Terrain Composer2 a next generation GPU powered terrain tool.

What do you mean with cards?

Also, I don't know what exactly is causing your problem, but I assume it might be related to how many terrains you have. I guess it's like 16x16 terrains, right? That's really not what you want if you care just a little bit about performance... I would not go much higher than 3x3, 4x4 will maybe work. Unitys terrain do have a lot of overhead...

 

This map 8*8 . 1024*750*1024 . Earlier in TC1 I was doing 10 on 10 and everything worked. After the upgrade is happening something strange.

 

You're certainly overreactig here. If you know Nathaniel you also know he's likely to have a reason for his absence. I'd rather know he's working hard on beta 7 rather than overly slowed down developement And if you've followed any product ever, you'd also know developers can't always estimate when they're ready. Never rely too much on dates, alsways expect it to take it longer - this is normal and you should know it from yourself if you're actively developing.

And as far as I know every feature he showed in his videos is in the current beta. What exactly are you missing? You also might want to take a look at the roadmap for beta 7.
And you're certainly exaggerating. I've encountered two or three bugs in the beta but so far the latest version has been quite stable for me, the few bugs are easily fixed by the patch nathaniel has provided.

So could you please stop spreading useless negativity? Thank you

 

Yes, but performance is going to suffer. It would help already if you'd take 4x4 which are 2048x750x2048 - just try it
I think the most probable source of this error in comparision to TC1 is the usage of the GPU. This increases the chances of glitches and bugs by alot over normal CPU code...

 

I want to create an open world. And it requires a lot of small pieces for performance. Previously, it was possible to do so. Why in the new version a maximum of 4*4 chunks ?How then to create a big world from little pieces?

 

Hi Nathaniel,

we´re very happy with the new version of TC. It´s so much easier to work with. But there´s one problem we cannot solve. Seems to be something related to the splatmaps.

1. we get the errors you see attached
2. it´s not working to scatter grass or trees on a specific splat map
3. how can we control the density of trees or objects?


Best,

Sebastian

 

If you are doing large worlds then have a look at these - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/36486 or https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15356. Also nathaniel is building some streaming into TC2. They may be overlap between the products but they are all nice. Wait till you see 1.7 of WorldSteamer. Looks very nice.

 

Like docsavage said, if you're going large, a streaming solution is the best, or rather only option for you. Then, those small pieces actually make sense and they won't be in the scene all at once

 

Yes , you are right.(thank you) did the same thing you did before. Only now used 4*4 , 2048*1130*2048. 1 the piece appears is not correct , but after the regeneration is removed. Everything becomes good. However, my question remains open about the creation of a large map using TC2.

 

Hi Alex3333,

You have the multiple terrains going up to 25 x 25 terrains. That's a fair amount of terrains and a massive size achievable. I just created 25 x 25 terrains at 256x256 dimensions as a test. Wow. That could get fun to manage real quickly.

I think it's like most tools. There are a few ways to achieve an end result. Whatever you do though big populated environments and terrains are going to be limited by hardware.

 

Just tried a 8 x 8 terrain setup with terrains of 8192 square each Untiy can't even zoom out enough to look that whole terrain(with the mousee wheel that is) . This is fun.

Quite slow work though messing about with perlin noise that covers the whole map
.

 

I have no direct experience with this myself, but on a philosophical level ... I think the big problem is with creating / destroying large areas - and the delays this creates - and you get a smoother result for the player if you are adding / subtracting smaller chunks.

As for how to go about it, there are probably a few solutions, but you might envision one chunk of highly detailed terrain floating slightly above a large terrain with details that are rough (designed to be seen only at distance). The smaller terrain (and maybe some neighbors) is what the player is on and sees close up, and you can switch these out as the player moves around. The larger, less detailed terrain below would represent the horizon for the player. In this way, you can sort of simulate LOD levels.

That's a plan described earlier in this thread for use with TC1.

 

Someone tell me? All done , only to place only the objects on the map( rocks). Did everything as in tutorial , but they don't want to stay. Maybe there are some nuances ? layers , tags, scripts can on the objects needed. When generating I have a pile of stones runs through the map ) but do not remain . It turned out only the 4 stone mark in the corner of the map. What am I doing wrong?

