TerraBrush: An Advanced Terrain Painting Tool for Unity

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15$ on the Asset Store.
Asset Store
Web Site Page

NOTE FOR UNITY 4 USERS: Version 2.0.0 onwards, I have dropped support for Unity 4. It is not available on the Asset Store for Unity 4 anymore. If you have bought TerraBrush for Unity 4, please send me an email with your invoice number, and I'll send a Unity 4 version of the latest update for you.

TerraBrush takes its inspiration from WorldPainter, a terrain creator for MineCraft. TerraBrush has different options for painting based on height, steepness and the direction of the surface normal just like Terrain Toolkit or any other procedural terrain painter, but TerraBrush gives you the flexibility to paint what you want and where you want, enabling you to be in control of the texturing of the terrain of your dreams.

With slight modifications, TerraBrush can be used as a fast realtime terrain painting solution.

Features

TerraBrush has the following three constraints for painting on the Terrain.

NOTE: The Falloff option for each constraint has a common use. A Falloff value lesser than 1 will lead to more gradual blending, and a Falloff value greater than 1 will lead to more abrupt blending.

Height Controls
There are three different options in Height Controls: Min Height, Max Height and Height Blending Distance (all in Unity Units or meters).


· Min Height is the minimum height of the terrain affected by the brush. For example, if the Min Height is 200, only the terrain portion which is above 200 meters in height is painted.

· Max Height is the maximum height of the terrain affected by the brush. For example, if the Max Height is 400, only the terrain portion which is below 400 meters in height is painted.

· Height Blending is the relative height above Max Height and below Min Height from where the blending of the textures will start, to give a smooth transition between textures.

The Height Controls are useful for creating ice caps at the top of mountains and creating sand and beaches at sea level.

Slope Controls
There are three different options in Slope Controls: Min Slope, Max Slope and Slope Blend Range (all in degrees).


· Min Slope is the minimum steepness of the terrain affected by the brush. For example, if the Min Slope is 30, only the terrain portion which is above 30 degrees in steepness is painted.

· Max Slope is the maximum steepness of the terrain affected by the brush. For example, if the Max Slope is 60, only the terrain portion which is below 60 degrees in steepness is painted.

· Slope Blend Range is the relative slope above Max Slope and below Min Slope from where the blending of the textures will start, to give a smooth transition between textures.

The Slope Controls are useful for creating cliffs on steep terrain and painting grass on flatter terrain.



Normal Controls
There are three options in Normal Controls, namely Normal Direction, Normal Blend Start and Normal Blend End.


· Normal Direction is the direction of the surface normal of the terrain points affected by the brush. Here North is the positive Z axis (South is negative) and East is the positive X axis (West is negative). Keep in mind that this is the surface normal that is the direction in which the perpendicular to the terrain point is pointing to.

· Normal Blend Start is the minimum magnitude of Normal Direction from which to start blending. For example, if Normal Direction is South and Normal Blend Start is -0.3, then only those points whose surface normal has a Z component of –(-0.3) = 0.3 (Since South -> -Z axis) or greater will be painted. A negative value signifies the opposite direction.

· Normal Blend End is the maximum magnitude of Normal Direction till where to end blending. For example, if Normal Direction is South and Normal Blend End is 0.7, then only those points whose surface normal has a Z component of -0.7 (Since South -> -Z axis) or lesser will be painted. A negative value signifies the opposite direction.

The value will blend linearly or exponentially (depending on the falloff value) between Normal Blend Start and End.

The Normal Controls are useful for showing snow accumulating on the North-facing slopes of the mountains (based on wind), as shown in the demo and screenshots.

Screenshots











Demo

Changelog

Version 1.0.0 (10 March 2015):

• Initial Release.

Version 1.0.1 (15 July 2015):

• Unity 5 version added with projector bugfix.

