Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

@eagle555

Greetings, I've updated to the latest version of TC2 and find that my images for my mask nodes are no longer working. They were working perfectly in the previous version of TC2 and placing objects exactly where the mask was, now objects are being placed everywhere and are not adhering to where the mask is. The mask node with the image fills in completely white when generated. How soon can this be fixed? And if not soon, is there a way to go back to a previous version of TC2?

 

Check the RTP forum - there is an issue with newer Unity versions.

 

gibmation, thnaks I've performed it some hours ago))
About first part of my question: RawImage folder near .jpeg preview it's decision))

Another issue torments me. When I choose splatmap node with terrain angle or noise or something else it's apply for all terrain part like a tile. There is no button "multiterrain" how in TC1...))

And I don't see auto select for cutted tile textures)) i have several hundreds of colormaps (for each tile)...so how you advice to apply them...by hands?))

 

that's I mean about splatmap tiling

Spoiler

If someone know how use colormaps with rtp explain please. I've shared video how it works in my project in this post
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/r...v3-on-assetstore.206516/page-114#post-2940529

 

So is that mean that DX9 system would never can run TC2 ?

 

No, but that won't be a problem for most as you usually just ship the final terrain without TC2. If you use TC2 to generate the terrain at runtime, you can't support DX9 platforms though, true.

 

The problem is that my laptop which i use to dev won't be able to use TC2 as well.
Solved that problem thought by using computer in my university's lab just to generate the terrain and continue developing it in my laptop. Im saving my money to buy new middle-high end computer anyway.

 

Hi @eagle555 Since the update you cannot seem to delete splats if RTP is in your project even if it is not in you scene. It just says edit splatts in RTP. Unfortunately you cannot delete splatts in RTP either. I select texture and try to replace with none and it ignores request. Any idea if I am missing something or is it a bug?

I will post in RTP forum too incase someone has fixed it.

 

How can I use the terrain tools like Raise/Lower Terrain with this Plugin? My changes get overwritten every time when I for example enable/disable a Node in the height section.

 

What is the status of creating terrains from a WC export?

Johan

 

That's not possible when you still want TC2 to generate afterwards. You'd have to disable that output, but you won't be able to generate it again without overwriting your changes.

I'll announce a tool in the next few days (maybe even today) which allows you to paint on TC2 nodes, allowing you to incoporate manual painting into you procedural generation process. So you could just add you paint layer ontop of the procedural content, or even use it to paint whole biomes by setting it as a mask
I'll be sure to post it in this thread once it's ready!

 

This sounds awesome!!!

Meanwhile, I looke dup the Troubleshoot section and found that my issue is also covered here:

* You can export heightmaps/splatmaps/trees and grass from the current state of the terrain. This can be done by choosing an output button and enabling the ‘Export’ button in the top of the TerrainComposer window. Then you can import this again in the first layer, so you can use other layers to generate on top of it. For heightmaps you need to enable height output, then activate the export button and there you can export the heightmaps. Then you add a heightmap layer, put it at the top with the ‘<‘ button. And set filter input to ‘Raw Heightmap’ and load your heightmap there. For splatmaps you need to enable splat output, then activate the export button and there you can export your splatmaps. Then you add a layer, put it at the top with the ‘<‘ button. And set filter input to image and in settings enable ‘Splatmap’.

But I do not know what "choosing an output button and enabling the ‘Export’ button in the top of the TerrainComposer window" actually means

Anyway if you add support that allows us to manipualte the terrain with standard terrain tools AND be able to use the generate process i'll build you a shrine

 

May be a bit badly formulated. You just enable the output you want to export, select it's top node (labeled for example 'Height Output') and choose an export option in the inspector. Looks something like this for the height output:



Not standard terrain tools, better
It paints at a much higher resolution, works better, has more features and can be used in many more ways
Meanwhile, here are some screenshots of the tool:

Simple terrain height painting setup with auto-splatmapping and additional detail


Biome painting setup with Grasslands and Desert Mountains, assigning the canvas to both height and splat masks

Both use TC2 default resources and presets only
Also, needless to say, GUI is still WIP...

