Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

Terrain Tile Editor

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Ecco, Apr 12, 2012.

  1. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    $topicheader.png




    Terrain Tile Editor

    For one of our upcoming games we needed to create terrain with clearly defined material borders, something that is not possible with Unity terrains.
    We decided to use tile maps. This allows us to create terrains in a similar NPR style to games like Age of Empires Online or Warcraft 3.



    Left: Unity terrains using splat maps. Right: Terrain using tile maps

    Triangle Studios' Terrain Tile Editor package provides an easy way to use tile sets in combination with Unity terrains. Simply paint tiles onto the Unity Terrain, and maintain all the flexibility you normally would when designing a map.

    Terrain Tile Editor will enable you to layer up to 8 individual tile maps. Tile sets are created using the Warcraft 3 standard. This means that lots of materials have already been created by the community and can be imported in your project right away!


    Features
    • Paint tiles straight onto Unity Terrains.
    • Maintain all flexibility in terms of landscaping, lighting and foiliage.
    • Support for up to 8 individual layers per scene.
    • Uses WarCraft 3 style tile maps containing 4x4 tiles, or an extra 4x4 grid of random 'full' tiles.
    • Use any power-of-two resolution texture
    • Paint a single tile, or use flood fill for large areas
    • Does not add extra meshes to your scene
    • Full Undo/Redo support

    Requirements
    • Unity 3.5
    • Shader Model 3
    • Software has been tested on PC and Mac

    Limitations
    • Uses the terrain mesh, and therefore needs to do more work in the fragment shader than would otherwise be necessary.
    • Probably not suitable for mobile devices due to above mentioned fragment shader.
    • 'Border' tiles currently only support 1 variation
    • 'Full' tiles are chosen randomly, there is not yet a way to place a specific variation
    • Does not support trilinear interpolation on tile textures
    • With bilinear interpolation, discontinuities are visible when zooming in very far on tile borders

    Change log

    version 1.1
    • Fixed a bug when exporting to OSX.
    • It is no longer necessary to first add the textures to the terrain.
    • Added buttons to move individual layers up and down the stack.
    • Reduced price!
    version 1.0.1
    • Fixed a bug that prevented projects from being built
    version 1.0
    • Initial release

    You can view the documentation and tutorial online: View attachment $Documentation.pdf

    Check out some examples of what you can make with our tool:








     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2012
  2. DaneC020

    DaneC020

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2010
    Posts:
    191
    Really like the results you got with the editor. The first picture really didn't do the flexibility of the system justice, I think the video will even help demonstrate it even further. By looking at the example scenes, I think you have something that can produce some nice results! Looking forward to seeing more out of this project.

    -Dane
     
  3. Remco

    Remco

    Microsoft Employee

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2012
    Posts:
    4
  4. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Thanks for your feedback DaneC020! The video is coming right up, and we'll make sure to display some more of the diversity that can be created with our tool :)
     
  5. Remco

    Remco

    Microsoft Employee

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2012
    Posts:
    4


    Instruction video is online! All feedback is welcome :)
     
  6. sefou

    sefou

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2011
    Posts:
    287
    150 € !!! :(
     
  7. Remco

    Remco

    Microsoft Employee

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2012
    Posts:
    4
    Fortunately, you pay in USD! So it's only €114 :D

    On top of that, your purchase will help us create cool new features as well!
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2012
  8. Lars-Steenhoff

    Lars-Steenhoff

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2007
    Posts:
    3,521
    I would recommend a lower price, you can get the same money from higher volume of sales and will have more customers to give feedback.
     
  9. sefou

    sefou

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2011
    Posts:
    287
    but in Assset Store , i live in Europe :
     
  10. TwiiK

    TwiiK

    Joined:
    Oct 23, 2007
    Posts:
    1,729
    Why do some people always bring up this as an argument? It's stupid. By your logic price is irrelevant because the volume of sales will always make up for lost revenue per sale. Why do we have applications that cost thousands of dollars then?

    As far as I can tell they offer functionality previously inaccessible in Unity and are free to set whatever price they want.

    Also, a lot of the other terrain extensions in the Asset store cost $150 so I would guess that's why they chose that as the starting point.
     
  11. sefou

    sefou

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2011
    Posts:
    287
  12. OmniverseProduct

    OmniverseProduct

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2012
    Posts:
    1,568
    Probably because a lot of people will refuse to pay $150 for a tile editor when you can get a different one for $95

    Only 3 others out of nearly 20 to be more specific.
     
