The lake : terrain work in progress

Hi,

Today I begin a new terrain, it's a big lake with a path along it.

With a rough map as reference, I build the heightmap and splat map in World Machine.

Note : the heightmap output must be flipped in vertical before import it in unity.

 

In unity I import the heightmap. (raw windows, 2048/2048)
Values used for this zone are width 2048, lenght 2048 and height 450. Detail resolution 512. Control texture resolution: 2048 and
base texture : 1024.

Now I have to import the splat map, but before, I use photoshop to create the alpha channel. It's easy, just select R,G and B channel, create a mask and invert it (black in color map must be white in alpha).

To import the splat map I use a tool in easy road to save and restore terrain information. The only thing to do is to replace the map generate by easy road with mine and restore the splat map.

I want to use normal map on my terrain. On the store there is a free package called advanced shader v2 for terrain. With this amazing shader, you can use 4 normal maps. You can use more than 4 textures of course, but you have to keep in mind that the fifth texture generate a second splat map, and artifacts appears. To fix that (sort of) set opacity and target strengh to 99 and 0.99. By using this values, you avoid black area around the new brush.

I have the base, I can begin to paint/ sculpt and plant

Here's some screenshot in unity:

 

Add some stars and a few clouds and it would be perfect. The bottom half of the screen is already perfect. Great work!

 

It's just the beginning, work in unity start now in fact

 

You may want to check out this thread for Lars' latest terrain shader work: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/146808-ats-Colormap-terrain-shader-RELEASED

 

Already tested, but dont' work well with more than 4 details textures. (but it is still an amazing shader!)

 

yeeha!

 

Really nice work, I was stunned seeing the same,it's just perfect.

 

Hello !

Today I encountered my first problem : white border on billboard tree.
I looked about this glitch on the net and tested many solutions, but I can't solve this one.
You can see on the second screenshot my problem. In daylight, it's impossible to see but during the night, all my tree are like ghosts.

To be sure that is not an alpha problem (part of a lightcolor taken by the alpha channel) I replaced leaves map by a full black color and full alpha (with just a black border just in case). This not solved my problem (see first screenshot - open image in full screen).

The only workaround I found was to treat my scene like during daylight (screen 3) and use a color correction like movie to simulate night time. It's working well, the only problem is lights. Now I have to increase light intensity because filter.

no lights, no ambient, no fog.

 

That is one amazing world, and the textures are great! I demand to know how it was done!

 

Trees, textures and rocks are coming from autumnal pack, nature pack and rocks and boulders.
My goal this time is don't to lose time on asset creation (except heightmap and splat map creation) , but take time on world building and painting.
Btw, thanks to the creators of these packs for the amazing work they do!

 

Hi,

Here's a new screenshot. I started by placing trees in the background, and some rocks on the slope. I will change the rock color to blend rocks and terrain smoothly.

 

Wow, nice.

 

Nice work.

 

botumys, you are the Unity terrain master. Don't know if you said it earlier or not, but are you using any replacement shaders?

 

Very impressive work!

 

Wow, looks impressive indeed! Good job

 

hi botumys,

its ULTRA version now supports 6 detail textures plus 2 terrain decals…
may be this makes it worth having a look at it ;-)

lars

 

Nice!
I'm happy that someone care about terrain shader ! Thanks Lars!

 

thanks

I'm using the ats v2, 4details + normals maps.

Here's a little part of the path (best in full screen):

 

even if it is pretty dark: it looks very nice!

lars

 

That looks fantastic! I demand a web player this instant!

 

Love your environments, keep it up

 

I checked at work and it's pretty dark indeed...My monitor at homemust be set incorrectly

edit : here's a version more bright and a new place.

 

I would still like to know how you manage to achieve such graphic quality. For instance, your textures perfectly blend and it looks simply suburb!

I watched the tutorial on how to export the terrain but there is still things to be done on the Unity side, like terrain shading and painting.

 

Botumys are plants also created by you?

 

Awesome job! Looks kinda like Skyrim!

 

Don't mention Skyrim, I may have just played for 6 hours straight. hahaha, but the images do look beautiful - I could definitely see myself running through those trees with Lydia and a stolen horse...

 

I begin to create splatmap in worldmachine and I import it in unity. Because I'm using ats v2, I can add 4 normal maps for the 4 first details textures.
Usually I use 2 details with the same rock texture, but with 2 different tiling to archive one big rock texture and one little rock. The big is painted over high cliffs and mountain, the little is used for close up. third detail is used for grass and fourth for mud/dirt.

The texture choice is important and brightness/contrast/saturation must match.

With ats 2.0 you can use 4 more details textures, but the trick is to paint them with value under 1 in opacity, otherwise black artefacts appears. Second trick : details textures 5 to 8 are painted over normal map. It's mean that if you paint rock+normal, and after, you cover the rock with detail 5 (vegetation), you stay with the rock's normal map. So the best is to use the closest normal map of detail 1 to 4 (for vegetation, I paint grass+normal and vegetation on top).

Last tip : With low value opacity, it's always possible to colorize a bit other textures. A mud texture with low opacity paint over a rock texture give the sensation of dirty rock.

To resume, it's 2% of work in world machine, and 98 % in unity.

No, this time tree and rocks assets are coming from nature, and autumn pack on the asset store. On other projects I used assets
made by myself, but I want to gain time.

Me too

 

Very good job indeed!
Thanks for sharing the tipps as well. How did you do the water? with the default Unity-shader?

 

Yes it's the water 4 pro version with color and attributes tweaks.

 

Hi, here's 2 new screenshots. I added more plants and trees.

 

IMPRESSIVE...... MOST IMPRESSIVE !!

 

Thanks darth vader

Day after day, I continue to add plants, rocks and details.
Now I have to create borders to prevent the player to walk around.

 

I suggest you to add at first the Scripts, Enemies, Character and whatever you need so you won't have a surprise seeing that unity can't take your graphics

Looks awsome btw!

 

No no no. You don't understand. The purpose of his project is to make awesome terrains that are super detailed. They never get turned into games, although sometimes he does release web players.


@botumys: It is looking fantastic! Keep up the awesome work!

 

Then what's the purpuse ? Just to make the terrain
Sorry makes no sense to me...

 

This time, the terrain will be used for a prototype.
I try to optimize it, currently the frame rate is between 200 and 300 fps, and the draw calls never exceed 1200.

For other terrains, yes it was only for fun. It makes sense if we accept that people enjoy to make puzzles or build bridges with matches, just because they enjoy to do it

bot.

 

Yer, makes perfect sense! I think you should try doing a cartoon style cell shaded or hand painted terrain... that would be a sight to see

 

Hi, you can see a video of the first part of the lake's path here:

(best in hd and full screen !)

 

Damn... Can't watch on iPad...

 

Hey how did you do this volumetric moving fog?

 

With particles system.

 

Hmm... interesting.

 

It's easy to do, it's big particles with low opacity and a cloud texture

 

You should add a light drizzle for a small added effect !

 

Just watched the video on an actual computer. Loved it, it looks amazing!

 

Far mountains are almost done. I adjusted far trees too.
Here's a test with another lighting.

 

Looking good!

 

*Salivates* that looks sick! are we going to get a test build?