⛰️┃terrain-3d

[upbeat thorn]

figured it out

nvm

[unique sapphire]

Why can the box be seen from some angles and from some it cant

the black thing

[winter minnow]

no crossposting

[cinder sluice]

Hey all, Okay, so I'm really really very confused.

I'm trying to add a second terrain as an experiment for something, but it's not doing the dynamic subdividing thing.

First pic is my 'original' terrain, all subdividey and lovely.

Second Pic is the new terrain that I've added, no subdividing.

I've even tried duplicating the original terrain, but as soon as I do anything with it in terms of the heightmap, I get what's in the second pic.

Very very confused. 😕

Any ideas on what the possible issue is please? 😕

[rigid junco]

I suppose that it is smart enough to not subdivide flat areas since that would not change the appearance

You can confirm this by painting some detail on the terrain and seeing if it subdivides those parts

[hexed vault]

How to round your terrain?

as everyone always uses rectangle format

[rigid junco]

Well, you could technically paint holes on the corners to make it round

[hexed vault]

How?

So far it wouldnt be perfectly round

[rigid junco]

Yeah the grid edges would still be visible. Terrain isn't really suited for what you are asking

[hexed vault]

Then what should i pick

[rigid junco]

Maybe make it manually in blender or something

[hexed vault]

How to cut a sphere in half?

[rigid junco]

With what?

In blender you would make a sphere, select the top half vertices, delete them and then fill the top with faces

[hexed vault]

Unity

[rigid junco]

Unity isn't really a 3D modeling program but it has the ProBuilder package which might be able to do that. Not sure

[hollow steppe]

if i wanted to paint snow on all mountains at and above a certain elevation, is there a way to write a script to do that automatically? but also a blend of sorts, not just a solid texture, i would would want it to fade away as the elevation got lower.... basically just like in real life snow, normally between 3000 and 7000 feet, the lower the elevation snow has melted

when I ask google the question i get:

`using UnityEngine;

public class SnowPainter : MonoBehaviour
{
public float snowLineElevation = 3000; // Set the elevation where snow starts
public float snowFadeDistance = 500; // How far the snow should fade out
public Texture2D snowTexture; // Your snow texture
public Texture2D baseTexture; // Your base terrain texture

private Terrain terrain; 

void Start()
{
    terrain = Terrain.activeTerrain;
    PaintSnow(); 
}

void PaintSnow()
{
    TerrainCollider terrainCollider = terrain.GetComponent<TerrainCollider>();
    int width = terrain.terrainData.heightmapWidth;
    int height = terrain.terrainData.heightmapHeight;

    for (int x = 0; x < width; x++)
    {
        for (int z = 0; z < height; z++)
        {
            float elevation = terrainCollider.GetHeight(x, z);
            float snowBlend = CalculateSnowBlend(elevation);
            
            // Blend snow and base textures based on the calculated blend value
            Color blendedColor = Color.Lerp(baseTexture.GetPixelBilinear(x / (float)width, z / (float)height), 
                                           snowTexture.GetPixelBilinear(x / (float)width, z / (float)height), 
                                           snowBlend);
            
            terrain.terrainData.SetPixel(x, z, blendedColor);
        }
    }
    terrain.terrainData.Refresh();
}

float CalculateSnowBlend(float elevation)
{
    // Linear blend based on elevation
    float snowBlend = Mathf.Clamp01((elevation - (snowLineElevation - snowFadeDistance)) / snowFadeDistance);
    return snowBlend;
}

}`

[jaunty lantern]

Hi there! I've tried searching on the internet but as I'm don't have much experience working with textures and the terrain tool, I'm not sure how to fix it.
I'm using models from this asset pack: https://quaternius.itch.io/stylized-nature-megakit, I've had to export all the materials and turn on alpha as transparency for the textures as they weren't showing properly (I don't know if this could have anything to do with the issue).
Anyways, I've been trying to place trees on my terrain but I get these very weird artifacts/color changes when the billboards kick in (image attached where the fade distance is very small). I don't know if my manipulations on the textures/materials have anything to do with that. If anyone has any leads I'm open to hear them (and if this has already been asked I apologize)

[slate granite]

Hey, I'm coming from Godot and having trouble with Unity level design, I'm used to Grid Maps allowing me to have an asset drawer of "prefabs" that snap to a grid, right now I'm just dragging prefabs around the scene and they don't often line up, any tips on how to create better terrains or dungeons?

[winter minnow]

There's grid snapping and vertex snapping that are useful for different types of modular level pieces

[lavish pine]

I'm working on implementing 2D bridges that go over water. I've been gathering some data online about it but I'm missing a crucial step(s).
Can anyone plesae help?

[rose sentinel]

hi why my terrain tool is going like this and when i press left click its making sharp triangle ? pls help

[minor merlin]

its due to height map resolution

[rose sentinel]

How do i reset it to default state sir

[rose sentinel]

Should i make a whole building in blender or should i outline it in unity then fill it in with blender objects?

[steep oxide]

is this related to terrain or do you have the wrong channel? anyways for buildings you can use probuilder (comes with unity, you just have to enable it in the package manager) if you want

[worldly badge]

hi guys, i'm total beginner with unity and i would like to try to make a prototype of 2d shooter game like Soldat. My question is how do I approach in creating polygonal terrain in Unity Editor by drawing polygons and assign them a fill color? I need to create something like this: https://ibb.co/MsXsgCM

[rose sentinel]

Yeah i forgot to change the channel i was messaging in but thanks too

[worldly badge]

anybody? Did I even ask in the right channel?

[steep oxide]

its definitely not related to terrain, the channel description says its also for world building tools tho but idk what tools that means, so i'd just ask in #💻┃unity-talk more people see your question there anyways

[worldly badge]

thanks!

[bright fossil]

Hey guy, I'm having this issue with Procedural Terrain Painter where I cant seem to remove the pixilated quadrant of my terrain, and there seems to also be this strange layer detachment. Any ideas on how to fix this? Would appreciate any help.

