WorldComposer a tool to create real World AAA quality terrain

Also, my height map data is coming in negative! So, my mountains go "down" rather than up. Is something wrong with the Bing maps heightmap data, or am I importing it incorrectly.

 

I think I solved the previous questions about the box. I just kept playing and eventually it went back to 1kmx1km. Not sure why, but it is working now. However, having the heightmap go "negative" so my mountains go down rather than up is problematic.
Thanks for any hints, loving this tool so far
d

 

With Unity terrain this is not really possible as it is square. Best option would be to use a shader like Curved World for it:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/shaders/curved-world-26165

This can happen because the heightmap normalization feature. If you turn this off it should be fine.

Because you open the heightmap image instead of the satellite images...You need to put image export to 'Raw' only, then after exporting click the 'Combine Images' button. Then WC creates 1 big raw file which has _combined.raw in the name.
I explain the exact steps in the WorldComposer manual.

Yes if you shift click export, WC exports all area's in a region, so you have to create a new region first like I do in the tutorial.
You can stop all download with holding left 'control' on your keyboard and clicking the 'Stop' button.

You mean that terrain heightmaps don't exactly fit of the different area's? That is expected behaviour (the technique requires that the player can't go beyond the inner area) as the areas have different heightmap resolution (terrains around the inner terrain are bigger). So what you need to do is place the outer terrains slightly lower to not see a seam.

I fixed this in the latest WorldComposer 1.6, which you can download from the Asset Store. It's converted to C#, but you might still be able to use your saved areas if you copy the global_settings prefab to the new C# WorldComposer folder at the same subfolder.

You have to disable the normalize heightmap feature, then it should work fine.

For heightmap modification I made TerrainComposer2, what TC2 you can use WorldComposer heightmaps as stamps and make any modification to them, like adding detail ocean floor from noises like perlin or lower/higher it.

WorldComposer uses Microsoft Bing maps, and you can check the quality here:
https://www.bing.com/maps

I have fixed this in the lastest WC1.6 which you can download from the Asset Store. It's because of some download modifications that Microsoft did on their end.

Yep I did all that, you can download the latest WorldComposer 1.6 from the Asset Store, which is entirely written into C# now. Also tested it with the lastest Unity 2017.3 and 2018.1 Beta. Should work fine and is warning free.

It's because there's too many water pixels in your image and WC sees these as shadow pixels, the algorithm takes a very long time to find non shadow pixels. What you would need to do first is edit the _combined.raw image in photoshop and make the water pixels more bright or fill them with white.

The size of the area is determined by image resolution and zoom level, so if you put zoom level to 19 and image resolution to 512 you get the smallest area possible. Which is about 0.102 Kilometer.

It happens with the normalize heightmap feature, if you disable it should work fine.



Nathaniel

 

Sorry if this question was asked before, but I couldn't find an answer. Could WorldComposer be used for creating projects with already available digital elevation models (in RAW format) and satellite images (in JPG, TIFF...) which are not online, but available from other sources. Often GoogleMaps are not the last updated satellite images, and I could find newest satellite images and downloaded to my PC. So I would like to use these in WC and not the one Google provides - is it possible?

 

Hello everyone,

I have a new update for WorldComposer (1.61) that fixes the normalizing heightmap feature issue (before gave incorrect height scale and stepping as a result).

I have submitted the new version to the Asset Store as well.

Nathaniel

 

WorldComposer uses Microsoft Bing maps. It's possible to replace the satellite image files from an area, only you need to make sure the alternatives fit exactly.

Nathaniel

 

Same problems still exsist (after update)
1)I keep getting these sidetables (flat terrain with some square pillars)
2) Heightmaps look like some big black and white checker board.

Spend hours with settings and logs...no result

Any idea?

 

I need this question answered , RTP says terrain / world composer can create global tree / shadow maps...where is it?, how do I use it?...'cause I searched, googled..and NOTHING...I have TC/TC2 and WC....

Please, enlighten me...

