Terrain Workflow

Hey guys!
I'm making a simple game,and i want to know how you guys make your terrains.What i need to do is a 2kx2k island,and i don't know where to start and what software to use.I'm about 2 months searching for a workflow,and i found nothing, it's very frustrating =/ I really need a help! srry my bad english.

 

I guess its a lot about what resources you have to spend and what end quality your after, personally i use WorldMachine for creating terrains but there are many other options out there. Another option is that you outsource the creation of the terrain to someone, especially if you want high quality, its probably cheaper for one terrain then buying tools to create it.

 

Can you show me a pic of your setup in WM?I really want to give it a try.

 

Im at work now, will see what i can do when i get home : )

 

You know, World Machine has an official Unity tutorial. (Link)
Just follow it step by step and everything will be good.

 

True, but that does not say a word about how to actually generate good looking maps, which was the original question : p

 

Watch some tutorials on YouTube. World Machine is about as convenient as terrain generation gets. It's surprisingly easy to make something that looks quite good.
Everything else is experience and skill.

 

2k x 2k island? Would be easier to picture if you gave me a unit along with the numbers.
Are you new to programming?
2D or 3D?
Realistic or artistic terrain?
What platforms do you intend to publish the project for?

Large, continuous worlds where you can walk freely typically rely on advanced to hellish-advanced techniques depending on the intended end results. The easiest way for beginners is to brake up the game into levels (enclosed areas) until they have a better understanding of how worlds are built and the necessary programming skills to manipulate the terrain data and noise maps etc.

Maybe you can describe a bit more about what you want? What will the island contain and what will the player do there? Do you have any picture examples?

 

I'm not beginner on programming and i've already planned what the game will be,but i 'm having a hard time making the game world...
What i want to do is a small 2kx2k rocky island,with some paths,villages,caves,etc.
i'll upload a pic tomorrow of what i did so far...

 

I have a tutorial using World Machine.

 

I was looking at World Machine for my project, but I need smaller details, like a river and lake/pond, seems World Machine is only for huge landscapes?

 

No, you can make smaller detail as well, you can set the scale on what you do, so same tool can make a canyon or a small stream. Require some practice though to get good result as WM has many nodes and they can be used in so many different ways. Also, you can draw a basic heightmap in any software like paint or photoshop to get the basic "course details" and then import that and refine it in WM if you have something very specific in mind.

 

Cool, thanks for the reply. I'll look in to it more.

 

This guy's site has advanced tutorials and gives project files for each...I'd definitely check it out: http://scrawkblog.com/category/terrain/ and http://scrawkblog.com/category/proland/

 

Thx for the vid.I'll look at it.

 

Thx for the links,this is very useful.

 

This is the pic of the island i did:

 

Terrain looks pretty good already i think, would recommend looking up some good terrain shader though, RTP3 as an example is great, but a bit costly.

 

I'm really not happy with this terrain,making this into a playable level is turning to be a nightmare...
I've seen RTP3 btw,looks very nice,maybe i'll bought it when i get a decent terrain.

 

Well, every terrain will look bad with bad textures/shaders. I think you would be more happy with the terrain itself if the surface looked better. Also, all terrains look a LOT better when you start adding stuff like trees and plants to it : )

 

Ok,i'll try adding more vegetation and stuff,i also need to define where the paths/roads will be.

 

I have a shader in the description of my video you can use. Free and simple.

 

Ok,i'll try it.