[BETA PROGRAM] Landscape Builder - realworld, GPU acceleration, prefab placement

i can't even reproduce my tiles now...I guess it's far from being stable now?

 

so sad!

 

Yep, isn't certainly pretty weird. We've not been able to repro this. Any chance you can send us some sample RAW files you're using? Can we confirm you can create a new landscape, add a default topography layer, then add an Image Modifier layer and get the basics to work?
Then we can work out what's happening with your import RAW files (for layer 1).

 

Try a height scale of 0.1 for your Layer 1 raw files

 

will send you by in few minutes...

i did! it used to work before the patch but now they don't stich...i think there could be some export issue with terrain composer cause i used to "flip on y" the raw maps...but it worked before so i'm confused...

 

Oh, they need to be in the folder in the right order (by name). On the Landscape Tab under "Landscape Stats" there is a "Display Labels" name which shows you the names of the terrains.

 

Also, when importing your RAW files try not clicking "Fix Now" and leave the Height Scale at 1.

 

i reexport my raw maps from orignial files named them and now it works!!! those raw maps drive me crazy since a long time!!

Thx for your help now i have my terrain back!! will revert later!
cheers!

 

is it normal when generate smoothing there is some hydrolic erosion filter applied?

 

when i print screen it's written "smoothing" !!!

 

i have to much bumpy scale things i can't smooth them?

 

still can't put in the landscape folder a parent with terrains not made in LB! thought it was ok since....

 

Fixed. Thanks for spotting the error.

 

Increase the pixel range.

Can you pls explain your scenario? The section in the manual (Importing Terrains into a Landscape, pg 25 in the LB2.0.0 Alpha 2 manual) explains how to import non-LB terrains into a LB landscape.

Also fixed Min/Max Heights info being displayed in the Editor when importing RAW files.

 

I will try tonight! thx for info, it seems not to happen before i applied the patch...i guess

I forgot the manual yesterday....
Ok, i must have done it the wrong way...I will try so tonight Actually i did simply drag the gameobject into the "landscape folder"

One thing i noticed is that we can change the resolution when the heightmap is created and it changes right away without reseting the heightmap..?! correct? i went from 2048 to 1025 in one click! That's pretty cool!

Many thanks for your fast support! Now i think LB could really give me what i need that's why i wanna dig into it! I found it very efficient in texturing and populating.

-i Noticed if i wanna apply a mask in topography, i can't apply it to only one layer, it's applied to all the layers.
-If possible i think it would be interesting to have mask option for every layer
-If i choose to export raw is it gonna export the 4 raw of my tiles in a folder in the right order? I think it's very clever when we do manual shaping on the terrain so that we can back up new raw quickly! good idea

i can't wait to play with it tonight cause i'm thinking of using it in my project wich means a lot of changes for me but i like the fact that LB is very intuitive! i don't like tools that need weeks to be mastered or even more. And i must say that i like your vision LB 2.0 is getting very mature now! Wish you great sales!!


Cheers

 

We aim to please. We've spent literally 100's of hours on this new version. There are still some rough edges (read: bugs!) and a few things that aren't finished - which is why it's still an Alpha version and hasn't switched to Beta yet. If doing testing, check the Beta area for the latest build as we tend to do multiple updates per day at the moment.

We're also working on a new video series for Groups which is our new procedural placement toolset.

 

i was like a kid this week end trying it! you did!

As a "solo dev" i must admit that sometimes we have so many tools to deal with that we can be lost (at least me) and videos are great not only to teach but to show what's possible with the tool! Therefore come new ideas on our mind!

 

hi,
using the patch h i have a big seam in the middle of the map:

 

Could you send us a copy of your RAW images and export a template (with all options ticked)?

 

i will, thx!

 

We haven't seen the files yet. How big were they? Did you send them to our support email address?

 

Hi, sorry about that, i did not cause i had no time for unity last week..will do it this week!
cheers!