Thanks

p-

 

Yes you probably run into this issue explained on the troubleshooting:
http://www.terraincomposer.com/troubleshooting/

The heightmap of the created terrain is looking blockery.
The heightmap resolution for each terrain tile can be selected in the ‘Create Terrain’ tab. For the exported raw heightmap the correct size is automatically chosen and is displayed behind between the parentheses, and this will also give best quality v.s. performance. However you can manually change this resolution. for example if you manually want to create more detail on your terrains with carving out a rivers. If you select a higher resolution, the heightmap of each terrain tile will have a higher resolution then in the exported raw file, this will result in the terrain looking blockery, and you will need to use the smooth button, which can be pressed multiple times. If you export to TerrainComposer, you can smooth there in Quick Tools -> Smooth.

They cannot, this was an experimental feature before Unity terrain supported SpeedTrees that Tom forgot to remove.

Nathaniel

 

I figured as much, since my search kept only pointing to the RTP documentation!!...thanks

 

I'm having a problem with WC in that many of the terrains it generates (which are neighbors in a larger terrain) have large, deep square depressions or pits. This does not appear to be a "blockery" issue discussed in the developer's troubleshooting guidance, or at least I have not been able to resolve the problem using that guidance View attachment 269416 View attachment 269416 . I've attached a screenshot of the issue. Can anyone provide a resolution?

 

Hi, Mr. Doldersum

WorldComposer does not work because Bing Map API is blocked in my country (Youtube tutorial videos are not accessible, too). I am really sorry for that.
May you give me a refund (Receipt: IN010200169235) ? I know your software is good but I just can not use it in my development.

Thanks!

 

Update to this post: Not sure if this is the solution, however I started to check up on my Bing Key which World Composer was accepting, and World Composer was showing some transaction numbers when I move the cursor around - able to see the standard basic locations but no background map. So I thought, check the key. Have not used the software in a long time and the key was created in 2015. So result - see the key is marked in red - Disabled. Clicked around and found a button to enable which got me a popup saying it could take 24 hours to enable the account.

So that was useful, but still don't know if it is specifically related to the error messages coming from World Composer to the console in Unity. Anyway can't have hurt to check again on that key. World Composer did not reject the key and I got no indication there might be the problem. So it seems to do the handshake, giving some data but no images of the landscape. Will discover if the error messages are related to this or not. Check back tomorrow.

FURTHER UPDATE: Problem solved. It was the Bing Key apparently. Hope this helps someone in the future. Don't know if there is any way to program into World Composer to check the status of the Bing Key - but I think my description of a black screen, error message about "Texture rectangle out of bounds....." is something to consider.

Problems are always interesting, but it's good when you can fix them more or less yourself.

 

I bought world composer to use with easyroads3D but it does not work with that. i can make roads with simple terrain but when i create terrain with world composer i am unable to make road. any solution?

 

Anyone know how to correctly open WC's height maps in an image editor?
Trying to open them in photoshop, they always come out distorted (01 Old). Used to be a jagged bands of solid colour to them previously. Tried a tonne of different editors, Gimp, Paintshop Pro and more. Photoshop is the only program that comes even close to opening them.

Since the recent update they come out like in the second image like they're stretched horizontally (02 New). Just have never been able to get them to open correctly in any image editing software since buying WC and I have been unable to find any detailed documentation regarding height maps and RAW files from WC or TC2. Any help would be massively appreciated.
Exporting height maps created from WC terrain using Unity's built in RAW exporter tends to export height maps kind of correctly, but instead of being nice gradients from dark to light, I get solid bands of colour which result in huge flat steps in the shape of the mountains and hills the map is meant to represent. Kind of imagine Mountain shaped hats like the band Devo wears.
I have no such issues exporting and opening height maps from terrain I have made from scratch or made with other programs like AGFPRO's World Builder (and AGFPRO is broke as heck)

Old Heightmap.


New Heightmap (since latest update)

 

Try removing the satellite images WorlComposer textures the terrain with, and then paint the terrain with your own textures as you would when making a terrain from scratch without a 3rd party program.

EasyRoads3D merges with the terrain textures, so the roads blend into your terrain.
I think WorldComposer using a full image to texture a single terrain tile screws that up so EasyRoads spazzes out as a result.
So maybe give traditional Unity texturing a try and see if it works then?

Should probably swap the textures at some point anyway as the Satellite images WC uses only look good from long range, which is fine if you're flying, but awful if you're on foot or driving through a level.

 

As world composer terrain consists of many small tiles, I changed textures of 3 tiles and disabled all other tiles.now tried to make road with easy road 3D but failed again.When i click on terrain to make road nothing happens

 

I noticed a bug: When you set the Heightmap Export Path, World Composer actually puts the heightmap into the root of the drive instead of the folder.