 

Alright, there're a couple of things that I want to do which I am unsure about.

Right now my trees are laid out in rows like a farm field. I would like to clump them in little groups, with space in between them. I imagine this might be done by having a bunch of little circles as a "filter" node or whatever. However, I would prefer not to have manually selected filter for that. I want to use noise.

Can anyone tell me of a noise filter that will do that for me?

Additionally, when I try to use a noise filter, I do get a little bit of variation in tree position (though not enough). However, the size of the trees also varies moderately when I do this. I want the trees to stay the same size, but I just want their position to be in clumps.

Can anyone tell me how that is done?

 

You could create a noise mask (billow seems good for this) and scale it way up (to 100) so it is basically black/white, adjusting the vertical offset to control the amount and size of groups. This give clumps of trees, although that does not guarantee even distribution.
Now, by default that will result in really large trees because the mask has a really high amplitude. But you want even scaling either way, so you will have to select the tree group and uncheck 'Link Scale To Mask' (when there's only one tree, no tree group is showing up so you can't change that, I think it's a bug). You will have to set the min/max scale to get some size variation now.
This is how it looks like for me:

But to get really advanced, especially regarding the position in relation to each other, you'll have to wait for the next update Nathaniel is working on which includes the advanced positioning system (see the Roadmap)

Edit: Found you can't use other masks (like angle) effectively when scaling the original mask very high. You could use a step curve for the grouping instead, works just as well

 

Thanks for the workaround.

And thanks for letting me know about the upcoming system. Wasn't aware.

 

Hang on, I just took a look at the roadmap for 2.3 and it says multi-terrain streaming. Will that be the same thing as World Streamer?

 

It will generate the terrain on the fly, so it has a few limitations. It is completely procedural, without too much manual control (as much as you have right now with masks) and you will have the processing overhead and need for DX11 at runtime.
WorldStreamer instead streams existing, possibly manually edited terrains and will be best suited for most people. This on the fly generating/streaming on the other hand is invaluable if you have procedural levels or an infinite world

 

Right now I'm using a TC-generated level, but it's generated in the editor, not at runtime. However, I have another planned project which will be procedurally generated terrain at runtime (not infinite, simply picking a seed and generating a world to play on), so in that case will the TC solution (when it arrives) be superior?

 

When the level is relatively small, you won't need a streaming solution at all and TC2 as it is right now is enough. If you figure you need streaming though, WorldStreamer won't help you as it works only with terrains generated in the editor, and only the TC2 built-in streaming will work for you, yes

 

Well I'm already having issues, I'm just barely maintaining 60 FPS with TC, UniStorm (a skybox/weather asset), and Suimono (a water asset). TC is generating 25 terrains, with around 9000 trees on them. And the biggest thing in the profiler is culling of terrain.

So I guess I'll just wait for TC's implementation. Thanks for the info.

 

Hey guys!


Have you ever wanted more control over your procedurally generated terrains in TC2? Then TC2 Node Painter is for you!


What is TC2 Node Painter?

TC2 Node Painter allows you to paint TC2 nodes directly in the editor, greatly improving your terrain creation workflow, both procedual and painted.
It helps procedural terrain creators wanting more control over their terrain aswell as terrain painters laying out there terrain manually by offering more options on what to paint. Using this tool you can paint everything, from simple heights and splats over stone fields and forests to whole biomes with little setup required thanks to TC2's simple node editor interface.


How TC2 Node Painter will improve your procedural terrain generation workflow:

• No need to switch between image editor and TC2 anymore
• You don't have to rely on noise to get your positioning right
• Extend your normal brush capabilities to conditional painting
• Save/Load any image and edit it with an advanced toolset right inside Unity

Prefer manual painting over procedural generation? This is why TC2 Node Painter is still perfect for you:

• You can paint your terrains as you used to, but add additional conditions to your strokes
• You can not only paint height, splats and objects, but anything from stone fields over forests to whole biomes
• Works with multiple terrains out-of-the-box

Simple terrain height painting setup with auto-splatmapping and additional detail


Check TC2 Node Painter out here!

