Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

A lot of us here can help you out if Nathaniel is busy, don't worry about that. Did you understand what he said? The splat sizes are under the Terrain arrow in the top left, that is visible no matter what tab you are looking at. Open Terrrain, then click the arrow next to one of your terrains, then click the splat textures button and you'll see you textures. If you don't have any you need to add them, then you can click the arrow next to Settings underneath each texture.

 

They will not work out of the box. You can, however, put them on a terrain using Gaia and save them out as height maps, 16 bit of course. Then you can use them in TC or even just on the Unity terrain without Gaia.

Remember though, the resolution for TC2 may be higher than the resolution for the Gaia stamp so the height map may not look as good comparably. It would be a better choice to make stamps with something like World Machine.

I own some of the Gaia stamps from the asset store so will test them when TC2 comes out and let you know how they look. I tend to make my own but like to support the asset store developers.

 

I could make them work. Just need to look into the format.

The resolution in TC1/TC2 can be put to anything, think Gaia also has flexible heightmap resolution. Yes stamps can be made with WM and also with WorldComposer. There's an example in WM that enhances real world heightmaps with adding mode erosion, etc. So a heightmap from WC can be processed by WM to make it higher quality. Also TC1/TC2 can create stamps from a result.

Nathaniel

 

I dont own WM or Worldcomposer. Because of Budget I also can not afford them in the near future. Thats why I am using terrain.party for example to get realworld heightmaps for Terrain. I am aware that terrain.party does not really create high resolution heightmaps, but well as I said thats right now my only option to get realword heightmaps pretty fast.

Well lets wait for the beta after that I will also do some testing.

Thanks Teila for your input!

 

Well TC2 will come with many high resolution stamps (4k). Also there are many noises in there perlin, billow, vonoroi and multi-fractal. With these you can basically make anything.

Nathaniel

 

Is TC2 will include erosion ?
btw I sent you email to beta test this incredible tool

 

Do you have to sign up to beta test?

I am definitely interested.

 

you have all information here :http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/te...n-in-just-minutes.151365/page-74#post-2598422

 

question please, what is the method used to animate the camera in the TC2 pre-release trailer,is it manual animation keying,or u have used some assets, do you recommend a way of doing this,efficiently of course ,specially for a long animation

 

I have it in my research list. If I can find a good way to make it I will add it. I answered your mail . Really cool video of the

I used camera path animator, it's a great tool:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/617

Nathaniel

 

I can't say what Nathaniel is using, but I know of three good ways to do long camera movements for cut scenes:

1. Use a spline controller to define the path as a function of a position variable (a simple float), then write a little C# script that increments the control variable proportionally with time or frame count. For each frame, query the spline function to get the current translation and direction at the path point, then put the camera there. There are multiple spline controllers, some free and some purchasable. I use (and like) Curvy, but it's far from the only choice.
2. Use a dedicated cut-scene production tool. I have recently acquired Cinema Director but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. As with spline tools, there are several choices here.
3. Define an animation state machine to walk through the sequence of motions, with each phase being an animation state. I've done that myself, and it works great for simple paths. There's no theoretical limit on path complexity or length, but you may find this method doesn't scale well for movement over a large area and a long time interval. Unity can do it, but it's not really what the animation state machine is designed to do, so the editing is likely to get cumbersome.

The above methods can also be combined for complex scenes. For instance, Cinema Director (or its competitors) can be the sequence controller that triggers spline path movement and Unity animations. Imagine the camera moving along a spline, with Unity animations opening doors or moving NPCs,and the cut scene tool managing the overall timeline for all of that plus audio and visual SFX.

HTH.

 

I imagine erosion could be a real challenge. Especially if you have different biomes on one terrain that in real life could be affected in very different ways.

 

I suspect as far as Gaia stamps that they are converted to a special format for Gaia. You have to drop them onto the scanner tool to convert them. I suspect converting them to a compressed and possibly encrypted format??? Though the scripts are available for Gaia so I doubt they are encrypted. As Teila indicated you could always splat them down and export the heightmap.

 

it dont need to be something global, it could be a brush or a stamp that add it where you input it. like many plugins do on the A-S

 

There can be maskes of course but I think to really make it realistic the algorithm would take different input parameter in each biome. Each parameter of a common erosion simulation (like Rainfall, ground hardness, etc.) need to be maps... I think that'd be costly but realistic...
I'm working on something similar

 

I took a look and Gaia puts a header with width/depth/resolution etc with saving the heights as a float array with the .Net FileStream and BinaryFormatter. So would be easy to convert them back to 16 bit raw format, I will add this...They are only 1k though...which is noticeable in the screenshots.

