Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

Very nice are those RTP shaders used for terrain, snow especially?

 

Just bought this, but where are the Island and Examples Tutorial Package? The 'Getting Started' tells you to DL this, but there's no information on where to find it?
(and it's not in the package)

 

You can exactly create the terrain you want with mask. You get blockyness because the mask image needs to be 16 bit for higher resolution, as an image is 8 bit and will give blockery results. So if you have photoshop, you need to be in image mode 16 bit grey scale, and save as 16 bit raw file grey scale. Then in a filter or subfilter input you have to choose raw heightmap...

I also do skype screenshares for direct support my account is Nathaniel.Doldersum

Nathaniel

 

You can download it inside TerrainComposer in the start window. TC Menu -> Help -> Start Window. Then in the window download tutorial package.

The procedural examples you can load with TC Menu -> File -> Open -> Examples -> ...

Nathaniel

 

That's a good question. Yes RTPv3 is used for the rendering. There's no snow added with RTP. The terrain is extracted with WorldComposer and is Mount Rainier in Washington in the USA. The snow is part of the satellite images, and these are used as colormaps in RTP.

Nathaniel

 

I think it has to do with the terrain resolution you have setup in TerrainComposer....TC Terrain List -> Resolutions...Make sure you choose the same total as your heightmap.

I can help you with a skype screenshare .

 

Yeah. I did that. Used Photoshop, made a 16-bit heightmap followed your tutorial and it still looks like someone carved out a wall with a chisel. No worries as I can use the Unity tools to smooth it out.

I simply wanted to point out that there's a lot of hoop jumping to modify things directly with Terrain Composer. Masks and such are needed and there aren't any tools for simply "painting" on the terrain to get it exactly the way you want it. It has to be done with modifying the heightmap in Photoshop, then importing it back in which is a lot of steps just to smooth things out to make a coastline. Good luck with that, too, since I had a heightmap imported that didn't look anything like it did when I used the Unity tool. Not sure why, but there it is.

I won't lie, I'm a little disappointed in this tool, but I paid for it so I'm trying to learn to use it. However, it's not very flexible at least for things you want to look a very specific way. If it's possible to do these things, then perhaps helping people understand would be the first place to start.

I'm on a Mac and the Mac version of Skype doesn't have screen sharing capability. Tried it the other day with someone and it wouldn't work.

 

Has anyone tried this with Marmoset Skyshop?
Just wondering how compatible it is.

 

TerrainComposer works with standard Unity terrain. So it's compatible with any additional Unity terrain shader. However I recommend using RTPv3 for best results:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/206516-Relief-Terrain-Pack-(RTP)-v3-on-AssetStore

IBL is added in RTPv3.1 and will be released soon. Skyshop terrian shader looks good from far away, but can't be compared with RTP up close. RTP beats any terrain rendering engine in my opinion...

Nathaniel

 

Cool, I'll check that out. Thanks.

 

Well it just a matter of some settings, if you read the TerrainComposer reviews, it's all 5 star, so we just need to do a screenshare and I'm confident we can get what you want working. I've done many screenshare's with Mac users. It only works if you don't use the video at the same time. So if you add me now we can do a screenshare .

Nathaniel

 

Here's something Peter and me did in 24 hours.



Have fun and it's 900 square km. There's an eastern egg in there, if you are the first to find it and prove it with a screenshot, you can win all the Assets that were used for making this demo. I have to admit that it's almost impossible to find though...

It shows how fast you can make something with TerrainComposer and WorldComposer and with prober terrain rendering with RTPv3 and tree rendering from Advanced Foliage Shader you can get spectaculair results in no time!

Demo thread and download

 

Is the manual in the process of being re-written? So far, every single step has been documented incorrectly or not at all, and of course it shouldn't be necessary to ask for instructions for how to use a 'getting started'. I thought it best to discuss it here first before leaving a review.

Here's just the first few steps a new user can find:

• No info on getting the demos (thanks for the solution above)

• " Unity Menu -> Terrain -> TerrainComposer"
Actually, it's Window->Terrain Composer

• "You can assign splat textures in Terrain Foldout -> Data -> Splat Textures."
There is no 'Data' subgroup, and all the other missing ones in other categories have presumably been replaced with the Button Bar?
I'm sure this is obvious to people who learned an earlier version, but to a new user it's a bit WTF??

As I said, virtually every step is like this, and yes, I'll figure it out, but it's a little unfair to have to invest unnecessary hours because of out-of-date docs.

The videos are also not correct for the current version.

