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

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Tom163, Dec 12, 2010.

  1. Flapman

    Flapman

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    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. :D

    A
     
  2. PrimeDerektive

    PrimeDerektive

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

    Flapman

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    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
     
  4. PrimeDerektive

    PrimeDerektive

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    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.
     
  5. Flapman

    Flapman

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

    A
     
  6. Tom163

    Tom163

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    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.
     
  7. Metron

    Metron

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    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...
     
  8. Tom163

    Tom163

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    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.
     
  9. Scryer

    Scryer

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    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.
     
  10. Tom163

    Tom163

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    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.
     
  11. Avonaeon

    Avonaeon

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    I just recently bought TTT, but it seems the manual is down. Is there anywhere I can view an offline version, perhaps?
    Cheers,
    ~Avonaeon
     
  12. DisTrash

    DisTrash

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    Where get updates ? please.


    Thanks a lot !!


    Best Regards.
     
  13. Tom163

    Tom163

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    Sorry for the manual, the server is experiencing some issues right now. I hope to have it online again shortly. Alternatively, send me a mail at tom@lemuria.org so I have your e-mail address where I can send an offline version.

    @DisTrash:
    The version on the Asset Store is the latest. What exactly are you looking for?
     
  14. Avonaeon

    Avonaeon

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    Besides using two splatmaps to perhaps divide a terrain into "sections", like going from something green to something snowy, are there any uses I'm perhaps missing or not considering? Cheers for getting the documentation back up, as well :)
     
  15. Tom163

    Tom163

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    Not exactly sure what the question is. The purpose is that you can generate realistic terrain with actual calculated erosion, etc. etc. in one of the many tools dedicated to realistic terrain generation and then import it into Unity. The resulting terrains are much, much better than anything you could paint by hand.
     
  16. Avonaeon

    Avonaeon

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    I'm already using world machine to create a splatmap for the terrain and to create tree/bush maps, grass maps and so on, and then exporting different alpha maps for use as overlays (Erosion, Beach, etc.). Perhaps it's a more straightforward method in some of the other tools, but I was just wondering about what practical examples other's might have for using the second splatmap.
     
  17. Roughrider

    Roughrider

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    Tom - regarding the random placement script, do you think there is any way we can get this script to have a size range as well so we can place randomly sized rocks and boulders? Kinda like a max/min slider and probability chance?

    I'd also LOVE to have another pass with the grass/bush-detail map with six more grass/bush-detail objects as well using another map <---- this would be F'ing SWEET! <-- That is a professional term btw.

    (load in six more grass/bushes/rocks/whatever in the detail layer and have another go with a new grass/detail map)
     
  18. Tom163

    Tom163

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    Both of these would be fairly simple customizations. Unfortunately, I can't commit to them right now, because I'm in the founding phase of a new company. But it should be straighforward to change the scripts accordingly. If you've bought the tools, you are free to modify them as you need.
     
  19. RoyS

    RoyS

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    Is this compatible with Unity 4?
     
  20. Tom163

    Tom163

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    I haven't yet upgraded to Unity 4 so I can not say for certain. Some feedback indicates that the tools themselves work, but one of the extra-scripts throws an error. If someone has tested for sure, it would be nice to get a definite answer.
     
  21. mk1978

    mk1978

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    I am using Unity 4 and it seems that TTT works ok.

    Tom, do you have have plans to develop TTT any further?
     
  22. Tom163

    Tom163

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    I've not been doing Unity development for a while. TTT came into existence because I needed it for one of my own projects, so right now I don't have much of an incentive.

    However, depending on funding, a new project of mine might renew my interest in this area. So if you want to post a list of improvements you'd love to see, feel free - but no guarantees.
     
  23. RoyS

    RoyS

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    If you upgrade it, I'll purchase it. I have the older version as I didn't know version 2 was out.
     
  24. KRGraphics

    KRGraphics

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    Is there a way to get this working with Vue yet?
     
  25. mk1978

    mk1978

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    Here are some development ideas.

    Some kind of Progress bar would be nice to have. I have been using Overlay function with rise/lower terrain. This takes quite some time and I always thought that it didn't work at all. One time I forgot my computer running and I noticed that it actually works but it just takes quite some time.

