New to all this, a question on terrain layer masking

Buzzcore

Hi all, I have recently downloaded UDK and I'm loving it so far. Although I can't work out how to do one thing...

I need to apply a detail texture to a terrain using a mask, so it will paint in the rock layer texture automatically based on a grayscale map generated by worldmachine.

I have been able to apply a general colour texture to the whole terrain, I had no problem with this, I just don't want to have to paint by hand all the detail layers.

I know there will be a way to do this as UDK has by far the best material editor out there, google searches came back with nothing.

Hope you all can help.

DonCornholio

Well its fairly easy, just use your grayscale as Alpha on Lerp nodes with the detail textures and multiply/lerp/blendoverlay the result to your diffuse channel. Choosing the right Method kinda depends on what your textures look like and how you want the result to look, but you should be fine with one of those i've mentioned. To get your Detail Texture high res up close, you need to use a Terrain Coordinates Node and put it into the Detail's Texture Texture Sample Node. Then set the Tiling within the Terrain Coordinates Node to a high number (depends on the size of the terrain and your personal taste).
I recently held a 30 minutes live presentation about how to make Terrains from Mudbox-->Worldmachine--->UDK , with this lazy man's Method, but its on another Laptop.
But if you need it, i can post the material and my Worldmachine Node Setup soon today.

DonCornholio

Sry my explanation wasn't very clear and not very precise either , just check out my Material Screenshot which is tested and works great for this purpose.


And as promised this is my World Machine Preset:
You'll need the Coastal Overlay Plugin to make it work !
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17204989/Island%20Preset.tmd