I'm making 4k heightmap stamps with WM, where you can get results like this (made with TC2):

That part would be easy. Erosion would just be a node and you can mask it, etc. So could have an erosion node for each biome. But erosion algorithm itself can be tricky, although I have ideas for it how to do it. The stamps I'm making have WM erosion on it, so they look great already. But for the noises (perlin, billow, multi-fractal and vonoroi) its great to have erosion.

Nathaniel

 

Those shots are fantastic. Mental note use 4k heightmaps.

I think I am over complicating things as per usual. I was thinking erosion would be affected by depth of erosion as well as ground type as ground types change at different levels. Such as when a flood washes away softer layers leaving just a natural river path following the harder rock levels.

 

I really like that first picture. What makes it stand out is the harsh rockiness of the lower-level terrain in the forefront which resembles the African Sahel. Hopefully you'll do some more stamps like that but without the mountains. I believe to get the detail you would need a relatively high heightmap resolution where you could only get acceptable performance if it didn't need to render mountains as well.

What I believe is realistic but a difficult effect to achieve is near-vertical cracks and ditches in the earth, probably due to dried up river beds and erosion. Here are a few pictures from the Sahel which show what I mean:

Pic 1 - Pic 2 - Pic 3 - Pic 4

When I've used other terrain creation programs what generally happens is that the stamps lose a lot of detail when their height is reduced, and a rocky ground looks more like smooth bumps or low-level rolling hills. Hopefully TC2 can address this, either with stamps or perlin noise.

 

Terrains that have near-vertical features like this (or cliffs) are generally supported by meshes (hiding lack of detail and texture stretching of the terrain). As far as I know there is absolutely no heightmap based terrain generator out there that could handle mesh placement like this. Which is very unfortunate, it will always be a problem when comparing manually designed terrains with procedural ones.
Maybe this is something TC2 can adress?
What about a object system that detects steep slopes and provides generators for cliff object placement regarding the direction, height, steepness and relative placement of the cliffs, and also takes care of the gaps that may arrise.
That'd be incredibly mind-blowing, I'd really appreciate anything that can even aproximate this behaviour

This is how erosion simulations usually work when simulating on multi-layered/material terrain, but it's obviously too just a simplified method compared to the complex material layering that occurs in nature.
But instead this could be scaled onto multiple biomes, differenciating not just between Dirt/Sand/Rock in one biome, but also the Humus/Rock/Dirt in another biome, so that these biomes can all be handled in one simulation. That is benefitial over the masking solution because then no water that flows from one biome in another is simply gone, and also there would be no unnatural blending of erosion features.
As I noted before, usually uniform parameters such as the rainfall would have to be turned to maps to allow for local differencies (biomes).

 

the problem is less TC or any generator and more the way Terrain systems work. The vertices of the terrain must be uniform and can only move vertically. This makes 90 degree angle impossible. The greater you up the heightmap detail the closer you can get but you exponentially lose performance.

If you make everything out of mesh, the possibilities are limitless, and I use this in one of my levels because I have to, but again the performance for the level of quality is far less than Terrains.

edit: Seneral already said that... I guess I didn't really read his post XD bad habit.

 

Very impressive screenshots, I like #2 the most, I see in #3 the sheer rock face looks almost inverted, like past the vertical which is impossible.. the detail is just so good on the almost vertical faces this must be RTP at work no doubt.

As for erosion, there is an erosion Asset on the store that i think used to be free (when i got it - but never used it) and is now pretty cheap. I asked about it and the author stated all the source was available so there you have it, I'm amusing it's all ok and expected that people will use it in there own assets. But otherwise i don't know too much a bout it.

With TC2 including some high res maps... I can't wait to give it a go, I have yet to master getting grass to appear as dense as so many screenshots people are showing off, but i'll certainly give it another shot as it's a must for good terrain.

One question, in the video you have with the spider at the start... what are the desert grass that you have scattered everywhere? is it a model or a 2D sprite?

 

I really like the 'micro' erosion. What would be needed for this is much higher heightmap resolution. E.g. pic 4 looks like eroded canyons but in a mini size. If you have a canyon stamp and scale it down the heightmap resolution of the terrain is not enough to show these erosion details. And yes also details on 90 degree slope there can be none. Since Unity's terrain system and it's heightmap is basically a 2D grid, and there are no vertices in-between the bottom and top of a 90 degree slope. Also the terrain collider is 2D, which makes it superfast but has the same issue with high slopes.

