Voxeland - Voxel Terrain Tool

http://www.denispahunov.ru/voxeland/VoxelandDemoSFX.exe
The demo is either extremely slow or don't work. Then I run it, looks like camera goes down by gravity, but after that nothing can be controlled. Mouse cursor is not visible, and I can't do anything. Good thing is Alt+F4 works

 

Compilation error when RTP imported

Hello. Just bought MapMagic + Voxeland and going to test it in combination with Relief Terrain Pack (RTP)

I am imported packages into empty Unity project in this order:

1. MapMagic
2. Voxeland (everything is fine at this step)
3. RTP

Once I imported RTP, in the console appears two compilation errors:

Assets/Voxeland/Editor/VoxelandEditor.cs(304,18): error CS1061: Type `Voxeland5.Layout' does not contain a definition for `DrawWithBackground' and no extension method `DrawWithBackground' of type `Voxeland5.Layout' could be found. Are you missing an assembly reference?

Strange fact. There is two errors in the console. But both have the same info text which I pasted above.

Is there a way to solve it manually? Maybe I should replace a line of code somewhere?

 

I own CTS, Megasplat, and CTS.

Jason Booth (Author of Megasplat) helped those guys get CTS going. He also has a partially free modular project called Microsplat which seems like more direct competition for CTS.

CTS allows 16 textures at a time. It has some cool features, and it is easier to use.

Megasplat is the most feature rich of them all and supports up to 256 textures and cool clustering technology, streams, puddles, snow, lava, etc. Setting up textures for it has a different work flow.

So CTS is easier to use out of the box, but Megasplat does so much more.

As to RTP. The other two things seem to do what RTP could do and more. RTP was the best out there for a long time though and it also wasn't always the easiest to use.

 

What would be really interesting is if something like the shader in...

R.A.M. River Auto Module could be adapted as something on one of these blocks. It appears to be some cool flowing texture and shader magic and it flows faster and alters based upon the incline of the texture. It produces not only good river, it also produces pretty good waterfalls. Out of the box it does it with a spline system like we see with many road generators, but the magic seems to be mostly in the shader.

It'd be pretty neat if VoxelLand could provide rivers and waterfalls using some shader magic like that.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/101205

Watch some of the videos... it's pretty nifty.

 

Unfortunately, not yet. It was just an idea I wanted to share with Voxland community, but I'm really glad it found a response. I'll try not to loiter with it.

As far as I remeber Voxeland support started from v.1.5 or so. If you'd like to I can send you v1.7 - it's the last version that works with Unity 5.4

MegaSplat and MicroSplat have much in common. I'll try to hit two birds with one stone implementing both of them.
BTW I didn't notices any performance issues with MegaSplat - as far as I can say it is the fastest terrain shader at the moment.

I get your point, but unfortunately it's not possible. But I like the idea. However, it looks more like Voxelump/Voxelith feature, that will not be a terrain but just inclusions of voxel objects.

Surely you can use any triplanar shader with Voxeland mesh. The problem is in painting it with different block types and providing adequate interface for selecting textures in Voxeland. But if you don't need different textures you can use the shader at your choice if it has triplanar mapping support.

Ishizuke, what are you PC specs? I've ran this demo on 6-year old laptop, can't say that I'm happy with the performance here but at least I got about 20 FPS.
Maybe there's something wrong with demo input. Could you please try if it exit on escape? Or can you switch the block types with 1-5 buttons on main keyboard?

Confirm this issue. Fixed for the next version, but you can manually apply quick fix now.

Yep. I admit it looks cool. But I've already promised MegaSplat integration first, and then I'm going to make a poll to find out what is the next asset Voxeland community needs to be integrated.

 

"Punt gun"
I'm really sorry for offtop. (no)

 

Amazing! Thanks you for quick fix. Now it compiles. But I can't figure out how to apply RTP to Voxelland. Is there any tutorial about this?

 

- Select the land material (in material foldout) by double clicking it and assign Relief Terrain - Standalone / PolyBrush shader.
- In some cases you might need to re-select the material to enable it's inspector. All of the material properties are set with this inspector rather then block types.
- Assign the detailmap, bumpmap and heightmap textures in material's "Splat textures" foldout. Note that bump and height textures are combined (2 or 4 in one), use the standard "terrain" RTP component to create them.
- Turn off "Use texture arrays" in Voxeland's Land Blocks foldout.
- Turn on "Color Channels" in Voxeland Settings.
- Rebuild.
Added it here.


MarkusGod, there is no such thing as overkill, right?

 

Finally tried out the demo scenes, in the editor I mean. Runs at constant 62 FPS, silky smooth. A few yellow warnings in console like, "The referenced script on this Behaviour is missing!", but it runs fine still.