 

This week I'm going to try with Luthien to get it to work as I don't have a Mac myself. I hope we will get it to work. Unity 5.6 beta is needed for it.

Yes you can directly assign this to ReliefTerrain.cs script.

Nathaniel

 

Thanks for telling yes this was an issue with the new update. I fixed that objects are floating on top of the terrain by sampling height directly from Unity terrain, but first the new heights need to be set to the terrain which I didn't do. And yes indeed your solution would work. If you import the update it should work fine again.
https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/t...red-terrain-tool.151365/page-109#post-2949268

You can export the texture if you click on the main Color output node:

Streaming terrains and objects I don't have implemented yet. Streaming terrains is almost working. What I'm currently working on for this week is integrating RTP to be able to create biomes like I show in the trailer, for colormaps this is already possible. In the next version you will be able to automatically assign the global normal-map to RTP and have it higher res then the terrain heightmap. After that I will make a tutorial video for it and example Scene.

Ah this happens if your file/folders are set to 'Read Only', TC2 tries to create a new file for global TC2 settings. You need to remove the read only or duplicate TC_GlobalSettings.asset manually and rename it to TC_GlobalSettingsDefault.

As Seneral says not yet, it's a bit tricky to implement.

Standard Unity terrain should run on mobile, the fps depends on the resolutions though. Also need to be very careful with grass and trees, can only spawn a little and use very low resolution for grass. Also you need to use the legacy terrain shader in terrain script settings, is faster. TC1 can convert Unity terrains to meshes, is for free included with TC2, but issue with meshes is there's no grass and tree system for it.

If you use speedtrees that already quite a lot, also grass amount influences performance a lot. Maybe you can show the resolution settings, I can give some tips...

Nathaniel

 

Awesome! I knew Seneral was working on this and great it's almost ready for release! For anybody that ever asked me the question:

If I manually use the terrain brushes after generating a terrain, TC overwrites my changes.
This is exactly the tool you need to solve this and it offers much more...As you can paint an image for any node, this is super powerful as you can just paint your own biomes, etc. So basically you can create paint 'sessions' and separate it from another paint session, and you will be able to position, rotate and scale etc for each paint session which will be in one node. Possibilities are endless...

Can't wait to create tutorial videos for it

Nathaniel

 

It should be possible to make use a 8k raw image file. Yes the script makes a 'preview' image of the raw file in low resolution, this preview image you need to drag and drop on a node, not the raw file image. These are just preview images and the raw file is used in TC2 not the preview image.

Can you show a screenshot of white textures issue you have?

We solved this issue on skype, the alpha channel needed to be disabled in the image node. In the new update the alpha channel is disabled on default when creating a new image node.

https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/t...red-terrain-tool.151365/page-109#post-2948843

TC2 creates a colormap for each terrain tile and assigns it for each ReliefTerrain script on each terrain tile. Best would be to combine all colormap image tile into 1 image, can use 8k with Unity.

When RTP is in the project TC2 detects it and you can let TC2 automatically assign the colormap in RTP. It's in the TerrainArea GameObject.

Yes TC2 won't work with DX9 Unity Editor, because TC2 uses compute shaders that run on the GPU which require DX11. The first graphics DX11 card was released 8 years ago, now we are already at DX12. Like Seneral says still you can deploy the made terrain with TC2 to any DX9 platform as TC2 itself won't be needed and can only be used in the Unity Editor.

Nathaniel

 

Hello everyone,

I have a new update with a few fixes and one improvement:

Improvement is that alpha channel is automatically disabled on new image node, as when images don't use an alpha channel it will always give a white result.

Fixes:

• Tree node inspector gave null reference error and didn't draw entire GUI when this happened.
• Using less then 5 splat textures gave error.
• Using collision node on objects to get terrain height didn't work correctly anymore, which made example scene not give correct results.
• Enabled splat texture tab again for RTP.

Nathaniel

 

Ah yes shouldn't have disabled it as can't delete them in RTP. You could still do it in Unity terrains script, but this doesn't work well on multi terrain tiles. I fixed it in the update in the post above.

