Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

Hello Zeronine,

Thanks for telling. Yes I also noticed it, it is at the end of doing the function, so it all still works. I will upload 1.22 within an hour that has the fix and improved raycasting.

Nathaniel

 

Oki new TerrainComposer version 1.22 update is on the server now...

 

Really awesome update, could we still erease grass manually on places that we dont want to have it if we use splatmap positioning of grass and trees?

 

Yes sure you can still do this. Did you know you can also export placed grass and trees as prefabs? Then in Quick Tools -> Global Parameters you can load them again...So if you do manual changes you can save those changes with the export button (with grass or tree output button enabled), then later generate in TerarinComposer again without loosing the manual changes.

 

Hi

I have got a little bug when when I assign splat map.

1 I chosse color map
2 I take 4 splat texture and drag and drop 4 texture.
3 Set all
4 bug.

In the other terrain in the first slot, automatically take the texture "Dark" I don't know why.






Sorry for my english, i am french

Thanks

 

Hello Hilxs,

I'm not sure what you are trying to do. But if you want to assign splat textures. Don't shift click <Colormap>, that is for if you want to use a colormap on your terrain mixed with splat textures, in the empty black texture slot you have to put a colormap then. So if you shift click <Colormap> it will be disabled and will be fine. I see that you have an empty project without splat texture. If you want splat textures you can go to Unity Menu -> Assets -> Import Package -> Terrain Assets.

If you want to make a colormap you have to choose Color output button in the top (with palette icon).

Nathaniel

 

Thanks, now that's works.

I update rtp v3. I have got splat texture, but to test, i use colors to better see.

(english power)

 

I have an other bug.

I am following your tutorial to apply splat texture.

1 I put 4 texture
2 Shift + set all
3 Create a layer splat texture

And Voila



There are the same base to the 4 terrains. Only on one terrain splat texture is good to the relief.

I don't know why this don't work now

Thanks to the help

(that's normal than i use this color to the splat texture. I am testing)

 

Hilxs, are you using the colors (R,G,B) instead of textures in order to see how the splatmap generation works? Are you asking about normal maps?

 

Hello Hilxs,

It might have to do with RTP and the colormap assigning you did. I think the best is to do a screenshare on skype my account is Nathaniel.Doldersum

Nathaniel

 

Yes, i create texture with one color to see how the splatmap generation works.

To the normal, i am studying rtp 3.

 

Hello Nathaniel

Okee to the skype

Thanks

 

Finaly there not bug anymore, that's work.
I try again and again and i win XD

 

Will you submit WorldComposer this week to the Asset Store?

 

Yes I will submit it this week.

Nathaniel

 

anyone experiencing any issue with 4.3? I no longer get heightmaps working. They said there was some terrain optimizations but they didnt elaborate. I hope this didnt break anything in TC. Ill keep experimenting.

 

ok, i can load the heightmap from unitys load heightmap command but not from within TC

 

Yes you need TerrainComposer version 1.23 for Unity 4.3 for it to work, as it was a little bit broken I had to make some small changes to fix it, if you have TerrainComposer 1.2 you can update it from TerrainComposer with auto update. On earlier version auto update is broken too.

If you have version 1.5 from the Asset Store then you can contact me at Nathaniel_Doldersum@hotmail.com with your TerrainComposer Asset Store reciept pdf file, and I will send you the latest verison 1.23 that works.

I already submitted 1.23 to the Asset Store, but it can take up to 2 weeks before it is accepted.

Nathaniel

 

Have been combing this thread for my question but didn't see it. Oh, by the way this thing looks great. I was referred to this extension by Chris C. of UnityFS. (there's another free plug Chris! ) Anyway my question is this. Is there fast tiling and LOD support built in to this extension? I saw comments referring to large terrains so tiling would be important for good game performance. I sure hope the answer isn't, "efficient, fast tiling is left up to the user", because that could be very difficult to do it right.

