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GAIA - AAA terrain generator, procedural texturing, planting and scene creation

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by AdamGoodrich, May 21, 2015.

  1. FargleBargle

    FargleBargle

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    I know it's been a long wait, and I'm as impatient as the next guy for Gaia 2, but it makes no sense to release it when a major Unity terrain change is about to uproot the foundation on which it is built. Better to wait, and avoid needing to completely re-write it immediately after release. As for when it's ready, a wise man once said to me "80% of something is better than 100% of nothing". Make it as good as possible, but don't wait until it's "perfect", because that bar will always be just out of reach. :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2018
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  2. elbows

    elbows

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    On a related note, I'm in no rush for Gaia 2 but if I remember correctly there was talk that the 'wait and see 2018.3' was not just about tech implementation issues, but also what feature plans made sense given what Unity terrain & terrain editor features would come with 2018.3 (eg GPU-based speedup of various operations). And I dont have time these days to explore the Gaia community that exists beyond this forum thread, so it would be nice to hear a little something here about that now that 2018.3 beta is around. Cheers.
     
  3. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    Gaia question for all of you experts. How do i make a 8k by 8k flat terrain, remain flat but add depth of 50 if i wanted to dig out some lakes.
     
  4. OneManBandGames

    OneManBandGames

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    You can't go "below 0" in your terrain height. So you need to plan ahead a little, and raise all your terrain height to +50 first, then you can dig holes for lakes down to 0 from that height.
    To raise your terrain up to 50, select the terrain and in the unity inspector select the "paint height" tool (2nd tab / button in the terrain component). There you got a "Flatten" button, so you can enter 50 as height and click "Flatten" and all your terrain should be set to flat at 50 height.

    In general it is a good idea to think about "what will my highest / lowest point be" before starting stamping out the terrain, so you can start at a ground level that makes sense. If you started out at a wrong height, I remember there was a script somewhere on the net that would allow you to evenly add/subtract height from your terrain, I think I can still dig that up if required.
     
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  5. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    Thanks! That is exactly what I am looking for. I wanted to start with a terrain where I can carve out my own lakes/ponds and manually add my own stamps.
     
  6. zhangfan

    zhangfan

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    Dose Gaia support DSM(Digital Surface Model)、DEM or DOM(Digital Orthophoto Map) file format?
     
  7. OneManBandGames

    OneManBandGames

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    Probably not directly, afaik those GIS data types can be stored in different formats depending on application / data source. You would need to convert this data in a grayscale heightmap format somehow, where "brighter pixels = higher elevation"
    Then you could import this file as an entire terrain, or turn it into a Gaia stamper so you can apply it to the terrain at different sizes, rotation, etc.
     
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  8. zhangfan

    zhangfan

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    Thank you Very much!
     
  9. scourgey

    scourgey

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    I've recently bought this asset and I am curious how I am meant to be creating roads with Gaia? Should I be using a 3rd party package? If so, which is the recommended one?
     
  10. MrG

    MrG

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    EasyRoads3D or Path Painter -- see asset store.
     
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  11. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    What is the best way to use gaia to create biomes on a single terrain?
     
  12. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    I usually create an empty game object and drop it in the center of each biome. Then I create a spawner set for each biome and drag them is as a child object for the biome. For each biome type, I will use a unique Gaia Resources file which only includes things which should spawn within that biome type. If you have multiple biomes of the same type, you can reuse the same Gaia Resources file for all the same types of biomes. For instance your scene has three different marsh areas. You'll have three sets of spawners, one for each marsh biome but they all three can use the same Gaia Marsh Biome Resources file.

    I started doing this back in beta for the original Gaia release to do separate spawning for my underwater objects, plants, creatures, forest areas, lake/pond areas, marsh areas, village areas, etc.
     
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  13. runningbird

    runningbird

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    Whoa I never thought about doing this that is an awesome idea.
    Thanks!
     
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  14. Xype

    Xype

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    There are several warnings with the 2018.3 beta, so far that is the only issue I am having, and so far it isn't an issue as it is just warnings and it is not breaking things as of yet (not far into messing will keep updated).

    There are 56 of them, but they all seem to do with obsoletes.

    If you need a complete list of warnings let me know. So far im seeing WWW, TerrainData.splatPrototyes, PrefabType and PrefabUtility.GetPrefabType

    You may already be aware, but thought I would post just in case. I know its beta Unity so I don't expect everything to work lol.

    Edit: Nested prefabs though. I am like a fat kid in a candy store serving free cake.
     
