Map Magic World Generator - a node based procedural and infinite game map tool

Actually streaming or enabling/disabling of distant terrains is what's important to me. That's why i compare them.
Which solution is better for a single player game like open world STALKER for example? Map should be around 8x8km or even smaller, but not by much.

And what about smaller maps, 4x4km for example? Is it smart to stream or chunk them too?

 

Well there's no "does everything" asset unfortunately. WorldStreamer and Sectr don't have anything to do with splat/heightmap generation/grass, tree placement/etc, which is what MapMagic is best at. MapMagic does enable/disable terrains and everything on them based on the distances you tell it to, which alongside LOD groups is enough for me. WorldStreamer and Sectr are tools specifically designed for streaming content, have many more options for that specific purpose and are much harder to setup. If you're using a static map, then just turning things on and off based on distance is pretty trivial. If you want to control rooms and towns and things pretty aggressively, you'll need to build a trigger system or use something like Sectr. You might find the Unity live session on FireWatch interesting as that's what they really go into

 

Here is what is planned for v2:

• Interface enhancements: major interface performance improvements, convenient way to apply curve or other node adjustments, per-node map preview;
• All nodes will be resolution-independent: you can switch the resolution and get the same result, but more (or less) detailed. resolution-independent, The generated result is always the same in world units no matter of chunk size or resolution. If you have a mountain at some position it will always be here no matter what size/resolution values you set.
• Terrain LOD preview: terrain placeholders that will be generated way faster to be displayed at far distance and for editor preview;
• Margins: the way to create borderless terrains with no visible seam without using "Safe Borders";
• Functions: "biomes" with inputs, outputs and parameters exposed. Using them will make the graph more readable and allow to re-use the graph parts in other graphs. When generated function will get the main graph maps or other objects through Function Inputs, and output generated result via Function Output. You can expose internal function node values in the main graph function node, so you can setup the without opening function graph. You can treat them as encapsulated black boxes. Changing the function graph is like changing the function code - it will affect the graphs it's used in (unless otherwise is not enabled in settings). So you can tweak all of your scenes by tuning your function graph.
• New Lock algorithms: instead of locking a whole terrain tile, there will be "lock locations", the areas on the terrain (or several terrains) that would be locked. These areas will be blended with the other world seamlessly so can change the graph while having locks.
• Partial locking: and speaking of locks there will be no absolute lock, each of the outputs could be locked separately. For example, you can lock the height and scatter textures or grass on the locked area with MM.
• Height, splats, objects inputs: MapMagic as an editor tool - you can sculpt the terrain manually and then let MM texture it or place objects. Or place objects and automatically create grass around them. Just to mention it's not the way Vegetation Studio works - grass and objects will be processed by MM per chunk and "baked" the usual way MM does;
• Native C++ generators in editor (erosion, noise, forest - Mac and Win editors only);
• If everything goes well - a couple of test spline generators

However I'd like to warn you if you are going to start building your world with MM having switch to MM2 in mind - these assets have some core differences. You will be able to load an older graph, but it will generate the different result, with different seeds and maybe effects.

Depends on how many locations are you going to make by-hand and how many should be generated automatically. In case of a dozen "manual" areas you can use MapMagic only. Otherwise you can generate the initial land by MM, pin it and use streaming asset to stream it.

There's no comment on why they were commented, so I guess it's worth trying. However I had no effect when just tried to uncomment and briefly test, got to look into it closer.

 

Any ETA on this?

 

It will be done for MM2. Can't say the exact ETA yet.

 

And the MegaSplat integration also?
Oh, and in the feature list for MM2 it doesn't mention per channel texture masks. I hope that's still in the feature list.

 

Well i prefer to do everything by hand? Sure, some assets can be automatically generated, but you can't generate buildings in the city. This must be done by hand.
I presume that you know how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. looks? Our game will be like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but on one big map. We actually use Russian area for our game. But i can't talk about that here.

Also i can use triggers like here:

I already used triggers but in other engine.