I recommend you make a simple walkthrough, documenting every step (without having to search through the manual while 'getting started') that is correct for the current version. New users can use the manual (when fixed) for greater detail, but a simple overview is more important in the beginning.

Also, getting lots of Null Reference Errors when I open the Island Demo Scene:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
TerrainComposer.set_paths () (at Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/TerrainComposer.js:13693)
TerrainComposer.OnFocus () (at Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/TerrainComposer.js:274)

 

Hello Steve,

Thanks for the comments, I'm working on it .

• No info on getting the demos (thanks for the solution above)
The start window should be open automatically when first opening the TerrainComposer window. There's all the documentation and information to get started.

" Unity Menu -> Terrain -> TerrainComposer"
As it might seem there's a big difference in the current version in the layout, it is only grouped better, it all works the same. As for the TerrainComposer startup menu tab, I recently had to change it because Unity doesn't allow anything in the 'Terrain Tab' anymore, since they deleted it since Unity 4.2.x

• "You can assign splat textures in Terrain Foldout -> Data -> Splat Textures."
Later I added tabs instead of foldouts. This is no big difference, but only a better layout, you can get the old view by going to TC Menu -> View -> Terrain Tabs.

Do to work I put into TerrainComposer, the many free updates, and the amount of videos I made, I cannot update each video with each new version, I hope you understand, we are talking about 30.000 lines of code....New documentation and videos is all planed for TC2, which update is for free.

There's embedded tutorial video's where you can click on, also here:
www.terraincomposer.com/tutorials

I'm working on a beginner introduction examples terrain window with a simple selection interface, where you can generate and alternate complete procedural terrains like mountains, islands, canyons. Where heightmap/splatmap/trees/grass and rocks are all generated with only 1 click. With a few clicks you can randomize and adjust the whole terrain.



This update will be released in a few day and also the updated documentation .

I also help people get familiar with TerrainComposer if they need help with it with skype screenshares.

As for the error it is not serious and basically a too early draw error, that happen on instanciating. I will look into it...

Nathaniel

 

Hi, Mightily impressed,

I emailed you ,maybe this is a beter place to get an answer?

Can this Terrain Composer run on a basic license of Unity3D?

Does it suffer for lack of any extra function?

regards.

 

Unity pro is not needed, you can use all features with the unity indie license!

 

Hi,

I have been a user of TC and WC from the very beginning and I will agree that the learning curve is a bit steep BUT … the support given by Nathaniel is phenomenal!!!!
I also am on a Mac and can confirm that the Skype screenshare does work (but as Nathaniel stated) you cannot do video/webcam at the same time as screenshare.

I have used Skype many times in the past when I had any issues or questions. Nathaniel is very responsive and supportive. I am sure that after 1 or 2 Skype calls, you will be VERY satisfied with the results

 

Many thanks becoming for your response,

Do I need to buy anything else like world composer or can I use it as is?

 

You can use TC as it is to create your own terrain

OR

You can use WC to get real world terrain into your project

It really depends on what you want to do

 

You are welcome
You can us TC as it is... though my personal recommendations for terrain stuff are: RTPv3 for getting the best possible look(and its many other features), AFS for foliage/ trees, EasyRoads for... yeah, roads

WC is also very handy, it will give you realworld terrains and satelite images, not only useful for realworld terrains but also for fantasy stuff and as reference! It can be seen as an addon for TC but it also works standalone.

So TC standalone is incredibly powerful, the first time you open it you may be overwhelmed by all the possibilities but once you know the basic things you will never ever do terrains without it, using some of its features or all. With the additional optional Assets i mentioned, you'll have everything you could ever need for AAA+ terrains and there is nothing only remotely close to these in terms of quality/workflow. Oh, and all of them are perfectly compatible

Hope that helps you chosing the best tools
Peter

 

Quite interested, where's the video gone?

 

In the asset description, there is a line that says, "You can create low detail with high performance terrain for mobile platforms."

Is there a demo showing mobile-friendly terrain produced by this asset? Thank you

 

That's a good question. I have not used it on mobile yet, but I have spoken with many users that use TerrainComposer for mobile. TerrainComposer uses standard Unity terrain, and the terrain is suited for medium and high range mobile devices.

Nathaniel

 

What video do you mean?

Nathaniel

 

Hi,

I just purchased TC from the Asset Store and wanted to go through the tutorial. In the Getting Started guide it says:

"You need to download and import the Island and Examples Tutorial Package"

…but it does not say where to download these from.