Creating meshes to an place on high degree slopes and for smaller details is an option, but it's very tedious to make by hand. Also it's tricky to program, a system for this would be a tool by itself.

Another option and the most simple would be to place detailed rock meshes on the slopes to hide it. With my optimize static mesh rendering in 1 click tool you would be able to place like 100k of rocks and still have good performance.

I wonder what Unity is working on with their terrain system.

Nathaniel

 

So far as I can tell, it is still in the distant "research" phase, and might not bear any fruit for a long, long time.

 

HELLO THERE ! New guy in the TC House !

Dear Nathaniel ! How Are you ! Hows Everything !
Long time we dont have those "long" talks ... back in the golden days of our Youth ... xD

HI EVERYONE ! I'm new to this thread ! ...

But i Am One of the Guys that Asked The TC "nodebased" interface ... something like 4 years ago.
I Was maybe The First terrain Composer Customer ... having this Awesome Idea ... ? ^^


THAT LAYOUT REAALY LOOKS GREATH !!!
Still : As you know me ... Im a Idea Factory ...

And i have here some "refactorings" i Would Add .

IF ANYONE WANTS TO CHANGE IT You can DOWNLOAD the PSD Sources :

http://www.mediafire.com/download/tk9cb7mib289jkc/TC2_GUI5.psd​

I Will improve on it and I Will trow All my Design Sources here At you From now On !
I Will make it the source files open So everyone in the comunity can "Help" Improving it a bit more​

THANKS FOR LISTENING !

I am So Eagering for this New release !

Congratulations for the achievement !

MY BEST REGARDS

D. /LABS


PS: Bellow i leave a Inspired image made by my studio artist, after she seen your new TC2 Trailer xD That was awsome !!

 

Hello Dinis,

It was actually 3 years ago or so. Yes I want to release TC2 beta next week . I respect your feedback and I'm always open for new ideas, and I think it's better if we talk about it in private. I added you to my skype. Peters mockup might be a bit hard to understand, because the preview images are just random and don't match.

TC system is linear so there's absolutely no need for any wires (in the first TC2 prototypes I made), like people are used to with WorldMachine, etc. I understand that many are familiar with it, what makes it think its more easy to understand and work with, but for TC's system that wouldn't be the case. We would waste a lot of screenspace in the GUI, as its system is similar to photoshop layer system and why does photoshop doesn't have wires or a node tree system? Because it is linear...A real node tree is good where you have a lot of splits and complex routing, but when things get big and complex you run into issues. E.g. Peter made a complex grass shader in ShaderForge (has node wire system like WM) for our game and at some point he just could not expand it anymore because the wiring got so complex and it all the nodes took so much space, that it was almost impossible to see what's going on.

Peter and me have been brainstorming many months ago for weeks how to make TC2 system in the best possible way. I believe that it is such powerful system that any node wire system can't really compete with it. Have you ever seen a terrain tool being able to do this? look at time 1:44...And if you think about it, why has such thing never be shown before?? (as far as I know)

And the terrain in the trailer itself, saw anything like this before? like mixing 3 terrain types together? With TC2 this is peanuts...

Try to mix 10 complete terrains with your mockup , each terrain has 5 groups of each output, and each group has 5 layers. Each layer has 5 nodes and 5 mask nodes. And splat/tree/grass/object layers have each 8 items in each layer.

This is just a tip of the iceberg what I show. And this is all possible because of the way TC2 system and the way the GUI is designed. What will come in a later TC2 beta in May is 'Terrain' nodes. A terrain node contains all outputs (height/splat/color/tree/grass/objects). So you will be able to create a complete terrain within a terrain node (terrain stamp), then make as many terrain nodes as you wish and mix (position/scale/rotate like a stamp) them together to make biomes. Each terrain stamp has its masks like the layer group has. You can group them in terrain node groups and its the same system as layer group and layers, so the same kind of GUI but only 1 level higher. Now try to do something like this with a traditional system and it would get so complex that it wouldn't be possible to work with.

Peter is actually the inventor of TC2's card shelf based re-presentation and it opens the door for a new level of terrain crafting like I explain above. I'm sure once you worked with it, you will see the power of it and that it is actually better and reverting to a more traditional system would be loss of many features such as making complex biomes, also TC's big parallelism feature would get complicated, etc...So in my opinion this is TC3 or even TC4 compared to the TC2 prototype I was working on many years ago.

