Technically this will work with any engine regardless of it supporting heightmap based terrain. as long as you can write a terrain blend shader, you can allways use 3ds max to displace a plane an make it a static mesh. you will lose out on the dynamic LOD aspect though.
maybe split it into multiple meshes so you can lod part of the terrain, wouldn't be that hard to do that and just hide the seams in foliage.
though still wouldn't work near as well as dynamic lods for terrain in udk or ce3
Thanks for the vids, I have been working on pretty much the same workflow for terrain to send over to HeroEngine. Will check yours out to see another perspective and hopefully learn something.
thanks glad you guys liked the tutorial, I will probably make some other tuts for modeling or maybe something about making a consistent environment which would apply to any game engine since it will feature a bit of theory and some technical stuff in cryengine and UDK
Here is the final result of the terrain that you saw me working on in the tutorial series :
What do you call the map you extracted with the negative filter? How do you get this in ZBrush? Is there a list of extractable maps and usage cases you guys can point me too?
What do you call the map you extracted with the negative filter? How do you get this in ZBrush? Is there a list of extractable maps and usage cases you guys can point me too?
I call it an "edge hightlight map" I'm not really sure if you can setup the filter size in zbrush (not a big zbrush user xD )
if you have access to the filter size when rendering in AO map in zbrush you can probably do the same thing that I did in mudbox.
Is it possible to mask out my terrain detail textures with masks I made in Photoshop? I don't want to have to rebuild them by hand in the editor, but i cant find where to import them. I know about the mask by slope angle feature, but why should I remake my masks manually when I already made them in Photoshop?
I was discussing possibly using World Machine to create a game in UDK with a few of my classmates, and we got to wondering, and weren't sure where exactly to ask, but since this thread is discussing environment creation using WM, we figured we could probably ask it here.
We are wanting to create a 1024 x 1024 map in Mudbox, similar to as what Choco had made with his (except his was 512x512). And the reason for that is because we want to create 4 quadrants with that map, and give each section a 256x256 map size. Is it at all possible to us WM in a way to create these quadrants so that we can later on choose the sections to make in the height map?
Reason being, we're wanting to create a 3 lvl game, and have it start at a village on a plain like area, to a wooded, hilly location, and end at a ruins upon a plateau.
Cryengine's terrain seems really antiquated compared to udk landscape. Glitchy as hell and it wont allow you import masks or blend materials partially? no thanks.
Ok, now I'm gonna sound the the local ass clown here, but... I'm trying my hardest to get this all working with vertex painting as best as possible... VERTEX PAINT YOU SCREAM!? Yeah... Our engine has quite a complicated lighting set up and it looks stunning granted, the only draw back is that some things are not exactly possible right now, one of them being a better terrain painting system.
So the best I've got so far, is a vertex painted terrain, with a 4096x4096 normal map that blends over the top of all the normal textures (to give it the correct detail/shape when viewed over a distance). But that doesn't really allow nice blending between diffuse maps...
Unless we some how manage to get mega texture working, I can't see our terrain being any better sadly. But it produces decent enough results, I just wish it produced ^^^ THESE ^^^ results
If I understand correctly, you do not need massive textures to get this result. The 2048 he is baking is only seen when you are at a distance. All the gorgeous detail he is getting when he is close to the terrain comes from detail maps. The detail maps fade in based off a custom mask texture which does not need to be that massive. A couple 2K maps are all you should really need for a piece of terrain that big. Then again...I could be epic failing at understanding the process :P
That's me implementing your workflow with UDK Landscape system! From now on displacments won't be the same They are not so cool as yours, but (it's something):poly142:
choco - (sorry to semi-necro this thread) I've actually bought worldbuilder after seeing your tuts, and had one question:
after you've exported the amended mesh from worldbuilder back into mudbox - you then sculpt a bit more emphasizing the rock parts with a unique brush - what brush/stamp/alpha were you using?