Posted this is in art workflow by accident.

[rain lava]

Hi im doing a project like a strategy rts game where i would want to make a procedural generation of the map, can anyone recommend any asset (which can be payed under like 20euros) and has the capability of generating easily a map with scene objects such as trees rocks etc.

[rain lava]

and is compatible with a 'building construction' component in it

[cyan sedge]

hey i need some help with the tree placing tool on terrain
it says that my prefab has no valid mesh renderer
but i checked and , i think it has

[rose night]

Best to show the prefab here

[cyan sedge]

here are some screenshots :

i think this may be an easy fix but i could not find any docs that awnser my problem.

[rose night]

I'm not a terrain expert, but are you supposed to have multiple renderers in the same prefab?

(outside of the scope of an LOD Group)

what if you kept g1 and g2 in their own prefabs and added them separately?

[cyan sedge]

Lemme try

I got it setup as two parts but it still deos not work, did I do the right thing?

Btw I used a .fbx file for the tree model of that changes anything

[cyan sedge]

@rose night

[rose night]

I’m really not sure. Not a terrain expert. I would try setting the tree up as a single object, not as a child of an empty parent game object. So the prefab would just be g1 or g2. See how that goes.

[foggy jacinth]

Is there a commonly known way to swap an instanced/painted tree to an interactable Prefab when character is close? I mean like an Asset that is commonly used, or a chunk of code that is shared

[solar swan]

no

[foggy jacinth]

Ok, scripting it is then. thanks

[cyan sedge]

Ok lemme try

[cyan sedge]

thank you so much you fixed my problem!!

[dense palm]

anyone know how I can generate my procedural generation in this asset? https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/trn-procedural-terrain-generator-vegetation-tree-spawner-hydraul-195811#description

I thought it looked cool and I wanted to try it, but I dont know how to start generating the terrain

[odd quarry]

Question, how can I make my terrain actually use the quality settings? The only option on the terrain itself is Ignore Quality Settings? Or is it automatic, I can't actually tell-

[odd quarry]

Okay, I found it but ummm, how do I enable all of the options with QualitySettings.terrainQualityOverrides?

[foggy jacinth]

i thought this was automatic! Terrain Trees are not being Nav Mesh Obstacles.

[fringe thunder]

so you rebaked it?

[foggy jacinth]

I have tried rebaking a dozen times, with every possible setting i could change in my trees prefab (terrain Obstacle) and in the Nav Mesh Surface

[fringe thunder]

just was thinking of it, I havent a clue

[foggy jacinth]

good idea though, that is often forgotten. Thanks

[fringe thunder]

I mean they wouldn't necessarily be obstacles, try turning carve from stationary off

[foggy jacinth]

yep, that is one of the many settings i have tried. no luck

[fringe thunder]

did you try changing the center of the "carve" object

[foggy jacinth]

yes, i have moved it up and down, and changed radius

[fringe thunder]

https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/navmeshsurface-trees-placed-on-terrain-are-not-taken-into-account-when-baking-navmesh
looks like its a bug with unity

found it here
https://discussions.unity.com/t/navmesh-not-working-with-terrain-trees/249770/3

[foggy jacinth]

well Shit. Ok, thank you

[fringe thunder]

yeah sorry 🫤

[queen geode]

the left tree is from the terrain, the right is the model i picked in the asset file to the terrain, why is the terrain spawned by the terrain looks so bad

[cold forum]

Hullo, I've got some terrain set up in a WebGL project I'm working with, on that terrain I've painted some grass and plants, the prefabs used work and are rendered fine when not on the terrain but the details on the terrain are not rendering in WebGL, however they are rendering in a windows player, anything I could check or try to get this working?

[winter minnow]

It is an "impostor"
Terrain uses a LOD system that swaps 3D meshes to 2D billboards beyond a specified distance

[queen geode]

thank you

[queen geode]

well m not even far i am close to the tree and it enalbed impostor ?

[desert rock]

check your terrain settings, you can change the distance on which the imposters spawn there

[queen geode]

idk there something wrong with the mesh

is there a way to increase the size of the trees even thought they reached the mex height, and i dont think this trees do not get influenced by the terrain tree size too

[odd quarry]

One big terrain or multiple, smaller terrains?

[inner apex]

Question: What type of lights should torches be?

[inner apex]

About how manny "Watts" should it have in blender?

[acoustic wind]

Hello,
I don't usually work with terrains, but now I am, and I wanted to paint the textures. Is there a way to make this...high res? These terrain "pixels" look really big and are very noticeable.

[dense palm]

anyone got some tips on how I can make my terrain less flat?

[rose sentinel]

So I am am new to the engine and was making a forest level for my game. Can anyone tell me how can it be improved?

[dense palm]

grass, (better / more shadows), random rotation on the trees, darker

[rose sentinel]

Alright tysm!

[acoustic wind]

I think that's more a Blender-Related question.

[lavish pine]

Is there a better way to weigh tiles when creating a rule tile? Maybe I need an external rule tile plugin/app?
I have 4 sprites with some dirt in the snow and 20 other tiles that are repeats of snow or have snow grass/lumps.
Why is it that the 4 dirt tiles so heavily outweigh the rest?

[lavish pine]

Or is the usual workflow to just manually flood repeat tiles until the desired ratio is achieved?

[lavish pine]

I looked into the software Tiled and also creating Custom Rule Tile Scripts. Has anyone used either of these? Is it worth diving into to those while making my first few video games?

[rose night]

I've been working with Gaia Pro and Unity 6 for the last few weeks, trying to better understand the terrain system. This has been a terrible experience for me so far and I'm curious whether this is common. In the last few days I've had Unity lock up about 12-15 times just navigating the Scene view or baking probe volumes. Some of those lock ups could not even be killed from Task Manager, had to do hard reboot. Is this normal for terrain scenes? My experience with dense interior environments has been great - no real issues. But terrain is killing my creativity.

