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

Phenomenal. Everything hinted at from the first release and is still only v2? Landscape Builder feels like having a stripped down version of Gaia that Adam might use for his personal work. The asset store has been meant to enhance workflow, sometimes replace it. The need for extremely user-friendly plugins is less about replacing or enhancing, and users wishing for the perfect click-it-to-win-it system from the get-go.

This leaves all of us who started with Unity in 2008 or so and didn't have such a luxury, wanting functionality over polish. Speed in workflow over flare - You've done that in the perfect way possible, and have barely got started. My only advice doesn't fall into the ravine you're heading to, like all great apps and games end up in.

 

Here's a few more screenshots of the landscape used for the groups basics tutorial video:







These were all created using the groups system coming in version 2.0 of Landscape Builder.

 

Here is the next in the Landscape Builder 2.0 Groups video series.

LB 2.0 is currently in technical preview for existing customers.

 

Wow! This is looking good. I had to stop my 3D game and focus on some 2D ones to be released for sale soon. I can't wait to get back to this.

 

Here is the next in the Landscape Builder 2.0 Groups video series.

LB 2.0 is currently in technical preview for existing customers. See more videos in previous posts.

 

Here is number 4 in the Groups tutorial series for Landscape Builder 2.0 - enjoy!

 

In Landscape Builder 2, runtime generation is much easier with improved tools to script out content from existing landscapes. Here is a sample of that demonstrates how easy it is now.



90% of the above code was generated from the (S) scripting buttons in the LB Editor, and pasted into the Awake statement.

 

Awesome!

 

Here's the result of that runtime code. Just cut and paste basically from the Script generator buttons.



Ok, so the Viking Village towers look out of place, but just something quick to give you the idea. Note - full control over ground texturing and grass etc. too via code (or the Script tools).

 

Here is a tutorial that helps explain how to create Runtime landscapes with Landscape Builder 2.0 (which is now available in the asset store).

 

If you're wondering how we decided on features for the Landscape Builder 2 release, we've published an article on connect to provide some insight.

https://connect.unity.com/p/landscape-builder-2

 

Great read!

 

Here is a little article I wrote to help people with Garbage Collection issues in their games.

https://connect.unity.com/p/game-development-and-garbage-collection

 

Really nice post

 

Hey i found your asset and i am very interessting. I show a lots of your videos on youtube and i think to buy it but can you make a example how did you create and modify medivial roads and paths and rivers in your asset ?

When is the lunch of landscape builder 2 ?

 

Landscape Builder 2 went live on the asset store about a week ago. You can see it here.

On the asset store page or the top of the first page of this forum there is a link to the documentation. In the manual on pages 18-22 there are instructions for creating paths.

Page 30 and the bottom of page 36 in the manual explains how Topography Map Layers are used to create rivers or flatten the terrains for paths or simple roads.

 

Vegetation Studio and Landscape Builder Integration

We plan to include Vegetation Studio integration in Landscape Builder 2. More details here.

 

I have a multi terrain, with 100 terrains(800 x 800 each one ) (64 km).The landscape is 8000 x 8000
The (0,0,0) is the lower left corner terrain.
Is there a way to set the (0,0,0) in the middle terrain (5,5) of the whole landscape?
This will mean to have a grid of 10 x 10 from (-3200,0,-3200) to (3200,0,3200).Actually is (0,0,0) to (7200,0,7200).
I want this because the floating point error, is less noticeable if the center of all the terrains(0,0,0) is in the middle and not in the lower left corner.

thanks

- I want to suggest too the chance to enable/disable terrains while editing the landscape.In big terrains , with many of them, if i am working in the left part of the landscape with 10 terrains i would like to disable the rest for speed and performance.Similar as Terrain composer 2 does.

 

There is a new feature in the latest Beta (2.0.2 Beta 3a) where the MapPath, CameraPath, Manual Clearing Group positions, and the landscape start position, will be updated when you click the Refresh button under Landscape Stats on the Landscape tab.
Simply, change the x,y,z positions on the main landscape GameObject, then click Refresh under Landscape Stats.

When you have larger landscapes, to improve editor responsiveness, go to the Landscape Builder Advanced tab, and turn off Auto Save. Unity is pretty slow saving scenes, especially when there are many terrains and objects.

