Discussion BrushMask Filters are finally supported for grass/detail paint tool! (But what about tree painting?)

Unity finally added filter support for grass placement tool (so you can mask based on slope, height, noise etc).
You can also paint multiple grass/detail objects at once (and control which should be prioritized).

This is something the community has waited for years to be implemented, and I am very happy that it is finally added! Great work and thank you!

But one thing that added a bitter sweet taste, is that the same functionality isn't added for "Paint trees" tool. Can any Unity representative comment on if this will be added for tree placement tool as well? As it is very much needed!

Here is a screenshot of the new masking and multi select features (currently only available with 2022.2 beta and terrain tools package):

 

You cant have everything, and Unity can only work on features so fast. Like the rest of us, youll have to wait...

 

That wasn't my question?

 

This has been there for some time, to be honest, but this is the nicest UI for it.
you can use distribution masks to spawn trees and such if you want. It's a slightly more static route, but in some cases can be much better than auto spawning if you need biome control, or going full manual and having no guiding direction.

 

Interesting, haven't seen it until I downloaded the 2022.2 beta.
Hmm, not entirely sure what distribution masks are, could you explain it to me (google wasn't of much help either)?

 

Sure thing!
A distribution map is any data shown as a density, weather maps that show temperature, rain, clouds for example are a form of distribution map.

Also in a similar fashion when procedural tools plot trees and veggies via rule sets, the end result of that is essentially a Distribution Map ( it's just not in any apparent form that you see)

This could also come under different names like Sample points or hit points.

If you work in photogrammetry you'll be familiar with points clouds, again similar thing.

When you paint on a Terrain and save it, you write RGBA splat maps, this is also a form of distribution map.


Some Procedural spawners that allow both rules sets and read terrain layers (and splat maps), can benefit from this, as you can create a splat map that has distribution already spawn your stuff, then replace with your actual splat maps for your terrain layers later, moving finally onto the manual steps like your brush masks.

In our case we use distribution maps based on the formation of the terrain, so we avoid roads, rivers, potential areas for buildings, where snow might be in some instances or deserts if we're switching biomes, before we even boot unity. later we better define it, manually or more procedural stuff if it doesn't overwrite.

Example below



Finally you have the realtime GPU version of it courtesy of guerilla games

 

Awesome description of what a distribution mask is! Thank you!
While a workflow like that would be very beneficial, I do not think I need it. The levels I create aren't that big, so I can manually place all the vegetation. But the brush mask filters + multiple object selection is just a very nice quality of life feature that speeds up the workflow.

 

You absolutely right, for your scope and scale, the filters can be an excellent time saver for you, especially being able to save these for re-use and scene-specific tunings.