Nathaniel

 

Fingers crossed for access to beta soon

 

Yes I have RTP in there, but it doesn't influence the heightmap as it is rendered by Unity terrain, so this heightmap detail is also possible without RTP. The slopes are very steep but not 90 degrees, so there's still detail possible there also because it is very big we have lot of resolution. If it were like a riverbed, Unity's heightmap is to low res for that.

In the TC2 trailer the desert grass is a 2d texture and used as Unity terrain grass, it comes from Mk4 Afghanistan pack.

Nathaniel

[Edit] RTP makes the heightmap looks much more detailed though, because it uses a global normal map (made with TC2) + perlin normal map on top. But the heightmap itself RTP can make much more detailed with tessellation, but in the trailer I didn't use this feature. In the official trailer I will use it . Also with RTP tessellation we won't see any heightmap 'popping'.

 

What sold me was the foreground terrain between 0.44 - 0.47 of the trailer, both the rockiness and the texturing are beautifully done.

 

One of the best things about this thread, IMO, is how passionate Nathaniel is about the new TC2 design. Take a skilled programmer and give them a project about which they are passionate, and the result can only be brilliant!

 

I am from the future, and while I can tell you that TC2 is indeed a great improvement over TC1, TC3 with its voxel terrain is the best edition.

 

Nathaniel, any plans to have WM like layout support hopefully using svg file as input?

 

No not really, like I explain in the above post TC2's system is linear, so a layout like WM wouldn't be the most optimal way to visualize it. I understand that for terrain tools we are used for such layouts. But TC2's layout is like a file/folder structure like in File Explorer in windows and actually uses the Unity's Hierarchy GameObject structure (which is similar to a file/folder structure). Photoshop uses a similar system and TC2 is actually based on photoshops layer system.

Think of it like this...Would you like to have your files and folders visualized like with a WM layout? Or Unity's Hierarchy would you like to have it visualized with a WM layout? It could be visualized that way, but it's not the optimal way, because a file/folder structure and Unity's Hierarchy system are linear. TC2 being linear sets it apart from WM and other similar terrain tools. I can remake TC2 to be like WM, but why make a system that is already there. I think a tool like TC2 however is unique and it allows for possibilities not seen before with any other terrain tool, mixing complex biomes, etc, like I show in the TC2 trailer. Also moving, wiring, arranging nodes can take a considerable amount of time, and with TC2 there's no time loss there.

What would you like to use the svg format for?

Nathaniel

 

Unless I am missing something, I think he doesn't mean layout in the sense of the node graph layout (tree view is indeed more suitable) but layouting the terrain features, like biomes, using an svg file.
You know, in WM you can create a mounain range by placing some points, just like in a svg. I think he askes if such layouting of terrain features is supported using something similar to an svg...
I guess it would be comparable to the other mask generator nodes you already have (circle, square, etc.) just with an user defined shape.

 

I despise WM's system so please never change to something like that. lol

 

"TerrainComposer2 is planned to be released in April."

Um, Aprils been and went? I have held back on using TC1, since I really bought it for the update. May'be you should update your advert, to the current situation?

 

Hi Nathaniel, by layout I meant as mentioned by Seneral the ability in WM to have svg file input be the basis for shapes used to create elevations and masks. Currently one can draw boxes, circles, polygons or lines and/or use svg vector files as input for the shapes.

https://gyazo.com/6cd410c7c62ecb92b6e2ab82bbb629a3

 

Oh sorry about that . Yes that would be something for later (the svg as input). What is possible now already with TC2 is drawing circles, squares and gradients, and they can be distorted. Also can use the Unity terrain brushes to create a basic shape and export as a stamp. The same can be done from WM, so in WM you can draw your basic shape and export it as 16 bit raw greyscale and can use it in TC.

Nathaniel

 

Hi!

I'm going to buy TerrainComposer more precisely TC2, but before I would like to take some questions.

First, the TC2 trailer is amazing, some features I have seen are impressive.

Well, I do not have much experience in creating terrain. My question is about the terrain texturing. You did everything in TC2 using "Texture Tile" or had the help of another package as "WorldComposer" to generate textures starting from a real map?

The same question is about the distribution of vegetation. You added the vegetation on the terrain with TC2 or used another package as "RTP"?

These questions refer to the "pre-release trailer"!

I ask this because to create the demo of TC1, you said that used "TC1" together with "WorldComposer" and "RTP" and my budget is a bit limited now to buy these three packages!