Can you please point me in the right direction Nathaniel?


thanks

Nalin

 

Super Great Deal,

Been waiting for the sale, broke open the piggy bank. Got it from the Asset Store. Nice Christmas Gift.
Can't wait to dive into the package.

Question:

1. I would like to place furniture in a house. Do you have a link to the Tut Vid, couldn't find it.
2. Does the furniture placement work in the runtime also?
3. Where is the source for the Runtime API.

Cheers and keep up the Fantastic Work. This Asset really is Awesome.

 

Hello,

Thank you very much for the purchase. I'm updating the documentation at the moment as I made things easier. You can automatically download this within TC in the Start Window -> Download Tutorial Package. (TC Menu -> Help -> Start Window).

Nathaniel

 

Thank you for the purchase. I don't have a tutorial video of that, yes TC works in runtime. The source is included in the package, but the documentation for it you can download at my site:
http://www.terraincomposer.com/runtime/

TC can do multi level placement, e.g. placing random houses, then place furniture inside the houses, e.g. on the table place plates, on the plates place food, etc. So you can make layer levels within object layers, the overview gets clustered though. That's why I was planning on making this overview better with TC2 with the node view, etc and then do a video for this.

Nathaniel

 

Thanks Nathaniel.

I am trying to go through the tutorial but got lost @1:42 in this video where you do a "fit all"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWSAkKlxzOc

The video is a bit blurry and it seems the UI has changed a bit since this was recorded.

I eventually found <Fit All> in the submenu for Terrain 1 (after I generated 9 terrains), but when I shift-click all my 9 terrains turn green in the inspector, and they do not auto arrange in the scene - all staying above each other.

What am I doing wrong? [EDIT] it turned out it did auto arrange, but there was no visual indicator in the scene i.e. before = 1 white square, after = 9 white squares looking like 1 - hah!

BTW it might be an idea for "…All" functions to be visually global in scope if the are to apply functionality across all Terrains. At the moment having it hidden makes it a bit confusing. The other suggestion for any new tutorials might be just to focus on 1 terrain in the first instance, and then build up

HTH

N

 

@puzzlekings -
Just a thought, but this is the easiest way I have found to create terrains
1.) Create an empty GameObject and call it "Terrains"
2.) Drag that GameObject into the Scene Parent in the inspector
3.) Move slider to select how many Terrains you want ands click "Create Terrains" button
As you can see, it created the 16 tiles and kept them neatly in the Terrains GameObject you created



Another fun thing I like to do (because I am lazy), is go to TearrainComposer|File|Open and go into the Examples Folder

Play around with the Procedural stuff
You can always go to the layers and adjust the offset on the perlin and choose Randomize to get different effects

 

Hello PuzzleKing,

Actually TerrainComposer gives an indication after clicking a <....> button. You will get a color effect on the Fit All button. The color turns brighter and then fade to normal again after applying. So then you know it did something...

Yes if you are just getting to know TerrainComposer it's best to start with 1 terrain and do low resolutions.

Best Regards,
Nathaniel

 

Thanks for the reply Nathanial.

Let me say, I am very impressed with the coding and functionality of Terrain Composer. It is only the docs that I was criticizing.

I agree you can't keep re-writing the docs for every version, but I think you DO have to re-write a simple walkthrough for each new version, especially when the interface, and some names have changed so much. A 5 minute basic guide to a simple textured procedural terrain, with every step demonstrated.

You must have noticed that in this forum and in reviews, there is a lot of praise, but the only negative comments are about the docs or ease of use. Of course it's natural to invest time in learning software, but not in how to guess how the manual has changed, and guessing what it probably means.
I look forward to using it, but for now, I can't afford the hours, but thanks for the upcoming update

 

Hello Steve,

Yes you are right. I took all input I got from my users and worked that into TerrainComposer2, which has an interface that is very easy to use. The nodes work in a very special way, something that hasn't been done before.
http://www.terraincomposer.com/upcoming-features/

I want to finish it as soon as possible but got delayed a lot, because I worked on WorldComposer. I will get everything up to date again with the new update. That will be my last one, then it will be time to finish and release TC2...

Nathaniel

 

Hello Everyone,

Thank you very much for purchasing and using my software. I will be back after Christmas...

Merry Christmas!!



