Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

@ytrewq Doesn't 2.31 already support this?

 

Hello there!

Loving the tool thus far, however I have one slight question.

While working on the terrain and grass layers my nodes appear low res and the resultant masks are low res. How do I increase the node resolution for better grass and tree masks.

Also, height and splat is working grand!

Thanks in advance!

 

Have you tried changing your Resolution settings for Grass?

 

You can check the node preview size in Options/Settings under Local Settings - although your screen shows lower resolution than 64 (minimum settings) so maybe it's something else...

 

Hello,
Does Terrain-Collision node work with Collider or with MeshRenderer of placed object? It seems that with MeshRenderer...

 

It's the Mesh Renderer.

 

I think it's a wrong way. Or there must be a switcher Renderer/Collider. So I should add dummy but visible meshes and do something with their visibility at runtime. And I see such visible capsules in the example scene under viking's houses.

 

@eagle555

Hey Nathaniel,

As far as I remember in TC1 there was an option to use terrain angle for Object rotation in the Object layer. I can't find it in TC2. What do you think about adding it to TC2? I think it's very useful in many scenarios.

 

Hello there again!

Thanks for the super quick response you guys!

I checked my node preview size and it appears to be 512.

My grass resolution is currently set to 64 with 16 as the current patches.

I went ahead and captured some footage of my issue.

Also I created a new projected and reimported Terrain Composer just incase there were some issues but the problem persists.

Cheers!

 

- I can't get Image input work for 2x2 terrain tiles (4096x4096 image on 2x2 2048x2048 terrain).
- As the image, the Clamp method clamps the Image Input at every single Terrain (not continuous) . How can i tweak it to work like the heightmap input? (1 single map for multiple tiles of terrain, no Repeat).



-Also tried Repeat and Mirror mode, nothing worked.


Thank in advance.

 

Hello all,

Im running into an issue where TerrainComposer2 is not showing the add layer button, the green (+). Im not sure why this is. This even happens on a new project, even after being reimported several times.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks and have a good one!
-Will

 

Hello there Will!

My first theory would be to check the platform your project is currently in. I know that Terrain Composer needs to have the project in the Windows platform DX11 to properly work.

This was my first immediate thought as I run into that issue.

Best of luck to you Will, and report back if that works for ya!

 

Hey the Grovel!
Thanks for trying to help but Im not sure what caused that issue but I fixed it by making a new project so I think it was an import thing. As for now im having an issue where, when trying to bake the NavMesh it only bakes on 1 out of 4 tiles that make up the map. The other tiles are baking some data (the random squares in the top right) but AI thats not on the 1/4 that baked just errors out. Not sure why as it works on some but its all handled the same right? Im looking into but any help would be awesome!

 

Okay fixed it, only 1-4th of the tiles had navigation static checked off.

 

Hello again!

Still chugging along at the moment and it appears as though the low-quality node issue pops up also with object placement as well.

Below a picture of the attached issue.

Save me Obi-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!

---------------------

Adding a bit more info, it appears the low-quality node issue does not appear when I load up Nathan's example scene. In his scene the object and tree nodes have the correct rendered resolution.

 

Hello Nathaniel,

I have asked a related question on the WorldComposer forum, but most of the challenge lies with TC2. I have an ambitious idea of creating a runtime scene (No editor work) based on a user specified geographical location.

-Assuming a dynamic WorldComposer height map is created and pre-processed to remove suspected house/tree shaped items. Can TC2 dynamically make the height map based terrain? Finally can TC2 or scripts add realistic looking houses/trees assets at discovered locations?

-Is TC2 Stream feature available and is there any documentation/videos? Will it work with a runtime generated heightmap?

-Exactly how much TC2 power is available with scripts at runtime (Videos focus on editor)? Also can RTP contribute to this proposed dynamic runtime flow WC->TC2->RTP?

 

Hey,
I was having a strange bug with loading anything in the TC2 window. I would get this warning and error:

After looking at the code where the error was, the problem became obvious. In your TC.GetAssetDatabasePath you are replacing the full path using Application.dataPath:

Code (CSharp):

1. static public string GetAssetDatabasePath(string path)
2. {
3.    return path.Replace(Application.dataPath, "Assets");
4. }

However for some reason on my system, the full path has a lower case drive letter, but the Unity Application.dataPath drive letter is upper case:

This prevents replace from working because it's case sensitive. As a fix I changed GetAssetDatabasePath to change the path drive letter to upper case:

Code (csharp):

1. static public string GetAssetDatabasePath(string path)
2. {
3.    if (path[1] == ':')
4.    {
5.       path = path[0].ToString().ToUpper() + path.Substring(1);
6.    }
7.    return path.Replace(Application.dataPath, "Assets");
8.  }

I'm not sure if this works on other platforms, but it did fix this problem for me.

 

Yes I build this in in the latest 2.31. The angle is between 0-90 degrees. Only height is still on 0-1, will convert it to meters in next update.