The last question is what was the trees package used starting at 2:28 of "pre-release trailer"? They are very realistic!

Thank you!

 

Everything in the TC2 trailer is done with TC2. For the texturing I created splatmaps and a colormap with TC2. The colormap is used in the canyon to get the orange colors. I posted the colormap here (from desert to canyon):
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/te...n-in-just-minutes.151365/page-71#post-2576435

All vegetation is placed with TC2 also the small rocks that stream around the camera. For the trees they are speedtrees and you can see in this post were I posted all the art assets I used:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/te...n-in-just-minutes.151365/page-71#post-2575440

RTP is a terrain shader. So it renders the terrain more realistic then Unity's standard terrain shader. It has a global colormap/normal map and all kind of features to improve the terrain rendering quality. With TC2 I will include a terrain shader that has global normal map and colormap included, because these can be created with TC2, so I want it to be usable without the need for any other Assets. If you can't afford RTP there's also ATS colormap terrain shader (free).

Nathaniel

 

Already bought!
Thank you for responding so quickly!
I was confusing the features of "RTP" with some other asset!

I'll be awaiting the TC2!

 

I want it so much! I will wait for TC2 release, because I consider the price very cheap for the enormous capabilities showcased

PS: Im also willing to pay for the beta TC2!

 

I am anxiously awaiting the beta. I have a project that needs to have a world that I've got laid out in a 20x20 grid of areas I plan on doing as 600x600 so the total world would be 12000x12000. I may or may not decide to stream it depending on how TC2 works out.


My problem currently with both TC1 and Gaia is they work great if you are making a world from scratch with not preconceived notions or if you can import satellite heightmaps and such.


I also need the multiple biome support and do know work arounds which would be the method I'd end up using if TC2 does not do what I am suspecting it can do.


However, where both TC1 and Gaia don't work as well is having some way to visually overlay a grid (think a coloring book) or an image so that when I am placing stamps or editing the large terrain I can make sure my stamps are positioned in such a way as to maintain the idea for a preconceived map. For example: Say you were making a map of part of Faerun and you had broken into a grid 50x50 (yes that is a lot of areas) you have this grid and you lay it over a known map of Faerun. Now you have a guideline for what each cell of the grid should be. You pull up TC1 or Gaia and you start to work.... I have this stamp and I must try to eyeball and guess where it should go in that 50x50 grid without making a mistake and overwriting some other grid that was important. I could try to hand paint it all using the built in terrain brushes but ultimately simply being able to OVERLAY some kind of guide that helps you identify where you intend to place the stamp is all that is needed.


At the moment I rigged up my own little tool that I can define what is essentially biomes and lay them out in a grid and it will procedurally generate heightmaps.... my output is pretty ugly at the moment since I made it all last week. I then split the heightmaps into individual heightmaps which I can bring into TC1 or Gaia and then use them much like a coloring book is used to help me make sure I am placing stamps in a way that is friendly to all the various cells.

I thought I'd tell you because if you don't already have the ability to put some kind of GUIDE/OVERLAY/PAINT BY NUMBERS type thing it would be something probably not too difficult to add and would make working with large maps that need to be designed to fit a specific look but are not from real world places so satellite imagery can't come to the rescue.

As to TC1.... Does it only split terrains into powers of 4? (still getting used to it) as such 4,16,64 if you kept splitting them all... there doesn't seem a handy way to simply split them into 20x20. I can do this externally myself if I need to as writing the code to split the heightmap is pretty easy but, I suspect you already likely can do this.

At this point I plan on trying to use TC2 and will take your BETA process very seriously. I am suspecting it may reduce the methodology I would have to use to make my world (even with Gaia or TC1) by a significant amount.

Thank you for working towards making a better product. I'll do what I can to help you.

 

Using a guide is kinda possible with TC1, you can put the first splat texture as a colormap by shift clicking the <Colormap> button in TC terrain list -> Splat Textures.

How high resolution you plan for each terrain tile of your 20 x 20 grid? Heightmap and splatmap...
You can just create 20 x 20 in TC1, won't need to split terrains. Splitting terrains is only for already existing terrains not made with TC or manually edited after using TC. You can change the limit of terrain tiles in TC Menu -> Options -> Max Terrain Settings -> Max terrain tiles.

These overlay images do the overlap more terrain tiles? Maybe you can show some examples with screenshots?

Nathaniel

 

I have the same exact issue. So far, I have created a layout of the terrain (flat with the shape I want of the world) in World Machine and play to import a height map into TC2 and use stamps in the various areas to define the topography. I don't know if it will work, but plan to try.

