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

Hope LANDSCAPE BUILDER 2 weather system supports Android phones

 

Currently we don't regression test on phones due to the diversity of low-powered phones on the market. Most open-world or Unity Terrain based games will be designed for PC/Mac/Console.

However, if you see any compile issues, we're happy to take a look at it.

 

Landscape Builder 2.0.4 Beta 2a is now available for testing. We've also fixed some compatibility issues with Unity 2018.2.0b8. Thanks to the guys at Digital Dreams studio for bringing this to our attention.

Here's what's in the latest beta.

[NEW] Topography Image Modifier hills - Yorkshire Dales
[NEW] Groups - Populate prefabs along Group Zone edges (circles and rectangles)
[NEW] Groups - Prefab Rotation Type: Face 2 Zone Centre
[NEW] Groups - Control Clearing rotation range
[NEW] Landscape Extension - Gives the allusion that the landscape is bigger than it is
[FIXED] Topography Image Modifier may contain edge defects when area rect is same as landscape size
[IMPROVED] Support for 2018.2

 

!!!! oh oh!!!
I like what i'm reading!!! Any video about that feature?
Can i have some details and some screen shots??

Congratulations you are now the only competitor of the unsupoorted tool Horizon ON!! I remember you told me you were thinking about that...in the forum...

VERY curious to see what you think of!
Cheers

 

Don't get too excited Very early days on this "feature". Its very basic at the mo. We were going to do a custom shader etc but with no certainty around shader/material packaging in Unity 2018.2+ it would be pretty risky. So, not really a competitor to Horizon ON.

Unity 2018.2 Beta8 is currently causing some grief around behaviour changes in the editor. So we're currently having to find workarounds for our 3DGroupDesigner. Hopefully we can get that sorted so we can get back to what we like doing - adding new features.

Along with almost every other asset publisher, we're also hopefully that Unity will devise a better packaging system for the new scriptable render pipelines so that asset packages don't just error out when a user doesn't click all the right buttons when importing it into their project. Until then, I think people will be cautious about developing new shader-based products.

 

We've just released build 2.0.4 Beta 2e, which fixes an issue with the 3D Group Designer in the latest Unity 2018.2.0 Beta (b9). We've created a workaround for a collider regression in U2018.2 which affects how you drag and drop prefabs from the Project pane onto the 3D Group Designer surface in the Editor.

 

Landscape Builder v2.0.4 Beta 6m is ready for beta testing. It includes:

[NEW] Topography Image Modifier hills - Yorkshire Dales
[NEW] Groups - Populate prefabs along an Object Path (spline)
[NEW] Groups - Populate prefabs along Group Zone edges (circles and rectangles)
[NEW] Groups - Prefab Rotation Type: Face 2 Zone Centre
[NEW] Groups - Control Clearing rotation range
[NEW] Landscape Extension - Gives the allusion that the landscape is bigger than it is
[NEW] Stencils - import terrain heightmap mask into new Stencil Layer
[FIXED] Topography - Image Modifier may contain edge defects when area rect is same as landscape size
[FIXED] Topography - ArgumentException when Volume Picker is enabled and the Image Modifier is deleted
[FIXED] Groups - manual clearing positions may remain in scene after group is deleted
[FIXED] Import existing terrains in LB Landscape. NullReferenceError when FIX NOW is clicked.
[FIXED] Sometimes cannot paint on stencil when Game view is visible
[IMPROVED] Stencil layer navigation - centre on point with right or middle mouse button
[IMPROVED] MapPath and CameraPath scene view path point selection
[IMPROVED] Support for 2018.2

A big new feature is populating prefabs along a spline (or what we call an Object Path). They are accessible from the Groups tab and work in Uniform and Clearing Groups. They are first class citizens which means all the usual features like terrain alignment, prefab rotation, terrain flattening, prefab offset, stencil filters etc all work with them. You can also quickly preview the Object Paths in the new Obj Path Designer - no need to apply all the groups for basic changes.

To get started, Add a new Member to a Group, click the (O)bject Path Member type button and starting creating paths.

Obviously this is a beta, so don't use it on your main project just yet. Make sure you have a full project backup etc.

[More content to follow]

 

Groups Object Path - Layout Options

We are getting closer to the next release which will include our new Object Path feature as part of the advanced Group system in Landscape Builder.

Currently there are 3 ways to place objects on a path / spline. You can choose an "Exact Quantity", "Quantity per 100m", or "Spacing Distance". With these options regular Group Member (prefab) placement rules like proximity, height, inclination, etc also apply.