  13. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    We actually created our tile editor because there was nothing similar available in the asset store. The other tile editor you mention works completely differently to ours. For example: With the other editor you create tiles as borders between two terrain types. This means that all terrain types must border on the same type of terrain. You have to pick an 'intermediate' terrain type that will have to be placed between all other types.

    With our tile editor you create the tiles bordering on alpha so they are independent. You can 'layer' terrain types on top of each other, and up to four different types of terrain could meet in a single point.

    And that's just one of the many differences. You only have to look at the screen shots to realize they are completely different products.

    In my opinion the price we ask, compared to the amount of work that was put in there and the functionality you get from it, is very fair. But we do appreciate the feedback!
     
  14. wmaass

    wmaass

    Joined:
    May 24, 2010
    Posts:
    10
    This is pretty cool Ecco and I looks perfect for a project of mine. Good work.
     
  15. OmniverseProduct

    OmniverseProduct

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2012
    Posts:
    1,568
    In all honesty I love the product and will probably buy it when the time comes. Even though I can tell the difference between your package and the one I mentioned (or others) other people may not. I believe you could lower the price just a tad, but I will probably still buy it as I will eventually need a product like this for a future game.

    I do have one suggestion though. It would be a good idea to put more information in the asset store about the unique features. I know the 8 layers is already quite unique, but if I just found this on the asset store and based my opinion on that information, I would be almost convinced but not quite. In my opinion there just isn't enough information to completely convince me to buy. Just a thought. Take it as you will.
     
  16. keely

    keely

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2010
    Posts:
    967
    What story and how does it relate? I'm confused.
     
  17. sefou

    sefou

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2011
    Posts:
    287
    Great inovative plugin , cheap / moderate price , many many users....ect...
     
  18. keely

    keely

    Joined:
    Sep 9, 2010
    Posts:
    967
    Gotcha.

    Well part of me doesn't wan't to put my stick on the subject of pricing at all, but I think it's kind of obvious that customers will always have incentive to ask for a lower price. Why wouldn't they?

    The developer of course has the right to set any price he chooses. There are many variables that come in to play:
    - Amount of support and other fixed costs per customer
    - Target group type (pros or hobbyists)
    - Target group size (niche or mass appeal)
    - Word of mouth effectiveness
    - Estimated lifecycle of the product
    - Competition

    And many more. I'm sure people who went to biz schools would make this list 100 points long. Just because some price works for A, it might be bad for B.

    @Ecco, sorry for hijacking the thread into pricing discussion. Your product looks great btw!
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2012
  19. Lars-Steenhoff

    Lars-Steenhoff

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2007
    Posts:
    3,521
    Ok let's be fair, the price is not astronomically high or something, it's a bit above 100, with seems to me the magic number before I start to think do I really really need this? That is the only reason why I recommended a lower price.
    This has no reflection on the quality of the product, with seems top notch! I will keep an eye on it and look forward to how it develops!
     
  20. Remco

    Remco

    Microsoft Employee

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2012
    Posts:
    4
    Some pretty good suggestions about exposing the unique features of our software better. When we are working on the tool, we are working on a commercial project at the same time. This means that we've been able to create a solid and efficient workflow for the artists, but we have not yet had the chanse to spend a lot of time positioning our software as a product, definitely something we can improve :)
     
  21. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    You're probably right, I will definitely make work of this as soon as I find some time :)

    Haha no problem , and thanks!
     
  22. Claytonious

    Claytonious

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2009
    Posts:
    900
    Where can we find out more about the Warcraft 3 tile standard and where can we find some tiles to use or buy that conform to that standard?
     
  23. cerebrate

    cerebrate

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2010
    Posts:
    261
    I purchased this, and started using it, but it's preventing me from building my project. Unity is throwing an error relating to having an editor script in a non-editor folder, and it appears that the TSTileEditor.dll is what is causing the problems, as it has UnityEditor things in it. I've checked that it is this dll by placing the TSTileEditor.dll next to TSTileEditor-Editor.dll, inside the editor folder, and I can build, but this prevents the tiles from actually working, as the Editor scripts require that the data structures they reference not be inside the editor folder.

    It would be great if you could apply a fix of moving whatever the things using UnityEditor in TSTileEditor.dll into TSTileEditor-Editor.dll, and then submit the fix to the unity asset store so that people would be able to correctly use the editor.

