Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

Terrain Composer 2, An Unity3d Extension Tool for making AAA Terrain(photorealistic)/Scene in just minutes…

Get TerrainComposer 2 on the Asset Store.

Visit www.terraincomposer.com for more information and screenshots and video...

Terrain Composer is an Unity Extension Tool that enables developers to compose AAA quality Unity Terrain. It uses the standard Unity Terrain. It's also a Scene/Level/City/Village Composer. And with a few clicks you create astonishing results. It has a friendly GUI interface and is very easy to learn. Creating terrain that normally takes days or weeks to make, with this tool it only takes a few minutes! Saving you tons of work and time. Speed, quality and realism is the strength of this tool. And it’s curve, layer and filter based! The possibilities are endless. The layers and filters can be used for example to blend splat textures on height, random, degree, normals or an image etc. A small change in a curve or filter gives a totally different terrain. It has many features. One of the features is that it allows unlimited colors being added over the terrain using a colormap. So instead of the limitation of splat textures, it gives your terrain more color variation and a much higher level of realism. Another feature is that you can add shades to the terrain blended with the colormap or the splatmap, using for example a cloud texture. This gives another added level of realism. It allows fast placement of any objects like rocks, trees, bushes, grass, houses, fences, etc were you can use an image as a blue print and a color for each object. For placement every detail can be selected: scale range, rotation range, position range, even the colors of trees can be selected from a range.

Another feature is that it has the ability to create instances whitin instances to many levels. For example if you want to place houses in your level. You can use an image as your map (top view), and specify were you want the houses to be placed. You can select more spots, and Terrain Composer can choose randomly from those spots, or whatever condition you prefer. Once a house is placed you can run another area setup which you make for that house. It can be an image (map) from the garden for placement of trees and bushes around the house, a shed, a road to the front door, etc. It will be even possible to randomly place furniture in the house. And then you can even take it futher, for example a table is placed (you let Terrain Composer choose a table from a list of tables) inside the house. And then you can run an image(map) for placement of chairs around the table, things on the table, like a plant, diner plate, laptop, etc, etc. In this way you can create a whole Scene at once, but with the variation and quality you need.

Here’s a list (not complete) of the features:

User Interface:
* Easy,flexible and colorful user interface.
* Complete hierarchy database.
* While generating terrains it’s still possible to continue working in Unity.
* Activation/Deactivation for each group/component/output.
* Edit Layer and Description names.
* Save/Load whole setup, layers, color ranges and generated textures.
* Copy/Paste/Swap any component within the hierarchy.
* Import/Export generated output to Texture (Normalmap, splatmap, colormap and heightmap).

Terrains:
* Supports Multiple (unlimited) Terrains which can be created automatically.
* Automatically arrange positions of multiple terrain to one big tile, or rearrange when changes the size.
* Use real World data heightmaps.
* Use real World satelite images.
* Automatically seach and add terrains from the Scene with one click.
* Fast resolution/size/splat/trees/detail assignment and apply to multiple terrains.
* Create a custom square area for each terrain, or create one square world area over multiple terrains.
* Control the loop steps of each area according to any resolution (heightmap/splatmap,etc)/unity/custom for required detail.
* Option to automatically stitch terrain borders.
* Automatically add a neighbour script to all the terrains to get seamless tiles with one click.
* Automatically add a parameter script for distances of basemap/tree/detail/etc to all terrains with one click.
* Reset buttons for heightmap,trees and detailmap.
* Active/Deactive each terrain.

Tools:
* Measure terrains
* Filter Images (e.g. Satelite) on colors and export the texture.
* Create Heightmap/Pattern Textures

Layer outputs:
* Heightmap
* Colormap
* Splatmap
* Tree
* Grass/Detail
* Object

Ouput options:
* Create unlimited amout of layers.
* Create unlimited amount of filters within each layer.
* Create unlimited amount of subfilters within each filter.
* Use filter and curve settings to create any kind of blending, it works on all layer outputs.
* Object placement from blueprint or any filter option, specifying scale range, rotation range, position range, different colors (trees), distance between each object, rotation map,etc, etc.
* Automatic parenting with placing objects, automatic combine children meshes for oimum performance.
* Place instances within instances.

There’s many more features and soon I will add more to the list.


View attachment 65259

 

Post a link of a screen capture of you building said terrain and showing off all features, etc. I'm currently using terrain edge and very impressed.

 

interesting...bookmark added!

 

It's not really a hightmap generator, but more an advanced texturing of heightmaps and advanced object placement (grass, trees, any object), etc. It can texture and color like no other tool...

 

It looks really nice.
Maybe a youtube video will give us a better idea of what it does?

 

Yes I understand. I'm making a video right now...