Version 2.0.0 (22 December 2015):

Major Update (for Unity 5 only, Unity 4 users refer above)​

• TerraBrush now uses a native painting method which allows terrains with Splatmap resolutions up to 1024 to be painted easily
• UI overhaul with better error handling
• Blending options for all three constraints (Height, Slope and Normal) for smooth transitions (see screenshots)
• Various bug fixes and code cleanup

Version 2.0.1 (5 Jan 2016):

• Updated obsolete documentation
• Component menu bugfix

Version 2.1.0 (1 Mar 2016):

• TerraBrush now supports One Click Paint, or painting the whole terrain with one click
• Custom, efficient Undo-Redo system allows you to roll back if you made a mistake
• Brush painting optimizations, no lag while painting resolutions up to 1024 even with all controls enabled
• Clear terrain button to clear the terrain without having to go to Terrain Settings
• Automatically assigns the splatmap of the terrain on Unity 5.0.2 and up

Version 2.1.1 (4 Mar 2017):

• Fix exceptions when painting was enabled with invalid terrain data

Version 2.1.2 (9 Mar 2017):

• Code reorganization
  
• UI Improvements

Please post any comments/suggestions and if you have any problems/questions please don't hesitate to reply to this thread or send me an email.

 

This is not bad, good job. But it'd be better to add additional useful abilities. For example, when painting the terrain in green (or with a grass texture), if the tool define the painted area as "grass", it'll be easier to do other stuffs. like the sound of a wheel when rotating on the area - the sound clearly differ from the wheel rotating on a hard surface like asphalt.

 

@D4N005H That can easily be done. Get the contact point of the wheel (or other collider), convert it to texture coordinates (by using RaycastHit.texCoords) and whichever SplatPrototype (e.g. your grass texture) has the maximum influence or value is the touched texture. You will have to understand the internals of how the Unity Terrain System's splatmap works, once you've done that it can easily be done. You can check out my Asset and see the code if you want to see an example of how Unity's splatmap works

 

That's a great offer, but did we miss it?

Edit: I meant this:

 

What is the difference between your tool and Terrain Toolkit, apart from the normals feature?

 

If you ever made this for meshes... I would want it. nice tool. added to watchlist.

 

@OnePxl It is not on anymore, sorry! The Asset Store reviewers changed the price, and I couldn't check because of internet connection problems unfortunately! I have edited the post.

@angel_m You can actually paint the textures on your own, rather than letting Terrain Toolkit and such other Assets do everything on their own. In Terrain Toolkit you have to define a cliff texture and a few other textures and specify the height curve, steepness and so on. Then press a button and everything is done by the extension itself. With TerraBrush you can paint your terrain yourself. For example, if you decide that in this area I want a different cliff texture, you can do that with TerraBrush and not with Terrain Toolkit or any other such extension.

 

Does this Asset work in Unity 5?

The Asset Store currently displays a warning that it may not work properly in Unity 5.

 

@odin60 There is one issue with the projector not projecting the visualization brush paint area properly, but otherwise it is working. I am working on the issue and rolling out an update.

 

I have had my eye on this tool for a while now(some months) and as soon as I can spare the dime I will be buying it...being able to paint by hand based on slope is insanely important to me...one question though, does it use the default terrain shader or another shader...I like the default due to the number of splats I can use on it....not being limited to 3-4 etc.. anyway please get that update ready I have already added it to my watch list....I keep expecting to see a review for it, but no one seems to care enough to write one.

 

@nowherebrain I'm really sorry for the late response. Seems like Unity Forum's email notifications have given up on me
TerraBrush uses the default terrain shader (or rather the one which is selected under the terrain's settings). It is just like the Unity Terrain Engine's texturing tool, it just modifies the splatmap of the terrain. As for the update, looks like a Unity bug in which the projector isn't projecting the texture correctly. I'll try to look for a workaround, and I'll roll out the update as soon as I can. It's good to know that there is someone (that I know of) who wants this tool for exactly what it is meant to do

 

thanks for the update, I am still keeping my eye on it and have set aside some funds. I understand about the 5.x release having a few bugs here and there, I've noticed myself the terrain painting has a few "quirks"....anyway again, ty for the update.

 

Sorry for the late update, but the Unity 5.X projector fix has been pushed to the Asset Store.