Nathaniel

 

Merry Christmas Nathaniel, Peter and Tom
Yes, I do agree with the comments here. You may be a very good programmer and have created very powerful software and the results are looking fantastic but you are certainly not a teacher. I have been ripping my hair out trying to make head or tales of your tutorial videos and docs, that are totally inconsistent not legible and start not even at the beginning and you tend to fly through stuff as if we should all already know what it is your talking about. Even there it would be impossible to learn from the videos unless you looked in the scattered docs. And in the doc you could not learn unless you looked into the scattered videos. The main Manuel reminds me of my Microwave Manual. It explains through the whole manual what fantastic features it has without giving me real world examples or step by step instructions. Step-by-step means starting also from the beginning and working towards a complete project then showing the features off as you go. I have really been battling to try and understand this and I am getting to the point where it is costing me too much time to get even the simplest things worked out. Frustrating is that you have the feeling, that it is actually quite simple if it would just be explained properly. Just once would be good. I think if done right, this entire software could be understood within 1 Hour.
You need to provide everyone with one complete project that has everything you use to describe it, the same version of software for the tutorial. Just keep 1 version of the software consistent with 1 good tutorial. Once understood, then people can click un upgrade to new version and then see updated tutorials just explaining newer features since the main tutorial. And start at the beginning and work through to a finished project.
I often want to give up trying to understand this but then again I know what it will bring me when I do understand it. If I don’t go crazy and don’t give up I will make some tutorials of the software just as soon as I understand it myself.
Keep up the good work Nathaniel, Peter and Tom. You will get there in the end, but don’t forget the people who actually want to buy and use your software. The quicker people understand, the quicker they are prepared to by extras and updates and recommend great software.
All the best for Christmas and the new year .
Chris

• eagleeyez –
  

 

Hello Eagleeyez,

I agree with you that it got a bit clustered. As it is like photoshop, but what is the step by step video of photoshop?

However I got a great idea and I will fix it and make you guys happy, promise!

Merry Christmas and happy new year!

Best Regards,
Nahaniel

 

Thanks Nathaniel, I look forward to that.
I have been sitting here for hours now but keep going round in circles. I can’t even get the satellite map to map to 9 tiles. I think I will wait now until I can work through this with a better tutorial. I am sure everything will be better then. Can I download the older version what you used in the tutorial, or should I rather wait?

 

So you're trying to load satellite images. I'm not sure if you use RTP, but then you have to do a totally different approach. And I found a better method for it and actually removed the old method from TC. You can shift click <Colormap> in splat textures. Then click 'Select' Button and assign the textures there (if you not have RTP). This illustrates indeed your point...I need to get the videos and documentation up to date.

If you try to adhieve something specific, then I think it's better if we do a skype screenshare after Christmas, my account is Nathaniel.Doldersum. I don't recommend experimenting hours, you can just quickly send me an email, and if there I will write immediately back, with instructions how to do something. This will save you a lot of time.

There's so many things you can do with TC, making tutorials for everything would take ages. There's many people with many different opinions, I made the from skratch tutorials, but then I got comments the video's where too long and people wanted short ones, then others want long ones. It's a lot of work to satisfy everyone.

The system needs to be understood. There's a getting started gab that some people can get trough while some have issues with it. TC2 has that gab filled for sure. I got so many feature requests over time, that I put more focus on the updated features, while in the main time was working on the new TC2 but then people started to ask for RealWorld data, etc. So I made WorldComposer in between which took the most of my time.

I was thinking about a step by step explaining how Unity terrian works for the newby's, how TerrainComposer works with the Unity terrain and how filters, subfilters and curves exactly work. Then doing a complete project from heightmap to object placement. I have examples projects included in the next update, complete projects that create the whole deal with 1 click. So you can take a quick look around in the layers, and also change the basic settings in the example window. I think that will help a lot.

TC's system and way of working needs to be understood, then you can use this system for everything inside TC, which is what makes TC so fast in creating terrains.

Nathaniel

 

Ok Nathaniel,
I am getting the hang of it now. This is really a totally fantastic piece of software. I am only just starting to imagine the many possibilities of this jewel. Your Quick videos which I only just found are actually done really well and you should continue just doing quick tip videos like this. Maybe just 1 small project from start to finish and that should be all fine then. Now that I slowly understand the way you think, I am actually starting to realize that you have done a dam good job of it. It is simply the best way to do it once you get your head around it. Keep your videos readable. I found it very helpful being able to see what you are doing. Use another color for when clicking the mouse.

Cheers

from Chris.

 

No doubt, TC is brilliant and a tremendous time-saver. And it is demanding which I don't mind.

I'm also having a lot of trouble getting satellite maps working via RTP global color maps. I successfully auto-searched them in --- they are there --- but, I can't get the colormap to display.