This is my first attempt at working with CryEngine and World Machine. I actually purchased World Machine halfway through your tutorial. Very well done, and you have a skill I am working to achieve. I cant wait to continue on and make my levels as detailed as possible. Thank you again for taking the time to do this for us. Im sure Im not the only one who was intimidated by some of these programs.
I'm having issues importing my height map from world machine into udk. I tried exporting a 2048 by 2048 .raw and also an r16 file, but when I use landscape mode to import a height map, nothing happens. Supposedly it's supposed to automatically generate how many components / faces per quadrant are needed, but it doesn't once I import it. It won't allow me to hit the create landscape button. Any ideas anybody?
How do you go about importing the textures and slapping them onto the landscape in UDK? I have no idea what I'm doing and none of the tutorials I can find talk about that. I've made everything else as the tutorial says. I've got the landscape into UDK I just don't have any materials on it. Thanks again for the tutorials.
Keep in mind that in the tutorial when they go over importing all of your masks that you export from world machine, they all need to be imported into udk landscape mode in either r16 or raw data format as separate layers.
thanks for the UDK tutorial, i've been waiting for this one. at the end though when you have 1 texture sample with grass, rock, and soil in RGB channels, can't you just link the channel from the texture sample directly to the layer without a component mask?
thanks for the UDK tutorial, i've been waiting for this one. at the end though when you have 1 texture sample with grass, rock, and soil in RGB channels, can't you just link the channel from the texture sample directly to the layer without a component mask?
Seems like the only way to separate color channels is by using the component mask node. I've tried by directly linking the channel to the next node, it didn't work with the latest version of UDK. (even tho it used to work in the old ones).
thanks for the UDK tutorial, i've been waiting for this one. at the end though when you have 1 texture sample with grass, rock, and soil in RGB channels, can't you just link the channel from the texture sample directly to the layer without a component mask?
this is a tremendous effort and like the others I can't thank you enough, it is coming at a very opportune moment in my own UDK project. This will help tremendously, thank you.
just curious.. would these techniques work for Unity3D as well?
You can pretty much anything in unity, but it may take some coding. I have recently wanted to make some good terrain in Unity but i knew that the builtin Unity terrain system is pretty crap. I didnt want to create an entirely new terrain system because Unitys terrain mesh stuff is actually good, its just the shader and tools that kinda suck.
Unfortunately Unitys terrain system is completely locked down so you cant really directly change it very much. Luckly you can actually create a terrain shader override though which allows you to create nice looking terrain.
Heres what I came up with. This shot is pretty outdated and only has 3 detail textures, but the shader can easily support 5 detail textures, or even more if needed.
I dont really know a whole lot about optimization, but would it cost more or less memory/material instructions to put the diffuse detail textures into the alpha channel of the normal map?
Very nice tutorials choco they're very detailed. I have run into a bit of a problem while following them though if anybody has a solution.
I was following along using Zbrush instead of Mudbox, I got this kind of stepping problem when importing the height map from zbrush to World Machine but then I just used a blur node and continued. Once I imported the modified height map back into Zbrush I got the stepping and that weird flat solid wall on 2 of the edges of my terrain.
Anybody have a solution to this? I've tried 8-bit, 16-bit, CMYK, Greyscale, RGB, larger image sizes, so far the best results ive had is the 2048x2048 8-bit RGB which is what's in that picture.
It imports into UDK fine but I would like to be able to take it back into Zbrush to sculpt in a few more details and bake out another AO and such
Very nice tutorials choco they're very detailed. I have run into a bit of a problem while following them though if anybody has a solution.
you need to change some value in zbrush before importing "preference>performance>preload file size"
i don't know to what since i always put it to the maximum (500) and it solve the moir
Just tried that with all the different modes and such, still even with preloaded file size I get the same problem, also whenever I pick something above 8-bit I get crazy noisy terrain that is just a bunch of spikes. Is there another option I need to check? I'm thinking I'll just paint in my extra details for heightmap in photoshop and constantly test it out in UDK instead of seeing it real time in zbrush
Replies
maybe split it into multiple meshes so you can lod part of the terrain, wouldn't be that hard to do that and just hide the seams in foliage.
though still wouldn't work near as well as dynamic lods for terrain in udk or ce3
Here is the final result of the terrain that you saw me working on in the tutorial series :
[ame]
Finalizing the series with texture detailing process in CE3
[ame]
the rest of it can be found on my youtube channel.
