Landscape Builder - Procedural Terrains, Advanced Prefab System, spline tool, and more

Tried different tiling - gives same result just less noticeable (and texture doesn't look very good either). Blending worked better but does detract from the textures I'm trying to use.

I followed the steps from the tutorials exactly and still have the same thing happen; on a 'normal' Unity Terrain the textures look better. Also noticed that in the tutorial the is no zoomed-in view of the terrain so maybe this is why I had not seen it there. Would that all be because of the blend factor?

On the noise function. This blends the texture with other textures right? Meaning having one texture applied and then using noise would not do anything.

 

The "strange" lighting I think is caused by normal maps (with the jagged edges being due to you being close enough to see the pixels in the normal map). You either need to significantly reduce your tile size for that texture, or just disable the normal map for that texture (probably a better idea in your case). The tile size we use in the demos is optimised for a further viewing distance - in a third-person game you generally want to use a much lower tile size due to the camera being much closer to the ground.

 

See my comment above...

 

Hi,

If i use LB skybox blending feature, i don't remember is there is a way to check hour passed by an event system? or some easy coding? I'm thinking of reusing LB for sky...for performance reason...

 

You can call the following method using a reference to the script in the scene:

Code (CSharp):

1. float numSecondsSinceStartofDay = lbLighting.CurrentTime();

This should take into consideration your current length of day. To test, you can turn on the Clock feature from LBLighting's editor.

There is also an overloaded method CurrentTimeString(..) which shows you a couple of different ways to deal with time from LBLightiing.

 

many thanks!!

if i use LB skybox instead of enviro i need some volumetric lighting solution...do you know if i can fake that with some post process effect or fog....??? i don't believe much in aurora so...just wondering....

 

There are a couple of different fog options in LBLighting in Simple or Advanced Setup Mode. See page 86+ in the manual. If you do decide to use Post Processing Stack 2, you should probably enable HDR with LB Lighting. It is included in the manual.

Height and Distance-based fog is provided by ImageFX. See page 96+ in the manual.

 

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so LB has a solution for that also?! what a tool!
many thanks as usual!!

 

LB Enviro Pack 1 is on SALE

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@sstrong I think I've seen this reported before, but I can't find it in the forums. When I textured my terrain, the highest elevation area is textured all black.


How can I make sure this doesn't happen?

 

I encountered that when a piece of terrain wasn't covered by any texture rules, usually height rules.

 

I had that happen too, I had to have one texture set to Constant Influence to fix it.

 

Yes, we typically recommend at base texture with Constant Influence which can have a very low strength like 0.1 or lower. The base texture would be something like dirt, grass or plain sand depending on your landscape.

However, if this doesn't work for you or doesn't suite your situation, please send us a template to test your exact scenario.

 

I've purchased the landscape builder asset today and when I "generate landscape" with all defaults, I get a pink mesh in unity 2019.3.0a6. If I use Unity 2017 I don't get a pink mesh. Do I need to use a different version of unity 2019?

 

Unity alpha versions tend to have several issues and are generally considered "experimental" and not production-ready. Unless you need a particular feature of an alpha or beta Unity version, we'd suggest you'd use U2017.2+, 2018.x or 2019.1. As 2019.3 approaches the release we'll make sure we support that version.
Is there something in 2019.3 that you need for your game or project?

Are you using the standard render pipeline, or have you selected LWRP or HDRP? If the later, you need to look in the SRP folder and read the notes.

 

No I don't need anything in particular from 2019 version, I will use 2019.1 Thank you!

 

That's very helpful, thank you. No wonder I was messing with the texture endlessly and nothing seemed to change.

 

I run into this error:

Serialized file size of 7.34 GB (7883590629 bytes) exceeds maximum. File name: 'G:/LB-Test/Assets/Scenes/SampleScene.unity'. Serialized files over 4.00 GB (4294967295 bytes) cannot be loaded by the player. Some likely ways to reduce this are utilizing asset bundles, re-balancing asset locations, or limiting their serialized size e.g. limiting the maximum texture sizes.

Is there a workaround? My terrain is 36k².

 

You could try storing the terrain data in the project folder rather than the scene. I'd suggest you take a full backup of your project first.
Create a template for the existing landscape. See the landscape tab and the Help manual for more information on using templates. Then in a new scene:

1. On the Landscape tab, enter your (unique) landscape name, size and terrain width as you did before.
2. Expand "Terrain Settings" and tick "Store TData in Project'
3. Change the "Terrain Data Folder" as required
4. Generate Landscape
5. On the Landscape tab, expand Templates
6. Add the template you created earlier to "Template to Apply"
7. Turn off "Import Terrain Settings"
8. If you had any Stencils in your original scene, make sure to tick "Import Stencils"
9. Click "Apply Template"

 

Although I had to recreate my terrain, but now it works. Many Thanks.