[shy mortar]

Hello! I have an issue where, when painting a terrain or using any of the brush tools on terrain, my terrain gets selected on release of the mouse. This exits the brush tool and resets the terrain component in the inspector. I have tried locking the inspector while painting terrains, but the component editor gets reset either way. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

[queen geode]

how do i change the size of the impostor ? cuz they too big

[upper tapir]

Hi guys anyone can help me with the splatmap thing?

I imported the splatmap from QS Gaea but I'm not seeing the Alpha channel in unity

[novel sparrow]

You have wrong compression format. DXT1 does not contain alpha channel (it is with 1 bit alpha, but such variation almost never used)

[sage karma]

how can i get this part of my terrain to where the red arrow is? and that blue face of the hill to where the blue arrow is pointing to? its all in one terrain, and no, i cant just rotate my terrain

[upper tapir]

Thanks for the reply and in order to use the alpha we have to use Nvidia tool. At that time I didn't know this but I'm stuck with one thing why my transparency channel looks off?

I mean why I'm getting black color.

Btw guys what do you think which method is better for mobile games - using height map or using the mesh.

[open basin]

hey guys can anybody help me? this is trippy af

[winter minnow]

Can you describe the issue

[open basin]

My tiles have small bevels (not sure if related to the issue itself).

The issue is as you can see in the video, that the spacing between tiles flashes if you check carefully on the video, as if it was some kind of z figthing or something

[winter minnow]

If the gaps have textures surfaces, it's important to check that the textures are not point filtered
Beyond that you probably want some type of antialiasing

I would also verify that the texturing / mesh's UV mapping in the beveled areas is not weird somehow

If there's more geometric detail or texture detail between the tiles that can be fit onto a screen pixel at that distance, and you have no AA or texture filtering respectively, flickering will occur

[open basin]

it actually only happens when the camera is moving

I changed the texture to be bi/trilinear

And I also have both a Post process layer that has volume blending and antialissing SMAA, and in the project settings is set to x8

I've read about setting the rendering path to deferred could help and also about clipping planes, but for some reason my camera does not allow me to tweak them

Thank you a lot for your input tho 🙂

I'm not sure how to check the UV's this is what it looks like in blender when I click the UV tab

[winter minnow]

You must select the polygons for them to show in the UV editor
In this case perhaps just the vertical faces for clarity

Deferred rendering path doesn't help with this, in fact it could make it worse since you can't use hardware AA methods

Which is most likely the only thing you need to fix it

MSAA is a hardware AA method, SMAA is not

Oh, and the texture must have mip map generation enabled

[open basin]

Which rendering path would you recommend? that is my texture configuration.

Also when trying to configure the MSAA, it says Use graphics settings which I don't understand

I don't see the option to enable MSAA

[open basin]

I also still see saw borders in some of the tiles, even with antialiasing enabled

[winter minnow]

I also still see saw borders in some of

[foggy venture]

Anyone know how to get the grass to spawn with a specific rotation? The billboarding does not work right when the camera is directly over the grass

I need the grass to rotate on the x-axis

[misty moss]

How to make character controller not climb any slope, i tried reducing the slope to 0 or even 0.1 but it doesn't work

[winter minnow]

Not really a Terrain question
You'd ask in #💻┃unity-talk , or perhaps in #💻┃code-beginner if your code is driving the CC

[misty moss]

Okay thanks

[open basin]

Hey, does anybody have any suggestion about how to make this look a little bit better? The gap between tiles and terrain looks awful but I can't move them inside the tiles because the users would be able to place objects there. Would you add a small piece of tile below the walls?

[winter minnow]

Not really a Terrain question
Assuming your wall tiles don't move, you could add an extension piece below them that is seamless rather than beveled

[open basin]

Thanks, I will do that 🙂

[stone flame]

Why do I have "add grass texture" option unavailable?

[delicate vale]

anybody have experience with parallax occlusion mapping with terrain?

I have created a material but using the parallax occlusion mapping node creates this result with default Unity terrain

if I convert it to an actual mesh it works just fine tho

Could this be related to how UVs are generated with the default terrain?

I am on URP btw

[pulsar drift]

Using terrain tools & paint details, my friend who has a 1060 is getting absymal fps looking in this direction however on a 4070 I'm getting 300 fps. I have 5 different grass types and I don't think there is that much details to cause an issue. Can anyone give tips on optimizing this??

I already have the detail distance set super low..

[stone whale]

Im using the new Unity 6.23f and im not sure why but my terrain just stopped rendering

ive tried restarting unity, reinstalling the packages

I am getting this error, that I imagen has something to do with it

[sand cape]

hi guys, im having some issues with my trees. I recently purchased a tree off the asset store that I really liked, and am now trying to use it with the terrain I made.

In the screenshot, on the left is a tree that i placed myself, while on the right, are trees placed with the unity terrain system. they get really small, and its like the billboards are showing up with a semi normal scale as seen in the back

any help is appreciated!!

[shut lagoon]

Hi, I am currently making a prototype world for my game. And I want to place trees, but for some reason they become pretty flat (see 1st image) instead of the normal size (see 2nd image). Does someone know why this happens and how to fix it

[radiant elbow]

Anyone knows a good tool (free) to turn a mesh into a terrain?

[winter minnow]

You can generate a height map from anything in blender, convert it to .raw in gimp and import into Terrain component

[shell tangle]

why the tree generation from terrain create my assets on such small scale

in the prefab transfrom scale i cranked it up from 1 to 1000 and nothing changed

[tacit raven]

Anyone know of a way to snap an object to a terrain? (match the Y axis?) V or Ctrl-Move doesn't seem to work. (using Unity 6)

[tacit raven]

This may work. It is from Unity docs.

public class ExampleScript : MonoBehaviour
{
    void LateUpdate()
    {
        Vector3 pos = transform.position;
        pos.y = Terrain.activeTerrain.SampleHeight(transform.position);
        transform.position = pos;
    }
}

But i need to make a editor tool out of it, I guess. (Don't know how that would be done)

[small vault]

Hello, I have this kind of level, what kind off collider I can use on this level parts? Mesh colliders?

