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Isometric arpg terrain

Discussion in 'World Building' started by NikoPesonen, Dec 25, 2021.

  1. NikoPesonen

    NikoPesonen

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2021
    Posts:
    3
    Hi all!
    I've been trying to figure out the best way to create the base terrain in an diablo style arpg "isometric" 3D game.
    I've been fiddling with the Unity terrain, pro builder and a custom mesh approach.
    The terrain is mostly flat with stairs connecting different elevation levels.
    Most of the areas are outside, so I need to have good and well defined texture blending on the terrain textures.

    Since most of it is just flat it sounds like a huge waste of polygons to use the standard unity terrain.
    I'm also aming for non-rectangular islands that float in the air.

    Probuilder could be a way to go, but I'm not that sure if it's going to work well with the texturing tools that I would like to use (microsplat).

    The aim is to create a multi-platform game that is also playable on high end mobile devices.
    So a vertex-dense terrain is probably not the best here.
    I'm also thinking of using vertex painting instead of splatmaps for the texturing.
    So I still need some vertex detail on the terrain.

    One way to do this would be to just create custom terrain meshes in 3DS MAX, but it would be extremely important to have a non-destructive workflow inside Unity and not go back and forth between Unity and MAX and retexture stuff etc.

    Any examples, tutorials on this?
    I could not find anything usefull.

    Any help greatly appreciated!
     
  2. steven1022

    steven1022

    Joined:
    Sep 8, 2012
    Posts:
    21
    Probuilder & Polybrush are good but don't work well with Microsplat (Mesh workflow) without some tinkering and painful work flow.

    I'm making a game where I create planes in Probuilder, use Polybrush to sculpt a bit, use Probuilder + Progrids to fine tune the sculpting & the connections between planes, and then use Polybrush to vertex paint textures using a custom shader (tutorial below). Final pass with Polybrush to place prefabs.

    I use 100 x 100 planes (50x50 cuts). I am working with mobile and it is enough to get a solid blend (for mobile). You might need more cuts if you want to shoot for high end mobile + other platforms. Some reference pics attached as thumbnails

    I started with terrain and then tried out Polaris. Both ended up being too heavy for what I wanted to accomplish. What I ended up with is Probuilder, Progrids, and Polybrush for simplicity but losing Microsplat & more friendly sculpting tools.

    This video is what sold me on my current workflow:




    upload_2021-12-28_18-19-21.jpeg upload_2021-12-28_18-19-45.jpeg
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2021
    PutridEx likes this.