 

Hello Denis!
I bought Map Magic later in 2017 but never managed to get the time to dig into it.
I just watched the 1.30h tutorial and i have to say the money were absolutely well spent, not just because of the great features but also for the outstanding support and care you give to your customers... Unlike some other developers :/
So kudos for that
Now, a question you may already heard hundreds of times (even in the most recent posts - but they are not really fitting my scenario).
My case is as follows:
I need to create a huge 260x260 sq km terrain (so 260x260 Unity Terrains - it's crazy i know).
The thing is, it's a real world location and i'd want to stay true to that as much a possible because of many reasons, so a 1:1 scale is preferred.
Initially i used Terraland 3 straight out of the box, and i could actually create a nice huge 8x8 terrain textured with 256 satellite images (so 4 images per terrain, which i need, to pinpoint buildings and roads at the exact real world locations) - it's all automatic so not a big deal
When i started adding stuff like easy roads the lighting system gave some problems (maybe roads too long?) so i gave up for now.
I've done my homework and:
- with Terraland 3 i managed to get a RAW heightmap (of around 35MB) covering the area i'm interested in;
- i loaded it in MapMagic to generate one single 1x1 sq km terrain with the whole area;
- with the pin function i spanned said area across multiple terrains (so scaled heightmap 3x and pinned 8 more terrains so that it fits - the tutorial is really clear, thanks for that);
At this point i have a 3x3 sq km terrain covering the original 260x260 sq km area.
Now, what should i do next?
Should i pin the remaining 67.591 terrain tiles and scale the heightmap accordingly?
Of course that can't be the way i guess... lol
The final terrain should be huge and i'm aware of that, but i'm mostly interested in two fairly large key locations and also the main roads going around and inside the whole area (which of course span across multiple terrains, actually many of them).
I believe the feature you show in the tutorial to turn on/off terrain tiles and building as player moves across the map could work well, but is that the best approach for my case?
Can i work my way one terrain at a time in Map Magic (for example by getting one of the 67.600 RAW heightmaps through Terraland), texture them with the related satellite texture, if there are buildings or roads add them accordingly and then load them back together in one single project once i'm done with each one?
What would you do if you were in my shoes?
Thanks a lot to you and anyone willing to reply

 

Hello folks, I was getting some fields regularly reset to 0 in graph editor.Usually Voronoi and Noise intensity, also a field on Erosion and I couldnt pinpoint what was happening It seems that those fields are not getting saved when I save scene, the terrain is updated but those fields are reset to zero as soon as i update terrain . Has it happened to anyone else?

 

Hey I'm trying to grab the demo but the website is down. could you take a look?

Also, if I bought this, do I get the upgrade to v2 when it's out or is that a separate purchase? Thanks.

 

@DougieJones some of the nodes have min-max ranges that you can't actually see. Voronoi for example has to have a cell count that is a power of two between 2 and 128. Noise high(intensity) doesn't have a range though I don't think...? =o

 

It's really good to know that you like MapMagic, but are you really trying to use the right tool here? It's a procedural worlds generator, and you have predefined satellite maps - they are neither procedural neither should be generated. Guess it's worth consider using streaming tools like WorldStreamer or Sectr for that.

Try updating MM from the asset store. It looks like the issue that was fixed recently. Let me know if updating doesn't help.

Yeah, it's my lazybones site hosting provider. Thanks for letting me know!

 

What about version 2? Do I get it if I buy the current version? Thanks

 

Don't know yet. MM2 is completely different, there is hardly a single line of code left from the initial version. It will be definitely a different asset, or maybe two different assets - MapMagic and MapMagic Pro (the last one will have the extended features like splines). Maybe the first one will have a free or low-price upgrade option from MM 1, but I don't like the idea of supporting two similar products.
So here is the universal advise before buying an asset - any asset, not only MapMagic - treat it at it's current state. At least you are paying for what's done. So take MM only if you like it here and now, no matter what happens with MM2 after it's release - if it will ever happen (it will - I'm just taking my time to make it good).

 

Got the vertexBuffer ERROR when using the shader: Legacy Shaders/Particles/Additive in a totally different package

 

Hi @Wright ,
I've encountered a crash on some computers, and from the output log it seems like a multi-thread related issue, here is the crash report:

What may caused this issue?

I'm using .Net 4.x equivalent, maybe this is relevant. This crash never happened when I was using .Net 2.x equivalent.

 

What about voxeland? is voxeland supported by MM2? or is there a voxeland2?

