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

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mmm I'm on 2018.3.1f1 and with latest CTS and MM and it works fine.

 

Seems to be working fine for me too. Actually I've never seen a case of terrain not showing at all - except when using HDRP, but in this case any terrain is not working, not only the MM one.
Aren't you using HD render pipeline? If not, is there any way to reproduce this issue from a clear scene?

Hmm, seems that welding to locked terrains really isn't working. I could reproduce and fix this issue (quick fix). Thanks for reporting it!
However keep in mind that the locked tiles are out of the scope of MM generator, and are not affected by MapMagic in any way. This fix will weld generated tiles to the locked ones, but it will look good only when the gaps are small.

I'm going to submit the new version soon, it will have these issues fixed:
- further floating point export/import fix for French locale,
- preview shader fix when MM object has an offset (mentioned by ANUBISKONG)
- locked weld mentioned above

 

@Wright having some problems with a medium-complexity graph on 2018.3.2f1 where the editor gets slower and slower and then locks up - once I had to reboot my machine (Mac) - any known issues or debug strategies? There are some incomplete nodes in the graph such as an objects node that is missing its prefabs (I'm rebuilding a different scene)

 

Hi, @Wright.
Thanks for fix bugs above, It's helpfull.
I find that some node like Voronoi shows a total red preview, I don't know if it is a bug.
Preview still turns pink when I do clear.

 

Any errors in the console? If it's related with one graph only - could you please check it in a clear project? And if it's still lags - email it to me.

This might happen if you have "Instant Update" enabled in CTS node. Twice clearing should do the trick.

Usually Voronoi has the level too low to be noticeable in preview. It's odd that it's related with one node only - the preview should not depend on the type of the node. Will look into it.

 

Does MM2 integrate with microsplat yet? (also, I sent you my gitlab acct)

 

Not yet, but it will surely be integrated.

 

@Wright - regarding CTS integration. I am having the same issue as a few other people here. Here are exact steps to reproduce issue:

1. Fresh project on latest stable (2018.3.3f1).
2. Install latest CTS.
3. Install latest MapMagic.
4. Window > CTS > Add CTS to all terrains.
5. Window > CTS > Create and apply profile.
6. Edit new CTS profile, bake textures.
7. Remove CTS from terrain.
8. Open MM editor and replace texture output with CTS. Reference previously created profile, assign inputs/outputs. Fix issues with buttons as displayed.
9. CTS is now working.
10. Run game in editor, then stop.
11. Save unity scene/project.
12. CTS is no longer working.

Force generate all fixes the problem, but only temporarily. The problem presents again once the game is run and then saved, or any time the game is built. As it stands the CTS integration is not usable, but hopefully the above will help narrow in on a fix.

Thanks again for the great asset, it is working great other than the above.

 

I have a very specific problem after upgrading to the latest version of MapMagic (1.9.5) from an earlier version: the frame rate drops to less than 0.1 FPS: each frame takes more than 14 seconds to render. This seems to be due to intense swapping going on: more than 300MB is written to the disk each second. In the previous version, nothing like this happened.

Also, 1.9.5 (and possibly earlier versions as well) doesn't seem to respect the Assign Material setting being unchecked: when saving the project, MapMagic switches out the material as well, resulting in the terrain no longer rendering the MicroSplat material (which the Custom Material setting uses).

The procedure followed to upgrade was exactly the following:

1. The master branch was fully functional and rendering was fast.
2. A new branch was created.
3. MapMagic 1.9.5 was loaded.
4. The branch was saved.
5. Unity was restarted, using the new branch.
6. Running the application now becomes practically impossible, as the frame rate drops to become completely unusable.

Reverting to the previous version in the master branch restores functionality and playability. Switching back to the new branch brings the frame rate down again. You can go back and forth between the two branches with consistent results; thus there's something strange about 1.9.5.

Any idea what might have caused this? As you can see from the above, the only difference is the MapMagic version.

Unity 2018.3.3f1, Mac OS X under Metal.

 

Are you using some particular scene, or any should go? Just tried this with the demo scene and a new scene with MegaSplat, seems to be working smoothly. Can you reproduce it without using MicroSplat? (I have not looked into it to support it kinda 'officially')

This is the one I could reproduce and fix it for (hopefully) all use cases. As well as a pink blink on generate start. Will submit a fix once I'll find out what is the first issue.