 

No way! REALLY?
That's very impressive!!
Bookmarked!

 

Looks really impressive!

 

Ok the video is ready www.terraincomposer.com/video, it's just quickly made, much more is possible when adding more filters and layers etc, things can be added, changed, substracted, randomized, etc.

 

I do not understand why people continue to use another player that youtube ..

 

I will upload videos to youtube later...It takes time, and I have to finish this tool

 

Seems very handy...i'm curious to see this feature in action:
"Use Satellite images or any image to blend splat textures or color output."
Could be a time saver when you try to simulate real world environment!

 

Thx

 

I made some newer screenshots of a massive terrain 40x40km, with 300.000 trees placed (placing takes 50 seconds)...

 

Any chance this will this have a runtime API for generating terrain in-game?

 

As for generating streaming terrain. That would be very interesting, I can look into that, but I think it will be too slow, maybe use many small terrain tiles, then it could work. But this tool is not really a heightmap generator. So the hightmaps must be already there, and if you use many small terrain tiles, it would be faster to load and unload these on runtime and build them in editor mode...

 

The video link doesn't work... Please use youtube.

 

Video is working here.

 

Not working on iphone (flash) and half my time browsing this forum is on the phone

 

Looks really interesting!

Is the road in the picture (Screenshots - Features Terrain Composer) in you webpage created with texture? http://terraincomposer.com/screenshots/

I mean, is it possible to control the border between different textures with Terrain Composer? Sometimes I would like to have blended border and in some cases I would like to have nice clean border like the road in the picture in you webpage.

 

The road is a mesh. It is not possible to make a curved road on a Terrain without using a mesh. You can create a path/road on the terrain without stripes.

It is possible to control the exact border between textures with using an image as top view. For example if you generate your grass detail, you can use the image for not painting grass on the road and create a nice clean border. You can do that with textures/objects/trees, etc.

I did not make a special shader for it...you can implement any terrain shader available (like bump, specular map, etc) and use the advantage of that shader with Terrain Composer. I use the free TriPlanar bump map shader.

 

looks pretty much like additional geometry...
if you are looking for a shader which allows you to have different kind of borders between terrain textures please have a look at the terrain decal shader: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/151666-terrain-decals-shader

lars

 

Well in my case, it doesn't actually have to stream or be fast; my game basically has a loading screen where it creates a new terrain with random heightmaps and splatmaps (currently using the Terrain Toolkit API and some custom code) each time you enter a new level, so even if it was slow it would still be useful for me at least to be able to call some of these filters and curves from within the game instead of just in the editor. Right now my own code for generating random texture and detail maps gets pretty boring results so I've been looking around for other options.

 

Ah if you preload I can make it possible because the script that countains the actual generation code is a monobehaviour script and is attached to a GameObject in the Scene. My editor script is storing variables and calling all the functions from that script. I choose for this because you can save a monobehaviour script to a prefab, without doing custom serialization yourself, etc. And antiother advantage of it is that it automacally saves the setup with the Scene. So for every Scene you can use a different setup without manually save everytime.

You could make more GameObjects with the script attached to it with different settings to give variation for each level...

 

Does your asset work together with EasyRoads? Also, is it mobile optimized?

 

Yes it works with EasyRoads. As for being mobile optimized, it uses the unity terrain you created. Instead of painting all the splat textures and placing all the objects by hand, Terrain Composer does the job for you, but it doesn't use a custom shader or anything, you can use any shader you like. If you use a custom mesh for terrain, you can export the colormap texture and use that.

 

I see. I look for a solution, where option A) like in the case of makesshiftwing, the terrain is generated during loading, including random terrain with road objects (in fact, trails), or, option B) I have predefined terrain-tiles as prefabs, and the tiles are used from a pool in runtime (like in Temple Run).

 

Ah ok, both options would be possible.

 

As for option A). It's actually made for this, because it returns with every x steps, so you can continue to run your code (like showing highscore or a progress bar, etc). For option B you don't need a Terrain Composer GameObject.

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

 

You're welcome . How many tiles is your total terrain? and heightmap resolution per tile?

 

We are in the planning phase and looking for the best tools, so nothing is carved in stone yet... Total terrain is not so important (I guess), imagine a Temple run style game where you run and the road (in our case the terrain) is assembled in front of you. Every time new variations. Endless terrain.

 

Sorry for the delay, but I worked a long time to make this tool behond anything else. It's not streath forward as other terrain tools, but has a huge hiarchy of layers/filter/subfilters database system that makes it possible to create any type of terrain/city/villiage/etc (see the latest screenshots), a heightmap generator is included, and will be upgraded with the next version..

A beta version is available now for $70. Contact me at Nathaniel_Doldersum@hotmail.com

 

could i use heightmaps that i create in Vue?

