Ideas on adding boundaries for terrain (mudbox)

repete

Hello all

Was wondering what your ideas/techniques are for creating natural boundaries for terrain.

Is it good practice to just add a small amount of terrain along the boundaries I want closed rather than modelling with smaller heightmaps directly onto the terrainmap ?

wichenroder

What is the purpose? Game or portfolio or..?

Generally I think you want a significant area of terrain around your functional terrain to create different scenarios, whether you're using heightmap and/or assets to block the player, or to describe where the terrain goes and how it's situated in the world.

repete

That pic is the surface of a planet (uninhabitable) and also the first level, 90% of the game will be underground, so I will be creating another terrain section with an entrance to the underground world. I am using world machine and mudbox for the terrain and it's a shame one cannot directly edit in WM (to create the boundary while keeping it natural). I guess its going to be trial and error until get it right or I could just model some large rocks/boulders to block the player from falling into infinity !!

iniside

There are pretty much two types of boundaries:
1. Mountains.
2. Ocean (or other infinite looking water)

Mountain is safe choice if your player can't fly. You just sculpt them in Heightmap or add as static meshes and call it done (or combine two).
Endless Ocean is safe choice is player can fly, because you add at some point "get back or terrible things will happen".

wichenroder

You have extreme vertical forms in your landscape, and you could easily position these to block the player, but you still need much more terrain to accommodate the player's eye, to create parallax, and to generally make the scene believable.
You can use the Layout node in World Machine or an alpha mask you've made yourself to push the terrain up where you need it. World Machine accepts local adjustments if you know what you're doing.

repete

Thanks wichenroder

I have completely overlooked the masking function in WM, (bangs head off wall). This solves the issue just as you said I can just make a bigger terrain and create natural looking boundaries using masks.

Cheers :thumbup:
Pete

wichenroder wrote: »

You have extreme vertical forms in your landscape, and you could easily position these to block the player, but you still need much more terrain to accommodate the player's eye, to create parallax, and to generally make the scene believable.
You can use the Layout node in World Machine or an alpha mask you've made yourself to push the terrain up where you need it. World Machine accepts local adjustments if you know what you're doing.

wichenroder

np! Anyway looking good.