 

TerraBrush v2 now live on Asset Store!
BIG UPDATE, changelog:

• TerraBrush now uses a native painting method which allows terrains with Splatmap resolutions up to 1024 to be painted easily, now almost as fast as Unity's Terrain Engine!
  
• Blending options for all three constraints (Height, Slope and Normal) for smooth transitions (see screenshots)
• UI overhaul with better error handling
• Various bug fixes and code cleanup

 

Hi

bought it and using Unity 5.1.4
but cant find the GameObject Evil Systems menu to use the tool.
Also in the Script i see Component/Terrain
menu item but cant find Terrain in the Component Menu

 

I didn't notice that the Documentation hasn't been updated! I'll upload the update right away. Meanwhile, the Component Menu should work. After installing the package in a new project in Unity 5.0.1, the menu item shows. This is how it should look:


In case you can't see the menu item, try restarting Unity. If that still doesn't work, you can manually create a new GameObject and add the TerraBrush script to it, till the new update is accepted by the Asset Store, because I think I found the problem.

EDIT: Version 2.0.1 which went live on Jan 4, 2016 fixed this issue.

 

Hello...

This asset is totally broken. can you take a look at it.
Tested in Unity 5.3.23, 5.3.3
attaching Terra brush to a empty gameobject and:

UnityEditor.DockArea:OnGUI()UnityEditor.InspectorWindow.DrawEditor (UnityEditor.Editor editor, Int32 editorIndex, Boolean rebuildOptimizedGUIBlock, System.Boolean& showImportedObjectBarNext, UnityEngine.Rect& importedObjectBarRect) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/Inspector/InspectorWindow.cs:1231)TerraBrushEditor.OnInspectorGUI () (at Assets/TerraBrush/Scripts/Editor/TerraBrushEditor.cs:73)TerraBrushEditor.LoadTextures () (at Assets/TerraBrush/Scripts/Editor/TerraBrushEditor.cs:173)NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

 

Hi,

This is happening because of an unchecked null variable in the Editor code. Please use the "Component/Terrain/TerraBrush/Add For Active Terrain" menu item to add a TerraBrush object for the active terrain in the scene. If you want to use TerraBrush for some other terrain, simply assign that terrain to the "Target Terrain" field under the Settings tab. If you can't see the menu item, let me know. This error will be fixed in version 2.1.1, after version 2.1.0 (already submitted with awesome new features) is live.

Please feel free to leave a review on the Asset Store after you have used TerraBrush for sometime to tell me and others about the Asset and the support!

 

it's not in the menu as you've said. I've tried everyway possible. I've even tried to make the demo TerraBrush object into a prefab and use it in my scene but the same thing happens.

is there any chance you could send me the updated version. I'm desperate at the moment. I purchased another tool after your failed and that failed me too. So I've run out of options.

 

I've made a private conversation, please reply on that conversation for further correspondence.

EDIT: Issue resolved and fixed in v2.1.0 which was uploaded to the Asset Store on 24 Feb 2016. Should be approved by the Asset Store a couple of days into March.

EDIT EDIT: Version 2.1.0 went live on 1 Mar 2016.

 

Hey thanks for the update. it's awesome..

I Love this tool

 

TerraBrush v2.1 live on Asset Store.
Changelog:

• TerraBrush now supports One Click Paint, or painting the whole terrain with one click
  
• Custom, efficient Undo-Redo system allows you to roll back if you made a mistake
  
• Brush painting optimizations, no lag while painting resolutions up to 1024 even with all controls enabled
  
• Clear terrain button to clear the terrain without having to go to Terrain Settings
• Automatically assigns the splatmap of the terrain on Unity 5.0.2 and up

Watch the demo video for more details on the new features. There are a few extra features and differences in the Asset compared to the demo video for now.

 

Can this brush be used to paint grass or just textures?

 

This tool currently supports painting textures only on the terrain. It should be possible to include support for detail maps (grass, flowers, shrubs and other foliage and terrain objects), but the method used will be slow and unintuitive. It should be easy to add the required functionality, but since Unity does not expose the detail density maps, it will not be possible to optimize the painting.