Also, would it be possible to change the file extension from "Raw" to "raw", i. e. all lower case? Or is there a special reason for this?

 

Thankyou for fixing the inverted terrain bug. For a while I was getting everything in reverse and at 10x scale and thought it was some setting i'd changed. Was driving me crazy! Definitely a relief to see a fix for it

 

Okay seems the issue was simply changing 2 to a 1 in regards to channels in the option window that open in PS when loading raw files.

 

Hi Nathaniel,
i'm still waiting for this integration

Sorry but i did not see any link, can you please update the manual or at least make a 5 minutes video tutorial?
Almost 4 months have passed, just bought both assets for this feature... Thank you

 

I have also purchased both WorldComposer and TerrainComposer but I cannot get them to work together. Is there a tutorial or documentation on how to do it?

Thank you

 

I have the same story(

 

I have e-mailed Nathaniel using the email address on his website:

http://www.terraincomposer.com/contact/

I am hoping he replies?!?

 

A cool tool! I wanted to use it together! Can version TC 1.0 need somewhere to get it?

 

If you purchase Terrain Composer 2 then it gives you a link to download a version of Terrain Composer 1. However, I cannot get it to work with WorldComposer. I am trying to reach Nathaniel for advice.

 

I quickly looked through this forum, documentation on World Composer and Bing Key information pages. Just wanted to ask about the whole Bing Key Usage Report, it shows 60,000 plus total transaction on the top left on WC, but in the Bing Key usage report is shows just over the 3800? I waited a day to let the key update. Is one transaction = to one API call?

Also, when it shows the amount of transactions beside the Hieghtmap, is that an accurate number? Often it says e.i. 2048 x 2048 (2456) and then the transactions counter in the top left counts up like 40,000 transactions.

Thanks,

 

I'm getting the "checkerboard" heightmap issue using World Composer 1.51 as well, and turning off normalization isn't helping. I tried upgrading to WC 1.6 using the package Nathaniel supplied above, but that gives me a mix of .cs and .js files which isn't viable. WC shows 1.51 as being the current version using the in-editor update check?

Any advice on how to proceed?

 

Okay, so it looks like the "checkerboard" problem happens before any terrain creation/normalization. Some of the heightmap transactions from Bing appear to be coming back with 0 elevation data?

 

When I open the WorldComposer, the map will not load. I ask for urgent help.

 

Is your Bing key old? The WC manual calls for creating a specific type of Bing key now so that transactions are unlimited. If that's not the issue, I'm afraid I don't have any othe suggestions.

 

So here's a slightly tedious workaround for anyone stuck with a "checkerboard" heightmap: In my case, the missing height values weren't the same on every bing operation. By making 6 requests for the same map area, I was able to composite the .raw files in Photoshop and end up with a complete heightmap.

 

Anyone know if Nathaniel is travelling or otherwise unreachable at the moment? I've tried two e-mails and this forum but no response since last Friday. Extracting every map I want 6-8 times is getting kinda old!

 

Not too impressed with the customer support on this one.

 

@MoreGalaxies , what you can get out of World Composer on its own, quality-wise, is very dependent on how good the available satellite imagery is. Parts of Europe and the United States have been photographed very well and have excellent free DEM (heightmaps) available. Other parts of the world aren't as well captured.

I'm using WC to help recreate parts of Africa, for instance, so for me the satellite images are mostly useless due to poor resolution and cloud cover. If you want to make a beautiful terrain in such a location you'll need to make your own terrain textures and paint them on, perhaps using the satellite imagery as a guide.

 

@eagle555
Hello. Can you give advice what the best way to extract roadss from sputnik map? I need to get black and white mask.
Or may be someone else give the cue...

 

Hello Everyone,
How can I manage a terrain created in WorldComposer in TerrainComposer 2, I can't figure it out to do it :/

If someone know It will be very helpfull !

Thanks !

Edit : Ok, after some research on this topics, i'm not the only one with this issues :/ hope we will have a solution soon !

 

@eagle555 this is now 2 weeks without a reply to support e-mails or an appearance on the forum. Is this asset still being supported or not?

 

I see this all the time where people don't bother to read above their post in the forum. If you had done so, you would have seen that this dev hasn't responded in the forum in quite some time.