Can anyone tell me how to set up the splat layer filter? I'm under the gun and spent too much time on it already

EDIT | FIXED: Ok. I have sorted everything out now. It's now so painfully simple. Re-watched videos ( extremely helpful ), re-read doc ( priceless! ). I can create so much more with more precision now. TC + FilterFactory is awesome!

 

Autogeneration doesn't work for some reason. Can you help me? Auto button just switching between Frames and Speed.
http://puu.sh/5Y3yc.png

Upd: For some reason I shift+clicked Generate and everything is working now

 

I have a few questions, I would be very happy to get some replies

I want to create a symmetrical terrain. I would prefer if i could do this for everything in the map (Grass/trees/ heightmaps...).
What i want to do is create one terrain then mirror it on 1 axes, then stitch the 2 terrains together and mirror them again to get a 2X2 tile.

I have managed to do this with a heightMap alone by exporting it and then creating a 2X2 tile with 4 duplicates of the heightMap flipped in different axes.

Another question about the filters -
I don't understand how the following inputs work:
What does the "Always" input actually mean?
How does the "Random range" actually work? (I have seen the post about the range being 0 to 1000? - but I still don't understand how this works)
Same about Max count? - how does this filter work?


Regarding grass placement:
I am testing this out - and when i choose to put only 1 type of grass in a grass Layer it seems that it doesn't really matter how the filter is set up...as there is only 1 grass to choose from.
And then I only need to set the sub filter to change the density of the grass.

There are 2 problems though:

The first - this single grass is arranged in clamps of healthy and dry color grass...I am thinking this a bug somewhere?

The second - I was trying to set the density of the grass according to height in the subfilter:
So i set "mode" - to strength (I don't really understand how the modes work at the moment), "input" - Height, "output" - on max and left strength to 1. My goal was to have a higher density on lower heights with density diminishing as we increase in height...so i set the curve normal with a downslope. I got the effect but it is too hard to control...
I am basically asking how is this calculated - how is density really converted to the amount of grass mesh's/billboards per area - what area size is this defined and how many items when density is set to 1?

As i wanted to affect only the density of 1 grass , I set the layer strength and filter strength to 1, hoping that only having to deal with the subfilter strength would enable me to control the density more easily.
But this is still not the case, i am enclosing a picture of the setting and the result. The subfilter curve goes from (0,1) to (1,0). The result i expect from these setting is a linear decrease of density with height not this abrupt cut off. Using the subfilter strength with a value of 1 is just to dense.


It seems that below a certain density value no grass appears - which results in this cuttOff. I am wondering what this value is.



Going onto the next question i have when using more than 1 subfilter:
Say i want height and steepness to affect the density of grass/trees etc. (decreasing density with both height and steepness). What would be the way to set the output parameters on both subfilters for this?
The subfilter outputs (Max, Min, Average, Add and subtract) - So i choose add/max for the first subfilter (with an inverted normal curve) and subtract for the 2nd (with a normal Non-inverted curve)? I need clarification on how the subfilters work..do you go through them sequentially by order?
If i choose Min/Subtract for the first subfilter i get no grass output. I am guessing the initial value in the first subfilter is set to 0?

Choosing subtract on the first filter - will this set the density value as a negative value(bellow zero) when combining with additional subfilters?



Happy holidays,
Nim

 

Same thing happened to me.. Thanks Sargonius for the tip

 

It was properly because RTP Lod manager in the hierarchy wasn't setup. Did you get it working now?

Nathaniel

 

Anyone know if you are bringing in a huge World Machine terrain into TC whether it is better to tile it the same in both WM and TC or better to export one huge heightmap from WM and let TC tile it?

 

Hello Nims,

Why do you want symmetrical terrain? You can only flip a heightmap and a splatmap the way you are doing now.
As for the filters input/outputs today I'm going to update the documentation and make video's how exactle the filter and subfilter(mask) system works and add it to my short tutorial videos.

Input -> Always gets the input on a 'Fixed' value which you choose with the position slider.
Input -> Random Range. TC makes a random number between 0 and 1000. If the number is between your random range for example 0-100. The input will be 1, else it will be 0. So a random range 0-100 gives you 1 in 10 times. This input you can use for sparce out density. If you for example place tree with 2 layers and you don't want the trees to overlap. You can set the subfilter of tree layer1 to random range 0-499 and in the second layer to 500-1000.
Input -> Max Count, Stop giving 1 as output if the Max Count is reached. So if you put this in a tree subfilter and Max Count to 1000, a maximum of 1000 trees will be placed.