 

TerraBrush v2.1.1 released.

Changelog:

• Fix exceptions when painting was enabled with invalid terrain data

 

TerraBrush v2.1.2 released.

Changelog:

• Code reorganization
  
• UI Improvements

TerraBrush v3 is coming soon with big changes and more flexibility, so stay tuned!

 

What features will v3 have?
Can you add a blur and sharpen "brush"? I often want to paint a path with a hard brush and later blur the edges.
I think that should be pretty easy to add.

Also is there some beta/ test version we can try?

 

v3 is going to be completely reworked, with much more flexibility and modularity. Previous versions of TerraBrush were always capable of running in-game, but v3 is going to include run-time support out of the box, and should be released along with a web demo. The UI may take some time though. TerraBrush v3 is modular to the extent that it should be pretty easy to extend TerraBrush yourself paint something like detail maps (haven't tried this out yet though, don't assume that it will be easy specifically for detail maps If it works out, it might be included in the release), add different painting constraints/modes (like blur, for instance), and so on. Theoretically you can even use it for painting terrains through code at run-time, like say painting a path based on waypoints.

A blur brush, while feasible, has a few "quirks" that I've thought of. Blurring a specific area of the terrain as part of one click paint is really easy to do, but using a blur brush may be slightly more complicated. I haven't implemented it yet though, so once I get the base system up and running, I can try and test it out.

v3 hasn't even reached a usable stage yet, but I might think of adding a separate beta program (if that is possible and easy enough for me to manage) once I get it to a usability state similar to v2. Stay tuned for any more developments.

 

Will it be possible to have the same texture multiple times in the prototypes window?
I want to draw a texture in the height range 50-55 and then again at 70-72.
Currently that's not possible...

The built in unity tool already does it with the heightmap, is blurring the textures more difficult?
Sorry for the question, I don't know how splat maps work at all.

There's no need to support a "stamp-shape" or anything like that, if thats what you mean.

 

Yes, it will be possible.

Come to think of it, the smooth height option does in fact blur the heightmap!

The "quirk" I envisioned is exactly what happens with the smooth height tool: The longer you hold, the more blurry/smooth the heightmap/splatmap gets, up to the point where each pixel is the same. The implementation isn't difficult, it is this "problem" which is difficult to get past. I think it should be alright though. Supporting different brush shapes shouldn't be a problem.

 

I see. But I don't think that's a problem at all (but that's just my opinion).
As long as you can set the size and strength you can easily work with it.

If it really bothers you, there's always the possiblity of only applying one "click" when the cursor was moved enough (or the position of where the cursor ray hits the terrain).
That's how other professional tools solve this (like photoshop, where you can set a min-distance for brushes).

But it's great news that this will be added, and using multiple textures as well.

Is there an ETA for a first version? Or even beta maybe?
Can't wait to try it

The current version works pretty well for me so far, with those new features it will be indeed a great asset to have.

 

That's a really nice idea, I might go ahead and implement that, but it won't be that great for the actual painting. I might test this out later.

It's far from complete, but I expect the Alpha version to be complete in a couple of weeks with the same functionality that TerraBrush v2 has. From there on I'll have to work on the run-time UI, which might take more time. I may release a separate package or just share it with those who have already bought the asset that uses the v3 alpha (and consequently beta) branch. v3 should allow me (or someone else) to add a MegaSplat plugin or similar, but that is all post release. I might even leave the one-click paint feature out of the alpha/beta branches and directly put it in the v3 release candidate.

I appreciate your feedback, please leave a review if you can!

 

TerraBrush v2.1.3 released.

Changelog:

• Fix projector not appearing for terrains taller than 1000 units or terrains moved on Y axis

 

Another idea/suggestion that came to my mind:
Will v3 have a feature that allows us to paint a random texture to a given "filter"?

For example: At the moment (in v2) we can set "Sand at Height 15-20".
But I'd like to let the addon paint "Sand_Dry at Height 15-20, then also paint Sand_Wet at Height 15-20 in a random pattern". (Obviously one would need to be able to control the "size"/frequency of the noise that is used to determine when to paint which texture)

That would easily break any tiling / repeating effect effects.