 

Hi, long time user , big fan, novice user. Quick question, how can i change the textures under forests. I output the forest Trees to Blob and it looks great on preview. However i cannot connect the Blob output to Textures. Just shows red and wont link. Please advise! (in fact the blob output wont link to anything other than a curve or portal)

 

If the link turns red then you are trying to connect a dependency loop. The blob node might be referencing (through the chain of nodes) the generator you want to output blob results.

 

Ok ... I need some help with a problem.

I'm trying to place a blob around my trees that will represent a forest floor. I want to use that to spawn things like fallen twigs, logs, ferns and mushrooms. Should be easy, right?

This is my graph: https://imgur.com/a/wo9iD7f (sorry for the link ... now sure why the picture dodad wouldn't work)

The problem is that Map Magic won't let me connect the out portal for the forest floor to the forest floor texture. Now I know why .... because there's a round-a-bout loop where the soil for my forests is the grass texture, so it creates weird kind of paradox.

So I know why this is happening. How do I make it work? I tried using a blend of forest floor and grass, but that didn't fix it. Apart from that, I'm not sure how else to do it.

Any ideas?

 

Well, the best solution is to distinguish the areas where the trees should grow and the grass texture from the beginning. It will require re-creating all the graph, though. So as a workaround you could use Normalize node along with the Textures:

Not a quite neat solution since Normalize nearly duplicating Textures functionality, but should work.

 

Does this support runtime terrain generation?

I would like to procedurally generate random terrain and cant tell from the store page if this is purely for edit time or can be used for runtime terrain generation too?

If so, how does the workflow work? I notice there are nodes, can you construct a graph from code at runtime?

 

MapMagic can generate terrain in runtime - actually, it is what it was made for. But note that generating terrain does not mean that it it generates the node graph, which determines the terrain creation algorithms. The algorithms remain the same, while the terrain is unique (however belongs to the same type/biome) depending on the chunk position or seed value. If you are familiar with the Substance Designer it is the closes analogue.

 

Brilliant, and yes we are power users of designer and any workflow similar to that is perfect.

This sounds like exactly what I was starting to make:

A procedural level generator, where I can create a "formula" for its generation style, using a node based graph.

You beat me to it!

Or rather I should say I am a couple years too late to the party

Anyway, we are about to purchase

Thanks!

edit: @Wright purchased

 

It didn't work .... BUT it did point me into the direction of a solution that did work. https://imgur.com/a/dMSqxGy

It's not elegant, but it works ... and it is extensible, meaning that I can keep adding tree type to the mixed-forest jungle and have a leafy forest floor that can then spawn other objects like fallen logs, ferns and so on.

 

Great tool so far. What i miss is road or path generator, over the multiple terrains.
Is there something coming, or already usable?

 

@Wright do you know if there are any issues currently with rigid bodies and Map Magic's Shift World functionality? I'm using Realistic Car Controller, which I've been able to use just fine in the past with a previous instance of world shifting (way back in version 5 of Unity), but now am seeing the world shift away while leaving the car in place so that it falls through the scene. It looks like the world shifting is behaving correctly, but it's no longer bringing the vehicle with it. There are no issues with Map Magic or RCC if I disable world shifting, however.

EDIT: I see I was using a 3rd party floating origin solution with Map Magic on my old project so I haven't actually tested the built in solution with rigid bodies.

 

I'm going to make a road and spline tool for MM2, but it's still rather raw to demonstrate. BTW speaking of splines - take a look at this guy that does wonders for MapMagic! I think we all should come and ask if there is any chance he could share some of his nodes after his project release!

What solution it was? I think it will be more handy to integrate MM with already existing solution for further versions.

 

Would be great, and then it would be the first asset that can do this. For now i use a spline controller, but i need to do this for every terrain.
I ve tried easy roads, but for a 10x10 terrain the workflow is to complicated.
BTW your tutorial video is great, i ve learned much in a short time.

 

Perfect job for the guy, but it doesn't seem he'll share that. I don't want to be pushy but we hear for these spline generators since the release of mapmagic, and they are always very early to show etc. You sure understand with out splines we cannot use mapmagic to a final product and we all keep building our games with our mind in piece that splines will come out soon, and I don't speak for some demo ones, but for the real thing.