 

Fair enough. I'm unable to make a decision though because the demo and website are unavalable still.

Is there an alternative location I can download it from? It looks really interesting. I watched all the youtube videos.

 

Errr...

 

This is something related with portals. There might be a portal referencing the other (through the chain of the graph), while it is referencing the first one. This might cause a crash, but MM GUI should not let you do this, and oddly enough why it happens in .net 4 only.

MM will support the current Voxeland version. It will even have a special voxel-type nodes - or at least the one for the start - 3D perlin noise.

Strangely enough, it works fine for me. Have you tried to re-load it in browser to force it ignore cached version?

Yes, it all started like an update. But I had to re-make MapMagic completely to move further.

 

I can understand developers need more income from their assets and no subscription model in the asset store makes them find other routes. I'm up for it, just have 1 version IMO of MapMagic with all features in it (please those splines to make it really usable in real games ) and have an upgrade price for the old fellas is the fairest for everyone IMO.

 

Hi Denis and the forum!
I recently bought MapMagic, and oh man - is it good. I've been playing around with it for about a month, watched the tutorials and created some maps.
I'm working on a tool for creating maps with biomes based on a three axis system: Height, Moist and Temperature. An area with low moist and high temperature can be assigned some biome (like a desert one), making a map generator able to handle and assign up to 27 biomes based on the three input axis (which of course can be randomized within MapMagic itself).

I've created the monster of a graph shown in the pictures, but right now I have no biomes to test it out with.
Is there any repository for usercreated biomes anywhere? I've found the Badlands and the Snowy plains biomes created by Denis, but need a lot more to create a varied world.

So, have anyone created any biomes they like to share?
Jungle, Desert, Tundra, Sea, Volcanoes, Forests, Plains, Savannah, Swamp, Mountains would all be great!

Edit: Cant seem to get the pictures to work, but here are the links:

https://ibb.co/nLzdFBT
https://ibb.co/85WKWCC
https://ibb.co/FwMFH9r

 

Got the demo thanks. Stupid cached browser.

 

Thank you for pointing out the issue! I'll re-check the graph and make sure each portal is correctly connected.
But the odd thing is: when I restart the build, and try to generate the terrain again, this crash did not appear. But it can always happen on some PCs.

 

I guess you are trying to make a Whittaker diagram graph/node. As for me it's better use a custom node rather than using the graph with repeating elements. I hope custom node tutorial isn't too complicated for non-programmer, and he other stuff is a pure math.
Btw I will make this node for MM2 along with the normalized biomes node.

Haven't you noticed anything common between these PCs?

 

Hi Guys,
Found a strange issue when I use map-magic.
If I have no cells pinned and build the game - and play - then when my character drops into the world, the texture quality is S***.
However, when I have at least one cell pinned at build time - then the quality is fine.
Its like the textures are not being loaded prior to terrain generation.

Is there a setting I can use to fix this?

 

Not really, even the same PC can sometimes has this crash and sometimes not.

 

Will MapMagic support VegetationStudio Pro ?

 

Why is there a split between these tiles? I've tried to force generate all but this still happens. I am using Vegetation Studio if that helps.

 

I would be happy to pay for an upgrade (like a pro version). Especially, if there are a good number of demo scenes including different biomes and town placements. Maybe a few example scenes such as no trees below a certain level and no grass around objects as well a random placement and selection from a list of prefabs. Many assets fall short due to the lack of good and numerous example scenes. I have many different terrain products and Map Magic is the best on the asset store. The spline tools for roads and rivers would be an excellent addition. I am looking forward to MM2 and its additions.

 

Hi @Wright I am looking into purchasing map magic. My situation is I have a complete terrain, with heightmaps, splatmaps, tree placement maps, etc. can I use these with map magic and add additional things on top of my existing maps and height data ?

A similar question, if I only wanted to use map magic to generate flora and place grass, meshes, etc. however keeping my exact existing heightmap.. is this possible?

Lastly, also a similar question, if I used a different tool to modify splat data, and height data, would I still be able to use map magic to only update grass/tree generation and maintain my splat/height changes?

Cheers!