    So, as for now, this editor is functionally broken

    EDIT: I have a fixed version now. The editor works just fine, and the project builds correctly
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2012
  24. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Hey guys, sorry for the late reply, for some reason I never got a notification...

    Have a look here: http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/tilesets.php
    Note that 'Cliff Tiles' are not supported.

    For obvious reasons we can't add any tilesets from WC3 but you can find them anywhere. In our own project we use tilesets with double the resolution compared to the original WC3 tilesets: 128x128 instead of 64x64 per tile.

    We're thinking of creating an update that adds some more tilesets for people to play around with.

    Thanks for reporting this, I'm looking into it straight away. This issue certainly wasn't there in the first Unity 3.5 so something must have changed in the minor builds. Will get back to you asap!

    Edit: I've confirmed the problem, previous versions of Unity must have just ignored it. Looking for a fix now...
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2012
  25. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    A fixed version has been submitted to the asset store.
     
  26. BjornL

    BjornL

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2012
    Posts:
    2
    Is it possible to procedurally generate tilemaps using code?

    Meaning, is there an API for this?
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2012
  27. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Sorry for the late reaction, sure you could set the tiles in code yourself. I could make a tutorial if that makes it easier but feel free to ask if you have any questions.

    To set a tile in world space use TSTileSet.PaintTile(Vector3 worldPos, int layer) (layer is the index of the terrain material).

    To set a tile using x, y coordinates on the map itself use TSTileData.SetCorner(int x, int y, int layer).
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2012
  28. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    We have just submitted version 1.1 to the asset store. Besides being much easier to use, we have decided to lower the price to $50!

    In the coming weeks we will start adding some more example textures to the package to show some of the diversity that can be achieved using our tool.

    A big thanks to our users so far!
     
  29. unityasoft

    unityasoft

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2011
    Posts:
    263
    When will we see the price reflect in the asset store? good move btw
     
  30. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    The new version was submitted, so it all depends on how fast it is processed...
     
  31. digitalzombie

    digitalzombie

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2007
    Posts:
    86
    Your asset looks great. Waiting for the new version to be available. :)
     
  32. jasonkaler

    jasonkaler

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2011
    Posts:
    242
    These people are usually only thinking of themselves.
    Kind of - I am the only person in the world, therefore you will not sell any at a price I can not afford.

    There is also a school of thought that a product is worth what you buy it for - therefore some products actually sell better because they cost more.
    I personally think that apple would not be were it is today if they sold their stuff cheaper than everyone else's. The product is worth more because you paid more.
     
  33. digitalzombie

    digitalzombie

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2007
    Posts:
    86
    Does it normally take this long for the approval process? I'm anxious to try it out! :)
     
  34. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Well not normally, but first something went wrong and our submission was lost somewhere, then we had to update the asset store tools to be able to login and right now all items in the asset store say "Please Wait"... So please bear with me here :(
     
  35. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
  36. mk1978

    mk1978

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2009
    Posts:
    276
    I have been asking this same questions in a couple of threads.

    Do you think that I would be able to use this solution for making bunkers in my golf course visualization?



    I have been using Tom's Terrain Tools for texturing a golf course, but bunkers are causing some problems. This is because of border between different textures, see link below. I would like to have nice clean border between sand and grass texture. Also, the size of the terrain is about 2000x2000m and there are about 60 bunkers in the golf course, which could cause some problems with running the visualization.

    http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/93711-Cut-terrain
     
  37. seitor

    seitor

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2012
    Posts:
    36
    Good tool , price is reasonable however the editor tools are compiled as dll? I would like to study the source so I can modify it. It would be nice if you publish the source.
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2012
  38. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Making a clear cut edge between grass and sand can certainly be done very well with my tool, but to be honest I'd actually make the bunkers a completely different way as you still have to face the fact that unity terrains use height maps which make the landscape 2.5D. You probably want to stamp a hole in the grass (lower it extremely steeply) then model a bunker (probably including some grass) and put that in there.

    The tile editor still uses the Unity terrain system so it also uses height maps. If that's not a problem (with the bunkers I think it is) and you were to have patches of sand that you don't want to model, yet make them edge sharply on patches of grass, then this tool would definitely be for you.

    We might do that in the future, but not for now, sorry.
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2012
  39. alex1560

    alex1560

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Posts:
    15
    Any luck to get this working with unity3d 4.0 ? It's working fine until I close the project and I open unity again.. all the textures are mixed up... something is wrong with the reloading.