[jagged juniper]

Hey, guys! I have a question. Terrain should be covering the environment that I am using or I just have to create the terrain myself and delete the environment? What I mean is that I am using environment assets and I want to do specific things by using terrain in my game. Do you have any information to give me about the terrain because I have never use it before?

[umbral crag]

Hey im using navmesh for my enemy AI and I want to make a certain area of my navmesh non-walkable but navmesh has been tough to work with and I'm not sure of the easiest way to go about this. There aren't many videos working with terrain and navmesh, I basically want a circular area to be a "safe zone" on my map.

[bold gyro]

pls help i know this looks terrible rn but why can i only see flowers on my terrain when im in scene view but not play view

[minor merlin]

it's because unity is culling terrain objs to improve performance in runtime

[minor merlin]

it depends on your opinion but mesh Collider will provide accurate collision

[minor merlin]

you can unselect the static selection for your safe zone, that way nav mesh will not bake those areas.

[minor merlin]

you can use terrain material for this

[undone creek]

How so?

[minor merlin]

Okay I messed up here is a revised advise.

1. Prepare Your Texture: Ensure it's seamless for a smooth transition across tiles.

2. Set Texture Scale: Each terrain tile should use a portion of the texture based on the grid size (e.g., 1/6th for a 6x6 grid).

3. Adjust UV Mapping:

Use the Paint Texture tool in Unity.

Set the appropriate tiling for each terrain tile.

Offset each tile's texture coordinates to align them correctly.

[bold gyro]

how do i stop this

[minor merlin]

To stop this you will need a editor script to control the culling.

By the way, when in game view the flowers is visible right?

[undone creek]

My "tree" prefab is set up with a script that makes the tree interactable via raycast. Specifically, clicking the "tree" in-game reveals a UI canvas that has information specific to that tree. However, I can't use that script when I try to use the prefab with my terrain because the trees are not placed as gameObjects. But I can't just spawn them as gameObjects because there's over 10k of these, all with unique information.

I assume the best approach to this would be to swap trees currently rendered at LOD 0 with their equivalent gameObject, but how would I actually do that?

[sick terrace]

hey when I paint grass on my terrain there are like big spaces inbetween

I already maxed the density and have the space between on 0

nevermind had to put the scatter mode on insane amount

[bold gyro]

nope, not even in game view

[minor merlin]

1. Are you using any shader with flowers?

2. And, are you using texture for it or geometry?

[minor merlin]

Also you can check the pipeline setting if they are messed up.

You can also re-set the camera setup.

[small vault]

but i heard from somebody that mesh collider takes more resources and it limits performance no?

[minor merlin]

Yea, correct. but if you are using mesh that have low vertex count that you don't affect that much.

if it's a high poly model then using colliders like box Collider will make sense

[ember blaze]

unity terrain system isn't performant enough for mobile vr. I've tried a system with meshes with lods and obviously I'm getting the gaps from misalignments in optimisations and such... What are the options here? I'd love a heightmap based dynamically mesh lodding thing.... is it a pipe deam?

[cyan copper]

i thought Unity Terrain system overall is not mobile-ready, and it is recommended to instead do "custom/manual terrain" for mobile with premade mesh and baked textures etc... or at least i remember this being the apparent knowledge/recommendation some years ago, is that still the case?

[winter minnow]

Yes, I believe

Terrain hasn't received significant improvements in many years, and although it has rather particular features and optimizations, they're unlikely to be perfect for any specific game

[ember blaze]

Yes, i know unity terrain itself isn’t the option for me, i was wondering if there are any alternative systems that people are using?

[solar swan]

the main problem with terrain is that it uses a lot of memory and can quickly consume your render budget if you aren't using it conservatively. Also most things you need to make it look nice require advanced GPU features not all mobile platforms offer. If you keep your terrain small enough, you can use it on any platform. What do you want to do with it? DIY'ing a terrain with meshes and LODs will probably be even worse assuming you do nothing else on top of that to make it mobile-ready.

[rocky folio]

Hi all
I wanna change Heightmap Resolution to 17x17, why is the smallest 33x33?

I find this very weird bcoz Control Texture Resolution's smallest size is 16x16...

Is there a way to.. uhh.. edit the source to allow this?

Or is there any way to achieve this?

I don't actually need 16x16. I'm just working on something and i'd like to work with the smallest possible size to isolate the logic...

[fallen compass]

Is it possible to paint with materials (not textures) on the terrain? maybe like in ue5?

[minor merlin]

by default nope
you have to make it using terrain material and stuff

[solar swan]

The quad mesh LOD algorithm probably needs a minimum size to be able to work.

[stark relic]

i cant add or remove any grass i have on my terrain

it was working fine awhile ago but just randomly started this

[rigid junco]

Looks like it is hitting the limit of grass instances. Try messing with the detail resolution settings in the terrain

Oh wait your brush Opacity is set to 0

That's the issue

[stark relic]

oh my god.. im so stupid

thank you very much haha

[rotund summit]

Physics debugger render all terrain colliders in zero point. Its bug or I doing something wrong?

[rigid junco]

Pretty sure that's a bug. Report it !bug

[reef bay]

Reporting bugs

🪲 To make bug reporting as quickly as possible, we made a bug reporting application for you. When running Unity choose Help->Report a Bug in the menu, or you can access it directly through the executable in the directory where Unity is installed. It will also launch automatically if you experience a crash.

📝 If your bug report is to do with Documentation, either an error, typo, or omission, you can report it by scrolling to the bottom of the page where you found the issue and click ‘Report a problem on this page’!

💡If your report is to do with a new feature idea, you can check the Unity Product Roadmaps page to see if your idea has already been planned.