Looking forward to what it'll be with MegaSplat. The texture change when vertically increasing terrain on the side should really increase the realism.

A question. Can we destroy or create terrain using Playmaker? Like triggering a damage on the terrain to create random (or specific) damage? That would be nice.

 

That might be the included effects. They are using Unity Post Processing Stack. It is free asset that seems to be replacing post effects from the standard assets. On the one hand I have to include them to let the users reproduce screenshots just by opening the demo scene, on the other hand Unity logs warning if it cannot find the scruipt if the asset is not installed.

To my shame, I don't really know the way Playmaker works. Can it call any component method? I guess no, but if so you can call PointOut, Highlight and Alter the way it's done via scripts.

 

Hi there,
I haven't checked the project for years so I'm glad to stop by and see the updates. I have two questions:
1) Is there a performance comparison between Unity terrain and Voxeland? Obviously I know Voxeland can do things that Unity terrain cannot, but on a regular 4kmx4km terrain without caves and all the nice things of voxeland, does it also run and perform better or they perform similarly?

2) Anyone tested on it iOS? how well does it run? minimum apple device version to get decent performance?

 

I've been reading older posts (from 2016) instead of messing around much with the tool itself, but two questions:

1) I see that help file is in wiki. Is there a PDF? I didn't see any PDF help file in the asset itself. My net is crap and I was without net for hours yesterday, couldn't access online wiki at all.

2) In posts from 2016, it's mentioned that caves can only be created using Map Magic. Is it still the case? Unless you were talking about random caves formations instead of manual. I hope creating caves manually is possible in Voxeland itself (again, busy reading the posts instead of messing with the tool first ).


Also, have Enviro so going to try that out with Voxeland. Combo of Voxel + MegaSplat + Enviro, three best assets on the store, will be amazing.

 

Evaluation Version

I've made a special free evaluation version so you could test Voxeland in Unity before actually buying it. It's a fully functional version, however it has two limitations:
- the legal one: it could not be used in a final product. Please purchase the full version before releasing your game.
- the code one: most of the settings from the settings and generate tabs are locked to default and could not be changed.

Demo Build

Just to remind: If you'd like to play with Voxeland without importing anything to Unity feel free to download demo build (pc only). It's a single 66Mb file "download and run" SFX with no install or manual unpack required.

The standard Unity terrain is a 2D (ok, "2.5D") terrain, a plane with a heightmap displacement, while Voxeland is a genuine 3D land. It takes significantly more time to build it (i.e. create mesh) and in most cases it is slower to render (since it has more triangles). Even if displaying the same terrain Voxeland is still 3D will be a bit slower just because it lacks some optimization features 2.5D terrain can have. So, if you do not need caves, overhangs and other stuff like that Voxeland isn't the best variant for your project.

I was not considering mobile devices as a target platform when initially created Voxeland, but nowadays it got lots of performance improvements, and mobiles have made a significant step forward, so there is a chance it might work. You can get an evaluation version mentioned above to check Voxeland at your target platform.

Manual.pdf file is included with the package, but alternatively you can download it here.

Surely you can manually sculpt caves in Voxeland, and no MapMagic is needed to do that. All MapMagic does is generating the new terrain data for Voxeland, and it's algorithms are advanced compared with a built-in generator.

 

Hi guys,
I purchased this asset a couple of days ago and it looks fantastic and so full of options it can get a bit overwhelming.
That said I would like to make a small island terrain with a couple of rocky outcrops attached for a fps game.
Any tips would be appreciated on getting a island terrain working with this thing.

 

Thanks for such positive feedback! But - are you talking about Voxeland, not MapMagic? The Voxeland approach of creating islands is pretty straightforward: take a volume brush with a bigger radius, sculpt the desired island forms, then smooth it holding ctrl-shift buttons. Or you can use a heightmap texture. Yep, Voxeland has a built-in terrain generator, but it's rather unpretentious and can create only the monotonous noise terrain.
And here is a way to do it with a MapMagic. Just add a Shore generator to create a nice waterline here.

 

So after finding what I can I think I will be grabbing ICE creature control to handle the AI.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/35364

Would anyone share some thoughts on other options or if they are using ICE. Off to work soon so will pick this up tonight just wanted some feedback before I do.

 

Looks promising, and, as far as I can see, it does not require any baking. So it might work.

 

Hey i buy Voxeland and MapMagic from the asset store, i already watched some tutorial how integrate them to work together, i really like the asset.

I have here setup a height map with a Noise texture in blend mode, i want create a big Mountain up to 500 Units or higher, but i get limited by the Voxeland terrain height.

