Landscape Builder 2 - Procedural Terrains, Advanced Prefab System, spline tool, and much more

changing layout and it works now.Depending of the layout seems to affect the projection.Thanks Dave

 

OK. I'll look into the problem tomorrow hopefully and see if I can find a fix for it.

 

Ground Texture Checker

Landscape Builder v1.3.7 will include some APIs to check for textures at a location in the landscape and take some pre-determined action. For example, you could play different footsteps in a first-person game depending on the material on the ground. In a racing game, you could play different sounds as the wheels of the vehicle drove over grass, snow, gravel or sand.

More info is available in the Beta Program forum.

 

Great News!!! Many thanks!

 

Why i am getting this ?



Is this a Unity error ?
Aah, picture doesn`t work. Here is the link:
https://picload.org/image/roporgar/textfield_error.jpg

 

Hmm, after import it from the asset store again it works now. No cryptic numbers anymore but readable text

 

The mysteries of Unity Editor serialization. Thanks for reporting this.

 

Hi,
You did not answer on the possibility to stream terrains around player? like in Map Magic...
I dont see in your manual a reference to the Minimum Sun Intensity? Is it because the moon light overlaps the sun?
Is it possible to have More fog states? like Dawn fog color, dusk fog color, day and night...?
Cheers

 

When creating large open world games with Unity terrains there are many challenges. Loading/unloading terrains is but a small part of the problem. We believe most teams working on a large open world project are building their own game-specific solution. This is why we think Unity have also not added terrain streaming to the core product.

It is a little old, but this session explains some the still relevant issues and solutions.

Unite 2013 Session

In LB Lighting, the Sun Intensity can be set to between 0.0 and 8.0. In the Editor or in code. If you change the LB Lighting Setup Mode to Advanced, you can set Sun Intensity or Fog Density to a curve over the 24 hour period. All the rules of a curve in Unity apply, so it can be almost any shape.



Ambient Light and Fog Colour can be a custom colour gradient that spans the whole day. A simple example is shown above. So, we're not limited to set Fog states.

 

Thanks for your answer!! And for the picture!! You should make more videos about all the features man!! They are too old now ...
LB looks awesome....the settings are very very impressive !!
You 're gonna make me buy it !!

 

Landscape Builder - LBLighting Overview Tutorial

 

HI!! I finall ypurchased it!! and i'm very happy with it!! actually i didnt even need it but it looks so complete!!
I'm playing with your lighting system wich is brillant!!!! some of the best sky system! i wish u made this sky system for unity 4!! lol
i have a question with it, at night the terrain is all black, how can i change that?
a very very happy Customer!

 

A few things to check with the night light. Can you see the moon travelling across the night sky? If so, what is the moon intensity set to?

 

So...My bad it was not LB but me Setting Ambient to 0!! It's my project from U4 so the upgrading leads me in a lot of issues!! lol but i repeat your skysystem with the skyboxes transitions is AMAZING!! perfect!!

 

Can u confirm if raw map is supported, i didnt see it at first look! maybe i missed it
I wanna import one

 

Not sure, what do you mean by "raw map"?

 

i mean raw format for heightmap...Sorry about that

 

The best way to import raw Unity heightmaps is to use the following basics steps:

1. Create empty game object and name it
2. Add a single terrain of the correct size as a child object
3. Apply the Unity format raw heightmap using the standard Unity Terrain tool
4. Add a LBLandscape component to the parent gameobject
5. Drag the parent gameobject into the Landscape Builder editor to select the landscape
6. Click "Import" when prompted in the LB editor
7. You can now use all the non-topography features of LB to modify the landscape (texturing, trees, grass, prefabs, meshes, water etc.)

For real-world heightmap data you can use a Topography Image Layer as described in the manual.

UPDATE: LB 1.4.3+ supports importing and exporting RAW files with Topography Layers

 

Many thanks ! I will try that!

 

Request LB to support Realistic Water, the effect of this water is very good.
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/cn/#!/content/33434

 

There are multiple ways to add water, including rivers, to a landscape in LB. In addition to adding Water Prefabs, you can also add any custom water material to the surface mesh of a river.

The high level steps are:

1. Create a Landscape and add some Topography
2. Create a MapPath in the scene (in the Manual: "Scene Paths - Add Map Path to Landscape" in "Landscape Tab" chapter)
3. Add a Map Path Layer to the Topography using the MapPath you just created for the path of the river bed (in the Manual: see "Map Path Layers" in "Topography" chapter)
4. In the Map Path inspector, create a mesh using a Water Resizing Mode of Custom and add the Water Material.
5. Adjust the Map Path "Mesh UV Tiling" as required.
6. Add textures, grass, trees, rocks, and other prefabs to your landscape.