 

Landscape Builder 2.0.0 (Release) is now available to customers for early download. It includes:

[NEW] Topography Image Modifiers with in-scene visualisation, positioning and rotation
[NEW] Topography Image Modifiers with RAW (16bit) and PNG support
[NEW] Groups - advanced procedural prefab placement
[NEW] 3D Group Designer - beginner, artist, level designer, and programmer friendly
[FIXED] MapPath points cannot have -ve z-axis locations when a landscape has a -ve z start position
[FIXED] 'Could not open TIFF file' and 'RAW File does not exist' errors when importing TIFF from network folder
[FIXED] MegaSplat integration - shader compile error when setting Material Type to MegaSplat in Landscape tab
[FIXED] Paths and Stencils are not linked correctly when importing a template directly from the Inspector
[FIXED] Legacy Noise Offset and Non Square Terrains advanced settings not saved between sessions
[FIXED] Export heightmap to PNG uses world space size instead of heightmap resolution
[FIXED] Texturing - Area Filter ignores Landscape start position in worldspace
[FIXED] Mesh/Prefabs - Combined Meshes have incorrect position when landscape does not start at 0,0,0
[FIXED] Import Unity Trees - Tinting is not working on trees that support colour tinting
[FIXED] Template - MapPath mesh may not be correctly positioned if Apply Path Meshes is selected
[FIXED] Export RAW - sometimes fails with IndexOutOfRangeException
[FIXED] Import RAW files into a layer may display incorrect Min/Max Heights in Editor window
[IMPROVED] Export to Mesh - reduce the number of terrain meshes created (in most cases 50% less)
[IMPROVED] Texture Filters - new Area and Stencil NOT option
[IMPROVED] Tree Filters - new Stencil NOT option
[IMPROVED] Grass Filters - new Stencil NOT option
[IMPROVED] Mesh/Prefabs - Combined Meshes has better detection of empty objects
[IMPROVED] Grass - now supports imported 3D model mesh prefab
[IMPROVED] C# script generators for Topography, Textures, Trees, Grass, Groups, Stencils, and MapPaths.

 

We have looked at your sample raw files and prefab. Thanks for supplying those - a repro always helps.

1. The incorrect min/max heights displayed in the Layers tab was fixed in an earlier version. So just apply the latest build (2.0.0 Release) and the latest patch (currently 2.0.1 Beta 1b), delete the layer, then reimport the RAW files into a new layer.

2. We notice that you set the Y offset for the landscape to negative 8000. I'm assuming you meant to do that on the z axis but at least that led us to discover some more bugs (which we fixed in 2.0.1 Beta 1b). We hadn't recently fully regression tested landscapes that appear below 0 on the y-axis.

3. The "issue" with what appears to be a seam on the terrain boundary is rather interesting (which is why we couldn't repro it initially). It turns out you have some very narrow inclination requirements for some textures (which look great BTW). On the terrains you supplied, the inclination reported by Unity on one side of the terrain boundary is slightly below say 2 deg and the other side is slightly above 2 deg. This is the interpolated inclination or slope which is kind of an average between points in the heightmaps. We are investigating possible solutions to your scenario.

 

There is now a patch for this. Please test:

1. Download and apply Landscape Builder 2.0.0 Release
2. Download and apply Landscape Builder 2.0.1 Beta 1d or newer.

Landscape Builder 2.0.1 Beta 1d includes:

[FIXED] MapPath points are incorrect when using a landscape with non-zero start position
[FIXED] CameraPath points are incorrect when using a landscape with non-zero start position
[FIXED] Groups Manual Clearing locations are incorrect when using a landscape with non-zero start position
[FIXED] Height Picker slope is not displayed when clicking on the terrain
[FIXED] Texturing - a seam may appear along terrain borders when using Inclination rules

 

LB seems to work very very well now!! great job! i don't see no seam and i didn't apply the patch!! will check!
congrats and many thanks for this excellent release!

 

We've seen a few small issues with the latest version available in the asset store (v2.0.1). The fixes are now available in the next Beta. If you need this patch just message me with your Unity invoice number, and we can provide access.

Landscape Builder v2.0.2 Beta 1e includes:

[FIXED] Import existing Terrain into a layer may display incorrect Min/Max Heights in Editor window
[FIXED] ImageFX may not render correctly when Use Moon is enabled but Use Celestials is not.
[IMPROVED] LBLighting - reduce garbage collection and improve performance

 

i had no issue till now!!! Will definitely have a look at this patch! I hope your sales increased cause you deserve it!
Now LB is very very interesting and can compete with any other famous tool! And it's easy to understand and use!!

 

Yes, we could always do with more sales. It can be challenging to get visibility in the asset store and the forums. Still, we keep pushing the boundaries with LB and hope people make great games with it.

 

Vegetation Studio integration

We have started working on integration between Landscape Builder 2 and Vegetation Studio. We are going to start with the new Groups system and MapPaths, and potentially add items as required. On the Landscape tab, under Terrain Settings, there will be an additional checkbox "Use Vegetation System". This will automatically add (or remove) the required scripts to each terrain in the current landscape.