Each path can optionally start with and end with unique prefabs. Between the start and end prefabs, can be one or more different prefabs. If you wanted to place different trees, rocks or buildings along a path, that can be pretty easy to do.

We also support sparse placement with a cutoff slider which lets you remove some objects from the path. This can be used to give an aged look. Like for example, when old fence posts have been removed or trees have died and are no longer there.

One option we're currently considering is spacing based on the prefab size. Obviously this gets pretty complex when there are different prefabs with potentially different sizes. However, we are open to options or suggestions on what would make sense in your game or project.

If you haven't already downloaded the latest Beta, give it a spin and let us know what you think.

The current beta is 2.0.4 Beta 9k.

We are aiming to produce a video tutorial for Object Paths.

 

Landscape Builder HDRP support - Stencils

We've updated Stencils to work with the High Definition Render Pipeline which is currently in preview for Unity 2018.2.0f2+.

There is a new folder in LB called SRP which contains a package called LB_HDRP. There is a also a readme file in that folder which will contain the latest install instructions (basically, just import LB into a HDRP project and run the HDRP package in that folder).

We have a small issue with the Stencil brushes not appearing but we're working on a fix. However, that will not prevent you from creating and using the Stencil feature in a HDRP project.

You will need LB 2.0.4 Beta 10a or newer.

Let us know if you see any issues.

 

Landscape Builder 2.0.4 Release is available.



[NEW] High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) support in Preview
[NEW] Topography Image Modifier hills - Yorkshire Dales
[NEW] Groups - Populate prefabs along an Object Path (spline)
[NEW] Groups - Populate prefabs along Group Zone edges (circles and rectangles)
[NEW] Groups - Prefab Rotation Type: Face 2 Zone Centre
[NEW] Groups - Control Clearing rotation range
[NEW] Groups - Member search filter and context menu in UI
[NEW] GroupDesigner - Model to Ground option to set bottom of model at ground level
[NEW] Landscape Extension - Gives the illusion that the landscape is bigger than it is
[NEW] Stencils - import terrain heightmap mask into new Stencil Layer
[NEW] Export - Splatmap textures into Red Channel files (can be used with HDRP material for Terrains)
[FIXED] Topography - Image Modifier may contain edge defects when area rect is same as landscape size
[FIXED] Topography - ArgumentException when Volume Picker is enabled and the Image Modifier is deleted
[FIXED] Groups - manual clearing positions may remain in scene after group is deleted
[FIXED] Import existing terrains in LB Landscape. NullReferenceError when FIX NOW is clicked.
[FIXED] Sometimes cannot paint on stencil when Game view is visible
[FIXED] Landscape Stats - Display (terrain) Labels doesn't immediately turn on/off
[FIXED] Groups and Mesh/Prefabs - Child meshes don't scale or rotate correctly with Combine Mesh option
[FIXED] Groups - Populate sometimes hangs after adding a prefab to GroupDesigner and changing Y offset
[FIXED] Groups - Populate sometimes hangs if a clearing exceeds the bounds of the landscape
[IMPROVED] Stencil layer navigation - centre on point with right or middle mouse button
[IMPROVED] MapPath and CameraPath scene view path point selection
[IMPROVED] Groups - Zone placement, scaling and UI
[IMPROVED] Support for 2018.2

Customers enrolled in the Beta Program can download it now.

 

Landscape Builder 2.0.5 Release is available.

[NEW] Groups - zone search filter in UI
[NEW] Groups - place prefabs with proximity extent of another member
[NEW] Camera Path - context menu in scene view
[NEW] Preview support for HDRP and LWRP
[FIXED] Vegetation Studio integration - NullReferenceException in LB Advanced tab after creating new landscape
[FIXED] GroupDesigner - zone labels behind the camera appear as ghosted labels
[FIXED] GroupDesigner - member proximity visual isn't updated in scene view when changed in LB Editor
[FIXED] GroupDesigner - should not be able to edit manual clearing positions while in the designer
[FIXED] GroupDesigner - incorrect Object Path points if Height Offset is changed
[FIXED] GroupDesigner - incorrect value appears in member control when switching tabs
[FIXED] Stencil - layer brush may paint in incorrect position on some scaled devices
[IMPROVED] Groups - expand range of Noise Tile Size for Grass and Textures

 

A simple example of procedurally modifying the terrain along a spline using a MapPath in Landscape Builder. We are considering adding this feature to the new Object Path (part of the Groups system) so that you can add trenches, walking paths, streams, creeks etc to villages, towns, farms etc.