For more complete instructions on how to report bugs, access: https://unity3d.com/unity/qa/bug-reporting

[rigid junco]

First make sure that it happens in a fresh scene with a fresh terrain too.

[rotund summit]

Submitted. Just can't believe that's something common used may be broken. upd: will be fixed in 6000.0.27f1

[balmy sequoia]

would anyone know why my procedural terrain chunks are being placed in the same spot? leaving a link for my endless terrain script. https://pastebin.com/BDYmgiRB

[round loom]

Why do the trees do this? They are painted tress

[pallid kestrel]

How do I get to use can I have a vid dm me thank you

[rose sentinel]

Question: do Unity terrain details not batch?
is it not possible?
I have loads of grass prefabs placed down as part of the terrain detail and I have 0 saved by batching

[rose sentinel]

did you check these settings?

[stark relic]

whats up with these line above my grass?

i know the texture im using doesnt have that on it

[rose sentinel]

what are your anti aliasing settings?

[winter minnow]

Try setting the grass texture wrap mode to clamp
In case it's the bottom edge of the grass that can be seen at the top

[stark relic]

that didnt seem to do anything

[stark relic]

I dont have it enabled

[timid ferry]

Keep getting this error using the new Terrain Tools 5.2.1 for Unity 6000.9.26f1

Anyone know why this is happening or if its a bug?

[tribal bear]

Hey, i am new to unity but i need some help because i am following a tutorial series and it said the next step was to paint grass, but all of my brushes say "this brush is read only" and i cannot figure out a fix. does anyone else here know how to fix this?

[shrewd lintel]

Quick Question (apologies if asked before): Is there a way to access individual detail mesh i guess? Like if I have grass which is a mesh and its painted over a terrain, is there a way I would be able to access it?

[solar swan]

Not directly

[shrewd lintel]

So if I wanna do like say grass that lights on fire, would that not be a good idea? I was thinking about a prefab having like 2 states but if I can't change it then Ill look for another solution

[solar swan]

You need to do this in the shader, not in the individual instances

[shrewd lintel]

Yeah but the shader would be visual right, and id want the grass to go away or maybe create some smoke, wouldn't that not be possible on the shader?

[solar swan]

Ie modify the rendering of your grass based on world position and some masks

[solar swan]

The grass will not go away, but it can become invisible

You can use the same technique (world position + masking) in a vfx graph to create smoke

[shrewd lintel]

Yeah that's fair enough, I guess I can figure out a way around that

I've done this one Opengl with a compute shader but I had access to individual blades/patches with instanceids but I don't on this terrain system. I'll figure out a way tho, thanks so far!

[solar swan]

You can also draw your blades manually and do whatever you want

[shrewd lintel]

Yeah fair

[solar swan]

But that is generally rather tedious to get it to be fast

Typically you’d just buy one of the excellent assets that have already solved all this for you

[shrewd lintel]

Lol fair enough

[solar swan]

DIY is still required if you aren’t doing it on a terrain

[analog silo]

i cant seem to get my terrain to be detected by raycasts. iv tried ensuring matching layermask to terrain object layer. ensuring the terrain has a terrain collider.

i am using unity terrain tools

[rigid junco]

Show your code in case the issue is there

[gusty stratus]

Hey guys, I am working on a VR project where I have a landscape in Blender that I need to use, but I require a Unity terrain for adjustments. Is there a way to convert the landscape into a Unity terrain?

[tardy lark]

what do you guys use for your terrain heightmaps

if you want some real looking terrain with hils, erosions etc

[solar swan]

World Machine, Gaea, World Creator

[balmy sequoia]

Would anyone know why my terrain is being all piled up here?
Question
For Context, I've been following this series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFt_AvWsXl0eBW2EiBtl_sxmDtSgZBxB3 to a T, and I'm getting the problem as shown above. I'll link the scripts that are all connected to the generation of these incase anyone can see the issue. Thanks

Endless Terrain- https://pastebin.com/CXXSrsgk

Mesh Generator- https://pastebin.com/DD5UXTuJ

Map Generator-https://pastebin.com/c5GV3rZL

[tardy lark]

ty

[rocky folio]

Hi all. Googling this finds the opposite so.. asking here
Is there a way, when painting a terrain, for the brush to NOT smear to other terrains by accident? I tried setting the other terrain to unpickable, or put it in a layer that's unpickable, and... even setting it to not visible, yet the other terrain still gets paint smeared

[half mason]

Visually I'm seeing breaks in your terrain coloring which usually is a sign your offset where you're sampling noise is wrong. I would recommend looking in Noise.GenerateNoiseMap and verifying the offset is correct for each chunk.

[balmy sequoia]

okay thanks

[tardy lark]

anyone else being blocked from installing gaea

windows defender does not allow it.

[solar swan]

click on "more info", then "install anyway" (which is something that happens for all apps that don't pay money to microsoft for "trust" and not a gaea or unity problem)

[inner dagger]

i did a project in 2022 and had to drown grade to 2021.3.34f1 which seem ok but when i open i get this error what do i need to do to fix this thanks

as i dont know what it means and everything looks fine in the scene

[rocky folio]

Hi all. I'm looking to make a grid-y level, using unity terrain, so i lowered the resolution and now getting this jagged ness for curves
Is there a way to make the terrain handle this by making diagonals?

[winter minnow]

No

The direction of the triangulation would have to require knowledge of where diagonal paths should be
But the mesh is generated first without any knowledge of the terrain shape or height

[marsh mesa]

hey I tryied to install high resolution/realistic terrain to my HDRP project from poly haven but when I try to unzip folder i get blender file and texture folder how do I install it in the project?

[sharp pawn]

guys how can i add a texture

pls

[austere heron]

Been using RealtimeCSG to get a simple level done, but getting the navmesh ready isn't working how I hoped. I've got all these objects placed down, and say I want to put a navmesh on the closest building I select it, put a navmesh surface on it, press bake but I can't see whether anything has actually happened. Is the actual blue navmesh overlay disabled by default?