I call it an "edge hightlight map" I'm not really sure if you can setup the filter size in zbrush (not a big zbrush user xD )
if you have access to the filter size when rendering in AO map in zbrush you can probably do the same thing that I did in mudbox.
We are wanting to create a 1024 x 1024 map in Mudbox, similar to as what Choco had made with his (except his was 512x512). And the reason for that is because we want to create 4 quadrants with that map, and give each section a 256x256 map size. Is it at all possible to us WM in a way to create these quadrants so that we can later on choose the sections to make in the height map?
Reason being, we're wanting to create a 3 lvl game, and have it start at a village on a plain like area, to a wooded, hilly location, and end at a ruins upon a plateau.
will you be doing a UDK terrain/landscape demo soon?
no detail textures or lighting yet.
So the best I've got so far, is a vertex painted terrain, with a 4096x4096 normal map that blends over the top of all the normal textures (to give it the correct detail/shape when viewed over a distance). But that doesn't really allow nice blending between diffuse maps...
Unless we some how manage to get mega texture working, I can't see our terrain being any better sadly. But it produces decent enough results, I just wish it produced ^^^ THESE ^^^ results
That's me implementing your workflow with UDK Landscape system! From now on displacments won't be the same
after you've exported the amended mesh from worldbuilder back into mudbox - you then sculpt a bit more emphasizing the rock parts with a unique brush - what brush/stamp/alpha were you using?
This is my first attempt at working with CryEngine and World Machine. I actually purchased World Machine halfway through your tutorial. Very well done, and you have a skill I am working to achieve. I cant wait to continue on and make my levels as detailed as possible. Thank you again for taking the time to do this for us. Im sure Im not the only one who was intimidated by some of these programs.
very awesome of you to share this.
[ame="
the awesome tutorial for this thread doesn't really go over what to do once you get to UDK but this one seemed to go over it pretty well. Enjoy
[ame="
Seems like the only way to separate color channels is by using the component mask node. I've tried by directly linking the channel to the next node, it didn't work with the latest version of UDK. (even tho it used to work in the old ones).
Make sure that your heightmap is in 16bit
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironmentModeling#Environment_Modeling_Tutorials
Good tutorial.
You can pretty much anything in unity, but it may take some coding. I have recently wanted to make some good terrain in Unity but i knew that the builtin Unity terrain system is pretty crap. I didnt want to create an entirely new terrain system because Unitys terrain mesh stuff is actually good, its just the shader and tools that kinda suck.
Unfortunately Unitys terrain system is completely locked down so you cant really directly change it very much. Luckly you can actually create a terrain shader override though which allows you to create nice looking terrain.
Heres what I came up with. This shot is pretty outdated and only has 3 detail textures, but the shader can easily support 5 detail textures, or even more if needed.
(new udk user here)
wanted to try it with some data generated with worldmachine but i get some strange moir
I have a problem when I extract my Heightmap from Mudbox .
Maybe some one can help me .
Thanks a lot
I was following along using Zbrush instead of Mudbox, I got this kind of stepping problem when importing the height map from zbrush to World Machine but then I just used a blur node and continued. Once I imported the modified height map back into Zbrush I got the stepping and that weird flat solid wall on 2 of the edges of my terrain.
Anybody have a solution to this? I've tried 8-bit, 16-bit, CMYK, Greyscale, RGB, larger image sizes, so far the best results ive had is the 2048x2048 8-bit RGB which is what's in that picture.
It imports into UDK fine but I would like to be able to take it back into Zbrush to sculpt in a few more details and bake out another AO and such
you need to change some value in zbrush before importing "preference>performance>preload file size"
i don't know to what since i always put it to the maximum (500) and it solve the moir