 

That sounds like Horizon[ON]! From a quick read, I'd hazard that ought to work with TC2 including multiple terrains? Not sure about streaming approach compatibility with Horizon though. Anyone know? (E.g. World Steamer)

(Yeah, I should probably look in Horizon / WS thread but thought this conversation is bubbling with energy to build awesome worlds )

 

I'm wondering how I can use Terrain Composer's splat map assignment, when I have completely hand-crafted terrain. For some reason, the node in the splat map chain does not seem to read from the manually manipulated terrain. Is there a specific chain of steps one has to follow to achieve this?

 

HorizonOn is one of my top 5. It's fantastic. You can use it for massive worlds where close up detail is not needed. it may be possible to use like that but i don't know how.

 

Er, isn't it generally for the other way round? I.e. where you want close-in detail but have low detail far away -- at the horizon and on?

What I guess it's need to do for the original thing here is new able to generate on-the-fly at runtime from the existing terrains? Possible?

 

Thought that's what I said . Yep horizonOn is not close up detail but if anyone knows a way to do this then it would be great to know. With high res textures and some clever painting of trees etc I think it can look great quite close though.

Isn't on the fly generation on the TC2 to do list? All sounds good to me

 

LOL I suspect we're vigorously agreeing !

Yeah, I was trying to say that, to use HorizonOn with any streaming/runtime generational terrain system (including the hotly anticipated TC2 on the fly generation!), HorizonOn would need to do it's thing at runtime too!

Over to you to say the same thing

 

Yes, you don't need Horizon[ON] in order to do the basic technique, but it helps. The idea for Horizon[ON] was to use some shaders (made with help from Tom of UBER-RTP fame) specialized for the purpose of making a horizon, and a set of terrain meshes that are scaled ever larger, so that distant details consume fewer resources. Because it is so efficient, and uses so few resources, you can leave the Horizon[ON] in the scene all the time - as kind of the terrain equivalent of a skybox - and focus on shuttling your smaller, detailed terrains in and out as the game requires.

But, technically, you don't need Horizon[ON] to accomplish the purpose. You can get a good effect just by using terrains of varying detail, with the smaller, higher detailed ones slightly elevated above the larger ones. (And if you need high performance shaders, consider ats Color Map Ultra or Mesh Materializer; whichever works best for your game.) It's detailed somewhere in this thread (and in the WC thread, IIRC), and I think there may even be a tutorial video. Conceptually, it's very simple. If you do it right, players should not see a gap between the detailed terrain and the less detailed horizon terrain.

 

From what I remember the last 15 ? posts of Nathaniel, he stated
his top priority is for Mac OS www.terraincomposer.com/roadmap/
Beta 8). DirectX9 solution for Mac OS. (V2.2)

To my way of thinking if he answered every question here ( that should not be problems )
Since some of the more experienced people have said they have found very few problems,
so maybe ask them, nicely

Really diverting his attention from Mac OS , will end up taking longer to get the fixes
and improvements for the windows version.

If people go look ( TerrainComposer2 beta 7 V2.1 ETA Aug 5 - 8 which in Development
time I think the end of August )

He updates the graph bars .. so its easy to look. Main point is he can not be spending time
in here right now as it just makes all of us wait even longer.

I have not done the tutorial since its still really beta and some great new features will be here soon.

IMHO saying he does not care is uncalled for <Hard Stop Rant >

 

Absolutely. Developers need time away to develop.

It's certainly true that spending too much time in the forum can kill your asset (and game) development time. I can think of a prominent plugin (*cough Bolt cough*) where the constant handholding required by customer support took all the developer's time, caused developer burnout, and basically killed further development. (Fortunately someone else took it up, but it's still not at v1.0.)

As a general principle, I think that designers need to ignore the pleas of potential customers to release early, and try to get their products more fully baked before letting them out into the wild, because once it gets out, the time needed for support can use up all the time that ought to be put toward finishing the product.

 

Nathaniel,
I downloaded the free SpeedTree asset, but it only has 2 trees in it. Do I now need to buy trees? I also downloaded the "Beautiful Birch" tree to see if I could use those. No dice.
Can I somehow use the trees from the previous TC? I would rather not have to drop $100 for trees.
Same for rocks, where did they go? I tried using a few of the prefabs, like BulletRock1, and they don't seem to appear while following the "From Scratch" video.
Mark

 

there are 3 trees in the speed trees package. you should be able to use them. make sure you click the T button to enable tree generation

 

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for being away for this time. I've been doing nothing but working for more then 1 year, without taking a decent break. I got a bit overworked and needed to take a break. I will be back soon

Nathaniel

 

Problem with detail meshes.

