Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

Well yes and no. As soon as you import RTP into your project, you need to set it up first, before it renders the terrain correctly, if you don't set it up, nothing will work anymore like you expirience. So first follow Toms video how to setup RTP Lod Manager or learn TC first and add RTP later. You don't need TerrainComposer to use RTP, and you don't need RTP to use TerrainComposer, but together they are very powerful, they both work on standard Unity terrain. But TerrainComposer is a terrain generator, while RTP is a terrain renderer. The reason why you get the export png instead of the generate button is that you activated the 'Export' button it in the top of TerrainComposer window. So if you want the generate button, disable the export button (which disables the export mode). My advice is to either learn TC or RTP first, but not at the same time...

If you use the RTP mode then TerrainComposer won't assign any splat textures to the terrains, but to the RTP script which is on each terrain. This has to do with how RTP is working on a shader level. Because materials make Unity terrain slow for more tiles, Tom got around it by using the terrain splat textures to store different textures and settings for RTP. So whenever you use RTP, you shouldn't look into the Unity terrain script at the splat textures anymore as a reference also not splat texture tiles sizes, but look in RTP script for them (they are called layers).

Nathaniel

 

Hello Michael,

Yes I remember that is an awesome sculpted heightmap you got . You mean terrain resolution-distances/lightmode /rendering settings? or more the workflow how to create a terrain(s)?

Nathaniel

 

Yes I did this. I had RTP working by itself without TC. And I followed a video tutorial on setting up RTP and tried many different settings in the Lod Manager. Technically in some ways I even got it to work, but not in a usable manner (for example the terrain distance kept reverting to 25 meters when going into playmode - this only resolved itself after I removed RTP from my project).

I am not going to give you a bad review or ask for my money back, I understand there are a lot of people who have great success with rtp and tc, and I would very much like to have the functionality they offer, but the difficulties I'm having have been too frustrating, so I just thought I'd add my voice to others here in the forum asking for more and better documentation in the future. As I said before, when TC3 comes out I hope to try again.

Its possible I hit it accidentally when trying to figure out why something else wasn't working I suppose. Still this is why it would be good to have documentation where everything is spelled out. I read every line of the RTP pdf, very good example of how to do it I think. Some people are lazy and will not read it, but some people will read it and won't ask you as many stupid questions, haha.

This seems to be incorrect, as that was my first problem. I was doing what you said and ignoring the unity terrain script splats, only looking at the splat options in RTP and TC, but something else was happening I can't explain. RTP during set up requires you to add splats to the unity terrain script (just as placeholders I think). You are supposed to add four/eight splats with any random texture, then ignore it and just use the RTP script. Which is what I did, but TC then wouldn't let me "set" splats to terrain, giving a message about rtp heightmaps needing to be the same size and readable. It was saying this because there were no splats assigned to the unity terrain script as placeholders for rtp, the ones I had assigned previously were being removed somehow probably when going into playmode to view it (it took me a long time to figure this was happening because as you said, we shouldn't have to look at the Unity terrain script splats, however it was definitely the case; when I added splats back to the unity terrain TC stopped giving me the error message and allowed me to "set" the terrain textures and generate terrain but every time I would go to playmode the whole problem repeats, so no terrain textures would display for me). Both TC and RTP worked fine by themselves I should point out, and I tried removing both and re-downloading both from the asset store.

This seems like it would take a lot of time to figure out, and if no one else is having problems like this, then don't worry about it, I can wait until TC3 to try again.

 

Does all of this work with mesh terrains (no Unity terrains present at all)?

 

I think the best would be I help you in a skype screenshare to get everything working . My account is Nathaniel.Doldersum

Nathaniel

 

TerrainComposer can convert Unity terrains to meshes and RTPv3.x works on meshes...

Nathaniel

 

Thanks I asked for it to go on sale, along with TC, just a few days back ,glad to see they listen lol. I hope TC goes on sale, soon, as I will grap that as soon as it does, I just picked up WC, just now.

I plan on working with WC, TC and RTP, so after watching all the tuts, I'm sure along with some others, I may have to bug you as well. I have used TC before though. A friend at school had it. That is why I wanted it so bad

 

Having a problem with TC. Whenever I try to make a terrain now, I get the "Download and import the example package again as it is updated." error. I've imported the package 5 times, exited and restarted, tried all the examples, and I always get that message. Anyone else experiencing this? More importantly, how do I fix it?