 

The problem is that different biome scenes require different biome assets. It's hell lot of work to make them all look good, and no use to make them bad. But the short-scenes like trees below some level is a good idea. Maybe it's better even use some kind of snippets to import them in a graph in a quick way or something.

This seam happens because of MapMagic chunks work independently, and each of them does not have any height or other data from the neighbor ones. So some of the generators that require neighbor pixel data (like blur or erosion) do not work well on the edges. You can mask their effect by tuning Safe Borders value at the price of reducing visual quality at the edges a bit. I think that it's the main drawback of MapMagic 1.

Unfortunately if the texture is not used in any scene Unity does not include them in build - or at least 2018.2 didn't. The terrain is showing black. It's odd that you have a low-quality textures instead. The simplest workaround is to add a tiny terrain with all the textures used assigned - or have at least one terrain pinned.

You'd better wait for MM2. Currently MapMagic cannot read existing terrain data and change some particular terrain output like grass or trees, but MM2 can.

Have not looked into it yet, but I guess so. I plan to implement it in MM2 for sure, and probably in MM.

 

Bought MapMagic today. First impression is... wow. Really powerful. Then I splurged and got CTS shader as well and now I have a question. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to make weather manager feature of CTS work with MM. The reason I got CTS was to add water effects to my terrain without using a flat water mesh (so I can have things like water pooling naturally in basins), but yeah... not having much luck so far. Has anyone managed to make it work?

Edit: Ok, looks like I totally misunderstood what the feature was on CTS. It's not a procedurally generated body of water, it's just a shiny puddle texture. I feel stupid now.

But on that topic, has anyone used River Auto Material for generating rivers and lakes on MM? Does it work?

 

@Wright Cool! When is MM2 coming out? Any ETA? My last question would be, in MM2 are you able to have custom paint layers ontop of procedural? For example if I want to paint a path?

Cheers

 

Hello, I picked up MM today. Quick question. Is there a way to make wrappable terrains? I have a 2 terrain set. I would like it to be wrappable around the X axis. (tileable, however you want to say) I can use a mask and just have water on the edge but making it wrapable would be better. Thanks.

Edit: I see now that wraping isnt supported. Another question: where is the repository for community nodes? Ive been unable to find it thanks

Is there a way to create a land mask? (Everything over a certain height)

 

Hiya, having a problem lately with my graph disappearing from my scene. Happens in the middle of an edit session, no idea what triggers it. I haven't actually been editing the graph.

Fortunately I've exported my graph and simply re-importing it works great.

2018.3f2

 

I'm realizing that when I lock a terrain chunk and then set seeds to change at runtime, the locked chunk is not morphed to fit the runtime generated chunks, with gaping holes where the heights mismatch.


I was hoping I could lock one hand crafted chunk as a fixed starting point for my game, and one chunk as the end, with the rest in between generated randomly at runtime. Is there a way to achieve that?

 

@taylank As long as you don't touch the edges it would work fine. Otherwise there are plenty of ways to stitch them in runtime (force edge align the original, or force edge align the neighbors), but you're really just going against the basic needs of runtime generation. You can't change the edges of one terrain manually and expect it to align properly with its neighbors.

 

Fair enough, but then what is the recommended technique for providing pre-designed areas/set pieces within a runtime generated environment? Stamps? Biomes? Is there a MM way of doing it?

 

I'm having a problem incorporating CTS with MM. When I add CTS the shaders are displayed properly in the editor however during runtime only the base layer texture is displayed (green grass). Here are the steps I've done to this point:

1) Create the MM terrain according to the online tutorial (the one with two islands and a 10 by 10 terrain) up to the point after the textures are added.
2) Follow the video that incorporates MM and CTS. MM then updates and the new terrain is displayed with CTS textures.
3) Play the scene and only the base layer (green grass is displayed).

I have made this work before. I was even able to incorporate Vegetation Studio, Aquas and Enviro. These are the steps I've taken:
1) Removed and reinstalled CTS.
2) Removed Enviro and Vegetation Studio from the scene.

I'm using Unity 2018.3 and the current versions of MM and CTS. I'm new to MM and CTS. I'm sure I'm missing something. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

I'm noticing a very obvious lag when world shift happens. By lag I don't mean FPS issues, which is stable, but the map disappears when the position is reset and reappears after a couple seconds. Is this expected behaviour?