 

TerrainComposer works with standard Unity terrain. Standard Unity terrain has a LOD system build in, for the rendering I recommend to use RTPv3, you can see the link in my signature. The fps we are getting with RTPv3 and massive multi terrain is very impressive. I have a 900 km terrain with a total of 67 terrains, and it runs 350 fps on my system.

Nathaniel

 

The latest TerrainComposer version is on the Asset Store now and works with Unity 4.3

 

there is no terraincomposer in the unity menu

 

Hello,

It should be in the Unity Menu -> Window Tab. If it's not there, you proberly have an error in your Unity console, this should be fixed otherwise Unity doesn't combile the TerrainComposer scripts.

Nathaniel

 

I have been working on an algorithm to remove shadows for satellite images in WorldComposer. It is filling the shadows with content from around the shadowed areas. I made this because in photoshop you can't do this for a 32k or 64k image as it takes too much memory. I have it streamed and buffered, it will be able to do any size of image.

It will be right inside the image editor in WorldComposer. It is possible to export an entire area as raw images, then combine them into 1 big raw image, then let the shadow removal run over it and ....whola! a huge improvement in quality!

The shadows from satellite images are not only way too dark, but they are also 'static'. You can't do a day night cycle if you use them, but with this you will be able to do.

This is a preview of an image I just did...You won't have to do a single thing, it all goes automatically.

 

That is really magic, i could not do it any better with photoshop!! These kind of black splotchy shadows were the main reason i didn't like to work with satelite images!

Oh, can you also use it to remove the snow?

 

Yes you can also use it to remove snow. Any color range can be selected. Like the dark tints for shadows but also the white tints to remove snow.

Nathaniel

 

Does TerrainComposer support dynamic map streaming with multiple terrains objects or must we do that ourself?

Sorry I combed through previous posts but was unsure if runtime included this feature.

Thank you

 

That's a good question. At the moment I'm working on an advanced flexible dynamic streamer, that will be able to do much more than simple stream, it will also be able to stream objects in the scene, and lower level detail terrain for futher away. It will be available as an extension.

Nathaniel

 

It looks a impressive tool, good looking textures, is possible to export to a external 3d software for more modifications? For example if i would wana to build a race track the terrain, a obj or fbx exporter plus textures would be great.

 

Yes you can import WorldComposer data in external 3d software.

The heightmap is saved as a 16 bit raw grey scale image, it can be opened and modified in Photoshop or any other external software that supports raw format.

The images can be saved as jpg/png or raw. It's also possible to export a wordfile for each tile, so it can be opened for example in Micro Dem.

Nathaniel

 

"I already submitted 1.23 to the Asset Store, but it can take up to 2 weeks before it is accepted."

Is that because of the complexity of your software, or is that the new time estimate, in general?

 

Cool, sign me up for that .

 

Version 1.23 is on the Asset Store now, it took a week. No it just has to do with how busy Unity is with reviewing packages...They told me It's first in first out.

 

Oki I will .

 

So there's a selection of 12 possible inputs for filters, and while half of them are fairly self-explanatory (height, steepness, image, random, random range, always), the others aren't explained anywhere from what I can see in the pdf. No idea how to use them. No idea what they mean. No idea how I can use 'Direction' for example.

Here's what I actually right now can't for the life of me seem to figure out:

Before later on going wild with fractal perlin mountains etc. I just wanna somehow define the actual land-mass boundaries / shorelines.. I'm not stitching endless terrain tiles, just wanna get 2-3 big islands in a single tile going. The docs, the vids, this thread, nothing really explains what operators/filters/sub-filters/inputs/curves/strengths/offsets could help achieve such a truly basal requirement.. help, I'm getting lost again, just like everytime I try making sense of TC's thousands of sliders......

 

Guess I could do the "3 islands" with different world-areas although I didn't really intend for them to be square, and there's only 1 world-area per "layer-level" and there's no way to add another "layer-level", and.. and.. .................................. braaain.... frrrrried :-x

 

Hello Metaleap,

As for your question about the filter inputs:
It works with normalized values between 0-1.