 

Hi All,

Was looking at this at a friends place but everytime he was generating and had lifted the water level to say 10, trees would be generated in the water. We couldn't find a way to offset the height, and setting the sea level in the global param. had weird results (e.g. way more trees in the water and less on the land). Is there something simple we are missing?

Thanks,
Will

 

Also thanks a lot . I hope TC will go on sale again too. And maybe you can ask for a RTP sale too , as Tom would like to have it on a sale .

Nathaniel

 

I think this happens if you don't use the latest version of TerrainComposer. Do you use 1.47? If not you can update TC in TC Window -> Help -> Update...

Nathaniel

 

Hello Will,

You have to use a height mask to your tree filter if you want to exclude trees at a certain height...
I explain it in this video:

Tutorials can be found on www.terraincomposer.com/tutorials

Nathaniel

 

Hello everyone,

Peter and me made SnazzyGrid and it is available on the Asset Store now!




Links: Video - Manual - Assetstore

SnazzyGrid aims to improve your workflow in unity. While the original intention was to speed up the work in modular leveldesign, it quickly turned out that there is more to it. Regardless what genre or type you are working in, if you place objects and need to manage the hierarchy, SnazzyGrid is the right tool for you.

Pro or Hobbyist, 2D or 3D, Mobile or Standalone, Interface-Layouting or Leveldesign, does not matter, you will work significantly faster using SnazzyGrid. With a learning curve smoother than babyskin, you'll have it integrated into your workflow in notime and once you used it you'll always want to have it in your projects.

Ok admitted, we are all used to cheesy advertising... but take a few minutes and watch the video and see why SnazzyGrid is special:


Well documented...
Apart from the detailed Manual(clicky) and the video above, there is a quickstart-guide integrated into the window. There are Tooltips for every button on the interface, not only explaining the functionality but also show whichHotkeys(all customizeable) currently are assigned.

 

Hello, Nathaniel!
Thank you for the wonderful tools!
One question:
I need help in building the curve for height map.
For example, I have a grayscale 16bit RAW file in which
(the height of ground = the color of the dot HEX = color points DEC)
-10m = #131313 = 1250067,
0m = #1e1e1e = 1973790,
800m = #d9d9d9 = 14277081.
Please tell me how easier to build curve for heights.
And how the proposal, might be worth in the curves builder to add the ability enter numeric values for points along with draging points.

 

Hi, I just bought World Composer yesterday, and I was wondering how to achieve something, I would like to have 4-8 terrain tiles--from World Composer--to be compressed into one terrain (of a 3000x3000 size--I know how to set the unity terrain size though), is this possible?

 

A 16 bit cannot be bigger then 65535...I'm not sure what you exactly mean with 'building' curves and the example you give, can you explain it in more detail?

Nathaniel

 

It can be done automatically in WorldComposer...The thing is that WorldComposer makes tiles based on the image size you select. Unity can maximum handle 1 4k image, so you would need to set the image resolution to 4k and then zoom the image zoom level out to get bigger tiles...

Nathaniel

 

Sorry Nate, you are right of course!

I made a mistake because on one monitor web project, and on the other Unity. And I have a habit looked at Adobe color picker in the usual HEX and translated in DEC.

The correct value is:
-10m = 1769,
0m = 2159,
800m = 27407.

I will explain what I do; maybe it's someone else handy.

1. Using WorldComposer I got the height map of one of the one Caribbean Island. However, the resolution (80x80 pix for 5.828x5.828km) was very poor and generation terrain are inaccurate.

2. I exported raw and opened it in Photoshop, increased the resolution to 10240x10240 (I have a satellite imagery of this place in this resolution), added a layer with the picture from the satellite and began using filters and brushes to add realism.

3. Nevertheless, the draw was very uncomfortable, dark and inaccurate because of the small dynamic range.


4. Ok, I added an adjustment layer

and received much smoother and more convenient for the picture, but of course it I can't use the curve obtained automatically from WorldComposer. I managed more or less to set up a new height curve, but I would like more precision.

