Tom's Terrain Tools - New Release (Version 2)

[3KyNoX]

Hello Tom,

I am looking for a Terrain Generator that I can use with procedural / fractal techniques for a Space MMO RTS game.

I saw on your website that it is not possible actually but do you plan in future doing this ?

Thanks for answer anyway

[DisTrash]

Tom has written a list of software for terrains creation. Search on his website.

Hope it helps,,,Best Regards.

[.Tom.]

No plans. I don't think that building my own procedural generator could come even close to what dedicated tools like Terragen, L3DT, etc. etc. can do. So my workflow is to use those, and import their results.

[mk1978]

I am having problems to use Terrain Tools when using Overlay map function. I always get this meessage:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
TerrainTools.CheckOverlaymap () (at Assets/Tom's Terrain Tools/Editor/TerrainTools.cs:755)
TerrainTools.OnGUI () (at Assets/Tom's Terrain Tools/Editor/TerrainTools.cs:292)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)

When using the earlier version of the TT, it was working just ok. Has anybody been able to use Overlay maps in this new version of TT?

[.Tom.]

Check if the terrain object is set or empty. If it is empty, drag your terrain in there. I think this bug is fixed in the current development version.

[mk1978]

Thanks Tom, works perfect now!

[Flapman]

****Actually I figured this out. It was a problem with my resolution settings.

Love this add-on, Tom.

A

___________

Hi Tom,

I just purchased your app. The splat texture feature is working great but I can't get my trees, bushes and grass to render in more than a small are of the map.

In an odd situation, all my rocks were lined up on a straight column. Doesn't quite match the map.

Thoughts?

A

[Flapman]

Tom,

I had a question that I hope you can answer as well since you have created maps in L3DT. I us Pro 2.9.

I noticed that the orientation of the RAW file is flipped and rotated when I import it to Unity. It presents me with the challenge of trying to reorient the maps to get them aligned right. I had to do that for all my SPLATs and overlays in your tool.

Any thoughts about that?

A

[.Tom.]

The RAW import is actually a fix. The tools are designed for importing all the maps from the same source, in the same orientation. It should work if your sources are that way.

[Flapman]

Thanks Tom.

[Flapman]

Tom!!!

Special request.

Do you think it is possible for an upcoming release, to modify your tool so it can use a normal map and spec map layer for each terrain texture in the terrain generation?

Just asking.

A

[PrimeDerektive]

Tom!!!

Special request.

Do you think it is possible for an upcoming release, to modify your tool so it can use a normal map and spec map layer for each terrain texture in the terrain generation?

Just asking.

A

Use sixtimesnothing's bump mapping for built-in terrain. Not sure about the specularity though.

[Flapman]

Thanks Legend. I saw that. How would that work with the Splat mapping of the terrain using Tom's tool? How does the bump map script know to use the right textures?

A

[PrimeDerektive]

Thanks Legend. I saw that. How would that work with the Splat mapping of the terrain using Tom's tool? How does the bump map script know to use the right textures?

A

The same way Tom's tools use it... they both use the first 4 textures you have loaded onto your terrain object's palette, sixtimesnothing's script has public variables for the bump maps that correspond to those textures in order.

[Flapman]

Yeh, I gotcha. Problem is, I have 12 individual terrain textures.

A

[.Tom.]

Bump and specular maps for terrains go beyond what the tools do. You need at the very least to replace the terrain shaders. There are several approaches on the forum on how to do that, but none has emerged as a stable, standard way so far. If one does, and it requires changes to the tools to use it, I will make them.

To use the sixtimesnothing scripts, it should work to use the diffuse maps with my tools and then drag the bump maps into the corresponding slots in his script. I've not tried it, though.

[Metron]

Hi,

on Tom's website it is stated that the V2.2 has been released in April. I just purchased and downloaded the tools from the asset store and the version number is 2.1... does anyone else have this issue?

Thanks...

[.Tom.]

Metron, that's a simple label problem. If you look into the source code (the TerrainTools.cs script) it should say 2.2 in the comment section on top. I forgot to update the label in the inspector GUI, that's all. Sorry.

[Scryer]

With all due respect, what can you tell me about your toolkit that is different from Sandor Moldan's Toolkit that Unity gives away free? I understand that supporting programmers like yourself is the proper way, but (and excuse my ignorance because I haven't tried yours) IF yours is better, how so? That's the only way I'd see myself paying for this.

[.Tom.]

The Terrain Toolkit is an entirely different beast. It generates fractal terrains inside Unity and textures them. My tools don't do that at all. What they do is allowing you to import the results of external tools, or maps you've painted in Photoshop, etc. into Unity.

There are two differences:

One, Terrain Toolkit only handles the landscape, while TTT also handles trees and grass and also has scripts to add roads or rivers or other features, craters and some other nice add-ons.

Two, while the Terrain Toolkit is a great thing, it pales compared to dedicated 3rd party tools. Terrain Toolkit can't compete with Terragen or World Machine, L3DT, GeoControl, etc. - these tools create photorealistic landscapes. Compare the Terrain Toolkit screenshots with the images posted at http://www.planetside.co.uk/gallery/f/tg2/

While Unity's graphics won't compete with a dedicated renderer (and those renderings take hours, these aren't realtime engines), using TTT you can import the heightmaps, forest distributions, grass coverage, etc. into your games. And those can be of almost arbitrary complexity. For examples, in my example terrains trees don't grow on steep slopes or above a certain height.


So if you need a quick terrain for prototyping and don't care about details, or the terrain is not really that important (e.g. a flight combat game), the Terrain Toolkit is probably your better option. If you need detailled, complex terrains with forest and grass that you can control at any detail level you want, using a 3rd party dedicated landscape generator and TTT to import that into Unity is what you'll need.