 

Yes any heightmap or image can be used, you can mix it with other heightmaps, etc. Also perform smooth functions and use 1 heightmap over multiple terrains...

 

awesome. only problem with painting textures on terrains is texture stretching on steep angles and the lack of normal detail. also lightmapping looks off.

 

For the stretching on steep angles, you could use 1 texture slot for it and then tile the texture. TC is compatible with any kind of terrain shader, I recommend Lars his Terrain shaders, they include normal mapping.

 

I have the beta version and all I can say is this, It is PHENOMENAL!!!
There are so many possibilities with this, that it is astronomical
IMO, the BEST terrain package available (and I own quite a few of the others).

Highly recommended!!!

 

Mobile?

 

I purchased this Tool and all I can say is.. excellent!
running on unity 4 pro 10/10 points..

 

Hi,
how detailed is the documentation provided in the beta version of the product?
Thanks

 

Can I use/modify/export externally generated splatmaps or use coverage maps for the same purpose with your tool? Quite interested.

 

Hello,

Yes this is possible.

 

I'm trying to get the Tri Planar system to work. I found and unpacked the "TriPlanar_on" package. Also found an option in the big list of settings on the TerrainComposer object. So I turned that on (also tried it with that off)

I get is a super shiny terrain where it looks like all my textures are too big/small and result in them blurring out to their basic colours.

I've used another TriPlanar shader in a different project which had similar problems but it was because it had set the texture sizes to 0 and just needed correcting. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

I couldn't find any info in the help files or videos. Could you tell me what the process is for getting it to work.

 

Hello,

The reason I don't have documentation and videos, as I wasn't finished implementing the TriPlanar shader into TerrainComposer in version 1.04. As I ran into a few things I'm planning to make my own TriPlanar shader.

The reason for the overbrighting is because there are no specular textures assigned to the TriPlanar shader script on the terrain.

I have a version of TerrainComposer with the TriPlanar implemented, if you want to try it out contact me at Nathaniel_Doldersum@hotmail.com and I can send you this version.

Greetings,
Nathaniel

 

Hi Nathaniel, great plugin.. bought it last night as all the videos looked pretty promising

I've been having trouble getting anything happening though, even following your Procedural Demo

I create a terrain (normal from unity) and then when I use it as the parent to create the 4,2x2 terrain, it comes up as two large squares connected like a figure 8.. different from your video

If I straight up create without using a parent, then the four terrains created are together in a large square like your video

Then when I go to create a heightmap and generate the results, following your instructions does nothing again - generating heightmap layer does nothing to the map

I thought maybe you missed out on a prerequisite setting in the tutorial, maybe I need to choose what heightmap to use? Problem is even with a heightmap selected from the island demo files, nothing happens upon generation.

Quite the shame, I'd been looking forward to using this for my teams projects. Could you help me with resolving this please? If I cant use the program, do you know if Unity Asset Store will refund? Cant see how that would work considering Ive got the download. Shame, though considering so many other users aren't having this problem, I'd rather a work around.

I am using Unity 4.

 

Hello,

Thank you for telling, I'll gladly help you out. It is easier if you contact me at Nathaniel_Doldersum@hotmail.com

Do you have the latest version 1.04? TC Menu -> Help -> Update...

If you don't have version 1.04, the default curve heightmap settings isn't there, and nothing will happen if you click generate.

I don't create a terrain from Unity in the video. But I create an Empty GameObject (Unity Menu -> GameObject -> Create Empty), then I use this as a parent. If you create the terrain in Unity menu, then this terrain isn't in the TerrainComposer terrain list, and you get terrains overlapping each other.

So if you contact me at my email we can make it work. Also I do skype screenshares to help with support.

Greetings,
Nathaniel

 

Thanks for the quick response Nathaniel, since my last message I've progressed somewhat after I went back and watched the required tutorials from the documentation

Ah right an empty game object, thanks

Yes I am running 1.04, though it seems that the problem was on my end

Thanks for the great component!

 

Hello,

Good to hear you got things working. If you encounter any more issues, contact me anytime .

Greetings,
Nathaniel

 

very interesting tool,

quick note, your island video tutorial leaves a lot to desire,
even tho the resolution of the video island tutorial is up to 720 which is supposed to output a cristal clear resolution,
you cant see what you are doing. all the buttons are blurry so if someone was to follow the video tutorial will have such a hard time seeing what you actually clicking or doing. so at this point this video imho is useless for whoever wants to learn from it.

or maybe is my setup that dont let me see the video with clarity even with 720 resolution?
not sure, maybe someone else can corroborate with this.

thanks

so will recomend you if you have a chance to redo the tutorial with better video recording quality.