As Seneral says, you would have to use his TC2 node painter for it.

First I will finish RTP integration and make a few tutorial videos, after that I will finish the implementation for creating terrains from WC export.

That is documentation for TC1, Seneral's node paint tool is perfect for this. In the previous TC2 update I added exporting of heightmap, colormap, splatmap and normal map. It works like Seneral explains...

Yes need to use a noise for this, billow is good. Up-scaling the node is not the optimal solution, I made the curves for this . You can quickly adjust it with the min/max slider, with moving the left slider part to the right, black becomes more black. With moving the right slider part to the left, white becomes more white. You can also change the curve for other then linear control.

With octaves can choice from smooth and simple shape, to more detailed and advanced shape. With seed can randomize it.



Nathaniel

 

No it doesn't work on Mac yet with Unity5.6 beta, and I have this in the description of the Asset Store page. If you want a refund send an email to support@terraincomposer.com with your TC2 invoice id.​

No problem at all; I'm fully prepared to wait. It's just that the time frame wasn't too clear.

 

Hey, so I bought world composer and terrain composer to use for a project, it works pretty great, the issues I am having is that world composer after selecting a area on the world map to get the heightmap it creates a crappy looking HM, and I am also trying to figure out how world composer works with terrain composer such as picking and creating an area from the world and then use terrain composer for texturing and etc. How does these to talk? also heres a photo of the heightmap that world composer creates when selecting an area of the world.

 

Maybe there is way which will allow assign separated colormaps instead one? I'm working with big terrains and and I'm going to create yet more bigger)) If I will use even 512k texture for one tile of 16x16 terrain it would be better than one 8k texture) There was no problem with this in TC1)) Maybe I can change that moment in scripts if you tell me where this code))

 

Howdy, I'm working with World Streamer and I need a way to slice up a 100km x 100km map into 250m x 250m tiles. I also need the ability to paint/mold terrain over the splits as if the terrain was still in one piece(seam stitching). I'm not interested in the auto terrain functionality or any of that jazz. Will this tool suit my needs? Thanks for your time.

 

Hello Nathaniel

I still don't have any feedback from you concerning my issue. Is it in queue or maybe you just didn't notice it?

 

[SOLVED]
Im starting to loose my mind a bit so wondering if someone in in the know could help. Ive tried the website, the manual and the videos and none seem to explain this...

All I am trying to do is place a trees on my multi-terrain 2 x 2 using an "image map".

I am having "no-luck" whatsoever, what is the workflow to do this?

Do have 1 image for "whole terrain area" or 4 images (1 for each terrain)?

image mode... terrain or multi-terrain?

Auto scale or not auto scale?

I just cant seem to get it to work...

Thanks

 

However, I have ran into another issue which is the terrain settings at runtime are not what i am setting in the editor?

I have 4 terrains in TC and 1 terrain not. I have set all the terrains settings in TC (runtime and editor) and in unity terrain settings as following:

Tree Billboarding start: 1
Max Mesh Tree: 10

Yet at runtime, all trees are moving (setpass 1000+ and 1.3m tris) and the settings revert back to "default" or some other settings? If at runtime I change the settings in TC nothing happens, if i change them in unity terrian settings then they work, but obviously when i come back out of play mode they go back once again to some "other" settings?

What will be causing this?

 

Gibbonuk, don't know of this problem but I had some difference with editor and runtime settings. I've set up 512 colormap resolution in terrain settings, but exported 1024 from colormap node. So, colormaps auto assigned in editor but dropped after run)) I think there will not bad to show some notification about it))

Also size and resolution settings not always apply for each terrain when choosing "terrain area". It was for x0_y0 terrain. When I chose other part my settings was applyed)) Maybe I've done something wrong.. this notice for reference))

Unfortunately I have colormap seams on terrain edges. It happens even I replace colormaps generated in TC2 on World Machine colormaps

 

WorldComposer creates a 16 bit raw grey scale heightmap, it's the same format TC2 uses for stamps. So a heightmap from WC can directly be used in TC2, one requirement is that the heightmap needs to be square. I explain it here:
http://www.terraincomposer.com/terraincomposer2-documentation/#stamps

I want to implement this next week.