We are planning to map Group Zones and MapPaths to the equivalent Masks in Vegetation Studio. We're happy to discuss potential workflows and any other requirements with customer who have both LB and Veg. Studio.

 

Sounds good I will be happy to help out with any additions to the API you might need during the integration.

Lennart

 

Vegetation Studio Integration - now in Beta

The first Landscape Builder 2 Beta is available that supports Vegetation Studio. Here is what's currently supported:

1. Multi-terrain support for Vegetation System (1 gets added as a child of each terrain in the landscape when you enable Vegetation System in Terrain Settings on the Landscape tab)
2. Textures are update in the Vegetation Systems automatically from the LB Texturing tab when changes are applied to the landscape
3. Grass types are automatically applied to the Vegetation Systems from the LB Grass tab when changes are applied to the landscape
4. Tree types and tree instances are automatically applied in Vegetation Studio from the LB Trees tab when changes are applied to the landscape
5. Map Path - map textures can now be generated that are compatible with Vegetation Studio Texture Masks (1 per terrain will be generated)
6. Stencils - map textures can now be generated that are compatible with Vegetation Studio Texture Masks (yep, 1 per terrain will be generated here too)

Landscape Builder height, inclination and noise rules will be honoured in Vegetation Studio. Texture masks need to be applied manually to each terrain Vegetation System - however, they should not be overwritten when you apply changes in the various LB tabs (let us know if you see any issues with this).

There is a small bug that means you may need to apply trees to landscapes twice (in the LB Trees tab) to see any changes in the scene when Vegetation Systems are enabled on terrains made in Landscape Builder. We are investigating this and will post a patch as soon as we can.

Please ask if you need any assistance with integrating Landscape Builder and Vegetation Studio. Initially, just create a landscape, go to the Landscape tab, expand Terrain Settings, click "Use Vegetation System", Apply the terrain changes. Most other things should work as expected.

I've not yet integrated Group zones, Group texturing, and Group grass. Let us know if you have any suggestions on how you'd like to see these working with Vegetation Studio.

Please report any issues you see here.

 

Click to turn on Vegetation Studio integration. We tried to make it more difficult but couldn't find a way...

 

Vegetation Studio integration - multi-camera support

We've added multi-camera or custom-camera support to the latest Landscape Builder 2 beta. On the Advanced tab, there is a new option for one or more cameras for Vegetation Studio integration.



If you have a single camera that does not have a MainCamera Unity Tag, then this could also be useful. In VS, each VegetationSystem renders to a single camera. If you have two cameras, it follows that you need 2 vegetation systems per terrain. Landscape Builder sets this up automatically when you enable it on the Landscape tab under Terrain Settings. See previous posts.

You can also set the custom camera from script in LB which will go through and update all the vegetation systems across all the terrains in your landscape.

 

Hello So I just bought landscape builder, just getting in to this and trying to make a generator sphere map but as of right now its only supports rectangular or square.... Is sphere/world maps planed anytime soon?
Signing up for the beta stuff after this!

 

Unity Terrains are currently restricted to squares or rectangles, so currently LB is also constrained by this. We've certainly experimented in the past with curved landscapes but so far haven't found a general use case for them in the context of Unity.

What are you trying to achieve? What type of game or project are you developing?

Creating irregular shaped biomes is certainly doable with our Stencil feature using 1 or more Unity terrains in a landscape.

 

Hi, I'm starting to populate my world xith LB. I'm pretty happy with "grass" spawner masked by texture in my case. What would you use to "grass" "trees" spawners or "group" spawner ?
I don't really understand groups despite the tutorials... sorry. Can i spawn grass with groups? i would llike to achieve a desert landscape with few grass few bushes big rocks and very small stones...WHat's the best approach?
Thx in advance

 

Groups are for putting things together. So, maybe I want to create some small towns or villages which also include certain ground textures in and around certain types of buildings or have different grass associated with a town. Or maybe you'd like to include certain rocks near particular types or trees. Each group can also have zones (there is a video tutorial on how to put different objects within zones within a group).

Groups can be procedurally placed around the landscape or you can manually place them. Within each group, they are procedurally placed using the rules you define. Much of this can be done in 3D using the 3D Group Designer (there is a video tutorial for that too).

You've best option is to play around with the group system, using the tutorials as a guide. This way you will discover it's power and determine the best options for your application.

