How did games like Conan Exiles or Ark Survival make their map?

Grine

I am genuinely curious.
I have heard about World Composer or World Machine and then putting these maps through UE4 World Composition to make a map but none of these tools from what I have seen are good methods of creating a map like the one in Skyrim.
These tools can make realistic looking height maps but most games resort to "squished in" approach because most gamers dont want to actually hike for 30 minutes a hill to reach somewhere interesting.

If someone wants to make a map similar to Skyrim's map styles for progression what do they need to do? What tools are available to make it possible and how many people are needed? On UE4 the only "indie" style games that approach that are Conan Exiles and Ark Survival's maps... if so how did they do it? How many people can we reckon they used to make that map?

Thanks!

ctcopple

Unreal engine 4 has a built in terrain editor, this was how Ark Survival made their map. https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Landscape/ UE4 has some helpful docs on how to start using the terrain editor, Hope this helps. 

CupMcCakers

You could still use a terrain look like World Machine or World Creator. They provide a lot of flexibility over how you create and output your terrain. You will need how to learn to use them effectively first but the results can be marvelous 

Apocrs1980

I acheeved this by importing greyscale hight maps as new landscapes in UE4. World Machine can generate them or a photo manipulation software such as Photoshop.  I cut the main map into 6x6 sections and imported the peices each as thier own landscape. The reason for this is to have the flexability to occlude the map peices not seen by the player (my game is top down). Worked out well for me and you can keep adding on later as needed.

Klawd

Apocrs1980 said:

I acheeved this by importing greyscale hight maps as new landscapes in UE4. World Machine can generate them or a photo manipulation software such as Photoshop.  I cut the main map into 6x6 sections and imported the peices each as thier own landscape. The reason for this is to have the flexability to occlude the map peices not seen by the player (my game is top down). Worked out well for me and you can keep adding on later as needed.

I think this is also how Epic Games approached the huge map for Fortnite.

Grine

Well besides the questions of optimization my only concern was that when World Machine processes a map for UE4 its kind of unusable.
The terrain works for a game like PUBG because its just a battle royal with many players.
But a level design for a game like skyrim is a completely different beast. The compact level design makes a believable map but everything is close to each other so the player doesn't need to hike for 20 minutes to reach the top of the hill.
Instead in those 20 minutes they could come across dozens of paths, rivers, streams, ravines and probably hike through a mountain too.

I tried using photoshop but what appears nice in photoshop appears like jagged hellscape on UE4. So instead I made a general outline and trying to "draw" on a overall design of the map and figure out how to recreate it on World Machine.

However I doubt I would be too successful, I just can't seem to find an alternative besides sitting down 3 dozen people behind a computer and give them a year to painstakingly make every path, ravine, stream, river and etc...
Which is obviously not an option so I have to wonder... what can I possibly do?

Apocrs1980

I used world machine to basically set the hills and valleys, stuff like rivers and pathways can be hand sculpted in UE4.
Personally I like having more control that way anyways should design elements conflict or change on the fly.
But yes, as to 3 dozen people sitting down behind computers, creating a map like Skyrim took a team of people years to make so creating something similar would defiantly be a huge undertaking.
Not impossible, but it will take time and painstaking effort.