Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

Does anyone have problems with textures ??

 

When i use the terraincomposer and texture the terrain with it.

How can i then detect the used texture under the player ?
Player is a fps controller.

 

Yes it works tnx u and sry for late testing just one more thing how can i make more large terrain very very large terrain and how to crate trees that works with TC how to import from Tree Creator to TC

 

Hello,

That's a very high heightmap resolution you have. 32k x 32k, even loading them at runtime isn't going to work because it causes stutter with such high resolutions in Unity4. You can try in Unity5 though, I tried a 16k heightmap and it worked and still got good FPS. As in Unity 5 terrains are being batched. For loading tiles you need low resolutions of 128/256 without them to stutter.

As for the workflow for importing from WM, I created this tutorial video:

Nathaniel

 

It looks like you have RTP in your project. You first need to setup RTP Lod manager to get correct texture rendering. Tom explains in his tutorial video and documentation here:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/5664

In the new TerrainComposer version I'm working on, I added the possibility to create multi resolution terrains easily (like WorldComposer can do). The idea of this concept is that your player stays within the inner terrains and is surrounded by huge terrain around it. On top of that you can then use Horizon[ON] to smoothly blend the sky with the terrains. I use an early version of Horizon[ON] in the show case video were you see the Francspeak terrain inside an airplane. And WorldComposer's showcase video:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/horizon-on-make-your-horizons-look-real.259733/

As for trees from tree creator you can save them in a prefab, then you can add these prefabs in TC terrain list -> Trees.

Nathaniel

 

Hello,

You can use this script to detect the splat position. You can get the splat texture values of a terrain with TerrainData.GetAlphamaps:
http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/TerrainData.GetAlphamaps.html

Nathaniel

Code (CSharp):

1. using UnityEngine;
2. using System.Collections;
3. using System.Collections.Generic;
4. public class MultiTerrainPosition : MonoBehaviour {
5.  
6.     Terrain[] terrains;
7.     Rect[] terrainRects;
8.  
9.     public Transform Target;
10.  
11.     void Start ()
12.     {
13.         terrains = Resources.FindObjectsOfTypeAll(typeof(Terrain)) as Terrain[];
14.         terrainRects = new Rect[terrains.Length];
15.      
16.         for (int countTerrain = 0;countTerrain < terrains.Length;++countTerrain) {
17.             terrainRects[countTerrain].x = terrains[countTerrain].transform.position.x;
18.             terrainRects[countTerrain].y = terrains[countTerrain].transform.position.z;
19.             terrainRects[countTerrain].width = terrains[countTerrain].terrainData.size.x;
20.             terrainRects[countTerrain].height = terrains[countTerrain].terrainData.size.z;
21.         }
22.     }
23.  
24.     void Update()
25.     {
26.         int terrainIndex = getTerrainTile(Target.position);
27.         if (terrainIndex != -1) {
28.             Vector2 splatPosition = getSplatPosition(terrainIndex,Target.position);
29.             Debug.Log(splatPosition);
30.         }
31.     }
32.  
33.     int getTerrainTile(Vector3 position)
34.     {
35.         for (int countTerrain = 0;countTerrain < terrains.Length;++countTerrain)
36.         {
37.             if (terrainRects[countTerrain].Contains(new Vector2(position.x,position.z))) {
38.                 return countTerrain;
39.             }
40.         }
41.         return -1;
42.     }
43.  
44.     Vector2 getSplatPosition(int terrainIndex,Vector3 position)
45.     {
46.         Vector2 localPosition = new Vector2(position.x-terrainRects[terrainIndex].x,position.z-terrainRects[terrainIndex].y);
47.      
48.         return new Vector2((localPosition.x/terrains[terrainIndex].terrainData.size.x)*terrains[terrainIndex].terrainData.alphamapResolution,
49.                 (localPosition.y/terrains[terrainIndex].terrainData.size.z)*terrains[terrainIndex].terrainData.alphamapResolution);
50.     }
51. }

 

Hi Nathaniel,

Recently I've started working with more terrain business, and have started working with World Machine, Terrain Composer, and Relief Terrain Pack to get a really good looking terrain in Unity. I was wondering, after seeing your TerrainComposer Import Tutorial, your World Machine project seemed quite complicated, and I have never been able to produce such results in it due to my lack of knowledge. Is there any way you'd be able to share the World Machine project you used in that video, or maybe point me in the right direction where I could learn to create something as good as that?