To read multiple colormaps as input, I need to create a multi image node for it, basically the same that would be required for adding a WC area. I want to implement this next week.

For an existing terrain TC2 doesn't have this included. What you can do is export the terrain heightmap and use it in TC2 as a stamp and you would quickly by able to reconstruct it. As for painting Senerals TC2 node painter would be needed for it.

Think is best we try on skype to resolve it, my account is Nathaniel.Doldersum

At the moment there's not a multi image node, so one image node would be the best that is spread over the entire terrain. You can use 8k max resolution for it.

Did you use the runtime settings? It attaches a script to the terrains that set the settings on runtime.

Nathaniel

 

You need to export the colormap for it to keep when clicking play mode, I'm thinking of making this automatic. The edges you can probably fix by putting image import settings to clamp after exporting it.

Nathaniel

 

eagle555, thank you. I've tried assign colormaps by hands without last update and all became good)
Furthermore, i think for really big terrains (for avoid manual work) I can generate and assign colormaps from node with 2.22b and after that reimport TC2 2.21)) Then I will be able save colormaps from world machine and they will replace rtp colortiles automatically without any bugs)). Have not tried it do this, but seems it can help solve problems quickly))

 

This is looking great. Very nice.

 

Hey, I'm back to doing terrain stuff so upgraded to released version of TC2 with great excitement.

One request for @eagle555: Could you ensure compatibility with "MAD Compile Time Optimizer " asset by adding the following lines to TC.cs (line 215):

Code (CSharp):

1. --- TC.cs    2017-02-19 14:29:15.698320400 +0000
2. +++ TC.mcto.cs    2017-02-19 14:20:22.042494600 +0000
3. @@ -215,6 +215,9 @@
4.              {
5.                  installPath = UnityEditor.AssetDatabase.GetAssetPath(UnityEditor.MonoScript.FromMonoBehaviour(TC_Settings.instance));
6.                  installPath = installPath.Replace("/Scripts/Settings/TC_Settings.cs", "");
7. +                if (null == UnityEditor.AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath(TC.installPath + "/GUI/Buttons/Button_Minus.psd", typeof(Texture))) {
8. +                    TC.installPath = "Assets/TerrainComposer2";
9. +                }
10.              }
11.              #endif
12.          }
13.  

(Related: the same code in TD.cs line 91 is no longer referenced.)

Thx, Rupert.

 

@eagle555 I'm building with 2.22b on Unity 5.60b7 (Android target) and I keep seeing this multiple errors about:

Code (CSharp):

1. Platform does not support compute shaders
2. UnityEngine.ComputeShader:Dispatch(Int32, Int32, Int32, Int32)
3. TerrainComposer2.TC_Compute:RunNodeCompute(TC_GroupBehaviour, TC_Node, Single, ComputeBuffer, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Compute.cs:756)
4. TerrainComposer2.TC_NodeGroup:ComputeValue(Single) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Nodes/TC_NodeGroup.cs:110)
5. TerrainComposer2.TC_Layer:ComputeHeight(ComputeBuffer&, ComputeBuffer&, Single, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Nodes/TC_Layer.cs:31)
6. TerrainComposer2.TC_LayerGroupResult:ComputeSingle(Single, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Nodes/TC_LayerGroupResult.cs:45)
7. TerrainComposer2.TC_LayerGroup:ComputeSingle(ComputeBuffer&, Single, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Nodes/TC_LayerGroup.cs:27)
8. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:ComputeHeight() (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:835)
9. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:Compute(Int32) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:184)
10. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:GenerateOutput(TCUnityTerrain, Int32, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:357)
11. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:GenerateHeight(TCUnityTerrain, Boolean, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:375)

Also I have to turn off OpenGL ES 3.0 emulation after the build to get the height generation working. In Unity 5.5.0p4 I can leave OpenGL ES 3.0 emulation on.

P.S. I tried my project on Unity 5.5.1p4 and I'm getting the same error.
And I'm also getting a RenderTexture not Created! warning making editing nodes very difficult without visual feedback.