Hi Nathaniel

I think I have found a bug with TC2 and the use of detail meshes. Everything works fine with grass textures but if I try to assign a detail mesh in TC2 I see a number of problems. The first is that TC2 does not remember its setting and the mesh tick box is unticked each time. The second is that the mesh is not being assigned to the terrain. If I assign it manually to the terrain, then TC2 doesn't read that information correctly and shows an unassign grass texture instead of the detail mesh.

Ronan

 

I'll just quote you it's easier plus you say it better and know what you are doing better than me:

 

Ahha, so may I repeat what I think you're saying back to you to confirm my understanding:
HorizonOn (or other large scale terrain) could lie below *all* detailed terrains.

I guess the consequences of this would be not using 'infinite' terrain generation (since one could theoretically reach the edge of the under-terrain?

I'd been picturing the future 'infinite' generation and a solution where the under-terrain/HorizonOn gets updated with low-res information from TC2 (saving resources) such that the distant view is consistent with what will be seen when the player gets there (e.g. such that mountains don't pop in, desert or snow biomes after seen by their colouring, etc).

 

Complainer: a person who makes frequent complaints usually about little things.
Synonyms baby, bellyacher, crybaby, fussbudget, fusser, fusspot, griper, grumbler, kvetch, kvetcher, sniveler, whinerRelated Words bawler, bleater, moaner.

Ref.: http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/complainer

 

Before making accusations like this, why not read my reviews: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/user/4974903

I'll be leaving a complete and detailed review for TC2, but will still award it 4 stars. What irritated me was the fact that:
a) there was absolutely no indication on the point of sale at the time I purchased it that what we were buying a long term beta. Most developers clearly mark their product as Beta.
b) The developer has made constant assurances/promises that features would be implemented, that weren't.
c) Many users have bought TC2 over rivals such as Gaia, which in my opinion delivered on his promises and in many cases deserved the purchase.
d) Deadlines have been missed countless times, I've given up counting.

And before you call me a "complainer", please take a moment to review my history on this forum, you will find nothing but support for both developers and other users. I'm absolutely sure the complainer is not in fact me, but you yourself. Especially considering you brought up a post I made two days ago, which I was more than happy to leave be, and was generally (and sensibly) ignored by the majority.

 

I understand jonfinlay, I'm in the same boat, I purchased TC2 after it hit the store as I thought the Mac OSX compatibility will be added very soon (at least it sounded so), but now it seems like it will not be ready till the end of Fall. However, I also understand Nathaniel, rushing through all features wouldn't be that wise.

I'm still planing to use TC2 for our project, but there are deadlines, and it would be sad if I need to ditch TC2 because it's progress is too slow.

 

What can I say. I bought it only because of the publisher. I am waiting as the ability to make some version of Mac, and urge support Natanielyayu. Regards wersw.

 

Sorry my translate.google ))

 

How do you create such a huge versatile terrain as demonstrated in the advertised video here:

And is it possible to randomize the texture? Currently when I fly above the terrain all I see is patterns.

Also, the tutorial is a bit outdated. Is there a more recent one?

 

Please, how do I export maps?

[update] No Export options in this release :-(

p-

 

Horizon[ON] does lie directly below the detailed terrain, IIRC. It's designed to sort of make a pocket for the detailed terrain, and blend it in. But there are different ways to use it. One person, I believe, was using Horizon{ON] as his terrain in a low poly game.

For an infinite sort of open world, I guess you'd use deterministic random generation and use that rule to create both a high res and a low res terrain, where the high res one would float slightly above the low res one. The player would be on the high res one and the horizon they'd see would be the low res one.

Possibly this could all be done in TC2, if a deterministic procedural streaming component is added to accommodate infinite worlds. You just arrange it so that it makes two identical terrains, including props, where the second one is lifted up high enough that you avoid having props from the lower terrain poke through (like tree tops), or maybe you can do something with masking or occlusion, to not allow props to generate or be visible when beneath the detailed terrain. Also, as the lower terrain would be the low res horizon piece, it would be drawn further out into space, while the upper terrain would be much smaller and using more highly detailed assets.

Please understand I've not actually done this myself.

