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New terrain runtime tools

Discussion in 'World Building' started by pointcache, Oct 10, 2018.

  1. pointcache

    pointcache

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    Can i work with API on runtime? I.e. make a gui for brushes and use same terrain editing functionality for runtime editor?
     
    pointcache, Oct 10, 2018
    #1

  2. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    I think you would have to handle multi terrain editing yourself but the shaders you can download and edit.

    The heightmap is now a rendertexture you can edit with a shader pass or compute shader.

    I did a small test and added rotate functionality to the paint and stamp brushes. seems easy to customize.
     
    LennartJohansen, Oct 10, 2018
    #2

  3. ChrisTchou

    ChrisTchou

    Unity Technologies

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    Yes, a good part of the new API is available at runtime, for the purpose of doing live editing. Specifically the PaintContext seamless multi-terrain editing class is available at runtime. Note that editing terrain can be a fairly expensive operation, perf wise, because it has to update physics/AI/visibility, so take that into consideration.
     
    ChrisTchou, Oct 10, 2018
    #3
    pointcache likes this.

  4. ChrisTchou

    ChrisTchou

    Unity Technologies

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    Also FYI -- if you are using the new Terrain API -- an update to the API is coming out in beta 6, so any custom tools you write in beta 5 or before may need to be fixed up.
     
    ChrisTchou, Oct 10, 2018
    #4
    DougRichardson likes this.

  5. LennartJohansen

    LennartJohansen

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    If you are still doing API changes... NativeArray access to the heightmap copy the terrain has on the CPU would be great. The same way you can access a Texture2D raw data with a NativeArray.

    I want to sample the terrain heights in Jobs and now I need to get it with the GetHeights API and that makes GC and is slow. Reading this data direct would make everything much faster.

    Lennart
     
    LennartJohansen, Oct 10, 2018
    #5
    hippocoder likes this.

  6. pointcache

    pointcache

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    This is awesome. Performance is not a concern to me since its for map editor, so its still not realtime. Just has to be in game.
     
    pointcache, Oct 11, 2018
    #6

  7. ChrisTchou

    ChrisTchou

    Unity Technologies

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    Apr 26, 2017
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    I'll add this to the list.
     
    ChrisTchou, Oct 11, 2018
    #7
    PiterQ70, transat, LennartJohansen and 1 other person like this.