[rocky folio]

Testing forwarding message, i hope the image shows..

Anyways i have a question. Unity terrain, the heightmap and the texture map resolution is different. Texture is, say 64x64. Heightmap is 65x65
This makes the texture to align differently depending on where on the terrain. On the edges, the texture's "cells" is centered on the terrain's vertex, and closer to the middle, it's centered on the terrain cell's poly

Is there... any workaround or something i can do about this?

[stark relic]

is there a alternative to the terrain/lit shader for terrain? im modding a game but it doesnt support the standard Lit shader, other shaders like complex lit work but i dont see an option for that

[wet crow]

Can someone help my terrain is squares?

and its soo big

[drifting crown]

You need to provide some context. Which view are you using?

[wet crow]

do you mean this?

@drifting crown ?\

[drifting crown]

Have you never seen Unity scene grid?

[wet crow]

this grid yes another grid sadly no

[drifting crown]

Is it in camera view as well?

[wet crow]

Like The Player camera?

I'm sorry i haven't used terrain in awhile

[drifting crown]

The game view

[wet crow]

no its not

[drifting crown]

So it's a scene visualisation grid. What's wrong with it?

[wet crow]

its big like very big

[drifting crown]

Turn it off if you don't want it

[wet crow]

im not talking about the grid

im talking about the terrain paint being too big

even after the brush size being small

[drifting crown]

Configure terrain resolution https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/terrain-OtherSettings.html

[wet crow]

what does that do

[drifting crown]

You did open the link, right?

[wet crow]

Yeah I was a little confused

[abstract turtle]

Hey all, is there any performant way to make regular updates to a terrain's tree array, without triggering a bunch of GC?

[solar swan]

do you know at which point the garbage is created? if you reuse the array, resize it manually, treat it as a buffer, is there still garbage?

[abstract turtle]

Getting the current tree array on the terrain, it seems like:

[solar swan]

then i would suppose its the native/managed transition that creates the copy and since i can't see any "raw" API you're out of luck

in any case, the terrain system is known to be "terribly" inefficient in regards to updates so that is just gonna be something we have to live with for now, or DIY a better system for ourselves.

[abstract turtle]

Yup all good, thought I'd quickly check in case I missed anything obvious before I embark on rewriting all tree rendering code haha

[solar swan]

typically, to improve vegetation rendering, you'd use your own renderer/instancer anyway

[abstract turtle]

It's annoying because GPU wise it actually seems to do relatively well, but CPU side the culling of them all, and whatever the terrain is doing looping through every tree to do stuff like set shader variables, is the killer

Actually spoke too soon, might've fixed it! Just maintaining all the tree instance arrays myself and purely using the inbuilt set method seems to not generate GC + when burst + jobifying, acceptable performance

[solar swan]

you can observe this kind of behaviour on many rendering related APIs, i.e. reading that forces a native transition is inefficient

meshes offer the native buffers for direct use for example, sadly terrain doesnt

[rough gazelle]

guys is there any way to rotate the unity terrain?

[manic wave]

camera close up in this part makes it look square-y

for example here this does not happen

Oh it only happens with the last terrainlayer i added... any clues why?

another terrainlayer after that seems fine again

[manic wave]

actually my old layers also have this problem:

zoomed out a little bit

[solar swan]

Does this also happen if you paint your layers with a wider blend area (softer brush)?

[manic wave]

yea tried that

[solar swan]

iirc blending happens in sets of 4 layers, might be that every 4th layer has issues blending with one from another set?

[manic wave]

hmm idk...

i used microsplat now and it works good

[sudden current]

My terrain right now consists of 16 chunks each 1.252km in size.
Some of these chunks need to be very detailed paint wise - road markings, smooth texture layer transitions etc.
Problem is I've only got 4 layers right now and one chunk of data is 88MB
Isn't this like massive? My game is supposed to run on webGL anyone got any approach tips for this?

[inland jetty]

Perhaps you can use decal renderers to fill in fine details

[shrewd quarry]

I'm using the paint details tool for placing grass on my unity terrain. Does anyone know how I can get the grass to be more dense?

[solar swan]

What resolution is your terrain?

If you need to paint at a higher resolution than your heightmap you should consider alternatives to painting these features. Roads can be meshes, textures can be designed differently, ground cover, pebbles and rocks can be GPU instanced and add volumetric details that mask the low resolution of the masks/splats

[inland jetty]

yeah -- terrain is a bad choice for things that are very, very sparse and also very detailed

[cosmic hawk]

Hey y’all, is there a way to get stylized looking lighting like cell shading on unitys default terrain because I’m never blue to try and edit the shader and most of what I know about shaders is limited to shader graph with a custom lighting node

[solar swan]

You would have to make a custom terrain shader, which is mostly undocumented, so the simple answer is: not possible. But you can use textures that look like or fit a cel shaded world

[sudden current]

ohhh right yeah i never thought of that, i suppose i could definitely use decals and meshes for some things. fyi these are/were my terrain res settings. thanks for the help! (and sorry for late reply lol)

[cosmic hawk]

Flat kit was able to make their own terrain shader for the unity terrain and so was microsplat so not all hope is lost, maybe I’ll find some documentation

Or what about a lighting post process effect?

[thin marsh]

can we change the size of a terrain ?

[glossy falcon]

why am i colliding with the tilemap building here?

[solar swan]

#🖼️┃2d-tools

[wet crow]

Does anyone know how to get grass to be more dense????

[fresh valve]

Anybody got a triplanar terrain shader for built-in render pipeline?

[solar swan]

Microsplat has a triplanar module https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/microsplat-96478#description

[solar swan]

increase the details settings that drive the max instance count. If that’s not enough, use clumps of grass. Potentially look into a custom shader that can align or fit those clumps to the terrain shape.

