Dash 1.8.0

We have worked hard to make sure Dash 1.8 improves the world-building process even more than previous versions but what is even more important is that now, Dash is easier to use and get started with!

Download Dash 1.8.0

The main new features are our new UI, a proper documentation page, and an integrated AI assistant in Dash that will help you with all the common questions. But, let's dig into each change of Dash 1.8:

NEW USER INTERFACE

This update features a revamped UI that splits all your favorite features into distinct menus, and organizes everything in a clean and accessible way. As soon as you use a feature from the menus, a recent icon will show up, from which you can access your recent menu action calls. You can also set to favorite any action.

https://streamable.com/edi5wcstreamable.com

TOOLS PANEL

Dash has had a longstanding problem of too many floating panels for all your tools. No more! This new unified panel contains all your tools and switches anytime you select their results. You can pin tools, detach them, scroll among the active ones, rename them, etc...

https://streamable.com/0dvjm4streamable.com

REVAMPED PATH-BASED TOOLS

Road Tool, Quick Pipe, Decal Scatter, and Path Scatter have been revamped from the ground up to make it easier than ever to realistic roads, caves, beaten paths, and any other curve-based shape you can think of.

One really cool new feature in the road tool is its Noise Features which can help you to easily create more than just flat roads. Combining it with our Path Width feature you can create realistic paths like the one below.

BLEND MATERIAL

We've extended this material to add rain & snow support, and also did an overhaul on its blending behavior, making it one of (if not) the best blend material you've ever tried.

SURFACE SCATTER

• Pivot Mode is a new dropdown that allows you to use the object's top, center or bottom as the pivot.

• Directional Masking: Got a sunlight in your scene? Want to use its direction and cast shadows as a mask? We got you.

• Scale Influence: You can now use any object in your scene to drive the scale of your scatter based on a distance value.

https://streamable.com/91rtxestreamable.com

WORLD-CLASS DOCUMENTATION

Dash now has an extensive documentation that goes above and beyond to teach you its capabilities. It's still WIP, and will be one of the best you've ever read by the time it's complete.

AI ASSISTANT

This little friend sits right on the Dash bar. You can ask it any question, from how do I scatter, to drag & dropping an image and asking it how you can use Dash to help you create it, or even giving it a WIP and asking for feedback. Like most things AI, it can occasionally make mistakes, and unlike most things AI, your questions/images are NEVER used for training!

DASH BOARD TOOL

This update features a beta of our new Dash board, which is a reference image organization tool similar to Miro and PureRef. It sits right inside UE5, allows you to organize your thoughts cleanly, and will soon also make it easy to browse assets based on what an image contains, give you a list of all the tools needed to make an image, draw, etc...

https://streamable.com/wxcpurstreamable.com

REVAMPED AI TAGGING

We've doubled all tagging quotas, made it possible to compute assets without AI tagging them, exposed the ability to use your own OpenAI API key and your own URL Proxy, and improved the quality of the tagging.

BONUS STUFF

• Compound Tool: With this new tool, you will be able to add properties from several tools, meaning it will be easier to control complex setups that consist of several Dash tools. For example a fully procedural forest road.

• Unreal Engine 5.5 Preview: Dash 1.8 supports UE 5.5 preview and as soon as UE 5.5 goes out of preview we will ship a hotfix for Dash 1.8 that gives support for official UE 5.5 as well.

• Windows Insider Preview: We might have fixed this issue, but it hasn't been tested yet, so if you are on Windows Insider Preview build, please give it a try, and let us know how it goes! :)

• Bug Fixes: We have of course also fixed a lot of bugs so Dash 1.8 should be even more stable than previous versions. If you find bugs or have any other feedback/questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us in our Discord!