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Voxeland - Voxel Terrain Tool

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by Wright, Jun 25, 2013.

  1. sadicus

    sadicus

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    This might be a Unity UI thing but is there a way to toggle "backface culling? This would be helpful in Orthographic view to see tunnels.
     
  2. twodave

    twodave

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    Just wanted to congratulate @Wright on the releases of Voxeland 5 and Map Magic 1.8. I had quite a few problems with getting terrain gen in Voxeland 4 to really do what I wanted, but the new releases make it a snap and far far more maintainable. It's just staggering how much better a product these both now are!

    It took me only a few minutes to have the terrain generate layers of grass, dirt, and stone exactly how I wanted, place trees in forests in a really elegant way with adjusting the ground around them, and I'm well impressed by the capabilities with only a little time spent on it!
     
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  3. Ascensi

    Ascensi

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    @Wright Are the plugin tools supposed to be included with Voxeland or MM or was plugin tools only needed for the beta testing?

    Also I understand you're probably going through a lot of unexpected bug fixes since official release but could you please
    share any foreseeable Version release date when Voxeland may get Megasplat support?
     
    Last edited: May 30, 2017
  4. rpg_gamer

    rpg_gamer

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    Hi there, just updated both voxeland and map magic today, and noticed they were supposed to have integration with each other? Where is it? Can't seem to find any way anywhere to see that.
     
  5. b889965

    b889965

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    Watch this :)

     
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  6. MarkusGod

    MarkusGod

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    Is anybody know how to get voxeland mapmagick and relief terrain pack work together?
     
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  7. Dwight_Everhart

    Dwight_Everhart

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    @Wright I installed Voxeland 5 today and tried to convert my existing MapMagic terrains to work with it, but I've run into many problems, and I'm quite confused about what I need to do. The documentation doesn't appear to be updated for Voxeland or MapMagic. I watched the video you made that was posted above, and that helped, but it doesn't answer many questions. I don't even know if I'm supposed to still have a MapMagic object in my scene when I'm using Voxeland. The Voxeland inspector seems to have everything needed to integrate with MapMagic.

    I'm sure you're very busy right now fixing bugs. When you have some time, can you update the documentation? Also, can you could create a demo scene that shows an integration between MapMagic and Voxeland with non-trivial generators, similar to the demo included with MapMagic that uses Unity terrains? Converting that demo to use Voxeland would be very informative to new Voxeland users like me.

    I'm going back to Unity terrains for now, but I look forward to trying future Voxeland updates. Thanks for your great work! I couldn't make my game without it.
     
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  8. Wright

    Wright

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    WoodenDragon, generating objects is pretty straightforward. Maybe there is issue with that. I will check it out, recording a video by the way.

    sebou42240, Voxeland is currently a terrain engine only, and I'm not aware of any water fluid asset to integrate. If you know one - recommend it here, I wil

    sadicus, are you talking about demo scene on denispahunov.ru/voxeland or the one that comes with Voxeland?

    Sure. In a Generate foldout set Generator Type to Heightmap and assign your texture. Note that it should have read/write enabled for that.

    Voxeland shader should be modified for that. Not a big change, but I will create a task anyways.

    twodave, thanks a lot! It's really nice to hear such feedback!

    Ascensi, PluginTools folder is needed only for beta test. In the release version it is already included with Voxeland.

    Dwight_Everhart, you don't need any MapMagic object for that. Voxeland just uses MM generator internally. You just have to switch Generator Type to MapMagic in Generator foldout, create a MM Data with Create button and open up and editor window with Edit.

    Yep, I'm filling MM wiki from time to time, and going to do the same with Voxeland.
     
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  9. Dwight_Everhart

    Dwight_Everhart

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    Yes, I figured that out from your video, and I was able to get terrain with a single block type generated, but I still need more information about how to convert my existing MapMagic generators to work with Voxeland, specifically converting texture outputs, tree outputs, and grass outputs. The texture outputs seem to require a different way of thinking, since Voxeland associates textures with blocks, instead of surfaces. So I can't paint textures based on slope, for example. Or is the conversion not so big? I'm also using RTP, and I'm not sure how to make that work with Voxeland. Perhaps you could write a guide for MapMagic users who are converting from Unity terrains to Voxeland terrains. That would be very helpful.
     
  10. sadicus

    sadicus

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    @Wright thanks for the info.
    the DemoScene that comes with Voxeland. At run time, the in game menu instructions, the only option that works (for me) is Left Click. Middle Click = not working. also ~-5 = not working.
     