[sweet acorn]

hello can someone help me?

[oak sparrow]

having some issues with your shaders?

[inland jetty]

Make sure to describe your problem! It might be obvious to you (and it's mostly obvious to us here), but, still...

[sweet acorn]

so i have bueyed an pack and now imported it but i dont know every think over unity. Also i importat this and now its pink lol

[inland jetty]

That magenta color means that a shader isn't working

Show me a screenshot of the "Graphics" section of the Project Settings

Also link me to the asset pack

[sweet acorn]

https://syntystore.com/products/polygon-tropical-jungle-nature-biome

[sweet acorn]

here is an error

[inland jetty]

Okay, so it's designed for the built-in render pipeline, but it also says you can convert it to work with the URP

[inland jetty]

Show me your Graphics settings.

The menu's look might very different. Just show me one screen's worth

[inland jetty]

Okay, I can tell you're using URP because of that readme file

[inland jetty]

Follow the instructions linked here. It's in the "Technical Info" section of the asset page

[sweet acorn]

ok thanks!

[inland jetty]

It ~should~ be a pretty simple conversion process

[sweet acorn]

also i need to do that or: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpTK-OraZ-g

[inland jetty]

This video should explain how to use the converter

[sweet acorn]

here

[sweet acorn]

ok i made also that and some terrain/ assets works now but not all

OHHH I GOT IT

@inland jetty Thanks!

[rose sentinel]

anyone knows how to fix that? while trying to make a holes in terrain

everything is dublicating while moving screeen, idk how to explain

it looks so weird

and also i can't see what's behind this holes

[old finch]

Does terrain tree painting affect performance much?

[inland jetty]

the act of painting the trees, in particular?

or rendering the trees?

[lost sundial]

hey

how should I add lightprobe support for terrain "grass"

[glacial orbit]

Hello.
I have an issue with neighbors terrains.
There is some places at junctions where there is such bizarre elevation that I can't remove or change. But not everywhere.
Can I fix that? 🙂

[lost sundial]

in which way Unity's terrain store the grass or detail instances?

[old finch]

just rendering all those trees

[inland jetty]

I dunno about grass, but trees are stored in TerrainData.treeInstances

https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/TreeInstance.html

[solar swan]

it does not store instances it stores a density value on a detail map (sort of a texture), one map per detail-type, the renderer draws the meshes/billboards based on that value and a scatter function. If you want to take control over this placement you need to build a custom renderer.

[lucid trench]

In Tree Builder, the leaves always seem to be separated from the branch/trunk without a way to force them to appear connected. My leaf texture has the stem touching the bottom of the image, but the gap remains. Any way to lesson this?

[inland jetty]

(just noticed that I glued your question together with Frog's message and decided you were asking about trees. Oops!)

[solar swan]

typically you'd author the pivot & UVs of the leaf mesh such that it aligns with the atlas texture. Thats what you'd do in SpeedTree, TreeBuilder may or may not have that feature.

[lucid trench]

it's not a leaf mesh, it's procedurally generated via Tree Creator.

[solar swan]

still a mesh

[wet crow]

Is this good for a beginner

Any improvements I should make?

[lost sundial]

sounds great , suppose I dont need the terrain at all , I just need the grass/mesh detail in the scene and nothing else , Can I do this seperately? does Unity provides any api for that? currently Im doing this unchecking the 'draw" on terrain setting so that the terrain isnt visible and removing the terrain collider also , which I dont need. I just need to have those grass visible and nothing else. But the way unity terrain is storing the density value in a detail map to render the grass, How do I do it without the existence of any 'Terrain' .?

[crisp wraith]

Hello, I wanted to ask whats the go to way to procedurally place objects in a scene on start?
Also, would those objects need to be their own prefabs, or is there a way to directly "extract" the meshes from the blend file?

[solar swan]

You can access the terrain data asset from anywhere. But you can’t have the builtin terrain renderer without having a terrain. You could use an invisible material on it though

[lost sundial]

can I remove all the data from th terrain data asset except that grass detail?

[lost sundial]

any way , is there any method to automatically mass place grass in unity terrain based on splatmap?

[rose night]

Yes, 3rd party tools

[solar swan]

you can DIY that with a script, or with assets like Microverse.

[solar swan]

no

[lost sundial]

can you suggest me any free tool?

[solar swan]

if you don't need the terrain data, only a density map for grass, simply make your own datastructure. At this point, why are you even using terrain?

[solar swan]

no

[solar swan]

it is not particularly impressive. whether its good, depends on what the goals are.

[lost sundial]

cause i don't have any idea how to make anything like that on my own. can you explain me the procedure of doing something based on the density map broadly?

[solar swan]

if you can't DIY that stuff, then you either buy an asset or stop developing your project in that direction. Explaining how to DIY stuff like that is way too much effort for a discord chat and you would probably not be able to make use of it.

[lost sundial]

then maybe just a bit of easy to understand workflow? is that possible here? i mean some clear idea on that would be helpful(the density map based workflow)

[solar swan]

what even is your goal?

in broad terms of gameplay/visuals/aesthetics/design

[lost sundial]

an open world for mobile device...priority on visual...right now i am trying to render grass....used terrain to do so, but i thought it would be better to get rid of other terrain data that are not needed ad i am not using terrain to do anything else other than rendering the grass

[solar swan]

how are you rendering the ground below the grass?

[lost sundial]

it is a gameobject...it was terrain but i converted it to gameobject for got performance support in mobile platform

[solar swan]

this does not make sense

[lost sundial]

ok thanks

[hidden lynx]

Does anyone know why I'm getting these absolutely abysmal bumps on my terrain?

Happens when on less complexity too. I tried increasing the height map which fixed one issue (jagged terrain) but brought this

[hidden lynx]

Restarted with the starting terrain at it seems fine. Smooth tool comes in clutch for jagged terrain like this

[solar swan]

how big is the terrain in worldspace?