    Some kind of offset would be also nice to have in Overlay function. It would be good to be able to make for example 1m deep river or pond with 20m radius, but also define that the actual water/bottom texture starts with 0.5m offset. Also, it would be nice to be able to change how steep the riverbank is (maybe this could be done with offset), or even use second texture for this offset part of the geometry.
     
  26. Tom163

    Tom163

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    Uh... it does show a progress bar on all operations.

    I personally do not recommend the overlay function for terrain changes, as it is horribly slow. Overlaying the heightmap in photoshop is usually much better, though it gives you a bit less control.
     
  27. bbedwell

    bbedwell

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    Tom, in Unity 3.5, does your tool work with multiple terrains (tiled)?

    We've generated tiled terrains along with tiled splatmaps in World Machine.

    We tried the ATS Colormap tool and it doesn't like multiple terrains in Unity 3.5.

    Just want to make sure this is possible before we purchase it.
     
  28. Tom163

    Tom163

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    TTT does have an input/object field for the terrain object to work with and uses that, specifically so multiple terrains are possible. I've not tested it in 3.5 explicitly, because that function was added earlier, but since there were no major changes I don't see why it wouldn't work. What I have not yet tested for compatability is 4.0 because I've not yet upgraded. I have reports everything works, though.
     
  29. KABLAMM

    KABLAMM

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    Hi Tom,

    I've upgraded from Unity3.x to 4.0.0f7 (free) and everything was working fine until a few days ago when suddenly, whenever I take a terrain, assign four textures, and use your tools to apply a splat map, I now get weird black lines in the blending region between texture 1 and 4. Here is a screenshot of it:

    $weird_lines.jpg

    This happens even in a new project. Any ideas?

    Cheers,

    - Jim
     
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2013
  30. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    I have the same issue. It appears only with the Bumped Specular Terrain Shader
     
  31. KABLAMM

    KABLAMM

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    Bingo! Yep, I had the material for the terrain set to none. Setting it to anything else removed the black outlining seen above. I created a new material, set the shader to Nature > Terrain > Diffuse and it looks pretty good. Setting it to Nature > Terrain > Bumpped Specular looks awesome, but then it is really shiny atm, so I guess I'll have to play with the alpha in my splat to fix that.

    Thanks style!
     
  32. Tom163

    Tom163

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    I don't have Unity 4 yet, so I couldn't test out what the new terrain shaders do, but it makes sense that they mess it up.
     
  33. Tom163

    Tom163

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    It's been a long time with this tool, but since there is still nothing better or even similar in the App Store, I've decided to team up with Mika and keep them updated and ready for the future. My life is taken me away from Unity for a time, but Mika will update and improve the tools from now on, and he has a couple new features planned as well.

    For starters, we've made a bugfix release which is uploading to the App Store as I type this.
     
  34. mgear

    mgear

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    Hi,

    <- and thats me :)

    So from now on, can send bug reports, feature requests etc. to me in these threads.

    Also soon i'll make own page for the terrain tools, with list of planned updates/ideas (and bugs),
    but anyone is free to post any suggestions too.

    The new version which is submitted to store is updated for unity 4.2,
    while the previous one was for 3.3.
    Next update after this might go for 4.3 and stay on that version for a while then.


    asset store page (update should be live soon once its accepted there)
    https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/527
     
  35. mgear

    mgear

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  36. Tom163

    Tom163

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    It's been a long time, but Mika and me have been working on this tool more

    There is a new version coming out within the next days that has been tested on the most current Unity version (4.6.2). It has a lot of code cleanups and smaller updates (such as cancel buttons, higher max tree density, better error handling).

    There is also a new feature I will be adding, called Incremental Splatmapping. While the main tool takes an empty terrain and manages it completely, this new tool allows you to add splat maps to existing data. It has many uses, the two main ones being that you can take existing terrain and add more textures to it, the second being that you can incrementally build up a terrain from as many splatmaps as you want. That is what I built it for, because for this terrain in the screenshot below, I wanted 14 textures on the terrain:


    It will blend with existing terrain, allowing you to set how to blend (equally or treating either existing or new textures more strongly). I will very likely add similar tools for trees and grass in a later version as well.


    This additional work and new features also mean we will raise the price from $25 to $35. The price had been the same since the first asset store release, and it is still cheap compared to other tools.