Best to try the support email if you need help.

 

I read plenty above my post. Did you not read the part, which you quoted, where I mentioned I hadn't had a reply at either of 2 listed support e-mails, either? I'm not very impressed with your post accusing others of "not bothering to read".

Part of the reason I'm posting here is so that other people looking for answers/support can see a record of what current customer support looks like.

 

Just so you know, I did read your full post, plus the others above it, and my advice remains the same. Best wishes to you. One way or the other I hope you get your issues resolved.

From one page previous, but perhaps easy to overlook, so I point it out:

Long story short: he's away working on his game, and updates and forum support and email support has been spotty to non-existent lately. This has been an ongoing thing well documented in the threads for his other products, and in the threads of at least one of his team members, and I hear it has also been mentioned in store reviews.

Since the asset store is a side business for most of the developers using it, it's common for there to be times where the asset developer disappears for weeks or months due to crunch time demands at their main job. This is one of those times for this asset.

 

Hi. I have a problem with World Composer on Unity 2017 & 2018 Linux.

I just make it to the 2d image with unchecking Normalize Heightmap and uncheck Generate Heightmap.

World Composer will show a *mapfile*.raw does not exist error if i leave them checked. and World Composer will not output anything to Unity.

thanks

i have read around the forum and could not fix the problem. but the hightmap file problem seems to exist. the forums workaround did not work, importing the heightmap file to blender, darktable gave an python error.

 

@hopeful

Then you should be apologizing.

Your unsolicited advice to do what I had already done, and which you were aware that I had already done? Gee. Thanks.

Like I said, part of the reason I'm posting is so that current/potential customers looking at this thread will see what the support on this asset looks like at this moment in time. I'm adding my data points to the documentation you reference.

I *did* note that Nathaniel is busy with D.R.O.N.E. "Busy with another project" is not "unreachable". There's no excuse for keeping an asset on the asset store and then quietly dropping support because you're busy with other things. Can I understand how it can happen? Sure. Should I refrain from posting accusatory posts on the asset store thread? No.

 

@jay_ploss Just because you *feel* you are in the right doesn't mean you have to be a jerk about it. Hopeful is one of the most supportive members of the community here. None of us is happy about the situation with the Drone team and their asset support; and you have every right to help others make an informed decision. Yet you are taking your upset out on the wrong guy, over a simple misunderstanding. Maybe dial it back a notch?

 

Forum moderators may not agree.

 

Not quite right. I'm not upset about anything. If you check above I'm quite calm re: not finding any support for this asset. I even go on to offer a workaround for a current problem with the asset and offer advice to other users. Like I said, I understand how these things happen but I also think that they need to be documented and publicized.

What rubs me the wrong way is @hopeful chiding me for failing to read before posting and then recommending to me that I use e-mail to seek support when he's *quoting me* saying I've tried e-mail. That post isn't "supportive" at all. Do you disagree? Do "helpful people" earn jerk passes around here? I'm not upset -- I simply don't suffer fools. I'll be the first to bury the hatchet when people can admit error and apologize but I'm not the one who has made an error, here.

Speaking as a forum mod myself, suppressing valid criticism is normally a very bad move. Do you think I haven't expressed valid criticism? Go ahead and ask a moderator and we'll see.

Here's my own analysis: @hopeful is tired of seeing people frustrated with asset developers ghosting on their assets, because he sees it a lot and often these people just show up and fire off angry complaints blindly. He saw my post and took me to task along those lines, in error. Fine. But again: 1) apologize when you mess up and 2) the actual problem here is developers ghosting on their assets, not clients failing to read forum posts. Don't defend the indefensible.

 

No. It's just the way you expressed it. But whatever, man. Good luck to you.

 

Hi,

I would like to generate a real terrain base on a location at runtime outside of the Unity Editor . I've already purchase your asset WorldComposer but I really wanted to know if it was possible to do so with WorldComposer ?

Thank you for your reponse,

Quentin Valembois

 

I'm guessing for my situation if data isn't available at terrain.party for the location I'm interested, that this plugin won't help me either?

 

As far as I can see terrain.party uses OpenStreetMaps, while WorldComposer uses Bing Maps for elevation and satelite data. As far as I know close to every place on earth is available, just not always at a great resolution. You can just check Bing Maps itself