Now there is a new idea on the table that MM 2 might be paid even for old users, if you go back to the release of MM 1, splines are always coming. Again I don't want to sound very pushy or anything but I believe most people would like you to focus on this more than anything else because for now we build demos and we can't build a full game world without them.

sorry if I sound mad or anything, this is not my case, I'm just speaking real and want to finally after like 2 years, build my game world.

 

Why only use splines for it? What about to blend a map with the path/roads over the terrain?

 

To use MM to the full potential with all the randomly generated parts of it, it needs native support of splines to meet your goals, at least this is how I have it my mind if you spawn your houses etc. with different seeds etc. the splines should keep up. If I wanted static terrains and spawned objects there wouldn't be much of a reason to use MM, every other asset creates a good looking terrain and populates it, MM's power is runtime generation and this is how splines should work.

At this point after 2+ years working with MM, I have ended up to use it for 1) Terrain Creation (with the runtime capabilities which rock) 2) some very little spawns (houses mainly, to keep up with flatten etc. areas), and that's it, you can't really use MM for heavy vegetation because you ll up having performance issues, also you need a CTS or RTP like tool along with it for the extra detail/capabilities. I'm ok with all these, I understand the power of MM is on generating terrains on runtime and a very fun and different way to do so, but not having splines along with it makes it a WIP only tool in my eyes and would never put so heavy time in it if splines wouldn't be "on the way" and I don't care for the money I spent at all, at this point is either we get the splines working like the supposed to, or throw away all this time spent and find another way to make my game world.

What bothers me more is that I understand Denis at some point, he needs to make extra money and this is where most big asset developers heading, making a better version of their product and charge extra money for upgrade, but in the case of MM, MM1 is being updated for months without any extra capabilities and all the dev time spent for MM2 which probably won't be a free update after all (which was stated it would at some point) is time we could have new features in MM1 including the long-awaited splines. But whatever, its fine to pay an upgrade price, but saying it's still the splines are raw and go ask this twitter user for the generators, is bugging me.

 

Well that guy does say he will release his custom modules on the asset store once he has finished with his project, so lets hope he keeps to that and the price isn't too high.

 

Actually it was the free code from one of the Unity wikis (http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php/Floating_Origin) that you cite in your Worldshifter class. The wiki code still works. I tested it just now, no issues shifting the world with a moving vehicle. The one difference I see is that nothing in the WorldShifter class deals specifically with rigid bodies. I don't see anything like the physics sleepThreshold step that the wiki code has as well. Maybe that's the issue?

 

Have you had a look at Path Painter?

 

I own PathPainter, but all changes are gone when you rePin your Terrain.
Lock or not makes no difference, if you rePin Terrain.
I think it have to be a part of MM!

 

dlevel, well, thanks for expressing of what's been boiling over inside you. I'll bear in mind that you need that feature and need it here and now. Sorry to hear that sharing my plans on splines on MM release mislead you.

Seems to be so. I think that MM should call it on event or something instead built-in solution (that's quite similar). At least, shifting world is not what MM about.

Yes, when you un-pin the terrain it is removed from scene along with it's changed terrain data. Re-pinning it just generates it from scratch.
Not really sure that Adam will let me distribute it along with MM

 

Thanks for your "serious" reply Denis. "here and now" is not what I said, we are waiting for splines for over 2 years and if making fun of my post is what you do with your customers (one of the first ones, for both voxeland and MM) then I'm really sorry. The first time you said that you had splines in mind and posted some photos of the algorithm was on Jan 18 2016, that sounds to me that we get splines if we buy MM, at some point.

 

The last thing I was thinking of is joking. I'm absolutely serious. Don't really know what did you expect me to do, so I've got what you were saying, and I'll bear that in mind that you need the splines feature.

 

I need this, too. And i think tons of other user also need it.

 

Perhaps you should hire them, as if I am reading this thread right it seems you have been developing this for 2 years yet this person has a more advanced solution than you?

EDIT: We also need splines, and in fact would not have bought this if we realised it did not feature splines. I saw the post from 2016 and assumed in all that time it would have been added hence why we purchased. A little annoyed it is still not in, wondering why its taken 2+ years?