  11. sadicus

    sadicus

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    I'm not use to using PNG for Heightmap. Does it need to be 8bit RGB? "Automatic Truecolor." I don't see it listed as an option.
     
  12. twodave

    twodave

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    This seems to work for me, something like this?

     
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  13. Dwight_Everhart

    Dwight_Everhart

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    Thanks, @twodave! That looks like it does the job, but what if I want different surfaces in different locations? Maybe grass in one area, dirt in another, and rock in a third area. Won't the Voxeland output always place blocks of each type on top of each other, in the order they're listed? Or will it ignore layers that have a 0 input for the location they're at?
     
  14. Wright

    Wright

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    A short tutorial showing the way to use RTP with the new Voxeland 5:

    That's right. I've added a "paint mode" to make this conversion easier, but if you'd like to have a full control on the blocks layers it's better to use other modes.

    It depends on the layer mode. I describe each of them in this video:

    Hm, it seems that everything works as it should. What is your OS?

    Since Unity 5.6 you've got to set texture type to default, turn off sRGB, and turn on read/write enabled in Advanced foldout. The compression should be set to None.
     
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  15. Dwight_Everhart

    Dwight_Everhart

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    Thank you for the new video on using RTP. It's helpful. And thank you for the older video. It helps a lot to understand how the block layers are constructed.

    I noticed that Voxeland defaults to rather small chunks, while MapMagic defaults to fairly large terrains. Since I'm converting a MapMagic terrain to Voxeland, should I increase Voxeland's chunk size to match my old terrain size? Or does Voxeland need to work with smaller chunks? I need to generate enough terrain to go pretty far to the horizon. My MapMagic terrain size is 2000. Can Voxeland handle that much terrain visible at once? If Voxeland must use smaller chunks, won't that affect the quality of the terrain patterns, since MapMagic generates each chunk independently?

    I noticed Voxeland has a Horizon Mesh feature. Does that work with MapMagic? Should I be using it with MapMagic?

    Thanks again for all your help.
     
  16. MarkusGod

    MarkusGod

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    How to change voxeland static terrain size, i found in advanced settings sizea but they are availabld only with dynamick terrains.
     
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  17. Dwight_Everhart

    Dwight_Everhart

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    I successfully integrated RTP and converted one of my biomes to Voxeland. It's a very simple one with no objects, just terrain. It worked pretty well, but only a small area was visible at a time. So I adjusted the terrain size and create/destroy range settings in Voxeland to make 2000 units of terrain visible. That make the visible area larger, but performance took a huge hit. The terrain took a minute to generate in the editor, and I got 3 FPS when running the game. I got 15-20 FPS in that biome when using Unity terrains.

    Am I doing something wrong, or is Voxeland's performance just not high enough for large terrains? I expected lower performance, since voxels are more complicated than height maps, and I'm amazed you're able to do this at all in C#, but, if the performance can't be improved, I don't see how I can use Voxeland in my game or how it could be used for any large-scale terrains, which is what MapMagic is best at.
     
  18. WoodenDragon

    WoodenDragon

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    @MarkusGod Per Wright, this seems to be a bug (issue #67). As a workaround you can switch Playmode mode to infinite, click "Advanced", set terrain size, and switch mode back to static.
     
  19. sadicus

    sadicus

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    @Wright
    Windows 10
    Ok made the import settings, but what is the original file to be imported need to be?
    @WoodenDragon I'm using a height-map to define the terrain, but only a small section of the terrain is showing.

    "Terrain Ranges: Max Distance" = 300., is tis the number to change to get the entire heightmap to fit?
     
  20. WoodenDragon

    WoodenDragon

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    @sadicus Change the playmode from Static to Dynamic Infinite, then adjust the Terrain Size. Afterwards change the playmode back to Static.

    upload_2017-6-2_13-30-16.png

    I haven't tried this in conjunction with a height-map, but I don't see why it wouldn't work...
     
  21. sadicus

    sadicus

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    @WoodenDragon Thanks, I'm new to Voxeland, so I might be mixing terms up, here is what i'm tryng to do:
    I can only fit the entire height-map if scale is set to .5, ut then the terrain is to small.
     

    Attached Files:

  22. WoodenDragon

    WoodenDragon

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  23. WoodenDragon

    WoodenDragon

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    @sadicus what do you have your terrain set to under "Mode and Ranges"?

    I haven't been using Voxeland that long myself and really haven't messed around with height-maps too much, but if you want to send me your height-map I can give it a try?
     