 

Preview Support for MicroSplat in Landscape Builder

We're adding support for MicroSplat in LB 2.0.6. It is now in technical preview, which basically means it hasn't had enough regression testing to be fully supported. We hope you will help test it so that we can iron out any issues.

PLEASE backup your project before using this. We really don't want you to loose data or work effort. We recommend starting with a test project or at least a copy of your current one.



To test the current workflow, perform the following tasks:

1. Create and save a new scene.
2. Ensure Landscape Builder (v2.0.6 Beta 2f or newer) and MicroSplat (v2.15 or newer) has been imported into their default locations in the project.
3. Create a new Landscape
4. Add one or more Topography layers (e.g. Rolling Hills Base and Gentle Valley Additive)
5. Texture the landscape using the built-in LB tools (e.g. use Hills preset)
6. On the Landscape Tab, expand Terrain Settings.
7. Change the “Material Type” to “MicroSplat”
8. Click "Apply Terrain Settings"
9. Click the “Initialise” button
10. A dialog box will prompt you to click "Convert to MicroSplat" button (click OK on the dialog box, then click “Convert to MicroSplat”)
11. When the conversion has completed, return to Landscape Builder Editor and click Landscape tab
12. If you see a warning that the shader name needs to be updated, click "Fix Now"

Let us know if you see any issues.

We've not had a chance to test it with additional MicroSplat feature packs or with Vegetation Studio integration. Let us know your experience if you have other MicroSplat packs and/or Veg Studio too in the same scene.

 

How/where do I get 2.0.6?

EDIT: Read the first post on this thread, and sent PM.

 

I noticed an issue with LB that I think should be looked at. I may not be doing something right, but it does not currently seem to support manually editing the terrain once the landscape has been generated. To be more precise, it doesn't handle terrain segment boundaries. If I have to flatten out an area of terrain manually then only one terrain segment is adjusted and the neighboring one is no longer in sync. Even if I flatten the neighboring one then there are gaps and artifacts not easily dealt with. Is there way to work with multiple terrain segments in LB to avoid these issues?

 

Can you provide some repro steps?

 

Simple. After generating a landscape I just selected the Paint Height option. Shift click on an area of terrain to sample the height and then paint the height in a section that has a neighboring terrain tile. The effect will only apply to the selected terrain and doesn't cross over to the neighboring tile. Now, this is expected because that's simply a Unity feature and it doesn't support multi-terrain editing as far as I know. So, if there is a LB feature that allows the terrain sculpting feature across tiles then I'm not sure how to do it. I would guess it would have to be a specialized tool.

 

Have you tried using a Manual Clearing? You can flatten across terrain boundaries. Don't forget that this will overwrite any manual terrain changes... It is like using the Topography tab.

 

GPU Acceleration

We plan to take a staged release approach to GPU acceleration. This fits into our overall agile methodology of development for Landscape Builder. We want this to be customer driven so we're asking you to help set the priorities.

The more we work with GPU acceleration the more opportunities we find and scope races on out of control. Inevitably this lead to release delays and never ending promises of it will be done next week, next month etc. I'm sure you've seen other products go down this endless path of destruction...

So, instead lets try and set priorities. What in LB, in your opinion, need an immediate "GO FASTER" button?

As a guide, consider the following:

• If an action takes 30 seconds but is done maybe once a day then GPU accel isn't really required (at least not yet)
• If an action takes 10 seconds but is done 50x per hour then its probably a good candidate
• If this is a once off action or occasional action during your game dev workflow then who cares about the GPU?!
• If you perform this action at runtime then GPU is certainly worth looking at

 

GPU v CPU

Not wanting to start a debate, but following on from GPU Acceleration post above, a recent test we did with Landscape Builder and Unity 2018.3 saw us adding simple prefabs to a scene at the rate of ~10,000 per second without GPU acceleration. Our Group System has a few clever optimisations already (on the CPU).

113,168 SpeedTrees from the Trees tab in 25.2 seconds (77,000 took 11.6 secs while 12,832 took only 0.54 secs). Ok, maybe that needs some GPU acceleration as it doesn't scale well.

So, we want to push GPU where it makes sense (for you) and leave the "nice to have" GPU optimisations for later.

 

I'm not too concerned with it personally as I think it's fine for what I need, but I think others might be spoiled by recent tools that do things so fast it'll make your head spin. For example, Terrapainter can regen an entire landscape texturing nearly instantly. It also has a biomes feature where an area can be textured differently (e.g. snowy, desert, etc) and you can see the results in real-time as you drag the biome around the terrain. I think that's cool and all, but not necessarily essential.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Yep, plenty of cool tech around. We're interested in solving real game dev workflow issues. As an artist, level designer, programmer, what keeps you awake at night?