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  15. SickaGamer

    SickaGamer

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    Generic Gaia questions:

    1. When letting Gaia do the terrain stamping for you, how do you get it to spawn some flat areas along, with mountains, hills, valleys, lakes ect...?

    2. If I enable HDRP in my projects, what is the difference in Gaia if I created a terrain using Built in versus 2018 HDRP and does Gaia actually apply anything HD to the terrain?
     
  16. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Valleys contain flat areas. There is no way to force what the randomizer spawns. You'll also have a hard time getting your flatter areas to depress into the ground with the randomizer unless I've missed some magic setting that Adam hid from me. heheh I've always been able to get a good variety of flattish areas by keeping my valley chance about double that of any mountains, steppes, hills, etc. I've always found that it is best to use Adam's example of base stamping or blending a stamp using lower height manually for any base/village type areas after the randomizer finishes.

    Unity does not support HD SRP terrain rendering yet, so as such neither does Gaia atm.
     
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  17. PPenar

    PPenar

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    I am having issues with Gaia on Unity 2018.2.8f1 - i am following the quick start guide, but replaying any session /existing produces only empty terrain. I also do not have any operations under operations foldout. Do you have any idea what can cause this or how i can fix it?

    Thanks.
     
  18. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    It is a bug caused by Unity changing serialization in 2018. We have a fix for it ready for the next Gaia update. Hopefully the update will be ready soon but I'm not sure exactly when. You can either run the session in a Unity 2017 install or open a ticket and we can get you that particular script file.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2018
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  19. Edchina

    Edchina

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    I have a question.
    I'm currently making a game that has a huge map, and I'm using Gaia to create it. Last semester though, I had created a map for another game using only the Unity Terrain editor. The map from that game is a lot smaller than the current one I'm making, and since I liked that one so much, I was wondering if I could "import" it to my current game.

    Let me explain it better. My current game has a map that has a lot of islands around it, and I would like to use the map from my last game as one of these islands, kinda like and "easter egg". Is there any way for me to create a Gaia stamp of my previous terrain, from that last game, so I can use it on the terrain of my current game?
     
  20. Mark_01

    Mark_01

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    I think you can use the Unity terrain gear icon cog, to export your terrain as a Export Raw, Then Use Gaia to
    import the Raw file as a stamp, then you can use it as a stamp too.

    upload_2018-10-3_13-15-39.png
     
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  21. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    It could even be easier than what @Mark_01 described if you have Gaia in your old project (or import Gaia into your old project). If Gaia is there, you can simply drag and drop your terrain object on the Gaia scanner to create a stamp :)

    If you don't have Gaia in the other project and don't want to import it, creating a stamp the way Mark described would be the other way to go.
     
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  22. Edchina

    Edchina

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    Thanks a lot everyone! I tried both ways and it worked great.
     
  23. Mark_01

    Mark_01

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    @Shawn67 I learned something new, had no clue you could just drag a terrain to make a stamp .. :eek:
    Supper cool.:cool:
     
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  24. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    We really should make a tutorial on the scanner. It's generally so simple to use that we never bothered!

    With scanner you can create stamps from terrains, raw files, world creator .r16 files, textures and meshes. This adds a huge amount of flexibility and extensibility to Gaia.

    Another thing I have started doing is using the new terrain utilities and general stamping system to craft interesting terrains.. and then save them as stamps.

    The one thing you want to do with the scanner is set the base level properly - this is your approximate 'ground level'.. and is important to the automated terrain system as it uses that to position stamps properly.
     
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  25. Shadowing

    Shadowing

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    @AdamGoodrich Is there no way to choose where a texture is spawned at?
    Looking at the Coverage Texture Spawner I don't see anything that I can set to tell the spawner to only spawn this type of rock texture on steep cliffs.
    Is there no slope setting targets?
    I notice the default settings will place one type of texture only on the mountains. I don't understand what determines that.
     
  26. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    The resource files are what control how the spawners place textures.

    Take a look here : http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/?section=tutorials
    The visualiser : http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/tutorials/resources-visualiser-and-fitness/
    Texture configuration : http://www.procedural-worlds.com/gaia/tutorials/spawners-unity-terrain-textures/
     
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  27. Shadowing

    Shadowing

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    Ahh I didn't notice the Element drop down under Spawn Criteria lol.
    Also I was wondering on the next update.
    The name of each Spawn type should really be in bold in the inspector.
    Its really hard on the eyes.
    Also some spacing between them as well.
     
  28. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Ga0a_2018-10-05_15-27-15.jpg

    We are working on the next point release of Gaia... here is a little WIP of some of what is coming :)
     
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  29. Shadowing

    Shadowing

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    volumetric clouds?