 

In support of Nathaniel, this is actually done in TC1.
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/mountain-terrain.426006/

 

Interesting idea. Another possible approach:

1. TC2 would expose an API to generate a *specific* terrain tile, once its multi-terrain support is fully done.
2. I believe TC2 already has a has the ability (maybe not exposed in a published API) to change the generating resolutions at runtime, yes?
3. Generate the camera-local terrain and maybe on more that is directly in front of the camera (if camera is close to a tile boundary) at full res (LOD0). All other first-degree neighbors in the camera frustum generate at LOD1 res, but at their standard height. All second-degree neighbors generate at LOD2 res, but again at standard height. Rinse and repeat for more distant tiles, and omit any that are outside the camera frustum entirely.

The one obvious drawback of my idea is that you could get artifacts at the LOD0 to LOD1 tile boundaries. Fixable if TC2 is made smart enough to always generate the vertices exactly on the borders as one LOD level better than the rest of the tile, because then you just get a barely-perceptible bump to from edge to next-row-inward and not a visible tear.

 

Good idea. Here is something from my game. Made by TC1, now converting to TC2 with even more possibilities.

 

I haven't yet made the upgrade to TC2 so I'm wondering what features are currently missing that were demonstrated in the pre-release trailer. Can anyone tell me what are the parts missing?

 

I'd like to know, too. And I own TC2...

 

I don't think there's an option yet to directly work on the terrain height but it's on the roadmap - check Improvements, first line For now you can export the terrain to a .raw file and use it like a stamp, but you'd have to do that after every manual change...

 

With the layer and masking system you can basically put each biom in a layer and than mask them with combinations of shapes, noises or drawn images - and these layered biomes can then be created like any other terrain in this style. Nathaniel is afaik also working on this, where you can put terrains inside terrains, that's how he phrased it. Basically you could do a snowy mountain terrain in one project, the woods in the other, and then load them into a final one without having a huge graph of these biomes but a few parameters like seed (maybe even explicitly chosen parameters like in a substance?) so you can concentrate on combining (masking) these biomes.

You mean like a substance? That's possible with RTP. But if you mean like one texture of the same kind looking all different next to each other, like a megatexture (look it up), then no, it'd be ridiculous Maybe it's kind of possible by generating the texture on the fly with shaders (built using a shader generator) but that's impractical on a terrain and I'd rather like to use RTP.
With RTP alone you can pretty much break tiling, but of course there's always the same splats but then again I remember Nathaniel saying something about different splats on different terrains in one multi-terrain - if your onto large biomes, that is

 

Well, does it have the following features in current version?

1. multi-tile streaming
2. advanced object placement
3. manual placement control
4. stream detail objects around camera

 

Oh well, didn't worked with object placement too much yet, so can't say much about it yet. But I can't see a reason why manual object placement should not work? Just attach a script to a node to follow you object (or the other way around or even directly in the TC2 hierarchy) and it works...
Streaming objects around the camera is just as easy without an explicit integration, just need the node that controls detail objects to follow the camera by script, maybe with a framerate of 1 or 2 fps so it does not need to re-generate all the time.
I think most advanced object placements are implementet, but don't cite me, I haven't yet worked with them!
Multi-Tile streaming is one excetion, I've to admit. Even though it would be possible with scripting, a built-in implementation is not there yet, true.
So, as I said I didn't stumble over anything yet. Simply because I've never moved on to advanced objects because I'd rather spend time on terrain, splat and trees
But other than that, I don't know.

 

Hey guys, Can an experienced TC2 user let me know if RTP can be used with TC2?

Is it possible to create a terrain in TC2 then use it in TC and add RTP that way?

 

Andy I can't see why not, it uses Height Maps....It uses Unity terrain TC2 and TC1... So it should work just fine.

 

Not sure if TC2 Streaming is in or not, I don't believe so, I wouldn't use TC2 for streaming anyways, I would use World Streamer. I use it and works great for any application . TC2 would be limited in many ways .. Nath would tell you the same thing for many applications, TC2 streaming will be great for objects not being manually placed...Unless things have changed in the past few months that i'm not aware of... Nath is the one that got me using World Streamer .and it does work great for most terrain tools. such as TC.

I have not used the advance Object placement, but I believe some of it is there. I will test later this week and get back to you.

 

what kind of file is the terrain? or is it a mesh?

 

can you show a video of what is going on? Maybe others can help if we have more info.Thanks.