Thanks for your time,
Matthew

 

Oooooommmmmmgggggg this is what i looking for the HORIZON om when will be available

 

Hi Nathaniel,

thanks for the help and the script !!!

 

Thank Nathaniel for this sale i just purchase my copy tonight and i can't wait to get my hand dirty with it.

Regards Peter

 

Im having a tough time with object placement. I can't seem to find the solution following your video:

What I am trying to do is place objects between height .200-.300 on a specific splatmap. Is this possible?

My setup is

Filter
Standard height add
Mask
Strength splatmap max
Mask
Strength height min

What do I need to set the curve at on the last mask?

 

Hello Matthew,

I don't have that project anymore, it was made by Jakob the creator of Modular PBR Scifi pack.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/released-modular-pbr-scifi-pack.273733/
You could ask him if he wants to share it, he made it learning WM for just a few days.

WorldMachine comes with many examples in the latest version. WM has a wide community and there's many tutorials on internet and youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=worldmachine+tutorial

Nathaniel

 

Hello Peter,

Thanks for the purchase , if you have any questions, ask anytime .

Nathaniel

 

Yes the is easily possible with the curve system. Your masks are correct...All you need to do is set the curve like in my screenshot. Horizontal is the input (height) and vertical output (0 no placement, 1 placement).

Nathaniel

 

Hi Nathaniel,

is TC broken with the actual beta 5.0.0.f1? After restart unity the TC window is gone...

tia, Jochen

ps: a pic of the errors attached

 

Hello Eagle,

I'm trying to place splatmaps based on height right now. I keep getting "there is only one splatmap available for terrain. 2 is required". But I have 2 assigned so I'm not sure. Please see settings in screenshot. What am I doing wrong?

 

Hi jalapen0,

you have to setup the splatmaps within the <RTP> settings, as i remember. Have a look at the video tutotials...

greetings, Jochen

 

Oh jeez, that's right.

 

Hello Jochen,

TerrainComposer works fine in Unity 5 beta f1. I think you also have WorldComposer in your project, and TC and WC share 2 scripts, and in U5 sometimes it doesn't replace it but makes a duplicate. You need to delete the global_classes.js and global_settings_tc.js clone scripts.

Nathaniel

 

Hello,

If you use RTP there's 3 modes. Either 4 or 8 splat textures and then there's a combine texture mode that allows 12 splat textures. So you have to assign 4 splat textures here, and also make sure you setup RTP Lod manager correctly. If second pass is active you need to use 8 splat textures. RTP comes now with precompiled mode that you have to use 8 splat textures.

Nathaniel

 

Thank`s, it was a clone of the global_classes.js script

 

Hello,
at first Í'm really new in splatmaps and TerrainComposer. So I'm probably overcomplicating things?

I have X raw heightmaps where I have stored information about if there may be splat or no. (I have separate raw heightmap for every symbol=splat to make it easy. So in result it's just almost black&white image. See bottom left corner of screenshot. On white is grassland).

Now I would like to create X layers where I will separately apply every heightmap and so in result define where that splat textures will be.

For this I must have an filter for heightmap (white parts of heightmap are green on terrain), and than one mask to remove black parts of heightmap. Because I want there nothing
And in fact create x layers always one for one raw heightmap. (and probably I would apply some perlin to mix more than one splat for white parts)

It's there an easier way. Or I'm overcomplicating?
Probably other way to do this. Is to create one layer with all splats. And add all raw heightmaps with different coeficients. For example first raw heightmap value / 10 + 0.1 second raw heightmap / 10 + 0.2 etc.

So than I can determine what splatmap may be chosen. And remaining black will be default splat?

Or is there another smarter way, really curious.

Another complication is that I would like to have one default splat that will be everywhere where no other splat is.

Thanks
Peter

 

Hello Peter,

There's 3 possibilities in TerrainComposer for using images for splatmaps.