It's the meshrender which is pixel accurate, much more accurate than colliders. Build physics collider detection on GPU is not really possible unless the physics collider system is entirely converted to GPU, which would be overkill. You destroy those meshes you use for terrain adaptation, or put them on a separate Unity and hide them in the 'culling mask' of the Main Camera. You can also hide layers on the Scene camera, which you can select at the top right of Unity Window in 'Layers'.

Yes indeed used to be in there, thanks for suggesting it. Useful indeed for many scenarios, I added it

Nathaniel

 

This is not really an issue and intended behavior. The resolution of the preview image is the same as the resolution of trees and doesn't go above the node preview size in settings, which is 512 on default. The thing is that the resolution with trees and objects is in resolution per meter. While for height/splat/grass this is the resolution of a terrain tile. So for trees and objects a lower resolution per meter means more trees and objects. So if your terrain size is 2048 and you want an the preview image to be 512 you need to use 2048(terrainsize) / 512(resolution) = 4. So every 4 meter a tree needs to be spawned to get 512 in total for that row.

If you want the masks to me more accurate you need to higher the grass resolution, which would result in more dense grass, if you don't want that can reduce it with 'opacity' on the nodes. Same for trees and objects, can reduce it with opacity.

It should work exactly like the heightmap input. How big is your terrain? You can just scale the node up, or use the size in the node Inspector.

Yes indeed its an Unity prefab import issue, I explain it here:
http://www.terraincomposer.com/terraincomposer2-documentation/#trouble-shooting

Great you solved the NavMesh baking issue

I answered your question in the WorldComposer forum. WorldComposer can't be used at runtime. TC2 however can be used in runtime.

Thanks for telling. I use this since TC1 and never had anyone had the issue with a lower case drive letter. Which windows version do you use?

Nathaniel

 

You're awesome Nathan!

That makes complete sense and sets me on a course to craft some great terrain. Once I'm done making some gorgeous landscapes I'll post them here.

Thanks again for the informative and well-written response!

All the best.

 

Windows 10.

The source of the lower case drive is:

Code (csharp):

1. string path = EditorUtility.OpenFilePanel("Open TerrainComposer2 project", folder, "prefab");

Not sure why this call returns a lower case drive letter just for me...

 

Hey there Nathaniel,
Thanks from the fast response, your amazing job at support is why many developers and I will continue to support you and stick with TerrainComposer.
Well its baking on all of it, but upon close inspection there are many places where im getting holes in my navmesh. It seems pretty inconsistent as i've tried it with all kinds of bake settings and I keep getting the problem in different flavors. This is AFTER I really drop the height of the mountain which made it smoother, which is sad because I really wanted to make beautiful mountains in TC. The major problem from this is my AI, the player could be standing on one of the holes and the AI would just run around him.
Im trying to place the spawners using object nodes and placing them on flat surfaces using the angle node. Should my angle node be in the blue or gold mask group? Im kinda new to TerrainCompser2 but im learning quickly. And what settings am I looking for on my angle node.
Here are the settings for the last bake.


Its even happens randomly on areas that should definitely be walkable (below)

I've tried alot of different setting configs and I cant seem to fix this issue. Any assistance will be met with love and pizza.

 

Hello Nathaniel

Could you tell me if TC2 still has a limitation of 8 Splat layers.?
At least the "+" button stops doing anything after 8.
I know this was the case in an early beta but it was to be increased at a later stage to 16.

I am using MegaSplat in my project which can handle a lot of splats with no problem. The problem is I use TC2 for everything else in my project. MegaSplat allows conversion from unity splats to MegaSplat.
But if TC2 still has only 8 layers then this is a huge limitation.

If the limit is still 8 could you tell me when this will be increased to 16.
By the way the same question for the detail layers

Thanks

 

One more question about the size limits of TC.
Is it correct that TC limits the resolution of the heightmap and hence the resolution of the splat map to a max of 2049?

 

Thanks for the 2.3.2 update. Would you mind adding release notes, please. Will browse previous posts in case you mentioned it here

 

Hello there,

I have a couple of questions:

- My terrain need to be 500x500 size. I want to have high density of trees in one area, but it seems that density is related to terrain size ? How can I increase that ?


- We have a huge world, 12*12 terrains. Our workflow is to have a scene by terrain tile, like that artists can work seperatly.
Is there a way to have a terrain area over multiple scene ?
Or having something to stitch the terrain afterwards ?

Thanks

EDIT: Just found the "Tree Resolution per meter" parameter for my first question

 

Nathaniel,
The GPU ... is now clear. Maybe, to rename collider to something else - after all, for Unity3D, the collider is always physics.
When will the documentation be ready? In the presence of documentation, such problems and issues would not arise. Films are good for lazy viewing, and the voice is nice, but their are not full. And also when you need to quickly look at something, the text is more convenient many times. It is better to specify a specific date, however far it may be. Then we change the timeline to deal with the terrains after it.
Thanks
Alexander

 

There is a documentation on his website:
http://www.terraincomposer.com/terraincomposer2-documentation/

 

I saw this. I talk about real documentation

 

Sure it has to be improved and expanded. But it sounded to me like you didn't know about it yet at all

 

This is empty talk and waste of time. I just need a date when I can get a multi-page serious PDP with a table of contents. As adults do it.
Look at Adventure Creator asset for example. Sure, look! Look at TC1 documentation at long last.