- Height -> reads the terrain height.
- Steepness -> reads the terrain steepness.
- Direction -> reads the terrain normals.
- Image -> reads from an image.
- Random -> selects random number between 0-1.
- Random Range -> select randomly 0 or 1, number goes to 1000. If the random number is in the range it will select 1.
- Current -> selects the current filter value.
- Max count -> selects 1 a given count times.
- Raw Heightmap -> reads from a 16 bit grey scale image.
- Splatmap -> reads directly from the splatmap.
- RayCast -> select 0 or 1 based on collider hit.

Nathaniel

 

I got the 0..1 part mostly by now but the devil is in the details. Even a dead-simple black-to-white gradient image for the Image input totally doesn't do what I'd expect it to, at all. And then there's some 20+ settings for Image input. Are they described in TerrainComposer.pdf? Nope. Do they have tooltips? Nope. "Image Color". What the heck is image color. I've supplied an image. Such a freaking lot of guess work and endless experimentation....... nevermind, I'll fight through this.. I think..

 

"Adjust List". "Auto Search<". What list, what does it need to search for an Image input. So much mysterious stuff. Guess I spend some 4 hours going through all your vids, probably at some random point about 4/5 through them all those questions may be accidentally covered. Depending on, well, chance.

 

OK got the gray-scale image loading now, too. Jeez what a fight.....

 

I will make a video on how to do this. It's pretty simple...

 

Did you watch my tutorial videos from my site?
http://www.terraincomposer.com/tutorials/

They are all very short like 5 minutes, so it doesn't take hours to go through them. They cover most inputs and options...I also give screenshares on skype, my account is Nathaniel.Doldersum

Thanks for notifying about the documentation. I will update it in the comming days...To explain the inputs and input settings better. Will also make a video for this today...

 

Wow, thanks for not leaving us newbies hanging in the wind I mostly perused your Youtube channel but the ones I was initially interested in are a bit on the lengthy side. Will re-check with your site's tuts page.

Would totally make my week, thx in advance

 

Ah guess this one from your tuts page would cover my "islands" needs, huh? Watching it asap ..

 

Yes 'Help Video Heightmap and splat texturing mask' is basically what you need. Only it's better to use a 16 bit grey scale image for it as it has more percission, using a normal image can make the heightmap 'blockery'. So I will redu this video. A subfilter with input Raw Heightmap is needed for this, only I noticed in TC there's a bug when setting this in a subfilter. So I fixed this now, will add some more stuff and have a new update for TC...The new update will also be able to create Unity Terrains from meshes...

 

Hello

What's the news to the version 1.24 ?

 

You can see what is new in the release notes that comes with every update. I did a fix in subfilter input -> raw heightmap. And now it's possible to convert meshes to Unity terrain.



All you need to do is add a mesh collider to your mesh and put it into a Layer (Unity layer mask).
Then in TC create a heightmap layer, erase the perlin curve of the filter.
Set input to raycast, select your Unity layer mask, raycast mode to height. The ray length and cast height values should be al least as high as your mesh.

Then click generate and you see the duplicate below...The cool thing is you can convert without limitation, can put any 3d model and also multiple ones, devide it over multiple terrains, it all works .

 

3 quick questions

1. not really too important, but any way one can avoid TerrainDetail.js and TerrainNeighbors.js? I had already rolled my own and somewhat different "editor defaults and runtime defaults" terrain script prior to starting with TC, for one. Also I don't like having a JScript assembly in my project as all other code is C# -- overhead! If I remove them, TC adds them back next time I use it, well at least if I disable then it's all cool from what I can see.. then keep it that way at the very least

2. I did a gray-scale (see question 3 below for details) mask of the entire world (2 big islands, 7 small islets) which allowed me to do two separate heightmap layers, one rocky/hilly for underwater-only, and another one only for the land-masses "flat-land with very slight and low (but existing/noticable) elevation". That's great, so now I can walk on the land or dive in the water and there's a difference in terrain, neat. Now, to do further heightmapping and ultimately splatmapping "for each island quite separately", what's the smartest approach? (World-area / local-area I think won't help as they're not square/rectangular.) Do I really need to extract 9 individual mask images from my main mask (and recreate those whenever the main mask gets redesigned), for each individual island? Or does one of your built-in imaging-tools help with selection for sub-filters here?