 

How can I make my [existing] landscape one big terrain?

This question can also be rephrased, "How can I change how many terrains I have in my landscape?" There are pros and cons with having fewer, larger terrains or more smaller terrains in a landscape. During testing of your game you may wish to try "what if" scenarios and change things around. If that's you, read on.

The first thing you'll want to do is backup your whole project - always a good idea when experimenting with an active project. After you have a backup, perform the following tasks.

WARNING: This method will overwrite any manual Unity terrain changes made outside Landscape Builder.

1. On the Landscape Tab, expand Landscape Stats to see what your current settings are.



2. Expand "Templates", give the template a name and click "Save Template"
3. Click "Create New Landscape"
4. Give it a unique name
5. Set the landscape size to match the "Landscape Stats"
6. Set a new Terrain Width (in our case we're going to make 1 large terrain so it will be 8000)
7. You might want to give it an offset on the x or z axis for the "Start Position". Or you could simply temporarily disable the original Landscape parent gameobject in the scene.
8. Click "Generate Landscape"
9. Go to the "Landscape" Tab, expand "Templates"
10. In the Project window, locate the template you save above under LandscapeBuilder\Templates and drag it into the "Template to Apply" slot.
11. Tick the appropriate options (if you set a new Start Position, don't forget to enable "Ignore Start Position")
12. Click "Apply Template"

 

Fantastic This what i needed perfect thank you that solves my biggest problem. im trying a few things and if they dont work ill send you that demo project. thanks for this.

 

Landscape Builder Version 1.3.7 has been submitted to Unity for approval. It includes:

[FIXED] Prompt to Delete Layer 0 when Topography Noise Generator Type is Value Based
[FIXED] Texture Filters are not applied correctly with applying Templates
[NEW] Texture Generator - combine selectable RGBA channels from 4 textures into new texture
[NEW] Texture Generator - create noise textures
[NEW] MegaSplat integration - tech preview (terrain/mesh shader)
[NEW] Ground Checker - Take action in your game based on the textures at a location in the terrain

Just a reminder that LB vNext (1.4.0) will require Unity 5.4.3p2 or newer. If you need support for 5.3.4-5.4.2 let us know. This is in preparation for supporting Unity 5.6 and beyond (Unity 2017).

 

We are preparing our roadmap for LB vNext, aka 1.4.0. If you have any suggested new features or improvements please contact us.

We will prioritise suggestions from people with active development projects. We are keen to meet your needs and improve your overall scene creation workflow. We would rarely add a feature just because it sounded "cool". We want to directly impact your projects in a positive way.

Tell us about your current projects and share with us some of your challenges.

 

Landscape Builder v1.4.0 Roadmap

Here is the content we are planning for the next release of Landscape Builder:

• Improved compatibility with Unity 5.6
• Texture Generator - Options to create more complex noise textures
• A new Scene View Map Editor - draw a Map in the scene and use that for texture, tree, grass, mesh, or prefab placement. You will also be able to use it in with [new] Topography stencils.
  
• Topography Stencils - Create topography features where you want them using a stencil that you define.
• LBLighting - add hail or snow to a weather cycle
• LBImageFX - selectable cloud styles
• LBStandard Weather shader - more options for natural placement of puddles on meshes (roads) in scene. Works well with EasyRoads3D v3.x

 

Hi there,

Great programme, I'm a total Unity newb (2 days!) and I've just bought this to have a mess around with. Amazing stuff, creates some lovely looking scenes. Before doing much else, I thought I best try out the stuff that I've made so far, I'm getting this error:-

Assets/LandscapeBuilder/Scripts/Classes/LBLandscapeOperations.cs(286,65): error CS0117: `LBLandscape' does not contain a definition for `GetMegaSplatAutoClosePainter'

I haven't got MegaSplat - do I need it?

Cheers!

 

Success! I moved the script to a folder called 'Editor' and now I can build everything fine.

 

You shouldn't have to move the script outside the default folders. Sounds like a bug.

 

Just to confirm, no, you don't need MegaSplat to use Landscape Builder. I've sent you a message about this. We hope to provide a fix shortly.

 

`LBLandscape' does not contain a definition for `GetMegaSplatAutoClosePainter'

If you see this error in a build, please contact us for a fix. For more information about this issue see here.

 

Thanks Stephen, I've popped you a PM about the issue - many thanks for your quick support.

 

Apart from being busy preparing some other new features of Landscape Builder, we've also been working on our Texture Generator. The product comes bundled with LB.

A new Output Type of the Texture Generator is "Noise". This lets you create textures from scratch. Here is an example of a planet as it may be seen from space.



As in the example above, you can see that one or more Output and Per Octave curve modifiers can be applied to generate a texture. You may recognized these from generating Topography Layers in LB.