 

Yes, I have to admit that I've been busy with the other features like biomes, RTP/CTS/MegaSplat integration, voxels support for Voxeland, etc. (BTW they all were released for free as you know). But to implement splines properly some of the core features have to be changed (and as ArctiumStudio say their generators work on pinned terrains only). So it's not an add-on, it's the completely new version of MapMagic. And it still has splines planned, but, sorry, no ETA on that. I'm taking my time to make it real good.

 

Thanks for this reply, looking forward to it.

 

Is Vegetation Studio Pro integration in the works?

 

Once I'm absolutely sure I'm not going to do anymore tweaking of the landscape, that's when I lock it. No more touching it after that (... as hard as that it to do sometimes).

I agree that a Path Painter type plugin for MM would be awesome.

On a completely different note, I'm having a problem trying to spawn a variety of different rocks in my object spawner node. I've used the same setup as the tutorial with a 'Blend' to join the 'Slide' and 'Propagate' then connect to to an 'Adjust' and 'Split' as shown in the first part of the forest tutorial (before introducing the Forest node). It sadly ... doesn't work.

The 'Adjust' with the 'Split' just make the rocks massive and the 'Split' without the 'Adjust' on random loses the original rock just like a 'Propagate' without connection to the 'Slide'. (Sorry, that I don't have a diagram or if I have the names of the nodes wrong. I'm away from my project right now and I'm doing my best to describe it).

Is there a workaround to this or is it just a bug?

One thing I thought would be a checkbox in 'Propagate' to keep the original object. That would remove the need to 'Blend' the original 'Slide' and 'Propagate'. I don't know if that's what's causing the problem though.

 

I feel your pain. I've been waiting for 2+ years for multi-tile terrain in Gaia. That's why I'm using MM now (.... that and the node-based procedural stuff is cool).

 

I have 10x10 terrains for 100 Km², i want have 100 Terrains in Editor

To get help, i have learned to do always a youTube video with my problem. It is easier for other people to see where the problem is. OBS is good for that.
For me the Spawner works

 

Andreas12345, Wright,
I introduce this video as a procedural roadway method applicable to MM.
I hope this will help you.

 

How do I remove MM from my project? I would prefer to use Erosion Brush.

 

Just remove the MapMagic folder. BTW all the generated pinned terrains will remain unchanged.

Try disabling terrains. I mean not the terrain game objects (MM will not let you do this), but Terrain components. Just tested and it seems to be working fine.

It's hard to say what is the problem without seeing your graph. Take a screen of your nodes and the result you get once you can.

 

I ve bought a spline controller additional to MM, so i can build HighwayRoads step by step.
This is not the best option, but works so far for me. (I like to have 100 to 200 Km or more long tracks
I hope it take not so long to dev. the wishes we have to draw pathes.

Instead of concentrate to support other assets, you should concentrate of this, i think much more decide to MM then, because you have a unique state then
. A really good option could be to draw the pathes with a own splatmap, that we can blend over the terrain.
I think texture pathes are a good start?
But at the end, it is you asset and we can only give our feedback.

 

@Wright Not sure if it slid by, but here it is again;

Is Vegetation Studio Pro integration in the works?
Its a vital plugin for many.

 

I am looking forward to splines being added too, without it I won't be able to have a playable runtime generated world.

 

Is there any way to easily change terrain size without losing the output of your graph? It seems like all of the different graph properties must be relative to the terrain size as when I change the size it also changes the look of the terrain. I've tried making my terrain 4x as large and then adjusted all noise size to be 1/4 and maybe voroni cell count 1/4 as well? Is there a standard formula for each generator?

 

Hi, i'm the developer of the spline tools and i will publish them in the asset store. I can't tell the exact date yet, but i guess it will happen within the next 1-2 months.

That's not quite what i said. The terrains don't have to be pinned, but the size of the world (eg. 10x10 chunks) has to be defined in the graph. Actually the world can also be bigger or infinite, but only the defined area will be used for spline generation.

But you are right, i had to extend/add some core features to make this whole thing work.

 

The sooner you can get this out the better, even in an unfinished state. Theres lots of people here that would pay for it and it seems the author of MM will never release splines at this rate

 

Does that mean there is a way to actually define the size of the world to something like 10 x 10 chunks? It's a feature I have requested before to be able to limit the size of the world as I don't need to generate the neighbouring chunks in the ocean around the continent / Island.