WorldComposer a tool to create real World AAA quality terrain

Thank you Nathaniel,

Can you please explain tho why the create terrain feature doesn't work and only create a flat image?
Also, how do I link up wc as an extension of tc2 like shown in one of your youtube video, I think it would be much easier to generate the terrain by clicking the "world" icon like in the youtube video.

Also because having a 25km square stamp from wc is a pain to edit and tweak around with tc2...

Thank you

 

Having issues running TerrainComposer v1.54 in Unity3d 2017.2.0.b10

I'm getting error in the editor related to Assets.TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js

Code (CSharp):

1. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(882,39): BCE0019: 'button_image_combiner' is not a member of 'map_class'. Did you mean 'button_image_editor'?
2.  
3. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(1150,77): BCE0019: 'inputRaw' is not a member of 'preimage_edit_class'.
4.  
5. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(1151,77): BCE0019: 'outputRaw' is not a member of 'preimage_edit_class'.
6.  
7. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(1204,25): BCE0005: Unknown identifier: 'gui_changed_window'.
8.  
9. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(1204,59): BCE0005: Unknown identifier: 'gui_changed_window'.
10.  
11. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(2690,54): BCE0019: 'converter_source_path' is not a member of 'map_area_class'. Did you mean 'converter_source_path_full'?
12.  
13. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(2716,54): BCE0019: 'converter_source_path' is not a member of 'map_area_class'. Did you mean 'converter_source_path_full'?
14.  
15. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(3377,41): BCE0019: 'SetPixel' is not a member of 'UnityEngine.Texture'.
16.  
17. Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js(3381,25): BCE0019: 'Apply' is not a member of 'UnityEngine.Texture'.
18.  
19.  

and the list goes on...

thanks

 

Hello, I have a question regarding Floating point precision. Is anyone doing a flight sim in Unity using World Composer, if so, how do you deal with float point precision issues when flying to far away from 0,0,0 ? My application is in VR so it makes it even more difficult as the furthest I can fly from 0 is ~800m. I tried using World streamer but performance is not great and the pipeline is a bit messy. I'm gonna be trying to fake scales and distances to cheat the eye since I only need to fly above ground and will never descend to land. WC is pretty great so far and I'm hoping to combine WC with HorizonOn to try and achieve my goal. If anyone has suggestions or has done something similar I would love to hear your advice.

 

You mean WorldComposer It's in the TerrainComposer folder as it shared some files with TC1. WorldComposer works fine on my side with Unity 2017.2.0f1. It looks like you have a limited build platform selected. Can you try if it works with standard PC, Mac & Linux standalone settings?

Nathaniel

 

Trying WC for the first time, my height map is getting reversed some how. Any advice ?

 

Never mind, think it was the normalize tick box. Seems ok now.

 

It could be the settings. If there's too many shadow pixels (like 25% of the image) the algorithm doesn't work well. This can be because of the color range you select or it could be that there's a lot of water in the imagery (water is dark and seen as shadow). Can you show a screenshot of the area you try to remove shadows and one with the 'Image Editor' settings?

Nathaniel

 

That the heightmap was flat was a bug of the previous version, but has been fixed in the last version. The scaling of the stamp can be directly done in the node inspector. So you can just take the area size from WorldComposer and dial that in:

About floating point issue here's a Unite video about it:

With terrains what you would need to do is shift the entire Scene to the origin. WorldStreamer supports this.

Nathaniel

 

HI @eagle555 !!

I just bought WC. I am following the manual and video tutorial to create a terrain but I have the following problem.

I have tried several configurations but I always do the same. Seen by the "Smooth" button Creating the terrain is smoothed but softened the finished terrain being tilted when it is assumed that the altitude data on the map through satellite, from one end to another of the selection only in 2 meters.




What are you doing wrong?

Another problem is that I am trying to change the color of the font to green but I do not see that they change the color of the letters.


regards

 

Thanks for showing. Yes strange indeed, I have the same issue...Not sure what happened, but it worked before. The heightmap is completely off..I will take a look into what's causing it and will fix it asap.

As for changing the font color, this is a limitation of Unity free skin. Unity only allows it for the pro version...

Nathaniel

 

Ahhh ok. I did not know that the Unity free font could not be changed ...

Regarding the problem of the height map, I will wait for its solution and arrangement. I pray please report here when you have it fixed.


regards

 

Yes I will share a patch here as soon as I have it fixed

Nathaniel

 

Hello, Thank you for your amazing work.
But now I encountered some trouble:
there are some black lines between the tiles in the Play MODE, but they disappear in the Editor MODE.
Only the WorldComposer was used, without TerrainComposer.
Would you tell me how to fix it?
Here is the screenshots:

 

I have this fix ready, it was only happening with normalized heightmaps. After importing the patch, you need to re-click the 'Normalize' button for an already exported area. Then click 'Create Terrain' button again to re-create the terrain. Can you try if it works now?

