[REL]Infinite Terrain Tiler and Editor [Updated v1.3]

Now Available! You can get it here. $15
Asset Store : Updated v1.3 Still Pending

Tool is now located under Window of the menu bar.
New Terrain Collider Button added to fix Terrain Colliders that have been corrupted.

See the Tool in Action by visiting our WebPlayer Demo, This demo shows streaming our terrains made with our tool from a web server to your WebPlayer. Watch as the terrains load and experience the streaming as you move the camera about.

This Editor Tool was specifically designed to be used in 3D worlds but is 2D compatible. Individuals or very small teams can take advantage of this Tools ability to create seemingly large environments without creating separate scenes for multiple environments. It is a means to create very large worlds using smaller terrains. Our Trails to the West project was the inspiration behind the design and development of this unique tool.

Our project uses 1kx1k terrain tiles so for demonstration and howto we will use the same. Any terrain tile size will work, so you are not limited to our Example. Now lets get into detail with what this amazing tool can do.

Features and Functionality

• Create Multiple terrains in a grid based format with the push of a button that can be exported and imported from file in any project.
• Simplified and easy to understand interface. Setup as a tab within the editor, No need to drag a script to edit.
• Stream (import) exported terrain data from file at runtime to simulate an infinate world using a single reference terrain. Terrains that were not manually edited will be placed in empty grid spaces so your player will never run off the map.
• Seam Stitching. (Still being refined) My personal favorite, allows you to match your current or active terrain to the adjacent terrain tiles edges or seams. You have complete control over which edge is stitched. Large Mountains are no problem, simply adjust the stitching spread and watch as your mountain is mirrored and take shape.
• Reduces the need to create separate scenes to load towns or Villages. Simply add them to one of your many terrains and as you play iwhen you begin to approach and watch your town generate before your eyes keeping your draw calls and performance optimal.
• Update: Added Undo Button.

What you get.

• Editor Tools for creating terrains
• Runtime Component to make your terrain come to life while you play. This is attached to to an Empty object that handles all the terrain data.

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The Terrain indicator is for your Center Terrain or reference terrain. The location of this Terrain is 0,0. It would be very wise to design this terrain as tillable as possible. Considering that this terrain will be used to fill in tiles that you have not created manually, we like to call this filler scenery.

• Front, will place an identical terrain to the front, or if looking from the above in an 2d grid, will be place in the next Y coordinate.
• Back will place a terrain down 1 tile on the Y Coord.
• Left will negative direction on the X Coord.
• Right will place a terrain 1 tile on the positive X Coord

Update:
The terrains folder is now located in your assets folder for your project you no longer need to set the destination.

• View attachment 119930

Planned Features:

• (Added) We plan on adding the ability to randomly place filler terrain in order to eliminate any repetitiveness throughout the world having you create separate terrain pieces and adding them to the world from an Array of Terrains.
• (Added) Multiple tile sets, specific for future based games or games that the terrain changes with time or seasons.

Updates:
(11/29)

• Added Filler Terrains, Exported in the same method as your world terrains.
• Filler terrains are randomly placed in the world, after they have been placed, they will never change. If you were to start a New Game the terrain will again randomly change giving you a unique environment every time you start over. When you load a game the filler terrains will retain there location making that saved game a permanent environment.

Brief Demonstration of how the Terrain Manager Works while editing and at Runtime.

We have added an object spawner. Spawn any prefab in a random radius set by you. Trees for forests with a variety. Spawn prey for a hunting game. rocks for you scene. Eliminate the stress of manual placement for dozens of objects.

Best of all, since your spawning a prefab, you can simply adjust any of them if they perhaps spawn in a road or house. Delete the ones you dont need.

Spawner is also available separately. If the need arises it will be included on the asset store, For now our tools will remain with us. For future availability please contact us.

 

Update:
When you Export your terrains to the folder the filler terrains will be placed in location the will auto edit based on the location of the tile to be filled.

Auto Stiching works extremely well for experienced artists. We have given you a method of stitching individual sides as you work. Keep in mind creating your tiles so that the elevation matches at the seams is very important for proper stiching.

 

Object Spawner now has Weight and quantity values for each object to be spawned. You can also set the clearance of each object. Clearance is the amount space from the nearest object that it will spawn. a clearance of 10 will ensure that no object will spawn next to another object within 10 Units.

Weight merely represents probability of the object spawning, as per my request our spawner will utilize this as a trigger if selected to be used as such.

 

Is this going to be a new Asset Store asset? I want this, I've been trying to figure it out myself but I'm just not saavy enough with code to figure it out.

 

We are hoping to release it as Asset Store asset in the coming weeks. I can however give you a Beta copy to use if you don't mind providing me with any bugs or features you would like included. I of course will provide you with as much support as you need. Send me a private message and I'll send you a link to download this tool. Thanks for your interest!

 

Is there a max to the amount of tiles you can have.
For example could you had the whole earth mapped out in 10km x 10km tiles.
If so could a coordinate system be tied into the time streaming also.
Still if not would love to test this to see how it goes up with terrain composser tiles.

 

John G.,

You can create as many tiles as you like. I do however recommend playing around with the terrain tile sizes as we use 1km x 1km tiles to do areas over a 100km x 100km. Since the data is binary it compresses really well (1mb) altogether so that helps for streaming from a server if you needed. The coordinate system is the same for both the runtime and editor component so your tiles always get arranged in the way you designed them. I sent you a private message with a link to try out the system as we have it at the moment. I am going to put a new video up that shows how to use the spawn pool with the system. Thanks for your interest in our project and let me know if you have any trouble or further questions!