Is there a way to increase the maximum terrain height, i played around with the "Height" variable in the Generator section and increase it to 1024 but it is still clamped by 100 Units

 

It's a MapMagic bug.
Already fixed for the next version, quick fix.

 

Thank you it works, have a nice day

 

Hi there also bought Voxeland seems like great plugin because of the posibilty to create caves and overhangs. But i had a question. I switched the unity build setting to android on a fresh scene, 1 voxeland static object 1 main camera 1 directional light but the mesh stays completly black if no light is received. also tried switching to Voxeland /Land shader instead of the Land TextureArray but still stay black. If i switch the land material to a standard ?nature/terrain/Diffuse shader it gets lit but of course no textures because of the shader difference. Are the Voxeland shaders compatible with android?Using Unity 2017.1.0.f3. .

 

@Wright
Does Voxelland work with Gaia and CTS ??

 

When i want to edit the terrain ingame via script, i need to rebuild first the terrain, and than i can edit the terrain. What im doing wrong?

 

This one is. But note that it supports only 3 block types, could not be used as a horizon, and does not support texture arrays (you will have to turn off "use texture arrays" in "Land Blocks" foldout and re-assign textures).

Nope, but it works with MapMagic and RTP instead.

It's hard to say without seeing the script. Does this happens in demo scene (it is edited in playmode with VoxelandController.cs script, not Voxeland itself)? Do you mean "chunk" under the "terrain"?

 

Thank you for your quick reply, i will try this shader for android builds. Another question . I was trying a voxeland infinite terrain Windows build. But i noticed that if you can see the horizon mesh as player that if you look up and the camera comes above a certain angle the horizon mesh disappears before it's completly out of view. could not find a setting for this. I guess it's some form of culling. Can this behaviour be changed somewhere in the settings?

Just noticed the same behaviour in scene view, and also the horizonmesh becomes visible again past a certain angle

 

I'm so excited to hear of a possible Voxelump addition. Voxelith rhymes with sith which are the bad guys though monolith is a nice big rock. lol Voxelump doesn't make me think of anything but 3d modeling. It can define itself. I like both names.

I'll definitely be waiting for it. I really don't care what it's called, I just can't wait. Being able to make features in unity from a single lump into a land bridge, cave, rock, or overhang as actual objects will be awesome. Then if I wanted, I could edit the obj in a more detailed modeling program and paint.

I just love how intuitive and fun it is to mold things in Voxeland, that I can't wait to model from a single lump (Voxelump). Modeling in unity helps so much with keeping scale and perspective. I can't afford Zbrush for modeling, and mudbox seems like it's only good for deforming imported shapes rather than making anything big from a lump...(it takes hours...), and maya is too precise and geometric...

When in Voxeland, I can take my mind's image and make it in a few minutes or less. I really can't wait for this addition.
But take your time, I'll wait for it

 

Thank you for the quick reply, this is my script for digging the terrain.
https://hastebin.com/lihamajafo.cs

 

Hey guys.
How would I go about reducing the grass patches in demo scene to say a couple every 50 meters?

 

Wright, thanks for answering.

I tried trial but i see nothing below the surface but some peaks.
The terrain don't seem to be a solid body and cannot be dug from inside. Is this okay? How the caves are possible then?

I tried also to increase the resolution of the trial version but see no options for this.

 

I tried to cut some blocks from above and succeeded. Now i'm wondering how the detached parts are handled. They seem to be hanging in the air, but what they are turned into? Can this boulder trigger some sequence to initiate a freefall, for example?

 

Could you make a screenshot with main camera selected (so I can notice it's rotation)?

Why would you need to change the chunk size? It is an internal value and changing it will not give any visual change (but will slow down the performance). If you want to add a detail just scale the Voxeland object down.

Such a feedback encourage me for making Voxelump/Voxelith, it's really important to know people are waiting for my works. I really appreciate it!

Hmmm, don't see anything wrong with your script. Are you using a demo scene? If not, is "Save chunks as meshes" enabled in settings?

Decrease the density value for each of the grass layers in Generate -> Grass -> Sedge/Nettle/Camomiles

Don't expect it to be filled with, well, with anything inside - like any other 3D model is just a surface made of triangles. When you place the camera inside any model you will not see anything but some triangles that are still facing camera. Voxeland isn't an exception.
The caves are digged from the surface. If you need an isolated cave you can fill the pass to the cave when it's done.

EDIT: you can't do anything with these blocks but remove them manually. Voxeland isn't aware if creating them was accidental or intentional: for instance, you can sculpt floating islands or an asteroid field.