As for grass, yes you are right about the filter, if there's 1 grass texture in there it doesn't matter how the filter is setup as it chooses with grass texture to place from the layer. The subfilter (mask) is for the density.

Yes in the subfilter is the right way on height. TC uses normalized values from 0-1. So for height in a subfilter, 0 is for ground level while 1 is maximum height of your terrain which are in TC Terrain List -> Size -> Y. It could be that your maximum height is lower then 1, as 1 is the 'ceiling' of your terrain. You can measure the height of a terrain with the measure tool. This will help you to exactly setup the subfilter curve to give you the exact height border you want. So for example if you want the maximum grass height at 0.2, you have set the normal curve line to 0,1-0.2,0. So in the curve graph, horizontal is height and vertical is density. Density of 1 is maximum density which is set in TC Menu -> Settings -> Generate Settings -> Grass Density (32 default, amount of items, should be on 16 I just found out to not get strange grass lines and empty space inbetween). And 0.5 is the half density 0.25 a fourth, 0 is no placement. The density is also multiplied by layer and subfilter strength. So if you lower the layer/subfilter strength it will decrease your overal grass density. You are right about the filter strength also influencing the density, I will check this and change in the next update.

For the density cut off this hapens because the grass density is set as an integer on the Unity terrain. So you need a minimum strength 1/32 (Grass Density Resolution in generate settings) = 0.03125

If you want to combine 2 subfilter rules. The first output has to be set to Max and the second to Min. The way TC works it goes through all of them starting at the top. Then the result of the previous is used in the next. So if you choose Add in the second, the value will be added to the first. Min only chooses the lowest value between the previous value and the one in this subfilter. So if you height subfilter output is 0.5 and steepness subfilter output is 0.2 -> output is 0.2....

Nathaniel

 

Hello Nathaniel,

I was wondering if there is any chance you could add a feature or two.

What would be great is to have an option on the export raw to flip them and also name the exported files with tile X and Y values.

The reason is I wanted to export these files (4 terrains) into WM (multitile) but I had many issues with it working properly. As you know it can be a pain getting it to work.

Also is there any tips you can give me with this sort of workflow?

Also will you be supporting meshes in the future?

Thanks.

 

First let me say thank you for clearing up so many things for me.

I want to make some multiplayer levels with symmetrical terrain.


Some stuff still remain vague:

So your saying a random value (between 0-1000) is generated for each area being processed (The terrain is divided into smaller areas). And this value is unique to each of these areas and used by all the layers? (As you suggested to divide the trees to different layers).

So set this to 16. Does this mean 16 items of the same type are placed in the area being processed when density is 1? Again what is the area size we are talking about, and can i change it?
It would be nice if we could set the initial maximal density for each item independently. So for example 16 for grass type A , 8 for grass type B etc..

Nim

 

What would be easier is to able to export it as 1 heightmap I will make that in the next update. TC2 has the _x1_y1 export. I will put the comming time into getting TC2 out.

You can already convert meshes to Unity terrain with the latest TC, and TC2 can convert terrain to meshes. However using meshes for terrain is only benificial for small Mobile terrain at the moment. As meshes have no detail LOD, no tree billboard and no grass system. Also the mesh collider is very slow, and meshes take more memory.

Nathaniel

 

But why do you want it to make symmetrical? Why just not make each terrain unique?

A random value between 0-1000 is generated for each position in the area TC generates over. The terrain is 1 area. This area is generated over like a grid. Example for the 513 resolution heightmap. TC generates over 513x513 = 263.169 positions.

For trees and objects you can select the resolution yourself in TC Terrain List -> Local Area -> Tree Resolution/Object resolution. So if tree resolution is set to 1024, you can generate a maximum of 1024x1024 = 1.048.576 trees. Now with a subfilter with random range set to 0-100 will generate about 1.048.576/10 = 104857 trees, random range set to 0-10 (1 percent) 10485 trees.

Yes if you set grass density you should get the same results as the manual terrain painting. Also need to disable 'Equal Density Resolution' in TC generate settings. I made 'Equal Density Resolution' if you generate on a low resolution terrain first, and then later do the high resolution, you suddenly won't get 4x more trees and grass density, as TC would generate on more positions.

If you want to use different densities, you can do in 1 layer and reduce the slider on a grass texture.



If you want more control and have exactly 8. Make another grass layer for tbe B, etc and set layer strength to 0.5 as 16*0.5 = 8...

Nathaniel