 

Update for our Infinite Terrain Tiler system. This video below is a full walkthrough using the included spawn pool although I recommend Path-O-Logical Games' Pool Manager product (http://poolmanager.path-o-logical.com/). If you are interested in trying out this product we can hook you up with a free copy to Beta test for us. Send me a private message if you want the link!

 

Yes this will be in that asset store as soon as we get a good feel for what you are hoping it can do. We have a few beta copies available for feedback purposes. As we receive this feedback, it will only improve the ability and ease of use.

 

Update: Object Spawner

The Object Spawner has been given the ability to drag and drop the objects to be spawned so that you don't have to type the name of the object each time. (It just makes sense)

Update: Terrain Tiler

The Terrain Tiler is getting a few improvements for more control. Manual Tile Placement.

Notes:

It is recommended by the Terrain Designer to use a piece of graph paper and draw X and Y axis's so that you can visually understand where you tiles are located. This simple technique allows you to fully build your World (tiles) as you see fit.

Tip#1

Have a nice picture of an aerial location. Trace it on to grid paper with a grid size of your choice and use those grid squares to create your terrain tiles in the editor. Thus recreating the terrain of your choice.

 

Update for our Infinite Terrain Tiler system. We have added in functionality for adding terrains that were created with third party tools (Terrain Composer, etc.) to our tiling system. A video showing that functionality can be found below.

 

The coolest feature, the stitching exists. It is called stitchscape and works really well.

 

I know about stitchscape and yes it works really well for stitching terrains you have already created but that is different from what we are doing and what we plan to use this system for. As our terrain artist adds new pieces it is useful to stitch just a selected edge without disturbing the height-map of the other terrain tiles. While Stitchscape can probably do that, I don't think that is how is it works as it changes the height-map of the every terrain in the stitch. Our system is more conservative in that you have to explicitly say which terrains will be touched by the algorithm. Either way Stitchscape is an awesome piece of software and anyone should check it out. http://www.starscenesoftware.com/stitchscape.html

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Our terrain designer says Coolest Feature simply because it was designed to his specifications. Hes a micro-manager when it comes to his terrains. When he just speed designs his terrains he likes to have control of how the terrains go together. He has looked at stitchscape, and responded with it doesn't give him control over the edges like desires. But he also said that its a good tool for early designers.

 

Our Infinite Terrain Tiler has been submitted to the Asset Store, we are simply waiting for them to review and accept it.
You can also purchase the tool from Here if you do not wish to wait for it. For more support you can visit our Website. http://teamblackheart.com

Update:
v1.2
Updated in our DigitalStore.
Updated Unity Asset Store to v1.2 (still pending)

 

Update:
In our previous design we left the placeholder for having the ability to stream your terrains from a server . That being said you can now do so by uploading your Terrains Data to a Server and pull the information to any of your games or client. What this opens up for you as a developer is the ability to edit and update your terrains without having to patch your client side program, meaning you can update just your server side data.

 

Update:
Video showcasing the new loading and streaming of terrains from a URL. We have still have a few more early bird copies for people willing to test out the system. Drop me a message and I'll be sure to hook you up.

 

If you have purchased the tool from our Digital Store and need further help with using the extension do not hesitate to email us.
BlackHeart Studios

You can also post your questions on our forums @ TeamBlackHeart

 

Is it possible for you guys to put the demo on its own page? Maybe I just don't know how to correctly navigate your web page, but the demo is squished in between the frames on the left and right so it's extremely difficult to evaluate and test it.

 

Not a problem. I will take care of that Asap!

Update: So what i did was applied it to a header block that gives you the full width of your screen, thus removing any left or right margins. I hope this fixes the issue you are having.

 

That fixed it, thank you

 

If you have any more concerns or requests feel free to post them here or email us BlackHeart Studios

 

Update:

It has been a few days since we last posted anything, so i wanted to provide a little update about a few new things the tiler can handle now.

- The ability to stream Multiple terrains that have different resolutions for texture and Heightmaps.
This gives designers the ability to use other terrains with much lower detail to keep performance costs down. A handy little feature when using a terrain that hast to be visited quite often. (Bug was with importer not being able to determine the differences in layer maps, or number of maps)
- Fixed an Import/Export issue when importing in the editor, objects no longer get duplicated.
- Stitching has been refined some more to be more lenient on height differences between terrains. It is still a proper habit to create edges that closely match.
- Minor tweaks for various other things.
- We also created a fix for terrain colliders. this tool can be found under the window in menu bar. Should your terrains collider somehow become broke (run through hills) simply push this button and presto fixed.


**Notes**
It is important to remember that the reference terrain is the source for basic data relevant to all of the terrains. If you have multiple textures the must be added to the reference terrain and then exported with all of your terrains at once. Still looking for a way around this.

 

Merry Christmas All

!! From now till the 1st you can pick up our Terrain Tiler for $15.00 on our Store! Don't wait, pick your copy up here.

Infinite Terrain Tiler v1.3 Christmas pricing.

 

Is this asset still being developed and supported?
Does it work with Terrain Composer terrains, and is there guidance/tutorial/video?
Does it also work with TC under Unity5?

Thanks,
Mark

 

This project was finished but support isn't going to be priority. If you are interested send me a PM for a copy that you can have to fork from.