 

That's also a useful yet doable idea for v3. It should make it to the alpha, but first and foremost I'm trying to get everything up and running. I may also add such extra features as "addon" packs instead of building them directly into v3 to avoid bloat, but this one has a pretty good chance of making it to the final release of the main package.

 

TerraBrush v3 update:

It's been quite some time, so some of you may be wondering if the project is abandoned. Don't worry, it is not.

V3 is at a pretty good stage right now. There were (and probably still are) kinks in the module system arising due to the Unity serialization system not supporting generics and interfaces, which I have had to work around by implementing a custom serialization system for providers (i.e. modules). That, in turn, has brought up another (but thankfully more manageable) problem of Unity Objects not being supported by the .NET serializer which I am currently working on. Once that's done, I will start working on the modules themselves and the Editor interface. The modularity supports for the editor system are already in place; they just have to be put together.

I am busy with other work right now (like college applications), so while development will not come to a standstill, it will be slow. I will try to post as many updates as frequently as I can. In the meanwhile, if you encounter any bugs or issues with TerraBrush v2, please do not hesitate to contact me!

 

Cant wait for v3

 

Any progress on this? :S

 

TerraBrush v3 update:

Support for Provider (plugin) dependencies is fully implemented. A few things are yet to be worked on, but all in all it's shaping out pretty well. I had to work off on a tangent to get a few kinks in the Provider editor system removed, but it should work without problems now. I will give read access to the TerraBrush GitHub repo for people willing to test v3 as soon as it is actually usable (I still have to implement the actual painting system for the brush painter client). I'm relying on you guys to help me fully test this thing out I will post instructions on how to obtain access once it is ready.

 

TerraBrush v3 update:

The brush painting system is finally complete, so v3 is finally usable!

The code is a bit messy, the serialization system is primitive, docs are non-existent, height, slope, and normal functionality is missing and the branch still contains old v2 code, but the bravehearts interested in trying it out can contact me or send me a private message with their TerraBrush purchase invoice number and I will give them read access to the GitHub repo. Just don't forget to regularly submit feedback!

 

For those who may not know this yet, v3 is a highly modular and fully reworked implementation of TerraBrush. The TerraBrush object relies on a system of providers, the building blocks of TerraBrush v3. There are four types of providers (names subject to change): Terrain providers, splatmap providers, paint opacity providers, and texture strength providers.

A terrain provider informs the TerraBrush object of the type of terrain being painted on. This could be a Unity Terrain Engine terrain, or simply a mesh serving as a terrain.

A splatmap provider connects the TerraBrush object with the splatmap of the terrain that is being painted on. This could be a texture based splatmap system (like Unity Terrain Engine's), or (theoretically) MegaSplat splatmaps, or even the detail map of a terrain.

A paint opacity provider provides the opacity (eg. via a brush) with which all textures will be painted at specific points on the terrain.

A texture strength provider provides the strength of a specific texture (or layer) to be painted on at a specific point of the terrain. These can be mixed and matched to create infinite permutations.

This high level of modularity allows v3 to be extended by anyone. You can create your own providers for your own specific uses. You could create, for instance, a texture strength provider that only paints the given texture near a road system denoted by waypoints on the terrain. The possibilities are endless.

 

TerraBrush v3 update:

v3 now includes quite a few additional features that v2 doesn't have, as listed below:

v3 now includes a layer system, which allows you to use multiple texture strength providers (which basically control the strength of the texture to be painted at a point), so you can have multiple height strength controls, for instance, with different controls for a given texture. This helps in cases where you would want to paint the same texture between multiple height bands, like say 0-200 and 200-400 without having to change the controls and repaint for each height band.

Also included is support for undo-redo in the UI (undo-redo support for painting coming soon), so you don't have to rely on your memory to go back to settings you have used previously. Even the Unity Terrain Engine does not support UI-level undo!

If you're interested in getting access to the early access builds, please contact me with your TerraBrush invoice details.

Shout out to @dadude123 for being an immense help in testing v3!