What does the new (2018.3) terrain update mean for large tiled terrains?

Hello,

I'm looking into what would be the best way to have a large tiled terrain in Unity. I've found some older resources and information but I wonder if new terrain update has changed everything now. For example, I have planned to make low-poly meshes for very distant terrain tiles and only load actual terrain tiles once the player gets close. Now with instancing, is that approach redundant?

In general, what workflow would the world building team recommend for making a large tiled terrain? Let's say players can fly with an airplane, so the tiles have to load fast.


PS My terrain will not have any trees or objects if that makes any difference.

 

I do the same thing A low poly mesh is a lot cheaper than the new terrains, even with instancing.