 

Which versions of Landscape Builder and Unity are you using? Is this with the inbuild render pipeline, LWRP or HDRP?

Also, what are your Terrain Settings on the Landscape tab of LB?

 

Ok. You have posted in the "Landscape Builder" forum. You could try posting in the forum for the platform you're having trouble with.

Platform Forums

 

sry for that~

 

Clearing Groups and Stencil Filters

When adding multiple procedurally generated groups of objects to a landscape, it can sometimes be helpful to limit where they can be placed. Rather than just limit the groups to height and inclination rules, we could also draw an area by painting a Stencil Layer. Stencils are created from the Landscape Tab and can be applied as filters for a wide variety of things in LB.



LB randomly generates a list of positions within the filtered stencil layer painted area(s) on the landscape. If the Group centre position is within the painted stencil layer, the group is created in the scene. However, objects within the Group may not be within the painted area (in a stencil layer you can paint whatever shapes you like). This is illustrated in the simple scene below.



A NOT filter works in the opposite way. The centre may be outside the stencil layer filter painted area but some objects may be inside the painted area. Objects inside the painted areas would not appear in the scene.

 

After last update on 2018 version, my screenshots are not being saved. The folder is there but nothing is being saved.
I've tried changing the shortcut key but no change. This is a new project in 2018.4.2.

Has there been a change in the setup?

 

I just tried it in the editor of 2019.3 (alpha) and it worked with the default F7 key. Is this in a build or at runtime in the editor?
Also, did you get anything in the console? Should be something like:
Saved Screenshot to LandscapeBuilder/ScreenShots/2019-Aug.-06_090836.png

I also tested at runtime in 2019.2.0f1 (need to tick Standalone Build in LB Screen Shot). The output folders for Editor and Runtime are different. The paths are listed in the manual.

 

Landscape Builder 2.1.4 is now available in the Asset Store

[FIXED] Textures are not retained on Imported Terrains in 2018.3+.
[FIXED] Not all of a stencil layer is paintable when using imported terrains
[IMPROVED] TerrainLayer assets are saved in the project folder when terrain data is stored in project folder
[IMPROVED] Group-level Stencil Filter layout
[IMPROVED] Procedural Group placement can now consider their radius when filtering by a stencil

 

Thanks!
It was at runtime, I didn’t try in editor.
I also didn’t tick standalone build.
I did not get the normal message of screenshot taken. I’ll double check everything and give it another go. I’m using 2018.4.2.

Thanks for the help.

 

Procedural Prefab Spawning Enhancements

We're currently doing some work on our advanced prefab spawning routines in Landscape Builder - otherwise known as the Groups system.

The first two changes helps with spawning multiple procedurally placed Groups (we call them Procedural Clearings).

Maybe in each instance of a village you want a path or road with a randomly selected fence or tree type or group of rocks or any other prefab you determine fits your purpose. In LB 2.1.4 and earlier, you randomly select from a list of prefabs but you can't select a different single item from a list for different villages. A customer suggested that would be a really useful thing to do, so we've implemented it in LB 2.1.5.



If you have other suggestions on how we can enhance our prefab spawning system, head over to our Beta Program forum, or drop us a note on our Discord Channel.

 

Feature Announcements - Import Groups and SubGroups

Today we're announcing two new features coming in Landscape Builder 2.2.0.

Import Groups
If you already have a bunch of prefabs placed near each other in the scene, and you want to use them with our powerful prefab placement/spawning system, then read on.

We've made it easy for you to select the prefabs in the scene view and then click "Import" on the Groups tab. Now you have a Group to use as is, or manipulate further in the Group Designer and/or the LB Editor. Watch the tutorial below to see it in action.

SubGroups
As you may know, LB comes with a very flexible Object Path feature which is part of the Groups system. You can procedurally place prefabs along a spline. You can even place different prefabs along the same path. There are options to flatten the terrains and/or include a surface mesh for a river, pathway or track etc.

But what if you had a set of prefabs that somehow belonged near or around each other? Like maybe flowers around a tree or rock - or animals grazing near a tree? How about different houses with their different fence types or garden features? How would you place them along a spline? That's why we added SubGroups.

 

Tip for importing Realworld data from OpenTopo website.

If you end up with a flattish landscape, click on "Normalise Input". This will "spread" the data vertically across the height of your Unity Terrains.



If you select a square area from the website, you'll notice that the terrain data is not square. That is, the "Source Dimensions" in LB are not equal. When selecting an area on the website, make it taller than it is wide (by approx. 20%). If you examine the corners of the selected area on the website, the difference in metres on the x-axis is not the same in the other direction. You objective is to get the latitude and longitude dimension (in metres) almost the same. It doesn't have to be perfect.