 

HI,

Did you think of any integration with Horizon ON?
It would be very cool to connect the displacement mesh of horizon to the Landscape, then use the texture generator of LB....WOuld be cool if you had a look at that asset then give us some feedback.
Cheers

 

Is there anything currently preventing you using Horizon ON with Landscape Builder?

 

NO it works ! i was just thinking of an automatic process like suggested by a user in the Gaia forum..Excuse my lack of knowledge, maybe this is something absolutely useless

 

Landscape Builder Version 2.0.2 has been submitted to Unity for review.

Current users can download it early from the Beta Program area (let us know if you need access).

v2.0.2 includes:

[NEW] Vegetation Studio support - Texturing, Trees, Grass, MapPath, and Stencils.
[NEW] Landscape Stats Refresh button will adjust MapPath, CameraPath, and Groups to new start position
[FIXED] Import existing Terrain into a layer may display incorrect Min/Max Heights in Editor window
[FIXED] ImageFX may not render correctly when Use Moon is enabled but Use Celestials is not.
[FIXED] Manual Groups size cannot be reduced in the scene view with scale tool
[FIXED] Grass is updated with Uniform Groups when it is not required
[FIXED] MapPath - Adding a point to the end may incorrectly render the path in the scene
[IMPROVED] LBLighting - reduce garbage collection and improve performance

Thanks all to those who contributed ideas and helped test this release.

 

Grass and Noise

We've found a small issue with Grass noise in Groups. This has been corrected in 2.0.3 Beta 1c. The patch is available from the Beta Program area. We have also widened the placement cutoff range down to 0.01 (Grass Tab, and Groups Tab), when you only want a small clumps of grass using noise.

[FIXED] Group-level Grass ignores noise Placement Cutoff and Octaves
[IMPROVED] Wider range for noise Grass Placement Cutoff

When using Noise Octaves with grass, increasing the number of noise octaves will provide more detailed noise shapes. To maintain a similar amount of grass, you should increase the Grass Placement Cutoff as the number of noise octaves is increased.

 

Game Design prototyping with free assets

If you're fairly new to Unity or don't have many 3D models and assets yet to build stuff in your scene, then getting some free assets from previous Unity demo projects might help you with prototyping.

Once you get a better idea of what you want to do, then you can switch out the free asset with ones you create yourself or purchase from the Asset Store.

Here's an article I published on Connect to get you started.

https://connect.unity.com/p/prototyping-with-landscape-builder-2

 

Landscape Builder 2.0.3 is now available

LB 2.0.3 has been submitted for approval. It is also available immediately if you have signed up for the Beta Program.

It includes the following changes:

[NEW] Grass Populating Mode - Groups Only - details here
[FIXED] Group-level Grass ignores noise Placement Cutoff and Octaves
[FIXED] Grass type is not selectable in Groups Grass tab if (I)nsert button used on Grass tab
[FIXED] Texture type is not selectable in Groups Tex tab if (I)nsert button used on Texture tab
[IMPROVED] Wider range for noise Grass Placement Cutoff
[IMPROVED] Support for 2018.1

 

LB Supported Versions (as at 30 June 2018)

Unity 2018.2 requires LB v2.0.4 Release or newer (coming soon)
Unity 2018.1 requires LB v2.0.3 Release or newer
Unity 2017.3 requires LB v1.4.3 Release or newer
Unity 2017.2 requires LB v1.4.2 Release or newer
Unity 2017.1 requires LB v1.4.0 Release or newer
Unity 5.6 requires LB v1.3.8 Release or newer.
Unity 5.5 requires LB v1.3.5 Release to LB v2.03 Release.
Unity 5.4 requires LB v1.3.5 Release to LB v2.03 Release.
Unity 5.3. Last supported on LB v1.3.7.

LB v2.0.4+ requires Unity 5.6.2p1 (released 29 June 2017) or newer

LB v2.0.4 is currently in beta​

 

Landscape Builder v2.0.4 Beta 6m is ready for beta testing.

See here for details on what's included.