  24. sadicus

    sadicus

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    Mode and Ranges> Editor mode + Player Mode = Static. Iv'e tried all combos and the only setting that fits the map is "scale" =.5 which makes the playable terrain size to small.
     
  25. sadicus

    sadicus

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    Here is the Play mode and what is happening. I'm not sure why MM is not working or~ - 5 is working only works sometimes.
    PC win10 nvidia GeForce 680M
    MM=middleMouseClicki, LM=LeftMouseClick
     

    Attached Files:

  26. WoodenDragon

    WoodenDragon

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    @sadicus What Terrain size are you using with your Static terrain? I think the default size is 300, have you tried making this a larger size?
     
  27. sadicus

    sadicus

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    yes, changing that size did not seem to do anything.
    Editor Mode = Dynamic Infinite is working, but makes it difficult to get an overview of the entire terrain.
     
  28. Dwight_Everhart

    Dwight_Everhart

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    I'm using Dynamic Infinite. Isn't that what should be used with MapMagic generation?
     
  29. sadicus

    sadicus

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    Following the RTP&Voxeland tutorial: Looks like any texture, other than "_Diffuse_Spec" will make the terrain glossy.
    How to make custom textures that work with RTP + Voxeland? To study, I duplicated "Cliff (Grassy)_Diffuse_Spec" looks like RGB with transparent background. So what makes this work when a flat image won't? hmm....
    The Directional light does not effect the specular on the terrain.
     

    Attached Files:

  30. Wright

    Wright

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    Yeah, this issue was fixed. All of the fixes I've made (you can see them on the issues page) are submitted and currently pending Unity review.

    Voxeland generates land using large chunks of data called "Area". All of the generate algorithm, including heightmap, is applied to all of the area. This applies both to static and dynamic terrain since they share the same generate algorithms. The default area size is 512. Since the terrain size is 300 the scale factor should be 0.5859375. Yeah, I know it's not very convenient, I'll think about automatic factor calculation.

    You can use MapMagic both with the static and dynamic terrains, limited and infinite.

    Do you mean that the terrain view depends on the texture name? Odd enough, I've used the textures that have no special name and it seems to be working fine. Maybe the issue is in texture's import settings?
     
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  31. sadicus

    sadicus

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    "0.5859375" ..uh, yes, please. I'm a humble designer, don't make me math.

    Thanks Wright, Yes, it might be, I just need a set of rules to work from.
    1. What file type (in Photoshop) works best. (TIF, PNG, PSD)
    2. What should the RGB import texture's settings be?
      What should the NORMAL map import texture's settings be?
     
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2017
  32. sadicus

    sadicus

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    i't ok to laugh. I realize how ridiculous this post is, clearly I don't understand how to change the map size.
     

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  33. WoodenDragon

    WoodenDragon

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    @Wright Can Substances be used on individual Land Blocks?
     
  34. twodave

    twodave

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    Been playing around with trying to integrate Ultimate Survival with Voxeland 5 and MM 1.8. It's mostly modifying US to deal with terrain tool hits but it's not too bad in the end.

    Little video:
     
  35. Wright

    Wright

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    Ok, ok, I will add something like "automatically scale area to terrain size" feature for designers :) For real.

    It does not really matter, it will be converted to the standard texture by Unity, but since it's a heightmap I recommend you to avoid lossy formats. PNG-24, non-lossy TIF, or PSD should be fine.

    Here are the settings that should work fine:
    Untitled-3.png

    Wait a minute, are you talking about heightmap to generate a terrain or block texture?

    You can scale up a Voxeland object - this will increase it's size, but will also increase the block size. To resize the terrain leaving the scale untouched you will have to switch terrain mode to infinite and set the terrain size, then switch back to fixed or limited one (or wait a couple of days when the new version with "terrain size" slider will be approved).

    WoodenDragon, any texture could be used as a land texture - Voxeland does not generate texture arrays. I'm thinking about texture array shader, that would be faster and will support more block types (but will have a limited feature support for substances), but I will the current shader as legacy one.

    twodave, that looks cool. Maybe I should write to US developer to cooperate on integrating assets together when I have a time to handle it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2017
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  36. hoodoo

    hoodoo

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    I want to create a small Voxeland area, so I used to trick of setting Editor Mode and Playmode to Dynamic Infinite, lowering the terrain size to 30, then changing back to static. This seems to work, but I am seeing several errors in the console. Is this likely because of what I'm doing with the terrain size? Also, the lighting of my voxeland terrain does not look right. I have auto-generate lighting enabled in the lighting settings. I'm not sure if I'm missing something to fix the lighting. I'm using the latest Asset Store version of Voxeland in Unity 5.6.0f3.