 

@eagle555

Did that video outlining the process of re-creating your 24-hour terrain demo surface that you mentioned was pending the release of RTP 3.1, several months back? Checked your tutorials page, but didn't see anything.

 

I think you mean a 1024 heightmap? As 10240 is not usable for performance reasons and memory usage. If you generate the terrain from WorldComposer the maximum normalized height is 1 and multiplied by 9000. So to convert you can use (height/65535)*9000. I see that your heightmap values aren't linear which then you need indeed a curve to get the correct heights.

(height/65535)*9000 = 800
height/65535 = 800/9000
height = (800/9000)*65535
height = 5825

The horizontal curve key is at 800/9000 = 0.088, so the vertical linear point is also at 0.088 but needs to be 0.88/(27407/5825) = 0.187....

What can give a much better resolution is upscaling in photoshop then use the 16 bit raw (.raw need to be .r16 in WM) in WorldMachine and add erosion with it...

If you need more help, let me know .

Nathaniel

 

Hello,

Yes it was in that time. The issue is that I don't have time for it anymore, as I'm working on a game and doing TerrainComposer and WorldComposer support takes all my time. Making a video might look easy, but it is a lot of work. So what I will do is write the whole process down, with screenshots etc in a pdf instead .

Nathaniel

 

@eagle555

Totally relate; been working non-stop in games since 1997, and as you probably know it doesn't leave much free time to do other things.

Tutorial videos are definitely not easy! But I sincerely appreciate that you'll be documenting the process in a PDF. Learning "a process" makes it much easier to understand the rest

 

Hi. In last months, I have issue with Terrain Composer. When i hit Generate button, nothing happens. Tree creating, objects creating, grass creating... Nothing. Only splatmap is working. On object creathing, only one is created (?). When I'm creating new terrain, there is "This setting can't generate any output" or something, or just only one (again) terrain is generated with few errors.

Please, can you fix error texts? When there is something wrong, where is error specifically? "...can't generate any output" and no error message isn't much specifically. In this stage, this asset is unuseable for me.

When I creating terrain.

ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Argument is out of range.
Parameter name: index
System.Collections.Generic.List`1[UnityEngine.DetailPrototype].get_Item (Int32 index) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/monoAndRuntimeClassLibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Collections.Generic/List.cs:633)
terraincomposer_save.set_terrain_details (.terrain_class preterrain1) (at E:/Robinsonade/Project/Assets/TerrainComposer/Scripts/terraincomposer_save.js:8175)
TerrainComposer.create_terrain (.terrain_class preterrain, Int32 length, Int32 start_number, Int32 name_number, System.String terrain_path, UnityEngine.Transform terrain_parent) (at E:/Robinsonade/Project/Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/TerrainComposer.js:15187)
TerrainComposer.draw_terrain (Int32 space) (at E:/Robinsonade/Project/Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/TerrainComposer.js:7115)
TerrainComposer.Paint () (at E:/Robinsonade/Project/Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/TerrainComposer.js:2293)
TerrainComposer.OnGUI () (at E:/Robinsonade/Project/Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/TerrainComposer.js:883)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/monoAndRuntimeClassLibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

 

Hello Tomas,

TerrainComposer needs to be done in a specific way. Have to assign trees/grass/splat textures to the terrain, make layers, etc. Looks like in this process something is not setup right, could be that your local area is very small. When you get the message 'This will not generate any output', then the layers doesn't produce anything...So they are just empty...

The best would be to do a skype screenshare and I can help you make it work. My account is Nathaniel.Doldersum

Nathaniel

 

Hi All,

I thought I might share a screenshot from a game in development made possible by Terrain Composer.

This is a 10x10km map composed in WorldMachine, imported into Terrain Composer, and textured with RTPv3. The majority of the beauty was made with Terrain Composer in this photo (Sorry RTP ). Ground textures are from RTP, flowers and trees are from Nature Pack 2. It's so pretty I'm thinking of just walking around on it for a while.

I've only had Terrain Composer, RTP, and WorldMachine for a week or two now and I've never done terrain modeling before. So Terrain Composer is a fantastic tool for beginners as well!

Thanks Nathanial for making it!



-Mark

 

Good work Kivak !!

I have un problem.
I use Terrain Composer with RTP 3.1 .
The terrain was made with World Machine with this parent :

.