I am wondering if it might be possible to use images instead though for the base layer or at least for the edges of the continents to get the overall shape and then generate the rest. Not sure I am explaining this properly but I have a map of the world I want and would like to create it as a Unity terrain. I have found it it difficult to do that with other tools.

 

FWIW, that's not too far from the way World Composer works. I've been messing around with that a little, and right now I have a rendering of my neighborhood that has the satellite camera images as the base image. It's weird to walk around on top of 2D versions of all the houses!

 

Okay to answer the question and provide examples that Nathaniel asked for requires a number of example images and potentially a long post. I apologize in advance to those of you who find it TL;DR.


Standard flat terrain with nothing...


Simple transparent grid turned on in this case for a 6x6 world


Same thing but with tiled terrain coordinates displayed


Using simple terrain representative symbols splatted down onto the terrain.


An example with a known fictional map....


An example of intended usage.


I actually only thought of using a flat plane over the top of the terrain with a transparent material on it right before I started putting this together to answer the questions for Nathaniel.

The idea would be that there is some sort of guide that can be used to assist when stamping and manually editing the terrain so that when the terrain is particularly big you do not have to eyeball it and hope you get placement correct. I can tell you after hours of trying to do this it does not work very well.

Using this plane technique would be workable if the plane were set at sea level and when editing you looked directly down upon the terrain. My thought was that it would be nice to be able to call up a grid to overlay, and possibly at the minimum the coordinates of the cells in the grid because you can also look at a spreadsheet or something made external and match what should be in that cell from the spreadsheet.

Ideally it'd be nice to overlay grid, cell coordinates/tile coordinates, and an image under those as an option that could be toggled off and on.

I can make this work with a plane and wish I'd thought of that before it is far simpler than the days last week I spent building something to take cell input and generate a rough heightmap to use as a template.

What would be perfect would be if the terrain could have a transparent meshobject overlay with the same mesh as the terrain and simply place these layers over that so it would stretch and remain visible unlike my example I threw together quickly in photoshop.


Something like this is important when trying to make fictional worlds with an existing layout that you are trying to match. You can't really just pull a satellite image for a fictional world. You also have to keep redoing your work over and over again when trying to work on a big map without some kind of guide.

Does that help clarify?

 

sometimes you refer to Media Features of TC2 ,What are those?
another question is when are we going to get our hands on TC2 , i can't wait , i have been following you from day one when you announced that there is a TC2

 

I wanted to extend upon the idea I posted with another thing I'd been musing about.

What if you had a grid similar to the images I displayed before and you could click on a UI grid and pick symbols like I used in some of my maps... and assign them a background cell color, and pick the symbol like my mountains, mesas, or castles and specify a color for those. You could assign a biome rule for what textures to use, other object placement, perlin noise settings, etc.


If you then could essentially paint a UI grid with these symbolic Biomes you setup and rules those could then be used by the generator to step through the cells running the generation based upon the rules setup for each of those biomes. This would likely not be the scope of TC2 at the moment but I thought I'd share it in case it was inspiring in any way for future. I had considered making such a tool myself but when it comes to making terrain height maps and such via code I am an infant. I only started crawling last week. So could I do something like this? Yes, with time. Yet my focus is making games. I will build tools if there is something I need that is missing, and IF I make it friendly enough I'd even share it with others or put it on the asset store. However, making tools is not my current goal so I'd rather give it to someone like you who is RUNNING instead of me focusing on learning to WALK and then RUN before I could achieve this.

Anyway, not critical.... the guides I referenced are all I really need and worst case I'll use that plane technique as it is simple.

 

You can actually do this right now. This is the exact technique I plan to use for my game and I have tried it out. What you have to do is simply map your map artwork onto the terrain as the base texture layer and change the UV tiling to full resolution so it maps across the whole terrain. As long as you don't generate your final textures until later, this will work. I've experimented and it really helps. And this is not a TC1/TC2 thing. It just works with standard Unity terrain period.

 

Thanks for the detailed explanation . If you want to overlay one image over multiple terrain tiles, what would be the most easy way and I think best solution is to use Unity's build in 'Projector'. A projector renders on top so that solves the issue of not being visible. See the image for the projector settings, it needs to be orthographic.

As for the grid with the tile numbers it could be done with Gizmos, I can make something for it.

Nathaniel

Projector off on 5 x 5 terrain tiles (each size of 600m)


Projector on