The enhanced noise output type will be available in LB 1.4.0.

 

Hi,

Will there be real time modifications in the future instead of pressing Generate heightmap each time we modifiy something?
I really like your lighting system and sky system , do you plan to improve it?

Cheers

 

Yes, it is something we are considering - although nothing to announce at this date.

We are currently working on enhancements to clouds. We're planning to release these upgrades in LB 1.4.0. Expect a beta for this soon.

What other enhancements would you like to see in the lighting and weather systems? Is there some particular problem you're trying to solve in your game or project?

 

Thanks for asking, acutally i have an issue with clouds rendering but only in my main project coming from Unity4;
Check below
In other projects there is no problem to add some of your clouds with skyboxes.
My terrain is 16 tiles 8km/8km

 

So, this is a Unity 4 project that was upgrade to Unit 5.x? Which version of 5.x? Maybe you could email us a LBTemplate and include LBLighting when exporting the LBTemplate (just tick the option). So, you're using Procedural or Skybox settings for the clouds in LBLighting?
The LBTemplate will help us examine your configuration.

 

I use 5.3.6. I use skybox settings. I will try to export the template tonight. I noticed something: when i tick "use weather" it seems another layer of fog is applied ...even when "use Unity Fog" is checked....?

Celestials work like a charm at night!

Talking about sky system:I dont know if it's already the case, but maybe skyboxes could be connected to weather states....?
About TerrainGen, could you insert a preset with surrounding mountains (with different types) at the borders of the terrain to create a big arena of mountains with a flat base in the middle to fill with other presets? for peoplewho dont make islands it's very hard to get a correct background.

Could you create a small library of templates with already set presets for splat map texturing and trees and grass so that we would only "reskin" the preset?

 

We'll take a look at linking legacy Skyboxes with weather states.

To take advantage of new features in LB, you'll need to upgrade to at least 5.4.3. This is in line with Unity's support and patch policy. We've mentioned this in a few places including this forum post.

The demo scenes are based on Templates which are included in the Templates folder. You are free to use and modify them as you wish. Yes, we can add some more. We are also working on a new feature to allow users to "draw" a top down map for topography placement.

 

I was to busy last night and as there is only LB lighting in my hierarchie cause my terrain tiles were made a long time ago
i was confused about how to export it...But i found i have to open LB window to do it, i'll send you in the week end.

And many thanks for your prompt support

 

i know, i'm waiting for U5.6 to get stable. Actually the demo i'm preparing is still on Unity 4!!! It's hard to upgrade an open world!!lot of work!

 

The checkbox "Use Unity Fog" does not actually disable the fog effect used by Landscape Builder - instead it uses the default Unity fog in conjunction with the Landscape Builder fog. This option is for the most part used to solve issues with transparent objects and fog in deferred rendering. If you are in forward rendering, and want to for any reason use the default Unity fog instead of the LB fog, turn on "Use Unity Fog" and go into the LBImageFX component which you'll find attached to your specified camera. In the LBImageFX component there are a number of fog settings you can change; you can go into the "Fog Settings" and simply disable "Distance Based Fog" and "Height Based Fog". This will ensure that only Unity's fog is used. Alternatively, if you just want to use the LB fog, leave these options and instead disable "Use Unity Fog" in LBLighting.

It is already possible in Landscape Builder to create mountains around the outside of your landscape with a flat area in the middle. While in the topography settings, click on "Show Mask Options". This effectively allows you to "mask out" areas of your landscape. Choose the mask mode "Distance To Centre". While generally this is used to mask out the edges of a landscape to create an island it also can be used for the opposite effect. You'll need to change the "Mask Curve" to something similar to this screenshot:



Basically what this does it says that at areas close to the centre (close to the 0 point on the x-axis of the curve) the topography has zero effect or close to it (the y-axis of the curve is 0 at these points) so the terrain is flat. When it gets further away from the centre (approaching 1 on the x-axis of the curve) the topography is as normal (the y-axis of the curve is 1 at these points). By using a curve to interpolate between these two extremes there is a smooth transition that looks fairly natural. The main problem you might have is that the flat bit in the centre looks too uniformly circular; this can be partially fixed by increasing the "Warp Amount" a tiny amount (between 0.05 and 0.2). Either way, you will likely want to make some tweaks to the balance between flat area and mountains in your landscape. To do this, you can simply modify the curve. To make the flat area larger, move the second key in the curve to the right (to make it smaller, move it to the left). To make the mountainous area larger, move the third key of the curve to the left (to make it smaller, move it to the right). If you want to make the flat area in the middle not perfectly flat, move the first two keys of the curve upwards slightly (probably between 0.05 and 0.2) until you reach your desired level of bumpiness.