You can also use the group system to procedurally place single objects (like a bush or a rock) using the Uniform group type. Again, play around with it in a test scene using your prefabs and assets.

In your case you "might" want to use the group system if you want to say scatter some small stones around the larger rocks. Of course, you can also use it with Stencils (and all the other rules like height, inclination, proximity etc.).

To set up the textures and grass (for use in the groups tab), you first need to add them to the scene using the Texturing and Grass tabs. If you ONLY want to use a texture or grass in the Groups tab, and never want it to be placed elsewhere in the landscape, set the rules in the Texturing and Grass tabs to something like Height = max height and Inclination = 90. Again, experiment so that you get to see how flexible it is.

For minimal placement (like when you just want a very small amount of grass), we've reduced the noise cutoff minimum to 0.01. That's in a beta we uploaded last week. See here for more details.

Groups have a lot of new features include zone and edge distance blending which aren't available on the other tabs. Feel free to ask any other questions.

 

MAny thanks, it's quite clear, groups are a fantastic options. I will try that instead of simple spawners!!
Cheers!

 

So the plan it to make an open world survival/town build, running and building up the town with ncp moving in and out with the towns demand selling goods and gathering resources. I would like to see at a start of a game about

Map Generator: Small Map
1-2 big towns ( 10 + buildings maybe a port )
3-5 medium towns ( 4-8 buildings )
6-10 small towns ( 2-4 buildings)
8-15 farms ( 1-2 building )
5-10 tree farms
3-5 mine farms (1-2 buildings )
4-8 fisheries (1 building )
more to come


So some how I plan to make a user friendly map generator that may or may not show where the towns and resource buildings are and can make real time changes to the map generator before starting the game. I would like to see where the ncp towns can grow and thrive on their own or if the player chooses to live in that town.

So I know next to nothing about game programming and designing and have just been doing a lot of youtube tutorials to figure out a way to get something small together for a startup.

 

Ok, that sounds ambitious. A good approach may be to start out small with say a 1 or 2 km square landscape using some free assets from Unity.

Here is an article I published to that should help get started.

https://connect.unity.com/p/prototyping-with-landscape-builder-2

 

Joining the Landscape Builder Beta Program

To get access to Beta Program and be able to see latest update notes and download the latest patches and features, please email or message us with your Unity invoice number and email address which you should have received when purchasing Landscape Builder from the Unity Asset Store.

To message us, you can click on my name and click "Start a conversation".

If you can't find this number you should be able to email the Unity asset sales support for assistance.

Landscape Builder team

 

Configuring Grass with Groups - New "Groups Only" option
When configuring Grass, you first need to add the Grass type to the Grass Tab in the Landscape Builder Editor. It needs to be enabled and applied to the landscape using the "Populate Landscape with Grass" button.

But what if you only ever want that grass to appear within the Groups you define in the Groups tab and nowhere else in the landscape? In the previous versions you would have had to set a rule in the Grass tab that was never true. Like say 0 metres height and 90 degrees inclination. This wasn't great, so we added the new "Groups Only" Populating Mode.

It is available now in the Beta Program and requires Landscape Builder 2.0.3 Beta 2a or newer.

 

Starting small and working the way up sounds like a plan, but I still want to go with the curved earth. I have been trying to find the stencil feature in landscape but cant seem to find it, am I looking in landscape for the stencil feature to make irregular shapes on a sphere?

 

As mentioned before, Unity Terrains don't currently support sphere's. With open worlds, the curvature of the earth is pretty well irrelevant - unless you were doing a game with aircraft and then you'd have other challenges to overcome.

Trying to build the whole earth (or another planet) creates other challenges as you'll need a huge number of verts in your "terrain" mesh unless you have written a clever shader or have a system to only render those verts in view of the camera(s). Which might sound easy but comes with it's own problems.

What I'm saying is, you can't be a AAA Game Studio with x number of professional game developers on day 1. So, start small and see what you can achieve. You will soon discover that performance is a big factor of any open world game.

 

Ok thanks for the help!

 

We don't want to put you off creating an open world game. We like open world games - else we wouldn't have created Landscape Builder. However, there is a lot to consider and most (all?) "open world" games still have limits and boundaries - some are bigger than other, but nevertheless, compromise is a necessity in all game development. To achieve your goals for your game, you need to decide which things you're willing to (or are forced to) compromise on. The bigger your development team (and therefore your budget), the more you can push those boundaries.

 

There is a lot to take in and learn for a beginner and I'm just doing the research and testing out things to see the best way to go about doing whats in my head.