(Perhaps colorizing the islands differently in the mask image could help me here together with your color-range functionality? Might play with that...)

3. My full-world gray-scale mask is actually mostly black/white with brief soft transitions: painted in paint.net in 128x128 then upscaled to 2048x2048 using bicubic sampling which makes it nicely soft: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/136375/img/landmask.png --- would upscaling to my heightmap resolution (1025) be more beneficial here? Also, if I just supply the 128x128 obviously land borders become highly blocky, this is to be expected but have you ever considered down/upsampling softly on the fly when mask image and heightmap (area) resolution don't match? Not a huge pressing requirement, just something that could be really neat. Saves some repetetive manual workflow steps potentially.

 

Hello Metaleap,

That are good questions:
1). At the moment you can't disable them, I will add this options in the next update. Although you can easily set it up in TC Terrain List -> Settings -> Runtime for multiple terrains...So I think it's a nice feature, but in there I will make a toggle to disable and also to remove the scripts.

2). I guess you figured it out already how to do it , so a tutorial video isn't needed right away. As I was very bussy yesterday with submitting WorldComposer to the Asset Store and preparing for my flight to Norway today. Local Area indeed is not the way to go. There's 2 options here, put each seperately in an image or use colors and only 1 image would be needed then. You can use a solid color for each island and select this with color range (the 'One' toggle needs to be enabled for single colors). So the subfilter input needs to be on 'Image', then add a color range and toggle 'One'. You can copy paste the subfilter (alt click 'S' butten, and alt click '+' button to paste) to you other splat layer and only change the color for another island.

3). TerrainComposer is only reading the pixels needed for the heightmap resolution you have selected. So downscaling is not needed. For the smoothing of a 128x128, It's already in a subfilter with mode on smooth. You can add a heightmap layer at the end. With filter input on 'Current', output on 'Change', Level on 'Layer'. With a subfilter on mode 'Smooth' with input on 'Always', then with the position slider can change the smooth strength. It makes generation a lot slower though so doing this in the paint program you are using would be better. You can also smooth the terrain afterwards in Quick Tools -> Smooth.

Nathaniel

 

There's a new version 1.1 of WorldComposer available. This version has included Content Aware shadow removal feature.

This video is a sneak preview of the massive terrain that will be in the UnityFS demo. It's a total terrain size of 900 km. With 28x28 km very detailed. It will be much more detailed than in the video...

As for the content aware feature I needed it to be directly in WorldComposer because photoshop can't do a 32678x32768 image on my PC. It goes out of memory. So have been working on an algorithm to do the job. In WorldComposer it's streamed and buffered. So it can do any size of raw image. It increases the quality to a whole new level...

You can go to 'Image Editor' in WorldComposer to see the preview content aware result for the area you are currently at. What is needed is only 1 rule, with 'Content' selected from the popup. With the first 2 colors you can select your color range, in this case shadows, the edge color is the minimum color tint it will put on the edges. It graps pixels from around the shadowed areas in a radius you can specify, also the amount of iterations. For a bigger image 2k and up, choose a radius of 500-700 and Repeat on 4-5.





To process your area do the following steps:
1). Set image export to Raw format, click on the 'Export Images' to export the area.
2). Wait until export is finished and then click the 'Combine' button. All images will be combined into 1 big raw image, it has '_combined' added to the name.
3). Click apply in Image Editor, it will process the raw image and save to a new raw image '_combined2'.
4). Select Raw + Jpg format.
5). The slice button will appear, click it...The images will be sliced from the '_combined2' raw image and saved as Jpg, this can take some time.

Then you can create the terrain from your area with the new images with shadows removed!