 

Many thanks for all these infos! i will definitely play with it this week end!

I noticed something last night, when i choose "procedural" the sky is pink. THe LBSkybox material is pink too in the files?

(I did it in a very light project )
Other thing, do i need to call an already made terrain parent "landscape1"? cause when i try to put it in the LB manager nothing happens...

 

We need a little more info.

Mac or Windows
Unity Version
Landscape Builder Version
Unity Build Settings (which platform is this targeting)

Can you also check that the Unity default procedural skybox shader will compile (not render as pink). To do this, perform the following tasks:

1. In the scene view, select LB Lighting
2. In the Inspector, "Show" Skybox Settings
3. Click the selector next to "Skybox Material"
4. Type "default-s"
5. Double-click on "Default-Skybox"

Test. To change back set the "Skybox Material" to "LBSkybox"

 

Support for Unity 2017 in Landscape Builder

Unity 2017 requires LB v1.4.0 Beta 4j or newer.
Unity 5.6 requires LB v1.3.8 Release or newer.
Unity 5.5 requires LB v1.3.5 Release or newer.
Unity 5.4 requires LB v1.3.5 Release or newer.
Unity 5.3. Last supported on LB v1.3.7.

 

hi,

When i place the trees they get a greenish color don´t know why.As you can see in the picture, left trees placed with LB ,right trees with Unity´s brush.I haven´t set up scene lighting as i want to use Unistorm or other for this later.I only have a directional light.
windows,unity version 5.6.0f3, LB v1.3.8.

Any idea why?

 

We'll investigate and get back to you. We think it goes back to some legacy code which shouldn't be too difficult for us to patch. Thanks for reporting it.

 

We've added the ability to enable or disable tree tinting in forests (tinting is enabled by default which is the same behavior as previous versions). You can also control the tint strength / colour variation if tinting is enabled. It is available now in the latest beta (1.4.0 Beta 5b). PM me with your invoice number if you don't have access to the Beta Program.

 

Q1: How do I test a Landscape Builder Upgrade?

A1: Before you upgrade Landscape Builder in a Unity Project, take a full backup of the Unity project folder. To do that in:

• Close Unity
  
• Open Windows Explorer or Mac Finder
  
• Locate the project folder, select
  
• On Windows, press CTRL-C (copy) and then CTRL-V (paste)
  
• On Mac, press CMD-D (duplicate)
  
• Open the original project in Unity and apply the LB update
  
• Test

Q2: How do I keep using Landscape Builder if I’ve made changes to the terrains with the Unity tools?

Sometimes you may wish to quickly build a landscape with the LB Topography tools, then manually tweak some areas of the terrain using the Unity terrain tools.

A2: The other LB Texturing, Grass, Trees and Mesh tabs generally don’t modify the terrain topography. Mesh (or Prefab) Flatten Terrain is an exception (see the manual for full details). As long as you don’t click “Generate Heightmap” on the Topography tab, you will not overwrite your manual terrain changes. This also applies when upgrading to a new version of Landscape Builder. If you do accidently click “Generate Heightmap”, simply click “Undo Heightmap Modification”. Just remember, there is only 1 level of undo.

Typically, we’d not recommend making manual changes to the terrains using the Unity tools because they are not easily re-producible. If you find a need to do this, help us to understand your problem and we’ll attempt to build this into LB.

 

Q: Can I add more terrains to an existing scene?

A: Yes, although it is always better to plan ahead and create the correct number of terrains in the same scene from the outset. If you wish to keep the landscape the same overall size but change the number and size of the terrains see here.

1. Make sure you are editing the existing Landscape
2. On the Landscape Tab, expand Landscape Stats and note the Landscape Size
3. In the Unity Hierarchy window, select the Landscape gameobject and note the Transform Position in the Inspector
4. On the Landscape Tab, expand “Templates”
5. Untick “Include LBLighting” as we’re still in the same scene and don’t need to overwrite existing settings.
6. Untick “Include Paths”
7. Click “Save Template”
8. On the Landscape Tab, click “Create New Landscape”
9. Give the Landscape a unique name
10. Typically, you’ll wish to give the new Landscape the same size and terrain size as the first landscape
11. Set the X or Z offset position to the same +/- width of the first Landscape
12. Click “Generate Landscape”
13. Click the “Landscape” Tab
14. Drag the template you created above into the “Template to Apply” slot
15. Click “Ignore Start Position”
16. Click “Apply Template”
17. This will give consistent topography across the two Landscapes. If you want to change the Topography on the new Landscape it is likely that the two will not join correctly.
18. If the landscapes don’t join seamlessly on height, due to topography changes you’ve made, use the Stitching Tool on the “Advanced” Tab.
19. When in doubt, on the “Landscape” Tab click “Help” to open the manual.