RequestedCount, and CountPerType: count statistics.
• CrowdStats.ValidCharacterTypes: number of valid character types.
• CrowdStats.AreaM2 and Density: area and actual density.
• CrowdStats.GroundSnappedCount: count successfully snapped to ground.
• CrowdStats.FailedPlacements and PlacementAttempts: failed placement and attempt counts.
• CrowdStats.RejectedByBoundary, RejectedByGround, and RejectedBySlope: rejected placement counts.
• CrowdStats.EffectiveSafetyRadius, AverageSpacing, and MinimumSpacing: final spacing statistics.

Notes

• The spline must enclose a valid area. Otherwise area and distribution results may be invalid.
• The target count is not guaranteed. Small areas, large safety radius, or strict ground filtering can reduce the result.
• Large instance counts affect editor performance. Start with smaller values while checking the area and character setup.