Code (CSharp):

1. RenderTexture not Created!
2. UnityEngine.Debug:Log(Object)
3. TerrainComposer2.TC_Compute:InitRenderTexture(RenderTexture&, String, Int32, RenderTextureFormat, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Compute.cs:1398)
4. TerrainComposer2.TC_Compute:RunTerrainTex(ComputeBuffer, RenderTexture&, Int32, Boolean) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Compute.cs:1169)
5. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:ComputeHeight() (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:849)
6. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:Compute(Int32) (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:184)
7. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:RunGenerateStack() (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:177)
8. TerrainComposer2.TC_Generate:MyUpdate() (at Assets/TerrainComposer2/Scripts/Generate/TC_Generate.cs:137)
9. UnityEditor.EditorApplication:Internal_CallUpdateFunctions()

 

Actually I take it back about emulation working on 5.5.0p4

I see from the website about the requirements for Android

• Works on Android build mode in the Unity Editor. For it to work need to disable Graphics Emulation in Unity Menu -> Edit -> Graphics Emulation -> No Emulation.

Even with No Emulation I'm still getting the RenderTexture errors which make adjusting nodes next to impossible.

So I'll have to maintain two separate projects? One for building my terrains and one for the Android build? Hopefully there's a fix coming soon cause that's extremely inconvenient.

 

Hello Everyone,

Here is the new TerrainComposer 2.3 update:

Features:
* Four new complete examples.
* RTPv3 integration, auto assign normal map to RTP on export.
* Create or assign parent for spawned objects.
* Input fields for world and local curves for nodes, for more precision.
* Tree and object placement counter for each tree and object node, layer and layerGroup.
* New default curve button for linear and bell curves.

Improvements:
* Exported normal map is set to normal map in image import settings.
* Link scale to mask default setting for trees and objects select able in settings.
* Auto generation isn't executed on play/stop, recompiling and Unity startup.
* When node is invalid eye indicator turns red.
* Random button for global seed in TC2 window.
* Animated documentation button when opening TC2 window for first time.

Fixes:
* Tree node inspector gave null reference error and didn't draw entire GUI when this happened.
* Using less then 5 splat textures gave error.
* Using collision node on objects to get terrain height didn't work correctly anymore, which made example scene not give correct results.
* Enabled splat texture tab again for RTP.

Now I'm going to make 2 tutorial video's. One for 'examples and presets' and one for collision meshes, e.g. how to flatten terrain for placed objects. Then I will work on a demo tutorial for TC2 + RTP, will try to create something similar to my TC2 trailer, with desert, canyon and forest mountain terrain.

I'm also working on the advanced distance system, making good progress with it. Another feature that will be coming soon is the multi image node, so will be able to use image tiles (WorldComposer integration, images from World Machine, etc).




Me and _Luthien_ tested TC2 on her Mac with Unity5.6beta, and the empty TC2 window is actually just a GUI offset issue, the gui is there but out of screen bounds. It seems to work pretty well only I would have to make some adjustments, e.g. stamp render texture format is not supported. I hope to get it completely working soon.

Nathaniel

 

Very excited to hear the macOS issue wasn't anything major. Reallllly looking forward to that =)

 

You mean these lines? As compiler doesn't except it.

]--- TC.cs 2017-02-19 14:29:15.698320400 +0000
+++ TC.mcto.cs 2017-02-19 14:20:22.042494600 +0000
@@ -215,6 +215,9 @@

Nathaniel

 

Hi, i just downloaded TC2 and tried to follow tutorial, but the green "new layer" button is missing and that kinda ruins it all. Im on Unity 5.5.0f3 / 64bit / Windows 7 any idea what might have caused this ?

(There are no compile errors)

 

It's a Unity import bug with prefabs. I explain the issue and solution here:
http://www.terraincomposer.com/terraincomposer2-documentation/#trouble-shooting

Nathaniel

 

Hey everyone,

Just uploaded the examples tutorial video:

Edit: And another tutorial for presets:

Nathaniel