    Here's one of the errors:

    NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
    Voxeland5.Highlight.AddVoxelandFace (CoordDir coord, Voxeland5.Chunk chunk, Single opacity) (at Assets/Voxeland/Main/Highlight.cs:65)
    Voxeland5.Voxeland.Highlight (CoordDir center, Voxeland5.Brush brush, Boolean isEditing) (at Assets/Voxeland/Voxeland.cs:694)
    Voxeland5.VoxelandEditor.OnSceneGUI () (at Assets/Voxeland/Editor/VoxelandEditor.cs:108)
     
  37. Gunsrequiem

    Gunsrequiem

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    This looks to me like it might be an issue with the actual block type itself. How many do you have integrated into your terrain? I believe the maximum I've been able to appropriately apply is four. Another way to see if this error is occurring is to identify any flat black textures in your terrain--this is indicative of an issue with the block type.
     
  38. sadicus

    sadicus

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    Looking forward to the updates!
    • heightmap to generate a terrain
    • Normal map to add detail to the textures as sown in the RTP & Voxeland Tutorial
    { SOLVED ] hmm, checked the Texture settings, The RGB import settings in my project are correct.
    Here is an example of using a texture from Substance. It makes the terrain reflective, glossy, shiny, specular.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jun 5, 2017
  39. Gunsrequiem

    Gunsrequiem

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    Anyone have any luck implementing a grass type that isn't crazy tall? I'm thinking I might be able to edit the mesh, but the 2D texture that comes standard is already cutting off the tips of my grass. If you have found a way to integrate this so it looks super pretty, please let me know! :D
     
  40. hoodoo

    hoodoo

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    I just have one block type defined under Land Blocks.
     
  41. csharpstudios

    csharpstudios

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    how do I bake a nav mesh onto a limited area voxelterrain?
     
  42. sadicus

    sadicus

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    I am having fun with Voxeland. :) I did notice this today, voxeland_TerrainBlock2.jpg voxeland_TerrainBlock1.jpg
    Substance (sbsar) texture causes Land Block to disappear. If the texture is deleted, the Land Block is again visible.
     
  43. sebou42240

    sebou42240

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    hello, no one use water in voxeland like minecraft please ?
     
  44. chiefarchon

    chiefarchon

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    Hi there im a little confused.

    I had ussumed that you had to purchase both Voxel Land and Map Magic to be able to make infinite/tiled voxel terrains. can you explain the differences please.

    I would like to make a world with islands as well as large land masses but I must have voxel capabilities too. I would like to have tiled terrains with streaming capability in order to save on memeory.

    My game will essentially be a building and crafting sandbox game, so things built in game must be able to be persistent.

    Is it possible to do it all with just Voxel Land, and what would I be missing out on if I did not get Map Magic?
     
  45. csharpstudios

    csharpstudios

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    @Wright Is it possible to build a voxel terrain from a regular terrain? Like I have a terrain made with Gaia, and I want to make it a voxeland terrain so I can make caves and so the player can mine into the ground. Is this possible?
     
  46. csharpstudios

    csharpstudios

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    Everyone over on US's forum is asking for a tutorial
     
  47. twodave

    twodave

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    Yeah it blew up far more than I expected!

    I'm a casual coder, I'm not ignoring them just need to find some time!
     
  48. Ascensi

    Ascensi

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    @Wright So I did some experimenting and it seems tessellation works in Voxeland with Megasplat currently with in terrain mode rather than mesh mode.. although you probably didn't prepare it to work with Megasplat yet and so of course I can't paint on Voxeland with it.. full compatibility soon? :)
    upload_2017-6-5_19-17-8.png
     
  49. MarkusGod

    MarkusGod

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    The only why i bought MegaSplat 2 seconds ago is your screen. how did you do it?
     
  50. Ascensi

    Ascensi

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    This is the first time I've ever had tessellation work in Voxeland. You have to follow the procedure for setting up a material and the texture arrays with Megasplat... create a megasplat shader then name it uniquely and apply it to your material. Also I have set the material to terrain mode, not mesh mode and dragged it into the Voxeland shader area. The issue at this time is that Voxeland is not yet fully compatible with @jbooth Megasplat.. I can't paint with any textures yet.. the only texture that gets displayed so far is the last one added to the texture array. I'm hoping Denis(Voxeland Author) will add support asap and in the future output a single custom low res mesh to increase performance.

    This is the main reason why I bought Megasplat, knowing the potential if Voxeland and Megasplat can work together = ultimate terrain.
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2017
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