 

I gotta admit, I've been able to do in 2 days what would take me 6 months. I'm still learning but this is a seriously amazing asset. 10+ stars.

 

Hello does anyone know if it's possible to filter object per texture layer? Say only add rocks with sand on them on the beach texture? I have been looking around to see if there's a node for that. There is a soil parameter for forests. Who knows... I could adapt this code to add that soil parameter to the object node?

 

There are lots of ways yes, pre-designed heightmaps? I think most people would export a raw image and then use that in your MM graph.

How does you camera track your player? Is it a child or does it follow (preferred). If it follows and has a maximum move per frame or uses interpolation, it might take it a few frames for it to get back to wherever your player is. Or something along those lines. Some camera scripts save their last position for example. I edited WorldShift.cs to make sure it moves all of my game pieces that I want it to properly, and doesn't touch those I don't want it to.

 

There's no ETA on MM2 yet. I'm taking my time to make it good.
Unfortunately I don't plan to implement the feature described. But there will spline nodes to create paths instead.

Try looking here: community generators.
You can use a curve to select height:

What were you doing when this happened? Have you got any errors in the console?

I can recommend creating the graph first, and when you're happy with the result locking the terrain and changing it the way you want - without further graph change.

It's hard to say without knowing what video were you referencing and what node setup are you using. But the way to use CTS described in the doc (https://gitlab.com/denispahunov/mapmagic/wikis/output_generators/Custom_shader#using-cts) should work fine both in editor and in playmode.

Guess no. The only lag I'm aware of is a lag on moving objects (it could take a couple of seconds if objects quantity is high), but it does not hide/remove the terrain. Can you move or rotate camera while this lag?

Yeah, that's really might be a cause of the issue.

Thanks! It's really a pleasure to hear such a warm words!

Forest's Soil input is a synonym for the Mask input in other nodes, and does exactly the same. Objects Scatter node has the mask inbput too, it's called Probability here.

 

It has an empty gameObject as a child, which is a follow target for a Cinemachine virtual camera with a transposer. I suspected interpolation issues too, but it still happens when I set x,y and z dampening values to zero on the virtual camera. I'll experiment with writing a custom camera manager and report back.

 

Ahh sorry and thank you once again.. I'm the one who asked you in email and I made you reply twice. Actually I am using version 1.9.4 which is the latest version on asset store so far.
To be complete, I have to say that I had this problem with Unity 2018.3 and starting a new project with 2018.2 solved it. I realize now that I seem to be the only one having it so as I am thinking that updating project version several times might have somehow corrupted it. I thought it was due to version compatibility problem but it might be something got messed up. I think I'll try a fresh new 2018.3 project before I annoy you again with that.

Thank you for your help Malkere, but my cell counts are all good 2, 4 and 8. I'll check with a new project and will keep you updated. Well I guess it will be worth mentioning if it was just me being a noob instead of a proper bug.

Ah thank you! I didn't check Scatter up in doc because I want my filter to take place after slide - so that the grassy stones don't end up on beach - but what you said inspired me to try it on Adjust and it seems to work as needed. The wiki says that the mask on the Adjust node affects the intensity of adjustment but it seems to be working differently. No grassy rocks are littering my sandy beaches any more thank you, I love this tool .

 

Try adding a Debug.Break(); in the WorldShift.cs after it goes off to pause and see what's going on.

 

You could actually use both, I personally like Map magic, but the streaming you have to do more procedurally. With World Streamer, Sector you can do what ever you want. ( its not hard to set up, as another user stated, I use WS for years take 15 mins to set up, new users maybe an hour. . First time I used Sector I set up in an hour.. Map Magic is great for making larger worlds. So if you cant get what you after you can use both together. Just don't use MM streaming, export out the maps. depending on your over all size of your map you may need to use smaller tiles.

 

Hi, everybody. Before you buy, I decided to find out here:
How are things with objects that can be thrown away, i.e. those objects with which you can interact?
How to implement this?

Is it possible to do so:
Generate a world, pin, and leave it to be always, but everything else generated (grass, trees, bushes, stones)? Ie will load the surface itself with a texture, and the surrounding objects on the first terrain?