You may need some smoothing too. But keep that as low as possible as it affects all topography layers.

 

A quick scene created using Object Paths in the Group System.



Assets used:

Landscape Builder (for terrains, road, prefab placement, vegetation placement)
LB Enviro Pack 1 (for dry stone walls)
Vegetation Studio Pro (to render vegetation based on LB rules)
Meadow Environment Dynamic Nature (grass)
London Plane SpeedTree

 

Stephen,

A couple of newbie questions:

Can the area filter (for textures) be by radius instead of rectangle?

Is there a best practices workflow for biomes? I'm probably overlooking something in the docs.

I saw the demo, which is great. Is there a repository of more example terrain templates?

Thanks,

DZ

 

For ground textures (and a bunch of other things) you can create a Stencil with one or more Stencil Layers and paint them any shape you like. Then you use the Stencil Layer as a Filter.

The basics of creating a Stencil Layer are still the same but you no longer need to click "Save Maps" like it says in the video. Instead you add the stencil layer directly to your trees, texturing, grass etc.

You can also use the advanced Groups System which modify ground textures and grass based on the types you've set up in the Texturing and Grass tabs. There are a bunch of video tutorials on Groups.

We don't have a public repository of example terrain templates, mainly because they only contain the meta-data for a landscape. Most people will want to use a mixture of their own and asset store items like ground textures, grass, trees, buildings, props etc - which would not be included with the templates.

There is a list of tutorial videos around page 10 of the manual (Just click Help on the Landscape tab in the LB editor). And we're adding more with the next release of LB (2.2.0) which is coming soon.

 

A bit of a cross-post ... I didn't just watch the 25 minute video in the 7 minutes since you shared it but I did just finish watching it. <edit>

I just finished your stencils video so disregard the texture / biomes question. That looks very powerful. Is a stencil something that can be created programmatically or can it only be created with the interface?

Thanks!

 

You "could" even create a stencil at runtime if you like. There is an example in LandscapeBuilder\ samples\ RuntimeScripts \ RuntimeSample07.cs. Although you can also create them in the editor then script them out using the (S)cript button.

 

I don't have that row of buttons. <snip> Never mind. Found it.

 

Are you using 2019.3.Beta?

 

I am using 2019.3.0b1.

 

Ok. As you know Unity haven't officially released 2019.3 yet (still in beta). They are making quite a lot of changes to the Editor UI. We have a workaround for this coming in LB 2.2.0.

 

How about if I went back to 2019.2.5f1?

 

It depends on if you are just trying new concepts out or working on a game that you plan to release. If you are testing ideas the Unity beta is fine. You can even join our Beta Program is you like (there is a link on the Landscape tab in the LB editor).

However, Unity make it very clear that they don't support alpha or beta releases for "production" work. It is for testing and evaluation only. They have a long history of breaking major stuff during alpha and beta releases. Which is ok as long as you expect that to happen from time to time.

So I guess you have a few options:

1. Keep using the Unity beta and sign up to the LB beta
2. Wait for us to release LB 2.2.0 and then use U2019.3
3. Use a released version of Unity with LB 2.1.4
4. Use a released version of Unity with our latest 2.2.0 Beta

 

BTW - we started testing LB with a 2019.3 alpha version. Our latest beta seems pretty stable on 2019.3b1 but you can never tell what is going to be in 2019.3.b2, b3.. b10 etc before it is officially released and supported.

As a publisher, we also provide feedback to Unity on various changes they are making - mostly the ones that break LB or our other assets

 

A new feature coming in LB 2.2.0, is the ability to tweak prefab X and Z rotation values. You have always been able to set these values, however, now you can have them randomly allocated within a range. We think very small values will look best.



Randomise Rotation XZ could be useful when:

• Giving trees a slight random lean
• Giving prefabs procedurally placed along the side of a track or road a more natural or aged look
• Adding a bit of rotation variation to prefabs aligned to the slope of a path or the terrain

 

Hi Stephen,

This is probably not related to LB (probably just Unity) but have you seen this: flickering shadows on the terrain. If so, any idea how to stop it?



I did start using version 2019.2.5f1.

Thanks,

DZ

 

I don't think so. What is your ground Texturing setup? Also, does it do it in a build?

 

Good call. It only does that in the editor.

 

Hi,

I am making an island but some of my edges aren't going below the water level I have set of 100. I am using a Mask of Distance to Center but I guess some of my layers are pushing it too high. What is your recommended way of ensuring the generated edges are below my water level?

Thanks!

 

What do your Topography Layers look like in the LB Editor?