 

i made a 10X10 terrain
any solution i can add splatmap to all that terrains at ones ? add it for each will take ages
i'm using RTP too

 

Thanks, looking forward to see your landscapes

Oki I will fix it for the next update.

These are not really holes but just terrain mesh a few cm higher then the nav mesh:

Yes it's still there. Yes I understand. I will try to do this in one of the next updates. Also Tom works on RTPv4 which also has splat texture arrays, TC2 will fully support it and supply the splatmap directly to RTP.

These are limitations of Unity terrain tiles.The maximum for 1 tile heightmap is 4097 and splatmap 2048. To get a higher resolution in TC2 you can use more tiles.

Nathaniel

 

I updated it the release notes. The new update supports partial generation (not generating an entire terrain tile but a specific rect based area) for Seneral's TC2 node painter extension to make in paint faster.

http://www.terraincomposer.com/terraincomposer2-release-notes/

As for your second question, yes this is possible with WorldStreamer.
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/36486

It don't use the word 'collider', but 'collision'. And collision can be anything and still be understandable that you want to detect something.

http://www.terraincomposer.com/terraincomposer2-documentation/#manual-object-placement

Yes I will expand the documentation. Which parts do you like to have explained in more detail?

Actually TC2 does make them all at once. There's some presets included, I explain it in this video:

Nathaniel

 

Oh my god I dont know weather to feel stupid or hype right now, when I go under the terrain and look up through it the holes are magically gone. Thanks!

 

Any idea what's going on with my terrain? I just opened my project and there's a lot of places that look like the image.

 

Do you use any third party terrain shader like RTPv3, Distingo, MegaSplat? Or is this standard Unity terrain shader?

Nathaniel

 

I was using RTP but I removed it.

 

So...no solution then?

 

Hi Atzig

Hi, it seems that I had same problem before.
In my opinion, How about try to delete old terrain from scene and create new one?

As far as I know, deleting RTP completely from once assigned it to object is little tricky.
Because you have to understand how RTP works, and what scene and terrain or material setting would overwritten by asset.
RTP is one of great asset in asset store but a lot of thing to study in contrast to appearance.

Personally I think, if you just starting to create terrain, and no plan to use RTP anymore, then restart from clean scene is best simple way for such problem.

regards.
Ryuichi

 

Oh sorry I thought you removed RTP and that it was ok now. All you would need to do after removing RTP is switching back to Unity build in terrain material. You can even do that with RTP in the project.



I recommend to use RTP as it will improve the look a lot. Although RTP needs to be setup a bit from defaults to give good results. Today I will release an update that has a TC2 RTP preset included and can be loaded through TC2, to give good results out of the box and won't need a lot of study anymore before getting good results.

Nathaniel

 

That is good news!
Setting up RTP was annoying me a little because It need some steps especially for large environment.

 

That's great! I'll definitely try it once it's posted. Turns out that my issue wasn't related to RTP at all, my terrain objects aren't lining up correctly. The black lines in the image/weird textures are the terrains overlapping. Any idea why that happened?

 

are you using global normal maps? My terrain tiles get really weird at the edges if my normal maps are assigned to the wrong tile.

 

Hi Nathaniel,

just curious, is there any progress in that respect yet?
I just installed beta 5.6.0f1 with an upgraded version of TC2 (v. 2.32) but the offset problem still seems to be there.

 

looks like a shader issue, did try another shader and texture. did you also move any tiles?? I noticed if I moved them , I would get weird results.

 

I haven't set up any global normal maps.

It's definitely not a shader/texture issue, the terrains are overlapping. If you look at the images in my last post the black lines are where the terrains intersect and the second is the same area with one of the terrain gameobjects turned off, no black lines/weird textures.

 

dunno then to me looks like its on the edge and being a beta tester, I have seen this issue before like this early in development, very much like it. I would move the tiles and it would cause a look like this. best of luck with a fix. I never had any issues since. I use multi tile for a few games. but I don't use RTP...

 

Probably terrain tiles were moved. I will make that the terrain tile position gets locked.

I'm working on it, hope to get it working soon.

Terrain tiles still can be manually moved, what probably went wrong is that the TerrainArea GameObject was scaled down. Then all terrain tiles will overlap, it can happen when switching from a node and select TerrainArea GameObject to setup something for terrains and not re-selecting node back and then scale the TerrainArea instead of node. I will lock it and also the tiles them self.

Nathaniel

 

its not an issue anymore.....and yes I KNOW they can be moved, this was early in beta.. its fixed now never seen it since for myself, was saying to him, that I seen in during beta ,.maybe it was a bug still, ( shrug) but it happen before, I showed you this awhile back, and fixed awhile ago.