1). The image uses the 4 RBGA channels for each splat texture. This is how splatmaps work on Unity terrain and how they are exported from WorldMachine. For 8 splat textures, you would need 2 splatmaps. This technique give you full control over the mixing between splat textures. In TC put mask input to Image, in settings enable Splatmap and Alpha channel toggle.

2). Create everything in one image where you use solid (no gradients) colors (can choose yourself). In TC mask put input to image, in settings splatmap needs to be disabled. In Color Range you put mode to 'Select' and then drag and drop your splat texture in the image slot and shift click <Detect> to automatically detect the colors that are used in your image. Then with the integer field behind each color you can choose the index of the splat texture to use with that color. This is easy to use but gives limited control between the mixing of the individual splat textures, there's 1 settings that controls the blending for all and that is 'Edge Blur'.

3). Use the method as you do were you use a black/white images. This gives the most control. You can use multiple layers where you put 1 or even more splat textures and add you images as a mask to the filter. The filter always chooses which splat texture to place from the layer, while a mask is the paint strength (alpha) of the chosen splat texture. I show in this video how the masking works with black/white image:

For using 1 splat texture as a base, you can have the first layer with the splat texture in there. Then the other layers you can overwrite by setting output to 'Change' and mode to 'Layer'.

If you need more help, let me know...

Nathaniel

 

Thanks for comprehensive answer. Yes 3rd option with output set to Change and mode to Layer is almost what I wanted. And it's wokring with one splat texture as base.

Although it has one disadvandage. That last layer will always win with it's splat textures. So if I have more than one layers that are influencing some place on terrain. Only last layer will add it's splat textures there. I suppose that this is result of Change mode.

From that I have conclusion. That I can use this but than if I want to mix more splat textures I must do it inside on one layer.

Or I'll just don't use Change mode on Output. And I will just generate base splat texture as composition of Max of all textures and inversed. And without change mode splats are nicely mixing.

Regards
Peter

 

Hi, Eagle555.

First, I'm a complete n00b working with 3D models, terrains, etc., so a lot of the nomenclature (splat map, resolutions, Perlin zoom) is not clear to me. So there's that. Secondly, I've taken on a project which is most likely one of the more challenging things to do, recreate real-world spaces with a minimum of uncanniness. Specifically, right now I am trying to recreate a local park here in San Francisco. I was super happy to find WorldBuilder, but I'm having difficulty getting the results I want. The park I'm trying to recreate sits on a slope, with a large open field of uneven terrain. I want to replicate this topography as accurately as possible.

Because the area I'm interested in is very small, I've defined a 1x1 grid, but none of the heightmap info seems to present. Although the raw asset is generated, looking at the terrain there is no height difference, just a flat plane.

I'm feeling kind of frustrated, because I've been at this a week, watching all your tutorial videos, reading the manuals, making attempt after attempt, but feel no closer to understanding how the tools actually work, or how to get something close to what I want.

I'm attaching some screenshots of my current settings in WorldComposer. Any suggestions you can offer would be hugely appreciated. And, let me know what other info I can provide.

Thanks!

 

Hey I'm no expert but I think that is too small of an area with too little resolution. I can't really tell you how to fix it though.

 

Thanks. I realized sometime after posting, I need at least a 4x4 grid. Don't know about resolution, it's one of the things I'm confused about. I know I'm trying to create a lot of detail, only trying to model the park from the screenshot, so higher resolution?

 

You need a higher heightmap size than 64x64 pixels. That's pretty tiny, like an icon worth of height data. Probably not much in it. You need to get that number higher...or wait for Eagle to pop in. It's late over there right now.

 

Hi Everyone, I recently bought Terrain composer, RTP3 and World Machine. There is a lot of great info here in the Unity forums, on the World Machine forums and youtube tutorials as Nathaniel mentioned. Nathaniel is also very generous with his skype support.

I am wondering if anyone here is interested in joining a slack I created @ world-machine.slack.com ?

slack.com if you are not familiar with this multiplatform application, is team communication software that aims to integrate a lot of external services while providing a place for teams to communicate similar to irc. You can create channels, private groups and use direct messaging between users on the slack. The free lite plan keeps a history of all messages and is searchable up to the last 10,000 msgs.