    By the way @AdamGoodrich
    When does Unity plan to add in Tunnels for Terrain. Do they have it on a road map with a date yet? Was trying to search for a road map for that.
     
  30. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Some nice new Skyboxes that we are creating... much more interesting than plain old procedural unity sky.
     
  31. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    And here is a little sneak preview video of the FREE update to Gaia coming next week:

     
  32. koirat

    koirat

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    How much will GAIA 2 differ in API and UI perspective form GAIA ?
     
  33. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Substantially - its a complete rewrite. Gaia 1 was never intended to be anything other than an editor mode tool. Gaia 2 is designed to be both editor driven and API driven.
     
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  34. camta005

    camta005

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    Your British now? :rolleyes:

    Looks great, the profiles will definitely be useful. A quick thought / feature request about the new water shader is shore / depth based transparency. I have noticed in other water shaders that it makes a huge difference being able to adjust transparency in shallow water near the shore, while having different settings for deeper water further from shore. Just a thought, and I'm looking forward to the update.
     
  35. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    The Brit is actually another of our team members, Josh. He is doing some awesome stuff for us!

    Keep in mind, Gaia is a terrain package. The only reason we threw these together is we were getting so many people having problems from not installing Unity's standard assets. These are still meant only to be basic examples to give you a beautiful prototype out of the box. For fully featured sea or sky systems you should still look for a system dedicated to that functionality. With that said, feel free to make suggestions. We will log them and may do something at a future time, but no promises.
     
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  36. LostPhilosopher

    LostPhilosopher

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    As we know 2018.3 is around the corner and Gaia 2 too and its not 'Free' * it pops* .Will 2018.3 will be compatible with Gaia 'Classic' or we have to take the bitter pill and update ? Also waiting for Gaia Classic 1.9 hope it updates soon.
     
  37. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Gaia is already compatible with 2018.3 - so is CTS for that matter - just have a play!

    However there are some caveats from when I looked a week or so ago:
    • Builtin works.
    • If you want to use LW SRP, set it up in your scene before you select new terrain with Gaia. Make sure you also update the materials on your models (a menu option you need to select). We are not sure how to detect and script this yet, so its a manual step.
    • LW SRP does not yet support speed tree trees - so you will not be able to use the samples with provided with Gaia (or any other ST 7 tree for that matter).
    • HD SRP had not released a terrain shader at the time I tried - so terrain wont work full stop.
    We will need to make some adjustments to the way we setup textures for 2018.3 for it to be 'nice'... but Unity converts them for you automatically, so for now it works.
     
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  38. Pvt_Hudson

    Pvt_Hudson

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  39. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Try disabling the post processing effects one by one - see if you can work out whats causing it. From memory unity ambient occlusion can do this is some situations.

    We will shortly be transitioning to the V2 post processing stack and have been busy cooking up a whole bunch of new goodies - and the visuals and performance in general will get a substantial upgrade.

    Grab 20181007184155 w1920h1039 x-28y91z39r285.jpg
     
  40. Pvt_Hudson

    Pvt_Hudson

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    antialiasing On was causing it
     
  41. AdamGoodrich

    AdamGoodrich

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    Interesting - I have never seen AA causing this before. You could try experimenting to see which part of it is causing it.
     
  42. keepout

    keepout

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    Hello!
    What is proper procedure of adding new resource (say, a new Tree) into existing session?
    I checkd through all docs, but it seems like I missed something. I have one a resouce file which I would like to use and add elements into it when my terrain project is developing. But here what is happening:
    I have a resource file I used from the begining in my session. Now I add a new tree (or something) into it. Then I spawn it and this action is added into session. But when I try to play session, Gaia loses this resouce refference. It says: "There was a mismatch between your spawner settings and your resources file. Spawner settings have been updated to match resources.". I understand why its happeing, but I dont understand how to deal with it. Session keeps a link to a duplicate of my resource file where new resource does not exist yet. I tried to assign new resource file to spawner before spawning, but Gaia does not remember it anyway.
    Please, give me a hint! Thanks!
     
  43. khos

    khos

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    Hi, do I understand correctly, with Gaia we will now have time of day and weather effects (clouds) included? Are this dynamic or controllable via script? Sounds interesting.
     
  44. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    Unfortunately I don't think the session updates old resource files at this point. I'll make a note so we can take a look at it when we decide what updates the sessions system get for Gaia 2. What I would do personally is create a new resources file with any resources you wish to add after your initial session is built, unlock your session, and then run a spawner for that new resources file. Unfortunately it will only spawn in spots that are left over, but it will get you working.