 

NEW FEATURE ANNOUNCEMENT

Coming in Landscape Builder 2.0.4

Object Paths are used to populate a spline with other (prefab) members in the Group. You can have a different starting or ending prefab on the path and/or have multiple different prefabs along the path. If you have different prefabs in the path, you can choose how the procedural engine determines when to place each prefab in your list. In this release the two algorithms are alternate placing and random.

There are also different spacing methods. Currently the choices are Exact Quantity in path, Quantity per 100m, and Spacing distance.

Each different Group member placed along the Object Path may be rotated or offset based on its Orientation. This is set in the individual Group Member Paths tab.

The Object Path can be configured to add rotation on the z-axis along the path. The z-axis rotation of each prefab placed between user-defined path points is smoothly blended between points. Other rotation rules like “Align with Terrain” can also be applied (separately or at the same time) to each prefab.

Object Paths can be created in Uniform Groups (landscape-wide), Procedural Clearing Groups, and/or Manual Clearing Groups. When Object Paths are placed in Clearing Groups, and the Groups are instantiated in the scene, the Object Path positions and their prefabs are correctly rotated to reflect the rotation of the whole Group, be it a village, farm yard, town, forest clearing, hamlet, game point of interest etc. We’ve done the maths heavy lifting so that it “just works” for your game design.

For current customers, there is a beta available.

 

Typical Object Path Workflow (Uniform Group)

1. In an existing or new Uniform Group
   
2. Add members for prefabs you’d like on to place on the Object Path (optionally set them to “Use in Paths Only” on the Paths tab)
   
3. Add a new member and switch it to an Object Path type using the (O)bject Path button.
   
4. Open the Object Path Designer and create a spline in the scene
   
5. On the Objects tab, decide which members you’d like to place along the path
   
6. On the Layout tab, decide how you’d like to space the prefabs
   
7. Click the Refresh button to see what they would look like in the scene
   
8. Adjust the path points in the scene and/or change the Objects and/or Layout
   
9. Click the Refresh button and repeat the above step as required
   
10. Close the Object Path Designer
    
11. Click Populate the Landscape with Groups button

Typical Object Path Workflow (Manual or Procedural Group)

1. In an existing or new Manual or Procedural Group
   
2. Open Group Designer
   
3. Add members for prefabs you’d like on to place on the Object Path (optionally set them to “Use in Paths Only” on the Paths tab)
   
4. In the Landscape Builder Editor, add a new member and switch it to an Object Path type using the (O)bject Path button.
   
5. Open the Object Path Designer and create a spline in the Group Designer
   
6. On the Objects tab, decide which members you’d like to place along the path
   
7. On the Layout tab, decide how you’d like to space the prefabs
   
8. Click the Refresh button to see what they would look like in the Group Designer
   
9. Adjust the path points in the Group Designer and/or change the Objects and/or Layout
   
10. Click the Refresh button and repeat the above step as required
    
11. Close the Group Designer
    
12. Populate the Landscape with Groups button

 

NEW FEATURE ANNOUNCEMENT

Coming in Landscape Builder 2.0.4

High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) support in Preview

"Hold on, HDRP doesn't even support a terrain shader yet, right?" If you're thinking that, then you'd be correct. However, that doesn't mean you can't starting creating and testing with terrains in 2018.2 and HDRP.

All you need to get you started in Unity 2018.2.0f2 (or newer) and Landscape Builder 2.0.4 Beta 7e (or newer). LB customer can get the LB beta now. Here's a really basic setup.

[EDIT: See updated version in next post]

1. Create a new Landscape with Landscape Builder (make sure it only has 1 terrain by setting the Landscape Size to the same as the Terrain Width) **
   
2. Create a new material (e.g. TerrainMat01)
   
3. Change material shader to HDRenderPipeline/LayeredLit
   
4. In the LB Editor, Landscape tab, Terrain Settings, change Material Type to Custom and select the new terrain material just added.
   