The idea is to augment the places one can learn about terrains with a place for folks to chat in real time (including history which irc does not give you) with other interested world-machine/terrain users.

I hope you will give it a try. Slacks are populated by invitation only (meaning you just can't directly sign up to use it) but it is open to anyone interested in this topic by sending me a direct PM with the email address at which you want to receive the invite. Perhaps if you give it a try and like it, you might want to create a slack for use with your own teams.

iByte

 

Hello Peter,

Yes that's the result of change mode as it works as an overlay and will overwrite. You could also do add, but then everything would be mixed with the base splat texture. I'm working on the update at the moment and will put in another output 'Fill'. This could be used in the last layer to fill what is empty with the base texture.

Nathaniel

 

Hello,

Well resolution you have already to the max. Heightmap zoom 14 is the highest level and that is about 10 meter per pixel. That means for every 10 meter there's 1 elevation point. For world elevation data this is very high as normally it is about 90 meter per pixel. It doesn't help if you export a larger area, that won't change the resolution. However I tested your park with the lat/long from your screenshots, and it definitely has elevation in it as you can see in the screenshot. Did you click the 'Export Heightmap' button, before clicking the 'Create Terrain' button?

We have to keep in mind when doing something like a park the heightmap elevation doesn't give detail about bumps and holes in the ground, as the resolution is 10 meter per pixel...

Futher you can use map-ity to add roads and buildings, it works well with WorldComposer terrains:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11779

Nathaniel

 

Hello iByte,

Thanks a lot for sharing, will check it out .

Nathaniel

 

Hello,
I have tried it yesterday with Add output. And filling base splat using Add with configuration where I subtracted all other splats in mask. And it's working nicely.
But wow great! Fill output will make life much easier and configuration simpler.

I'm really excited about this outstanding product. (and WorldComposer is bought and waiting in the shelf too...)
It's everything I was imagining to need. And it's complete and ready to go..

Only drawback for me is javascript source. But with this support I don't need it...

Thanks
Peter

 

Hi Nathaniel,

I want to use your awesome TC and WC in Unity 5 (beta 18) but I have the same kind of issues, exept I have 163 of them.

Like that : " Assets/TerrainComposer/Scripts/terraincomposer_save.js(8521,44): BCE0004: Ambiguous reference 'treePrototype_class': treePrototype_class, treePrototype_class."

Sorry but can you explain to me how to fix this ? I'm exclusively on the artistic side of the Force. My skills are in architecture and I dont know anything about coding.

And also WC doesn't appear when I import it in Unity 5. No more world icon on the top of the TC window and no World Composer in the window tab in Unity 5.

Thank you for your time, and sorry for my bad English.

 

Hi Nathaniel!

your product is great, but i have a little problem importing my heightmap from WorldMachine.
i've already flipped Y in WM and in TC but the resulted terrain appears mirrored on X axis in each cases.
anyone else encountered similiar problem?

Edit for better explaination:

i have build a map with a specific orientation ( <--)
when i import heightmap into TC without flipping-y everithing works like a charm, except for the direction of the map, now pointing at -->

flipping y on WM and then selecting flip-y in Tc wont make any changes, the map imported still point at ->

the problem (i wonder) is caused by the different positioning of tiles into WM and TC

(in bold the origin)
WM export tiles in this format:

(0,3) (1,3) (2,3) (3,3)
(0,2) (1,2) (2,2) (2,3)
(0,1) (1,1) (1,2) (1,3)
(0,0) (1,0) (2,0) (3,0)

when TC create terrain in this:
(3,3) (2,3) (1,3) (0,3)
(3,2) (2,2) (1,2) (0,2)
(3,1) (2,1) (1,1) (0,1)
(3,0) (2,0) (1,0) (0,0)

there is a way to fix the positioning of the terrain? any workaround?

 

Yes this happens in U5, as TC and WC share global_settings_tc.js and global_classes.js, and U5 creates a duplicate. You need to remove the clone script. It's in TerrainComposer/Scripts, after that you need to run the api converter and then both TC and WC will work. I'm working on an update for U5 where this issue is resolved.