Nathaniel

 

hi @eagle555 thanks for the patch and the help !!!

I just tried it right now and it seems to work perfectly.

I will continue testing next week and if I find any other problem I will report it.

regards

 

Is it compatible with Easyroads 3D?

 

Yes it is compatible with EasyRoads.

Nathaniel

 

Hello,


Q1: Does the Height map Zoom stop with available data? Choosing higher res wont make a difference if you have "manual" box checked ?

I'm capturing 3 areas as in your tutorial for lower distance resolutions from a fixed game area - I get height map data at a larger areas, say >10km with low height map size of 256, but for my center - Area0, a 2km area, I need more height detail, but it's flat.

Increasing Height-map zoom for Area 0 with the 'Manual' box checked to 4096 doesn't yield any more results than I would get at 256.

The height map Zoom is allowing me to go in excess of 100 with the manual box checked, and clamps to 14 without, so I'm guessing that's as far as Bing maps go.

I looked at the same area on Google Earth and there is hilly (height data) terrain there to about 20ft - but for WC results it's flat there (assuming Google/Bing are sourcing different data Bing may just not have that detail). So I concluded that either..

A: I'm doing it wrong (very possibly - I did get update on this forum but didn't seem to help for this)
B: Bing's Height-map data set resolution for the area I want is too low and no matter how much I increase the height-map zoom manually, I'm not going to get any more detail.

Q2: Can I set the Area grids to a round number?

when I draw the grid I get things like 2.114km, 6.342km and 16.912km. Are these linked to pixels per meter for power of 2 texture combinations or something? - our game needs terrain sizes of 2,6 and 16 Km -, so I'm having to take the captured textures in to PS and crop.

Q3: Any update ETA on implementing other map systems? (e.g. Google Earth) you were looking into a while ago, I was just curious if that was still a future update?

I brought WC for evaluation for a project. It's a great tool, so I want to applaud you for your hard work - but the commercial use is still a certain. This is a deal breaker for me. I read all this forum has to say about it and appreciate your efforts to find answers but the topic still stands inconclusive - needs to be airtight for my use if I want to avoid legal issues, so I may have to abandon.

Was Looking at TerraLand because they have a more concrete claim on this issue...but WorldComposer seems a superior product so it' would be a shame to have to drop it.

Anyways thanks for your help!

 

+10

 

Hi @eagle555

When I push the Export HeightMap button the following two errors occur in the console.

I have closed Unity and I have reopened it, but the problem keeps coming up. The version I have of WC is the last one with the last patch that you sent me in a previous message, above ...

Could you tell me how to fix it?

regards

Spoiler: Errors:

NullReferenceException: UnityWebRequest has already been destroyed
UnityEngine.Networking.UnityWebRequest.DisposeHandlers () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/modules/UnityWebRequest/WebRequestBindings.gen.cs:173)
UnityEngine.Networking.UnityWebRequest.Dispose () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/modules/UnityWebRequest/WebRequestBindings.gen.cs:161)
UnityEngine.WWW.Dispose () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Runtime/WebRequestWWW/UWRWWW.cs:238)
Map_tc.pull_elevation (Int32 ext_index) (at Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js:4173)

NullReferenceException: UnityWebRequest has already been destroyed
UnityEngine.WWW.get_error () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Runtime/WebRequestWWW/UWRWWW.cs:125)
Map_tc.Update () (at Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js:3998)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
Rethrow as TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:232)
System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Object[] parameters) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.HostView.Invoke (System.String methodName, System.Object obj) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/HostView.cs:272)
UnityEditor.HostView.Invoke (System.String methodName) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/HostView.cs:265)
UnityEditor.HostView.SendUpdate () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/HostView.cs:341)
UnityEditor.EditorApplication.Internal_CallUpdateFunctions () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/EditorApplication.cs:109)

 

Hello,

I just purchased TerrainComposer and WorldComposer. I am a bit confused about the version number of WC.

The asset store description says 1.54.
The release notes in my Unity download page say 1.53.
The release notes in the imported asset inside Unity say 1.54.
When I run the update check it says "current version: Final 1.510, available version: 1.510".

Which version do I have, and is it the latest?

Thanks in advance

 

Hello, thank you for your work! You do not plan to make WorldComposer for UE4?

 

I was hoping to create a map in the unity and then export it to UE4, but I did not succeed ...

 

What i do wrong?

small part of issueses:
Error: 'Failed writing Precomp Input Geometry file.' - Mesh: '_test_x1_y7'
Failed writing to: 'C:/Users/Erik/AppData/LocalLow/Unity/Caches/GiCache/0f/0fc747c4b114713a4cb98b6ada9ed34e.pim.tmp'.