The terrain in unity :



Problem :
A close distance rendering is bad (squares)


What the problem ?

The Tile resolution ( If I enlarged the resolution, the problem still exists ) ?

The splatmap export ?



Thank for your hep

 

Thanks!

I am by far just a beginner at this... but when that happened to me I found that the resolution was the problem. Make sure that your "tile resolution" export from WorldMachine (First screenshot) corresponds to the resolution of your terrains in Terrain Composer. I generally don't go much smaller than 1024 myself. So you'll want to check these settings to be all the same... if you wanted to use a resolution of 1024:

• WorldMachine should have a "Tile Resolution" of 1025 (1024+1)
  
• Terrain Composer "Resolution" tab should have a "Splatmap Resolution" setting of 1024
• Terrain Composer's splat layer > filter > image > settings > Image Resolution should be 1024 once you load the splatmap tile.

That's all I got. Hope it helps!
-Mark

 

This will help me a lot, I'll try

Thank you!

 

Which method you use to create the splatmap in WM?
A specific macro?

 

Hello Mark,

That looks awesome! Maybe you can make a build of it and share the link? Would love to walk through your landscape .

Nathaniel

 

Hello,

Like Mark says, it's indeed the splatmap resolution. In TC should be the same as your image resolution, if the splatmap resolution is too low, you start to see these blocks...

Nathaniel

 

Laurent, I found a tutorial on this a while ago but, for the life of me, I can't find it. However, it is super easy. Just use a Splat Converter to input the RGBA channels of the height map, take the output Splat Mask 0, 1, and 2 from the Splat Convertor and hook that to the input of a Channel Combiner. Take the output of the channel combiner and hook it to the RGB input of a Bitmap Output and then hook the Splat Mask 3 output of the Splat Convertor into the Alpha input of the Bitmap Output. Then just use the Image filter in Terrain Composer and 4 textures - one for each channel.

One last detail: You need to invert the y-axis in Terrain Composer for the splatmap, but NOT invert the y-axis for the heightmap. Not sure why that is...

I was thinking of making a tutorial on how to import a WorldMachine terrain into Terrain Composer and texture it with a splatmap and RTPv3...

-Mark

 

Of course! I have it in pieces at the moment as I am trying to use splat maps for vegetation instead of layer masks (I overcomplicated things in WorldMachine...). But as soon as I get it operational, I'd love to share.

 

Thank you Nathaniel and kivak.

It's work

 

Hello Kivak,

It is actually the y-axis of the heightmap that needs to be flipped in WM and also in TerrainComposer. Otherwise you will have the heightmap inverted on the y axis in TC. Then you won't need to invert the splatmap.

Nathaniel

 

Hi Nathaniel,

I've got some questions regarding the realtime use of TC.


I currently have this huge terrain, that is kind of generated tile by tile on demand during run time - I start with a set number of tiles (3x3, 5x5 or 7x7) and then cycle them (move tiles from behind to forward) as I move around the terrain. I'm streaming from the raw height map and applying color maps on the fly. So far so good. Now I want to add some additional detail to the terrain, using the splat layers. Obviously I can't process each tile manually: I have over 4k tiles and only a handful are loaded on demand at a time, depending on the location. The thing is, I have to set up pretty generic layers (steepness, image color ranges, etc) and then after the terrain tile height map & color map have been loaded and assigned, I'd need to apply the color map to any layers that need it, and then call TC to generate the splatting. Also notice that I need to be able to generate the tiles one by one. Sometimes only a few new tiles are needed and needs to be generated while the others remain unchanged.

So to sum it up, the things I need to do from code are:
- Modify a layer: select another Image for the input. (screenshot of what I mean)

- Run the splat generation for a single terrain tile - not all of them, only the ones I need to modify.

Can you help me out with this one? What methods do I need to call in order to do these things? Your code seems to be in Unityscript so getting around it is a real pain with the intellisense missing

Also, a perhaps related question: What is the "Mix Mode" setting and what does it do? Also what's significance of the "Terrain" above it?


Thanks for your time.

 

Whoops! Yeah I always get them confused.