Nathaniel

 

If you flip y in WM and in TC it should be correct. Can you show a screenshot of your terrain in WM and facing the same axis in Unity?

I'm working on an update for TC and WC, and both have now the same tile system as WM uses, so no more flipping is needed...

Nathaniel

 

thanks for the ultra fast reply, here some screen

this is my wm, the arrow i badly draw is the direction of my map


the flip-y is off right now, cause as said, checking it and importing into TC won't change the result:



here the direct result, i cicled a portion of the terrain as reference with previus screen.
positionig work fine... it just "mirror" XD

here my heightmap files, i made them really small for now, to make quick test and understand the mechanics of tc of course.



the "FLIP" one, are heightmap with flip-y on them: here the result:



as said, no change at all

 

The reason why the x orientation is flipped, is because in your Unity scene view your view camera X axis is pointing to the left, it should point to the right. So you are looking at the terrain from the top from the back, not from the front...

Nathaniel

 

iByte, that sounds excellent to me. I know there's a lot to learn between my current n00bness and the results I want for the environments I'm building. How do I join?

 

Thanks, Nathaniel for responding so promptly, and for all the exceptional support you offer on this forum!

I apologize for the complete n00bness of my question, but here it is. Since I'm interested in recreating, in as much detail as possible, real-world small-scale locations, as opposed to large-scale open world game type spaces, is there a better workflow I should follow? Would it be best for me to do something like use WC/TC to generate hightmaps, colormaps, then export/import those into the Unity terrain tool, where I would paint in the detail of the small park?

On a related note, and even more n00bish, is there a difference between the approach to terrain building between TC and the Unity terrain tool, such as TC is procedural and Unity tools are created by hand? If so, do the two approaches consume different system resources? I noticed that when I maxed up settings for even my relatively small landscape, it brought Unity to its knees. Certainly they'll be a way to recreate the detail of that small park in a way that doesn't tax the runtime resources, no?

Thanks again, Nathaniel!

 

unfurtunatly it's not the case


even changing my camera point of view is not fixing the specular creation of the map

 

Yes it is , now enable flip y in WM and also in TC, and it will be correct...Again in the new update it won't be needed anymore...

Nathaniel

 

uhm... he dosen't care of the flip as i said



i think i should wait for the patch with anticipation XD

i made another exemple with a simplier "terrain" to show the issue

 

I checked it out and indeed it doesn't flip anymore, sorry about that. It used to work...It is fixed in the coming update. There's an easier way. You don't have to export the heightmap tiled from WM, as TC can stretch 1 heightmap over multiple tiles. All you need to do is put 'Stretch Mode' to 'Multi Terrain'. Then flip y should work.

Nathaniel

 

No there's no difference. TC and WC generate standard Unity terrain, so you can use the Unity terrain brushes as well to add extra detail. Yes you can upscale the resolution in WC 'Create Terrain' tab -> Heightmap Resolution. This will result in a blockery heightmap on the terrain, but then you need to smooth it, you can read about this in the first question on WC troubleshooting.
http://www.terraincomposer.com/troubleshooting/
So this is the resolution per tile, and I recommend to not use more then 2048 totally.

Then after smoothing you can use the Unity terrain brushes to add as much detail you want. P.s. sometimes the brush doesn't want to change after generating a terrain, saving the Scene and restarting Unity solves this...

P.s. be aware that if you regenerate the heightmap in TC, the manual changes will be lost, but you can export the heightmap first and reimport it. So brushes are best at the end of the workflow.

Nathaniel

 

Thanks!

 

thanks so much for the support! looking ahead for the patch

 

About WorldComposer: Some satellite images may have different color tint. (as you can see in the attached image, the gray is not what I want). What is the best way to set them all to an even color tint?

 

Thanks for joining viciousesque and fcruzp

Just a quick update about the slack. I have renamed it to terrains.slack.com in order to a) appeal to folks to discuss all aspects of terrain making and b) to free up that name for Stephen if he chooses to run his own slack. World Machine will still be a major focus of this slack in addition to Terrain Composer and RTP ...etc

I have not cross posted this announcement on the RTP thread as I felt a lot of folks here probably read both

Hope to see you there by sending me a pm on this board or and email to support@ibyteproductions.com

iByte