 

I got the beta and have tried the procedure above repeatedly. The Microsplat Terrain component does get added to all the terrains, but after going through the procedure, the Material Type in LB's Landscape tab switches back to Built-in Standard.

The only thing I'm doing differently is assigning my existing Microsplat material, then clicking Sync instead of clicking Convert to Microsplat.

So then I tried again, but this time removed the MS material and clicked Convert to Microsplat, and that time it worked. So can you make it work to sync an existing Microsplat material to the terrain too?

Oh, but the "Fix" button afterwards doesn't do anything (except triggering the "Importing small assets" alert for several seconds) -- the material still is named "Microsplat" instead of my terrain name, and the Fix button remains there after trying it several times. No errors.

 

Speed is important for run-time procedural generation which is what I had been working on before I took a break to wrap up a couple small projects. So, it's not needed right away but will definitely be needed later on.

 

Yes, currently it assumes you are converting to MicroSplat. i.e. it isn't already setup on the terrains. You can't change the terrain material (for MicroSplat) in the editor at this time. However, we can get that fixed so you can add an existing MicroSplat material.
The "Fix" button doesn't change the Material or Shader asset names, only the internal names. This is by design. Click the MicroSplat Settings Shader button in LB. Also, in the Project folder, the MicroSplat_xxx shader, material, and MicroSplat_xxx_Base shader internal names should be changed. See images below. Once this is done, the "Fix" button will disappear. If not, maybe this is because of the way your forced the material to be changed.

 

Okay, thanks! -- and I'll take another look at the Fix button.

 

LB 2.0.6 Beta 2k+ should fix the issues with MicroSplat integration. You should now be able to change the material. After checking with the asset owner, we also need to do some other backend changes when switching terrain materials. The fix is ready for download.

 

Thanks!

 

We're aiming for <100ms for Texturing and <1sec for Topography. Initial tests look promising. Watch this space for a Beta of GPU acceleration in Landscape Builder...

 

I mostly agree on your idea of not prioritizing GPU too much. But it for sure is more than nice to have. I'm one of the people who were spoiled with "instant GPU generated results" and it is very very nice to just drag a slider and see your terrain change as you do it to get exactly what you want.

Otherwise I think the work being done on groups is top priority. I've only just started on this tool for two days so still plenty to learn, but the groups are missing some control. They are perfect for randomness.

My two cents. I'll be experimenting some more.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, we're progressing with GPU acceleration. We had hoped to have the first component with Texturing, closely followed by Topography, in Beta this week. But we've run into some "unfortunately" issues that are taking a bit to sort out. Nothing major, just annoying more than anything.

What did you mean by Groups needing more control? Anything in particular?

 

GPU Acceleration for Texturing - Beta

For existing customers we have a very early version that includes GPU acceleration. It's really an Alpha version but we need your help with hardware compatibility testing. Unlike others we don't have a dedicated lab with 3 zillion different devices to test on (unfortunate, but true).



We're calling it "Experimental" at this stage because of the following reasons:

1. Although it works with AutoSave, scene saving in Unity is very slow and we'd recommend turning this off when GPU acceleration is enabled. If you want a "go faster button", AutoSave isn't it.
2. It is not at feature parity yet with the "standard" settings
3. There are still plenty of bugs (like Stencil Layers not detecting x=0 and z = max)
4. We still backup the splatmaps before every action so Undo Texturing will work. This was written in 1.0 (yes, the very first release) and is pretty slow - often 2-3 seconds.
5. We've not done much regression testing (so PLEASE BACKUP YOUR PROJECT FIRST...)
6. We've done almost no performance optimisation

What we need from you:

1. We'd really like to know about any (shader) compile errors
2. We're interested in issues and how to re-pro them
3. We'd like to know what devices you've tested on

Device info:

• PC/Mac/Linux
• Win 10, OS X 10.13..
• Video card make and model

You'll need LB 2.0.6 Beta 4a or newer.

Once we've stabilized Texturing, we'll release a beta for Topography.

Oh, and yes, it runs pretty fast with 2018.3b1 (howbeit with some warning which we'll fix before LB 2.0.6 ships).

Enjoy!
Landscape Builder Team

 

@sstrong Does LB work with the VS Pro Beta?