5. Temporarily set the Base Map Distance to 5000
   
6. Click "Apply Terrain Settings"
   
7. In the TerrainMat01 inspector, set the Layer Count to 4
   
8. Enable "Use Height Based Blend"
   
9. Set Height Transition to a small number. 0.004
   
10. Advanced Options: Enable Terrain Mode
    
11. Under Main layer, assign a ground texture to "Base Color + Opacity"
    
12. If you have one, assign a Normal Map
    
13. Set the uv tiling to 1x1
    
14. Repeat this for 3 other ground textures to Layer 1, 2 and 3.
    
15. In LB Editor on Texturing tab, select the Forest preset and click "Assign Textures from Presets"
    
16. Click "Texture Landscape"
    
17. On Export tab, find "Export Splatmap Textures to PNG" and click "Export Textures"
    
18. Textures are saved into a folder called Assets/LandscapeBuilder/Splatmaps/[scenename]_[landscapename].
    
19. In the Project pane, select TerrainMat01
    
20. In the Inspector, expand Main layer and assign the first exported splat texture to "Height Map (R)"
    
21. Repeat this for Layer 1, 2, & 3 using the other exported splat textures.

When updating Texturing from the Landscape Texturing tab, after applying changes, go to the LB Editor Export tab and click "Export Textures" to see your changes.

** Yes, I'm only using 1 terrain. We "could" use multiple terrains with a variation on this method but given HDRP is only in Preview AND Unity will be releasing a new terrain shader in 2018.3, why bother?? (If you need it, post on this forum or msg us).

Texture Packing
HDRP shaders typically expect you to pack different information into different channels on the same texture. They do this for performance reasons (we do this in some of our custom shaders).

Thankfully, we have you covered. If you have LB, then you also have the Texture Generator which can also combine textures and pack data into different channels.



Easily pack Metallic, Ambient Occlusion, Detail, and Smoothness into the same texture for use with HDRP Lit shaders

 

HDRP alternative terrain shader option

Here is another (more reliable) way of setting up the HDRP LayeredLit shader with Landscape Builder and HDRP.

1. Create a new Landscape with Landscape Builder (make sure it only has 1 terrain by setting the Landscape Size to the same as the Terrain Width)
2. In LB Editor on Texturing tab, select the Forest preset and click "Assign Textures from Presets"
3. Click "Texture Landscape"
4. On Export tab, under "Create Landscape as Mesh" click "Export Splatmaps" (a new LandscapeTerrain0000_splat0 texture will created under the Splatmaps folder)
   
5. Create a new material (e.g. TerrainMat01)
6. Change material shader to HDRenderPipeline/LayeredLit
7. In the LB Editor, Landscape tab, Terrain Settings, change Material Type to Custom and select the new terrain material just added.
8. Set the Base Map Distance to 5000
9. Click "Apply Terrain Settings"
10. In the TerrainMat01 inspector, set the Layer Count to 4
11. Add the exported _splat0 texture to the "Layer Mask"
12. Expand "Main Layer" and add the Base Color and Normal Map textures for Texture 4 from the LB Texturing tab (uv tiling will be terrain width / Texturing tab setting)
13. Expand "Layer 1" and add the Base Color and Normal Map textures for Texture 1 from the LB Texturing tab (uv tiling will be terrain width / Texturing tab setting)
14. Expand "Layer 2" and add the Base Color and Normal Map textures for Texture 2 from the LB Texturing tab (uv tiling will be terrain width / Texturing tab setting)
15. Expand "Layer 3" and add the Base Color and Normal Map textures for Texture 3 from the LB Texturing tab (uv tiling will be terrain width / Texturing tab setting)

When updating Texturing from the Landscape Texturing tab, after applying changes, go to the LB Editor Export tab and click "Export Splatmaps" to see your changes.

 

Landscape Builder 2 Object Path Tutorial

Object Paths are available in LB 2.0.4 or newer. Existing customers can download the latest version early from the Beta Program.

 

Here are a couple of images from a scene built with Landscape Builder 2.0.5 and a new asset (LB Enviro Pack 1)




NOTE: The vegetation isn't included in LB or the Enviro Pack

 

Landscape Builder 2.0.5 will include preview support for Lightweight Render Pipeline (LWRP). Here are some of our test scene images using LWRP, LB, LB Enviro Pack 1, and some 3rd party vegetation.

 

Is there a Discord channel for this plugin?

 

No, but you can post any questions in this forum or in the Beta Forum.

 

I have some noob questions.

I'll start by saying that I have over the last week been tooling around making a hilly forested terrain using the default terrain editor in Unity 2017. I was actually reasonably happy with what I came up with but while looking at a demo video (for a water asset) I saw some really awesome/realistic looking mountains and thought about how my terrain really sucks in many ways. The water asset linked to this one as being compatible.

