Have you ever tried scattering thousands of assets in Unreal Engine only to spend hours tweaking density, slope, or alignment until it finally looks natural? That kind of fine-tuning can get messy fast.

Today we’re taking a look at Calysto Smart Scatter, a new plugin for Unreal Engine 5 developed by Michael Simard. Released just a few days ago, it’s part of the Calysto toolkit, a collection of procedural tools by the same author designed to simplify worldbuilding in Unreal.

Smart Scatter focuses on making scattering smarter through PCG-based logic. Instead of manually placing foliage or props, you define spawning rules such as slope limits, surface angle, cluster variation, or even no-spawn zones, and let the system handle the rest.

Smart Scatter is built directly on Unreal Engine’s Procedural Content Generation Framework, using modular PCG graphs to control every step of the scattering process. The setup is completely non-destructive, letting artists test, iterate, and refine results without starting over.

Instead of scattering meshes at random, Smart Scatter groups them into procedural clusters. These clusters use masks and noise variations to create organic, uneven distributions that feel more natural and reduce visible repetition.

Objects automatically align to surface normals with rotation modes such as Align to Normal, Random Yaw, or World Up. A Force Look-Up option is available for assets like plants or props that should always face upward.

Artists can define which assets appear on different types of surfaces, such as rocks on slopes, moss on walls, or grass on flat ground. Angle bands can be adjusted in world-space modes ranging from −180° to 180° or −90° to 90°, offering precise surface control.

Smart Scatter can generate rows or spline-based patterns within defined volumes. This is especially useful for organized environments like farms, gardens, or modular city layouts, with density and parity options for more believable variation.

Users can create custom presets for asset groups like flowers, grass, or rocks, each with individual density, scale, and noise parameters. Presets can be reused across projects or combined to build more complex ecosystems.

Scattering can run on either the CPU or GPU, allowing users to balance precision and performance depending on the needs of the project. This flexibility makes it suitable for both real-time and cinematic use.

As always, we recommend taking a look at the original documentation to learn more about each feature and how to use the tool effectively.

If you are looking for alternatives to Calysto Smart Scatter, there are a few that may cover part of its functionality.

Compared to Smart Scatter, Dash prioritizes manual artistic control and immediate visual feedback rather than rule-based PCG generation, making it faster for concepting but less systematic for large procedural environments.

Unlike Calysto Smart Scatter, which is PCG-driven and non-destructive, ReScatter relies more on real-time physics interactions, giving less procedural control but more organic, physically accurate distribution.

While Smart Scatter focuses on foliage and prop distribution, PCGEx extends the PCG system itself, serving more as a toolkit for developers who want to build custom PCG logic from scratch.

✨ Calysto Smart Scatter is available now on Fab.

👉 Coming soon: Unreal Engine Blueprints for Beginners, a practical guide to building gameplay visually with Blueprints, covering UI, animations, game logic and mini-game projects.