 

Hello Jusas,

Did you download the TerrainComposer runtime package? There's some documentation and example scripts in there, how to modify a layer/filter, etc. Also a reflection helper script to make it more easy to access TC from c#.
http://www.terraincomposer.com/runtime/

By code you can enable/disable on which terrains you want to generate, by tc_script.terrains[...].active = true/false;

The mix rate is the blending between one splat texture to the other. You can drag the green slider to the left and right (and generate) to see the difference. With mix mode to Single you can set a mix rate between each splat texture instead of 1 mix rate for all of them. You only see it if you have more splat textures in a layer...

Nathaniel

 

I see that after I generate terrain with terrain composer, I can sculpt on top of it with Unity tools. But, if I click "generate" again, Unity changes are lost. Is there any way to preserve those sculpting changes I do in a layer?

Also, RTP supports substances for splatmaps. But if I am right, I can not assign substances to splatmaps in Terrain Composer?

 

Nathaniel,

I am trying to see if I can use the same techniques you used to make Mt. Rainer with another location. However, I am having a lot of trouble with selecting colors on Imagery (from WorldComposer) and assigning them splat textures in a realistic way. Right now, I am selecting on rock colors and using an image splat to put on one of the stock RTPv3 rock textures.



As you can see it is very patchy... is there a way to feature the edges using the filters/mask? Or was that something you had to do manually for Mt. Rainer?

I tried using the "Edge Blur" as it made the most sense (Blur the filter?)... but it always turned the terrain completely black. I didn't know whether that was an RTP issue or whether it didn't have anything to do with bluring the texture. I couldn't find it in the manual - but I might have missed it.

Thanks for all your help!
-Mark

 

Yes manual changes can be saved by expoting the heightmap in TC with the export botton in the top. Then you can load this saved raw heightmap(s) in a heightmap layer, with the filter input on raw heightmap.

Nathaniel

 

Hello Mark,

If you want more smooth edges you can try a higher mix rate in the layer, or you can blur the satellite image in photoshop.

Nathaniel

 

Hi Nathaniel,..

Did you encounter any compatibility issues between Advanced Foliage Shader, WC/TC and RTP??

I have lately been meddling with AFS, primarily for its ability to make better tree billboard transitions. During this I have had exceptionally many unity crashes, always when I am changing some parameter within TC :-/

In fairness I have to say that I also upgraded Unity to 4.5 and TC to 1.47 - all in an existing project that was upgraded from Unity 4.3.

After crash it sometimes ask me to upgrade to TC 1.47 again.... and sometimes only to load Examples again even if the files are already there - and never allow me to start the examples.... hmm :-/

 

Hi Nathaniel,
I use a 3 tiles per side terrain.



Now, if I export a 4x4 terrain from world machine, how to add 7 terrains in TC for the land that expanded without changing anything?

 

Hello Broesby,

No I haven't. TerrainComposer does nothing different then when you change parameters on the Unity terrain directly. So the issue can't be in TC. How much memory does your Unity Scene uses? If it's around >2.5 GB Unity becomes unstable...

If you upgraded to TC 1.47, you can restart Unity, otherwise the updated prefabs might get lost which result in having to install TC 1.47, then after restarting Unity you should be able to download and import the examples as they are updated as well.

If you can't get it to work, I can give you support on Skype directly, my account is Nathaniel.Doldersum

Nathaniel

 

Hello Laurent,

You have to click the '+' button above the TC terrain list, then a new terrain appears and select 4x4 there. Then click create terrains. And then adjust the image length in your image filters.

Nathaniel

 

Hello everyone, i need help please.

when i create any number of terrain 1x1 - 16x16, and apply any heightmap (to test it out i just a basic perlin, with default settings) and im going through each terrain and smoothing out the edges where it meets the water asset ive dropped into the scene. and periodically going into terrain composer and using the quick tool "Stitch tool" and terrain composer freezes and the window goes blank. if i load an earlier scene it'll start working again, but i can never go back to that original scene where it froze, and continue using terrain composer. attached is a SC of what happens to the window. and the error that i get.

has anyone else had this issue? and hopefully know whats causing it/how to solve it.

 

Hello,

I send you a mail with the fix for this .

Nathaniel

 

Doh, that makes sense. I cant believe I didnt think of that. Thanks!

 

Thank you kindly sir, seems to be working beautifully now!