I have a few concerns though while trying to choose the right enhanced terrain asset to choose. Here are some of my questions:

* Can I manually brush alterations into your terrains? I have seen how you can use your tools to create sort of prefabs and even use real world data, but if I want to say make a flattened circle in one spot, can I draw my details right over the top just like the default terrain editor? Or am I stuck with using cookie cutter like inserts that have to be already or combined to be the overall shape I want?

* I presume this includes vegetation generating functions like the default terrain editor, but do I have the same control so I can pick what distance the trees/bushes/etc turn into billboards and back? My current game is about long distances and broad views. For example I think I extended the original terrain size from 500 to 2000. It's not a guy running around on foot. However the camera will zoom into a spot a few meters off the ground when the object arrives. I noticed trees were 'load popping' from billboards to 3d horribly. I tried to turn up the distance so it would happen further away (taking into account the camera moves really fast over long distances) but that brought things down to 5fps. So I went the other way and actually turned the billboards on at a distance of 5 (the minimum allowed). This is actually good because the tree will only pop at the very last second, at which point it's only 1 tree you can even see, so the camera isn't watching a wave effect rolling through the trees ahead of it constantly (which looks horrible).
So sorry, long winded, but back to the point: Can I set vegetation with your tool so it's all billboard too for performance sake?

I'll probably have more questions later but these two are primary and potential deal breakers for now.

I will say though I think it's great that you can use real world topography data. I find it pretty cool that I can potentially pick a local landmark and actually have it in a game. Not only that, but how can you get more real than real world? That will probably be my cheat solution to slap together maps very quickly.

 

Yes. Although this might not be the best workflow. If you can't make a particular change using our Topography Layers systems we'd like to know why. We have a lot of layer functionality for a variety of scenarios (we don't take a simple cookie cutter or stamper approach). We use standard Unity terrains so other tools will still work. So, you “could” procedurally build a landscape, then manually apply changes, however, now if you want to change things procedurally you risk overwriting the manual changes. You “could” also make manual changes then import those changes into a Topography Layer but then you’d lose the original config. One of the big benefits of our system is that it remembers all your changes so that you can come back and tweak them later. But yes, you can still edit terrains with manual tools.

Absolutely. Here are a couple of screen shots from the LB Editor.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the quick response.

In regards to possibly doing manual alterations; the players in my current project are in static positions which I want to have a small flat area for. Basically just a small mound with a flat spot for each player position. So yeah it would be good if your system can actually plonk those in, and it's good that you can make the manual alterations another way if needed, but I will keep in mind that they may be nuked by another procedural process. That probably won't be much of a problem though since they are simple things and would be worth having to re-add if everything else is being made much quicker and procedural.

As for the billboards thing; cool.

This asset is at the top of my shortlist at the moment. Seems to come in with good features but a relatively low price.

 

You can also procedurally place prefabs in the scene and (if required) flatten an area around that prefab. This example below is a building from a recent demo we're doing for another asset, but it gives you an idea of what is possible.



You can also place those items at specific points in the landscape by using the "Edit Clearing Positions" button or place them in certain areas within your landscape based on rules you define using "Procedural Clearings". And, if some reason we don't cater for your scenario, we're always happy to take a look at it. However, in your case, I think you're already covered.

 

Next question; Does this have some kind of dot to dot (or drawn) path tool that can create rivers or flattened roads?

Also for this, aside from the physical flattening or carving out, does your tool also allow you to add texture to this feature layer? So for example if I draw a river line to be carved out then the bed of it can be specified to have it's own texture (so it's not based on the regular texturing from height/slope angle), or the road which is smoothed out in a path will have the tarmac or dirt textured on the path.

I could link you to another asset for an exact example of what I mean, but I don't want to be rude or direct people away from here.

If the answer the the above is yes then I'm all ready to pull the trigger and purchase this asset.

 

You mean like this, or this or this?

So, you can create a path and texture it with a terrain texture, and/or add a 2D mesh which can then have it's own material. Technically the mesh is 3D but think in terms of water, a road or walking path surface. For a river bed, the bed itself is part of the terrain, not a separate mesh.