And it constantly repeate when i try to create terrain.

 

Hello,
I got myself WC for a schoolproject, but I can't get it to download all tiles. When I select an area, it will start downloading the first tiles (Equal to the threads) and the timer starts, but nothing happens after that. What can I do, I have verified that my Bing key works. and Antivirus isn't the problem.

​

 

Hello everyone!
I had a problem with reversed heightmaps in WorldComposer but i solved it somehow...
now, i'm seriously interested in populating the world with Terrain Composer 2 right now, like it's shown in this video

Basically i'd like to keep the real terrain texture and apply trees, grass and other details based on the picture colors.
In the end i could remove the satellite image and work with other tools like to make the ground more realistic...
Can someone please tell me the steps to do it? Or point me to an updated guide to follow along?
I can't really make it work right now... and it seems my package is missing trees somehow!

Thanks everyone

 

That are good questions.

1). Yes it won't get more detailed than Bing provides which depends on the location. You can right click in the WC map to see which heightmap zoom level Bing supports. I made the manual override for areas that overlap like zoom level 13 and 11.

2). The grid size is determined by the image zoom level and image resolution. If you want to have it precise would indeed need to crop it.

3). Yes I was looking into this but the issue is was that Google transaction quota was really small, couldn't download a decent area and you ran out of transactions for the day.

As for legal issues I never had anyone report any issues with this for the last 4 years since the first release of WorldComposer. Bing is owned by Microsoft and I got even contacted by Microsoft that they were interested on selling WorldComposer on their Win app store, but they thought it was a standalone (could be used without Unity).

This should be fixed in the last update posted above? Are you using it?
https://forum.unity.com/threads/wor...a-quality-terrain.215485/page-21#post-3247929

WC and TC2 use the same raw file format, use these import settings to import in Photoshop:
http://www.terraincomposer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/PhotoshopImportExportRaw.jpg

It's 1.54, the 1.51 is the one that is on my TerrainComposer website ftp. With TC1 and WC I used to have updating build in, because of in the beginning I sold them directly on my website. But then later everyone wanted the Asset Store versions and be able to update from the Asset Store, and I ran out of vouchers quickly, so I decided to stop selling directly.

You need to use the latest version posted here, I will submit it to the Asset Store tomorrow and fix all the version numbers:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/wor...a-quality-terrain.215485/page-21#post-3247929

No I don't have plans for this. I'm also working on our game D.R.O.N.E, so my time is limited. It should be possible to create terrains in Unity and export to Unreal, I have customers that do this. I think the raw format can be imported by Unreal terrain. The satellite image can be Png or Jpg images, so should work.

Nathaniel

 

This is Unity's Enlighten lightmap baking that is set to automatic on default. You can disable it in Unity Menu -> Windows -> Lighting (Settings) -> Inspector disable 'Auto' in the bottom right corner.

Yes your Bing key works otherwise you won't be able to see the map. Do you get errors in your Unity console? (Control-shift-c). Maybe you are trying to save outside of the project folder or folder is write protected.

Yes this only happens when normalized button is enabled, I made a fix for it posted above (will submit it to Asset Store tomorrow):
https://forum.unity.com/threads/wor...a-quality-terrain.215485/page-21#post-3247929

You can download free SpeedTree package from here:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/29170

I will add section in the TC2 manual how to use it together with WorldComposer and post the link here.

Nathaniel

 

Thanks Nathaniel looking forward to that! Have a nice day

 

@eagle555
Yes. I using it...

 

How do I make the downloaded terrain slightly curved, same as the real earth curvature? This is important so that some mountains in the distance are not visible due to the earth's curvature.

 

Would you want to use something like the Curved World shader?

 

That is an option but I prefer a baked feature.

 

Hmm, baked. If you can go with a mesh instead of terrain, you could make your terrain and then convert it to a mesh and bend it (along with everything on it). You'd need to have your character controller adjust for the curvature, or the further you get from center, the more the character would appear to be leaning.

If you apply a radial gradient to your height map you can raise the height at center, but that only simulates curvature in relation to the center and not from periphery to periphery. So if play occurs only at center, the distortions might not be that bad. (?)

 

Hi,

I had the following issue with the height map after applying the patch WC_Update1.55b.unitypackage.






Please suggest a solution.

 

Hi Nathaniel, when do you expect to finish updating the manual? Maybe a short video tutorial would be quicker? I bought the asset just for that feature... Thank you.

 

Hi question. How do i send a world composer terrain output to be managed in terrain composer 2?

 

It doesn't work for me - I'm trying to build flight sim terrain. I followed your the multi-terrain-resolution video but ended up with empty tiles in the unity scene, no height map data or environment jpgs. And now every time i try to go do it again I get locked out of the server by Bing and have to make a new key which is then locked after 10 mins, I really have no idea what's going on or what I should do. Any advice would be appreciated as it seems like a great tool.