    For existing users, all of this is a free upgrade, so if ten bucks means a lot to you, buy it now before we make the update. ;-)
     
  37. Tom163

    Tom163

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    I'm also working on a few new utility scripts. This one adds random noise to your terrain. You can use it as a low-budget random terrain creator, but mostly it is intended to give the terrain a more natural or scraggy look, sparing you from adding all those details by hand (though you may want to manually smooth some areas afterwards).

    For example, with the click of a button, you can turn this:
    Bildschirmfoto 2015-02-02 um 18.10.50.png

    into this:
    Bildschirmfoto 2015-02-02 um 18.11.15.png
     
  38. mgear

    mgear

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    Also this experimental 2D tool will be added in the coming updates.

    Currently it generates 2D slices from the heightmap, which can be then used for nice parallax effects.
    Also that 2D texture is generated from the terrain splatmap.

    webplayer demo:
    http://unitycoder.com/upload/demos/TomsTerrainsTools2D1/

    terrain_tools_2D_1.png
     
  39. Frednaar

    Frednaar

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    nice improvements!
     
  40. Tom163

    Tom163

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    Version 2.4 is now waiting for approval in the Asset Store. My apologies for the delay in updating, I've had this on my harddrive for a few weeks already, just life happened.

    The new version was tested and uploaded with Unity 4.6.2 and will probably show up as requiring that in the Asset Store, however most of it actually doesn't. In fact, until recently I used the tool with Unity 3.5 with no troubles (no guarantee if the latest updates break anything there, if you need to know PM me and I'll try it).
     
  41. Tom163

    Tom163

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    2.4 is now live in the asset store. If you're an existing customer, don't forget to update because in addition to the new features it also includes a few minor improvements and bugfixes.
     
  42. Tom163

    Tom163

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    One small note about Unity 5:

    Terrain Tools works with Unity 5, but you will get error messages from outdated Standard Assets scripts that we include like the old MeshCombine.cs -- just delete those scripts and everything should be fine.
     
  43. Tom163

    Tom163

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  44. mgear

    mgear

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    Update 2.6 was just submitted to store (using 5.1)

    For easy reporting and following issues or feature requests, can now use github also:
    https://github.com/unitycoder/TomsTerrainToolsUnity

    Online documentation will be later placed & updated there too.
     
  45. mgear

    mgear

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    Just submitted current version under my asset store account, since its not possible to transfer the existing asset..
    After it gets approved, new updates will be only submitted to the asset under my account,
    and probably existing package will be eventually deprecated.


    *And please submit feedback to asset store,
    so that they would allow transferring existing users to another package,
    or allow more free vouchers, or allow asset store sellers to work together on packages (with their existing accounts)
    https://unity3d.com/asset-store/roadmap
     
  46. mgear

    mgear

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    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
  47. McGillivray

    McGillivray

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    Hi, how am I suppose to install this? I tried downloading and importing from the asset store. Im super new to this so Im sure its my own ignorance but I can't find any install instructions and when I load this I get the following errors.

    Assets/Standard Assets/Characters/FirstPersonCharacter/Scripts/FirstPersonController.cs(3,27): error CS0234: The type or namespace name `CrossPlatformInput' does not exist in the namespace `UnityStandardAssets'. Are you missing an assembly reference?

    Assets/Standard Assets/Characters/FirstPersonCharacter/Scripts/FirstPersonController.cs(4,27): error CS0234: The type or namespace name `Utility' does not exist in the namespace `UnityStandardAssets'. Are you missing an assembly reference?
     
  48. mgear

    mgear

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    Hi,

    Did you import into completely new project or into existing project?

    Those are some old character controller scripts (will be completely removed in the next update)
    seems like some folder is missing from the current asset store package..

    And just noticed some strange missing splat map errors when opening into latest 5.3.6f1,
    i'll check and re-upload the package to store!

    In the meanwhile, send me a message or email, so ill give you the latest package,
    or if you imported into new empty project, remove the character controller scripts and folders
    under standard assets, and import the latest builtin Character Controller again..(and place the fps controller into the terrain)
     
  49. mgear

    mgear

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    Just uploaded latest version to asset store, i'll update here once its live.
     
    McGillivray likes this.
  50. mgear

    mgear

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    Package was accepted last week, so please try updating to the latest version.