Dash 1.9.2
Dash 1.9.2 is here, and it’s packed with exciting new features!
This update introduces three powerful new tools, with the highlight being Mesh Pattern, a tool that lets you create tileable patterns from any assets, perfect for man-made surfaces. We’re also expanding the atmospheric toolset with brand-new Rain and Snow tools.
In the Content Browser, we’re finally adding two awesome (and free!) new libraries containing thousands of high-end, completely free PBR assets. And of course, there are plenty of smaller new features and important bug fixes.
Keep reading to discover everything new in Dash 1.9.2!
Mesh Pattern
We are excited to introduce Mesh Pattern, a completely new tool for creating procedural, tileable patterns. You can use the included presets or design your own with custom assets, making it perfect for roofs, walls, floors, or any other man-made surface that needs more depth and detail than a simple material.
Mesh Pattern comes with a variety of presets, such as Brick, Basket Weave, Chevrons, Herringbone, Worn Down Floor, and Hollow Bricks. If none of these fit your project, you can easily design your own pattern, save it, and reuse it as a custom preset in the future.
As with other Dash tools, Mesh Pattern is fully procedural, giving you full control to adjust presets to your environment with settings for scale, angle, padding, and proximity mask.
For full information on the Mesh Pattern tool, check this dedicated page: Mesh Pattern
Amazon Berkeley Objects (ABO) - Free 3D Models
We’ve integrated the Amazon Berkeley Objects Library directly into Dash’s Content Browser. You now have access to a huge collection of high-quality, real-world 3D models, completely free, right inside Dash.
You can easily search or scroll through these assets in any Unreal project, and when you drag and drop them into your environment, Dash automatically handles the download and importing for you.
The ABO library includes a wide variety of everyday objects, from kitchenware like mugs, plates, and bowls, to furniture such as chairs, to electronics, office supplies, and even accessories like shoes and backpacks. Since the library is natively integrated in Dash, all assets come with search tags to make them incredibly easy to find. You can also adjust their materials with the Material Edit tool, and of course scatter them or drop them with physics directly from the Content Browser, just as you are used to.
The Base Mesh Library - Free 3D Base Meshes
Alongside ABO, we are also bringing in the Base Mesh Library, now available directly inside Dash’s Content Browser. This library provides a wide range of clean, low-poly models that are ideal for blocking out scenes, testing ideas, or using as a foundation for more detailed work, all available for free.
Once inside your Unreal project, you can drag and drop any of these meshes straight into the scene, with Dash taking care of the download and import process automatically. Each model is tagged for easy searching, and, as with any other asset in Dash, you can quickly place them with scattering and physics-based placement.
Rain Fall Tool
The 1.9.2 update introduces a brand-new Rain Fall tool. With a single click, you can add a fully procedural rain effect to your scene, complete with parameters you can easily adjust to match your environment. You can find this tool either by search or in the Create menu on the Dash bar.
The video below highlights some of its features in action.
For full information on the Rain Fall tool, check this dedicated page: Rain Fall
Snow Fall Tool
The 1.9.2 update also brings Snowfall, giving you a beautiful procedural snow effect with full control over its look and behavior. Whether you want a light flurry or a heavy blizzard, Snowfall adapts to your scene with just a few tweaks.
The video below gives a preview of it in action.
For full information on the Snow Fall tool, check this dedicated page: Snow Fall
Draw Spline Tool (With Tangents)
We added a new Draw Spline tool to allow you to interactively draw and edit splines with tangents. Very useful for those cases where you want detailed control of your splines. When you draw, you can "project" the tangent just by pressing Shift, and edit any previous point by just clicking on it.
Slider Intensity Controls
We have now also added a uniform intensity control for all the sliders in Dash. This means when adjusting the density, for example, you can hold CTRL, SHIFT, or ALT to decrease the slider intensity. Making it much easier to get precise control of the settings without having to type in values. The logic is the following: CTRL = 0.5 speed, SHIFT = 0.25 speed, and ALT = 0.1 speed. When holding any of these keys while sliding, you will also see the intensity adjustment visible on the slider.
Multi-Asset Selection in Content Browser
We now support normal multi-select behavior in the Dash Content Browser. This means that from Dash 1.9.2, you should hold CTRL to select multiple individual assets, or hold SHIFT to select all assets between your first and second selection. You can also press CTRL+A to select all the visible assets, or use the keyboard arrows to move the selection. Batch editing tags, or adding assets to a collection in bulk, is now as intuitive as you wanted it to be.
Smaller new features and bug fixes:
You can now adjust the tiling of each individual layer within our Blend Material tool.
Our Advanced Water now supports Path Tracer.
If you have your project under version control, you can tell Dash that the content initialized under Your Project / Polygonflow doesn't need to be checked automatically. Toggle off "Skip Resources Acquisition" if you have the polygonflow content managed from an external tool.
Fixed bug with IES library sometimes not loading
Fixed an issue on Fab library, caused by recent online changes, that prevented Dash from detecting the asset type
Fixed visual artifacts in the Content Browser that left some item borders partially drawn when moving the mouse over
When using the "Move Tool", you can now exit from it directly from the Dash bar, other than with the usual Enter or Esc keys
A bug related to changing the UI scale of Dash through the preferences has now been solved
Our Select Asset feature is now included in the Free Dash version
Two bugs in Decal Scatter have been fixed. One major one and one related to scaling.
Our tri-planar material now works with Megascans surfaces from FAB as well.
The curves from the Draw Curve tool are now named dash_curve in the outlier, and the default name can be adjusted from the Dash preferences.
Our tiling breakup feature has been improved to avoid visible artefacts, making the results much better looking.
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