 

I find it hard to randomly generate something that does meet certain rules and still looks good. For example, putting a street of houses in a village doesn't really work. I tried making a prefab which is a row of houses and that was ok, but not really nice looking with the other houses. Usually the houses would just be placed randomly and look too random for realism

I'm still experimenting so will be a bit more specific later. There are so many things you can do with this tool that I am probably still not using half of the possibilities...

 

You can also use Place in Centre and position houses where you want them in a group, or create an object path and put multiple houses along the path.

 

Not yet but were it is on our radar. We are waiting for both product betas to be a little more feature complete to save re-work.

 

Hi, just bought this solution, and I must say that I didn't expect anything more for the price: it exceeded my expectations on some points, but it lacks on some others.
I'll write a list soon and add a review.
Meanwhile: is there a way to change the grass distance rendering? I can't find the option. I see the trees option, but grass seems hidden?

 

The grass distance is set in terrain settings tab under detail distance (which is what Unity call it). More information is in the manual in chapter on Grass. To see manual, go to landscape tab, and click Help.

 

Thank you! Got a request already: a BING! when the operation is over! With large terrains this is really needed!

 

Ok, although we are working on GPU acceleration which is much faster. Check out our Beta Forum which has more details.

 

How to correctly update LB? Overwrite by importing the new package or first delete the old version?
I just found this post but it doesn't say it.

Btw: saw you are taking suggestions on what to put first on the GPU.

Well, the first thing for me would be the topography generation. Working on large terrains takes a lot of time: I am now on past 20 minutes for one click, and I only have one layer (image genrated) to calculate, and the terrains are really not that high res.

Second, texture splatmap generation: this is of course the second most used function, and as such it should be fastened (?).

I found that trees are placed quite quickly, so I don't think this need to be pushed.

Also grass takes a while to compute but I don't think grass is so much run like topography and texturing: it's usually ok when texturing is ok, so I wouldn't push this either.

I still have to give a good try to the mesh/prefab placer, but I expect similar results to trees placement.

So essentially I would focus on topography and texturing first of all, and I would probably push an update when those are ready.

 

If you have the latest release version (e.g. 2.0.5) the just apply the patch.

 

OK, I tested on a terrain, and after I converted to Microsplat, the Landscape tab still said that I was on LB Standard.
So I selected again Microsplat and clicked Apply Settings. Now it seems working.

 

Uhm strange behavior: I wanted to do some tests, so I made a small terrain, 2000x2000, single.
Created a desert, single layer. Added a couple textures, perfect.
Then I saved the template.
Then, I changed the topography layer to Aline Desert, and generated.
Then, I run the texture generator, and now the terrain is black and tehre seems no way out this.
I tried to delete the terrain, and regenerate the desert from the template: same story. Topography is ok, terrain is white.
When I generate textures, it's all black.
Note that when I click Texture Landscape, it doesn't do anything, it finishes in less than a second.
Note that the two textures set in the template are there.

Tried now to delete the terrain and make one brand new.
Added a texture manually, and generated textures: it works.

I'm going to close Unity and reopen, see if it fixes up.

 

If you can re-pro the issue, please send me a Template so that I can see what's going on. Certainly does seem strange. Did you delete the whole landscape, or just the terrain object?

 

GPU texturing is currently in early beta. See this post.

Topography is work-in-progress. Currently we are working on Image Layers. We will also be adding GPU acceleration for grass.

 

I deleted the root object of course.
I'll send you the template. Seems that reloading a template doesn't fill the texture db properly.

 

Perfect, we are on the same wavelenght

 

Oh, I think this is because the landscape meta-data is linked to the original template. When you re-apply the same template you just get back what you last changed in the landscape.
We are thinking of changing this behaviour. Sometimes it is useful, other times, not so much. As a workaround you can do the following:

1. Create a template from a landscape (we'd recommend ticking "Export Package" so that a copy is created outside the Asset folder)
2. Duplicate the template that was created in the Assets\LandscapeBuilder\Templates folder
3. Use the duplicate template to create or new landscape or re-apply changes
4. Next time you want to re-apply the template delete the duplicate, and repeat steps 2 and 3.
5. If you forget to create a duplicate first, you can re-import the exported template package (which is saved in the [projectname]\LandscapeBuilder\TemplatePackages folder and then repeat steps 2 and 3)

 

Update.
I changed some textures on a LB Standard terrain.
All at once, the third texture, when I saved the normal map resized, is now specular 100%.

Ohter problem: tried to switch back to Legacy Specular, then back to LB Standard and it ERASED the third texture from the terrain. The layer is still there, but the terrain doesn't render it and uses instead the first two.
I am now regenerating the textures.