    Another option that I have done for rebuilding session files when I haven't ran anything other than my session is use the Reset, Clear Trees and Clear Details buttons on my spawners, then unlock the session file and remove everything all the way to the stamper. This will leave me with a clear terrain that has been stamped and a session that, if I ran it, would only create the terrain tile and stamp it with topography. At that point, run your spawners. As long as the session file is unlocked, these new spawner runs will get added to your session and include any new items which have been added.

    Gaia will not have weather (rain, snow). We are just including a custom skybox/sky system which will replace the need for Unity's standard assets since so many people were having issues because they weren't installing them. It is already a pretty impressive system even at this point in development. But the only things that some might consider weather would be the fog/horizon. I believe the clouds are part of the skyboxes, right @AdamGoodrich?
     
  45. Coder333

    Coder333

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    Hello! Sorry if this question was already asked, but i simply don't have the time to dig through this massive thread! My question is, come gaia 2, with the whole "multiple tile" thing, could you spawn in tiles at runtime and generate infinite terrain? Because that would simply be epic :)
     
  46. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    We are still waiting to see what comes out of Unity 2018's terrain changes before we finalize what will come with Gaia 2. There are already things Unity has announced that Gaia 2 was going to contain that would be foolish of us to reinvent the wheel. So we are kind of in a holding pattern there to see what transpires and so that when we do release Gaia 2, we will have spent our time on cool and unique additions leveraging the terrain changes Unity has made to once again make Unity terrain even better.

    As far as infinite run-time terrains. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that it will never happen. There are already tools out there that can make a boring repetitive run-time terrain. That was never the intent of Gaia. Gaia's purpose was always to provide a tool/toolset to empower developers to tap into their creativity and make beautiful terrains easier than they could with basic Unity. We don't feel you can do that with 100% automation. I don't know a lot of level developers in the AAA companies but the ones that I do know do not rely on computers to create their levels. A lot of them use tools like Gaia to take care of the heavy lifting to give a great starting point, but they still go in an manually perfect the levels.

    At any rate, that is just a guess based on Adam's stance on infinite terrains and even though you can do some things run-time now, we really don't support run-time generation currently even. I just don't foresee that to change.

    What I can guarantee is there will be lots of cool stuff whenever it does hit the asset store that will extend Unity and take your level building to the next level! At least if it is anything even close to all the other tools we've released! ;)
     
  47. koirat

    koirat

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    That's quite a disappointment, I was waiting for GAIA 2 especially for run-time capabilities.

    Can you clarify - Will I be able to load empty scene and create terrain similar to that created in editor ?
     
  48. BackwoodsGaming

    BackwoodsGaming

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    You can probably do a lot of that now if you code. It's just not something we support and you will probably have a lot of performance issues with it.

    I'm not sure why you would have been waiting for Gaia 2 specifically for run-time capabilities as I don't think that is ever something that has been mentioned as a feature for Gaia 2 unless I totally missed it somewhere. Regardless, at this point speculating on any Gaia 2 features is premature due to the Unity terrain changes. One of Gaia 2's main features previously was multi-tile. However, now that Unity is building multi-tile into the terrain system we need to wait and see what they add as we may no longer need to build multi-tile as a feature and can then focus on other features to improve other aspects where the Unity terrain system is lacking.

    With that in mind we really can't say what Gaia 2 will or will not have until we have a better idea of what Unity is doing. Anything we say now would just be broad speculation as a lot of the work that had been done on Gaia 2 previously may have to be redone from scratch or just simply scrapped because it is no longer relevant.
     
  49. koirat

    koirat

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    Well about run-time capabilities, on a forum http://www.procedural-worlds.com there were some questions about it (it now gives my 404) also as I remember I was asking about it on this forum.

    The general impression I got was " We are working on it. We would like for it to be possible in GAIA 2"
     
  50. keepout

    keepout

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    Thank you, mate! Please, help me with one more issue:
    How do I mark objects on terrain to prevent other objects and trees spawn on them?
    I have roads on my terrain, they are generated meshes with meshcollider (I set layer "Roads" and Tag "Road" on them). I cant prevent objects and trees spawn on the roads. I tried proximity check by Tag "Road", included/removed layer from Collision Layers, but it does not seem to work. I placed a simple box on terrain which is +1 meter above terrain with the same tag and layer as as road, but spawned objects are still placed on it. I uses "Every location" Location selector and played with bounding sizes. Area mask works but its very bad pipeline for my case. Maybe I have wriong understaning of Proximity option? I dont understand how Gaia checks when it can or can not spawn objects.
    Thanks!