 

I think so. I don't know what the second link is about since it says Runtime (so I think means generating during the live game?) but the first and last link looks like it's cutting in the river like I want. I think you are saying though that the feature does not include applying a texture to the river bed, where as a road would be textured because a flat mesh is added on top (and so the added part is textured)?

I've private messaged you the video link to the other asset since it is exactly everything I hoped to do with rivers and roads.

 

Obviously the products are different but yes, I guess you could say both our tools can create similar roads and rivers. We have multiple texturing workflows. You can generate a filter from the map path itself (which is what we call them in LB) or you can paint in a top down view (called a stencil in LB), and use that to filter the texture (and trees, grass, objects/prefabs etc.). And you can also apply the "standard" texturing rules like height, inclination etc.

We're also working on an extension to our new Object Path which is part of the Groups system in LB. So, many possibilities, just need to find one that fits your particular game development and workflow.

 

I was given a free beta invite way back when you were looking for people who had certain assets like RTP, AQUAS, etc. I tried it and thought it was a decent system. I took a look at the current state earlier today and was really impressed with the progress, especially all the integrations like Vegetation Studio and Easy Roads. I decided to go ahead and purchase it. I will be trying it out extensively over the next month or so. I believe this may be just what we need to build our base landscape environment for our game. Keep up the great work.

One thing I would like to see is integration with Azure Sky. It has its own weather system, which is controlled by calendar date/time. But if Azure could be the sky system and also hook into LB's weather then that would be a nice touch.

 

For LB 2.0.6 we've been working on some enhancements to LB Lighting. We've been adding High Dynamic Range (HDR) support and making it more compatible with Unity's Post Processing stack (v2). Depending on how stable Azure Sky's API is (assuming they have on) and how it maintains backward compatibility over time, we may be interested in hooking up our weather cycle system in LB Lighting to it. We've learnt the hard way that some asset store dev teams aren't so paranoid about backwards compatibility as we are...

You should get an invitation to the Beta Program. If not msg me.

 

Been playing around with this asset for the last few days. I'm learning it as I go but I'm a bit stuck at the moment on how to smooth out some edges.



I started with an image from the Open Topography website. I had to remove some glitched spots (which resulted in giant columns for no good reason). I also had to carve the ocean down a bit because the beach area would all be steep angled and very small. I guess the sea level and the beach level in the image were too close. So anyway, to cut down for the water level to sit at I used the stencil tool to colour in where the water would be then used the Image Subtractive. I don't know if it made it better or worse but I used the soft edge brush.

It looks like what happened is the height zig zags a bit in a poly way rather than smoothly progressing down. This is the zig zag you see on the shore line.

So how do I smooth this out? I feel like the easiest way would be to get the regular unity terrain editor's smoothing brush to just rub around the edges, but that editor seems to be locked on the terrain due to terrain builder?

 

It is true that some of the space shuttle data from Open Topography have holes in it (which is why you get these odd column-like terrain pixels). Some people have written white papers on how to improve the quality of the data flown by the shuttle. For image / heightmap data from Terrain.Party or MIT_LRO_LOLA we have a hole repair solution built into the Topography Image Layers. There is some information in the Landscape Builder manual starting on page 33.

Currently GeoTIFF data doesn't have the "repair holes" solution due to the number of variations in data types we need to support. However, it is on our roadmap. For now, I'd suggest selecting areas from Open Topography that don't have missing data.

For you beach edge area you could apply more smoothing to your Stencil Layer by using the Smooth button while in Paint mode.


You can perform a Smooth operation on the selected stencil layer multiple times if required.

Another option is to use a Topography Perlin Subtractive Layer rather than a subtractive image layer, and use the Stencil Layer as a filter.

I'll send you a msg with instructions on how to send us a LB Template so that we can look at your issue in more detail.

 

1) The smoothing options don't fix the problem. Maybe helps a little but doesn't fix.
2) The smoothing options actually affect the whole map for some reason. I try to just smooth the layer cutting the ocean down but my hills are lowering/smoothing off.
3) I tried the Perlin Subtractive with the stencil. I think the result is identical to the Image Subtractive

I'll follow your instructions now about sending the template and original TIFF to you.