*update - today i realized that i was calculating the heightmaps for the other areas that you left in the menu - Frances Peak, Mount Olympus, Mount Rainer etc... I've now removed those the but I can't cancel the heightmap export, it keeps going and going. You need to add some kind of hard reset option that stops all processes. Today I will try again and see if this was my issue yesterday.

*update 2 - So I've managed to break your software. It's stuck in an infinite loop when trying to export the heightmap at 69%. There is no way to cancel it. I removed the key, the folders it still keeps going and going.

*update 3- I removed and reinstalled world composer - did everything again and it worked. The only difference this time is that I didn't remove the shadows. Great piece of software. One thing however, the heightmaps and terrain don't seem to match, not sure if it's a bing issue or WC issue.

 

Im having problems with heightmaps containing a lot of blank squares. In higher resolutions, most of the image is this way.

 

nevermind, I'm sure it's in the docs somewhere (which of course I havent read) but I reduced the worker threads from 32 down to 4 on the heightmap export and it works slower but skips no blocks

 

anyone know why am i getting an inverted terrain?

I am also getting the following info:

Code (CSharp):

1. Height of the terrain with real world scale: -696.9024
2. UnityEngine.Debug:Log(Object)
3. Map_tc:NormalizeHeightmap(Vector2, String) (at Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js:7596)
4. Map_tc:create_terrains_area() (at Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js:5593)
5. Map_tc:OnGUI() (at Assets/TerrainComposer/Editor/Map_tc.js:3050)
6. UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent(Int32, IntPtr)
7.  

 

I have been getting inverted terrain too. I found that having the Normalize checkbox selected causes that behavior. I have been unchecking it, and then fiddling with the terrain height until I get the correct elevation. I've also noticed that my terrains are being generated at unity heights above zero, even if the terrain elevation is at sea-level.

I would also like to know if there is a way to easily delete/lower any terrain spaces that are water. If I am making an island and using Ultimate Water System for an ocean, the ocean from the terrain clips the water, and I don't have time to use the Raise/Lower tool on every island scene, especially considering Unity's smallest resolution on the tool is huge.

Thanks!

 

Hello Mr. eagle555 and all!

I live in a south of Brazil and I'm creating some kind of map of the city I live with Unity. It seems WorldComposer would really speed up the process... but I'm unsure of the quality of the generated data.

Can you make a test generating my city and post some screenshots? Depending on the result, I'll buy WC.

City:
Rio do Sul - SC, Brazil: https://goo.gl/maps/wWstsHyhBpz

Thanks!

 

Hi Nathaniel

1)I keep getting these nice sidetables (;..tried almost everything i could find in manuals and so on. any idea?
2) Is the integration option as explained in a vid to TC2 gone?
+++
additional
Heightmaps look like some big black and white checker board. Did a de-install / of WC and TC2 ...same result. I read everyting there is to read on manuals and saw all YT, can't figure it out )-:
Unity Pro version 2017.1.1f1
Alvast bedankt

 

Hi, Doldersum

I have some trouble when using WorldComposer. I sent you an Email last week (2018-01-12). May you reply it please?

Thanks!

 

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the absence, just got way too busy with preparing for our crowdfunding campaign for D.R.O.N.E. which is expected to launch in beginning of this February. Also since we are working on a public demo that we released to our moderators and a few Youtubers (who gave us tons of feedback), so having my hands full with preparing and programming, but I will make time and be back soon to help solve all issues.

Nathaniel

 

Thanks, gl with D.R.O.N.E.

 

i purchased today WC and in 2017.2.X its working fine but my project depends in the moment on 2017.3.X.

have you any plan to upgrade your project to get it, with this version working?

and another question, is it possibile to rewirte for you all in c#?(i can do this to if you want, and send you the data) because its faster and more stable

 

Hello World Composer community,

I am trying to follow the WorldComposer multi-resolution terrain tutorial on Unity 2017.3.0f3, but I am getting stuck when trying to Apply Shadow Removal on the second area. The first 2x2 area seems to work fine, but none of the other 3 areas do -- they all sit at 0%.

Here's a video:

So I went ahead and just copied the combined RAW image WITH the shades for areas1-3 and sliced everything to JPGs. Then when I generated the terrain and set the heights according to the video, I found there were square pits, similar to what @nl2012 showed above.

Does anyone know of a way to resolve these issues?

Best regards,
Tony

 

I have a question: when I go to pick my area, the box is 16KM by 16KM, in your tutorial, it is 1km x 1km. How do I make the box to pick the area smaller? 16km x 16km is much too big for me, but that is the smallest that I can get it.

Thanks,

d