    Alex
     
  40. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    I haven't actually even tried unity 4 yet, will get on this asap.
     
  41. Xinity

    Xinity

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2012
    Posts:
    5
    Hi, I bought your Terrain Tile Editor yesterday and we're already playing around with it a little bit.

    One caveat of Unit terrain in general is the bad performance on mobile devices (loading the engine and initially calculating the maps). That's why mesh based solutions for terrains like T4M are so popular.

    On the other hand T4M does not offer Warcraft-texturing-standard tile based painting. Do you think it would be an easy task to modify TTE in a way that it could paint on meshes like it does on highmap-based terrain? That would be a great help for mobile developers.
     
  42. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    I've actually been dying to do this but it would mean having to create everything terrain related myself: foliage, trees, billboarding etc. So an easy task it is not, and right now I just don't have the resources to do it.
     
  43. retrona

    retrona

    Joined:
    Oct 13, 2012
    Posts:
    1
    I purchased this asset, but am struggling to find some good, free or cheap tile sets to use with it.

    So far the asset looks very good, and have had no noticeable issues using it so far. Great job. :D
     
  44. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Glad the editor is working well for you! To get started with some tile sets you could look into the actual warcraft 3 tile sets for inspiration:

    http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/tilesets.php

    Also, the next update will contain extra tilesets for you to play around with :)
     
  45. seitor

    seitor

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2012
    Posts:
    36
    Just purchased it , nice tool. A couple questions here.

    1. How do I update terrain in runtime , is it even possible?
    2. Do you have further plan for this tool?
     
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2012
  46. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    To set a tile in world space use TSTileSet.PaintTile(Vector3 worldPos, int layer) (layer is the index of the terrain material).
    To set a tile using x, y coordinates on the map itself use TSTileSet.tileData.SetCorner(int x, int y, int layer).

    The plan at this moment is to add a lot more tilesets to the asset to show a bit more of the diversity that can be achieved with this tool.

    Some if the things I'd still like to do in the future are:
    - Create brushes for easy tile painting
    - Create a tiletype that allows textures to span multiple tiles
    - Create our own meshes for much more efficient rendering while still working together with unity terrain

    But most of all I'd like to get a lot of users telling me what they'd like to see :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2012
  47. Uncanny

    Uncanny

    Joined:
    Jan 12, 2012
    Posts:
    2
    Hi, I recently bought your terrain tile editor and I'm having some problems with it. After creating my terrain I immediately noticed a lot of small black dots appearing at the distance of my terrain. As shown on the image below.


    $TerrainTileEditorError.png

    Now, I don't know if it related or not but it looking at the splatmap for the terrain I notice that it's all grainy. Is the splat map suppose to look like this with your terrain tool?

    $TerrainTileEditorError2.png



    I would really appreciate some help with this.
     
  48. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Hi Uncanny! The splatmap only stores tile indices so it is supposed to look like that. You have a camera perspective that looks at tiles very away so very high mipmap levels are used.

    By default Unity automatically creates the mipmaps for you by recursively scaling down your texture by a factor of two. This is fine as long as the dimensions of a single tile is bigger than one pixel. After that different tiles start blending together, and worst of all the alpha values are leaking from the one tile into the next.

    The solution is: don't let Unity create the mipmaps for you, create DDS files and edit the mipmaps: https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop.
    First step is to remove any alpha from all mipmap levels where a singe tile a single pixel or less. I'm thinking it should look fine if you just clone a 'full' tile over all tiles in the map for these levels and make sure there is no alpha in these mipmap levels at all.

    Let me know if that helps!
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
  49. delinx32

    delinx32

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2012
    Posts:
    417
    So, this code just sets the tile that should be at position x,y. Does the library figure out everythign else, like what part of the tile (corner, straight, etc) should be placed, and what should be placed on top of what? What about the random tile, does this code take care of that too?

    Looks pretty cool, I'll probably buy it for 50, but I wouldn't have for 150.
     
  50. Ecco

    Ecco

    Joined:
    Jun 8, 2011
    Posts:
    27
    Yes the library works the rest out for you, all you need to know it the type of material you'd like. The random tiles are at this moment just that: random. You have no control over which one is placed. Would like to build that in the future but it would take a pretty substantial overhaul of the system.
    And we're in luck, the plugin costs 50 :)