 

So these blocks wont trigger any events on detachment and cannot be addressed as a separate object?

 

No, they don't. Actually, they are not detached - they are still the part of the chunk. There is no way to determine if a block is connected with the other terrain - except, maybe some sort of flow field from/to the bottom layer to find locked areas - and in 3D space it's very expensive operation.

 

Here are some screenhots. it's the camera movement on x axis

image1 angle just before disapearing
image2 horizonmesh not visible any more
image3 horizonmesh is visible again

 

Okay. What do i need to make/update colliders from an altered terrain?

If there is any way to mark a block type - as an ore deposit, for example?

 

Hi Ive owned voxeland and recently bought MapMagic, im following the tutorial video on integrating them together but for some reason I cant get any texture on the terrain. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Also dealing with this blank silver layer over the textures. I can only see the textures when I get close....

 

Same issue I have. Unable to select texture unless array is un checked. Sure it is operator error but have not found out how yet. Videos and quick start seem to be for a prior version which has me more confused.

 

Voxeland has two shaders included: one called Voxeland/Land TextureArray to be used with the texture arrays, and Voxeland/Land to be used when texture arrays are turned off. To switch the shader double click on land material slot in Materials foldout, and assign a pure Land shader from shader dropdown list if you are not going to use texture arrays.

 

Hello!
I bought Mapmagiс and Voxeland and I'm still very bad in them. You can make an example of creating a group of large islands using Mapmagic generator in Voxeland. Thank you in advance!

Sorry for my English.

 

I would like to see a new version of the tutorials in general and the quick start update.

 

Is this system able to do persistent areas. Example. You build a cave and then travel far away and come back. Will it still be there?

 

Try looking this video to get familiar with the MapMagic (it will take more than an hour but it worth it), and then this one to find out the way MM works with Voxeland.

Do you mean this one? It's up to date, as far as I can see. You'd like to see a quick start video, did I get it right?

It will!

Err.. uh. Can't wrap my head around it. Do you have a screenshot?

 

↑
I would like to see a new version of the tutorials in general and the quick start update.
Do you mean this one? It's up to date, as far as I can see. You'd like to see a quick start video, did I get it right?

It helps will look through it more tonight. was looking for a step by step how to apply the terrain array textures so I do not get that gray looking blob. I just have to learn to work with what it wants for the textures. Sorry still very new.

 

Hello, How can i change the brush.form by scripting. Can't get the right input for voxeland.brush.form = .... ;. Also hope that the screenshots i posted of the disappearing horizonmesh help to find the possible problem. Could it be related to the visibiltymap of the hoizonmesh?.

 

Hi, I noticed that if I try to translate the Voxeland object via script (in editor play) its texture "swims"/scrolls along with it. Is there any way to lock the texture so it does not do this?

I don't have this issue with normal unity terrain. I'm still reading through the documentation but haven't found a solution yet. Thanks.

 

Hey All!

I came across some strange looking black spots on my terrain. I just got MapMagic so im using the same textures from Voxeland for making them work together. The textures dont have the black spots in the inspector of the texture. Any ideas?

 

Code (CSharp):

1. voxeland.brush.form = Brush.Form.single;
2. voxeland.brush.form = Brush.Form.blob;
3. voxeland.brush.form = Brush.Form.volume;
4. voxeland.brush.form = Brush.Form.stamp;

Seems to be a horizon mesh bounding box issue. I've opened the issue, you can track it's progress here.

Voxeland mesh does not keep texture coordinates. It uses the triplanar mapping applied in world coordinates instead. IMHO the best way to set the texture offset is modifying the shader by adding a special "Offset" vector property that will be added to the texture coordinates before sampling, and change this property value along with the Voxeland object position.

Have you made any screenshots? What were the Blend Map Factor and Blend Crispness values (in land block types)?

 

All my settings are default pretty much.

 

Hi! I'm having a bit trouble to build this asset by using Unity version 2017.2.0f3
I get these build errors when trying to build the demo scene.

Shader error in 'Demo/Tree': Duplicated input semantics can't change type, size, or layout ('TEXCOORD0'). at line 133 (on d3d11)
Shader error in 'Demo/Tree': output TEXCOORD0 used more than once at line 133 (on d3d11)
Shader error in 'Voxeland/Grass TextureArray': Duplicated input semantics can't change type, size, or layout ('TEXCOORD0'). at line 186 (on d3d11)
Shader error in 'Voxeland/Grass TextureArray': output TEXCOORD0 used more than once at line 186 (on d3d11)

I also reimport those shaders and I still get the same errors.
Also when I'm trying to build new scene with or without the grass I get the same Grass TextureArray shader error.