[crisp jolt]

Hey guys I am trying to paint layers on my terrain, with which I never had any troubles. But now when I try to paint I get this error, and my terrain and scene turns black completely. I checked and all material generate mipmaps. Does anyone have any on what i can do?

[crisp jolt]

When I open a new unity file and use the same layers, it does work

"Fixed"

[inland jetty]

You can directly reference mesh assets from an imported model if you want.

Note that a .blend file gets imported just like an .fbx -- Unity asks Blender to export an FBX and imports the result

[violet oak]

what kind of tool can I use to make a cave? like some tunnels going down and also for a bigger area?

[lost sundial]

does terrain grass support lightprobes?

[solar swan]

No

[solar swan]

Model in blender & co. or use this asset, or use a full voxel terrain https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/digger-pro-voxel-enhanced-terrains-149753

[violet oak]

I'd use that but I'm broke 😔

[sweet obsidian]

My question is about beginner terrain and graphics: I understand I can model my maps using Blender, but as far as texture goes, is it added during Unity stage? I'm just trying to figure out the correct workflow to create a cheap version of this:

[drifting crown]

#⛰️┃terrain-3d is a specific tool for creating terrain. You can look at the pinned resources in this channel.
There's no "correct" workflow. If you need to get prototype working fast you work with placeholders. At any point you can swap it for an actual asset and texture it or not later.

[sweet obsidian]

should have read more before posting, thanks for the patience and answer

[solar swan]

This is not a terrain btw. It’s a regular mesh with painted textures.

[inland jetty]

"Terrain" is a very specific thing, yeah

It's a special kind of renderer that creates a surface based on a height map

[mint breach]

I’m making a horror game, and I want your guys’ feedback. This is part 1:

Are there any improvements I should make?

[solar swan]

Add a terrain

[umbral path]

i need help, it wont let me paint the terrain

[paper sapphire]

can you explain a bit more? actually first off lets see a screenshot of the terrain and the inspector of the terrain component w/ what u have selected to paint

[solar swan]

no

[lost sundial]

how do I remove this thing from terrain data?

can I access to terrain data using script and remove it?

[foggy pecan]

How can i scale them bigger? they are at max HEight

[solar swan]

Why would you want to remove it? It’s the map defining where which texture goes.

[lost sundial]

i don't need it anymore, do you know how to remove this?

[lost sundial]

How to prevent terrain grass from overlapping with each other?

[solar swan]

Reduce density, otherwise not possible, grass is supposed to be tolerant of overlap

[lost sundial]

I see

[lost sundial]

what format should I use for the terrain detail's texture?

currently it's in astc format

[solar swan]

Try with all having the same settings (depth, compression, channels etc), not just group of formats.

[main tinsel]

Can someone help me with terrain textures? I downloaded a ground texture to add to my terrain but have no idea how to, I googled it, watched a bunch of videos but they had a different format of Unity. For context, I am new to Unity so I have 0% idea on using it

[main tinsel]

This looks sick!

[main tinsel]

just ping me if you can help, it is really basic so you likely can

nvm I found out, guess it was my screen size that caused the issue

[inland jetty]

One other thing that could be important -- there's a "Terrain Tools" package that changes how you work with the Terrain component

I know that it changes how you create terrain layers

[main tinsel]

Oh thanks! That actually helps a lot!

I needed it and was tryna find ways to create layers

[main tinsel]

@inland jetty So hey man, I found out terrain tools and am using it rn but just to learn if it has anything more special, does it only give you more customizeable features for building terrain or help with built-in terrain?

[inland jetty]

It gives you some new kinds of sculpting brushes and makes editing terrain layers more pleasant

[main tinsel]

Alr thx, I appreciate that man!

[severe pumice]

however i fix this

[solar swan]

if you drag that grass prefab into a scene, does it look correct?

[severe pumice]

yes

[solar swan]

can you share a screenshot of its hierarchy?

[severe pumice]

top one is an LOD

bottom one is the actual grass

[solar swan]

you mean the top one has a LOD group?

[severe pumice]

yes

[solar swan]

and the grass3 is assigned to LOD0?

[severe pumice]

no

what do you mean a lod 0

ive used lod groups once

parent

child

[solar swan]

your LOD groups are empty

[severe pumice]

so im an idiot

[solar swan]

you either have to assigne grass3's renderer to LOD0 or remove LODs entirely

and remove all empty LOD groups

[severe pumice]

only lod0?

got it

[solar swan]

since you have only one mesh, you should remove the LOD group entirely

and control tree rendering by setting tree draw distance on the terrain

(not entirely sure whether the default terrain renderer even supports LODs)

[severe pumice]

it does for trees

[severe pumice]

i dont see this option anywhere

[solar swan]

its called "tree distance"

in any case, thats unrelated to your original problem

[severe pumice]

ye

[solar swan]

the bounds cannot be determined because your LOD group is empty

[severe pumice]

now i just need to fix this

[solar swan]

what is "this"?

[severe pumice]

do you know how i could do a shader for my terrain

for textures based on terrain height

[solar swan]

if you have to ask, you probably can't do that on your own

its largely undocumented how to do it

[severe pumice]

ill learn ive got time

[solar swan]

you can't learn, you have to "figure it out"

[severe pumice]

ive got a lot of time to figure it out

[solar swan]

then you just have to figure out which properties that shader needs to be compatible with the terrain system and build that shader

[severe pumice]

ill just redo the whole system with a mesh if i need to

but itll just be inconvenient

[solar swan]

you could just procedurally paint the splat maps based on height and use the regular shader

[severe pumice]

thats what ive been trying and its not looking good 😭

[solar swan]

you have to explain what you mean by "not looking good"

nobody knows what your goal is

[severe pumice]

lower parts is grass

middle part is the light brown

top is the rock

based on height

[calm bobcat]

i modeled a tree with blender recently, exported it to unity, and tried using it to paint trees using a terrain gameobject but im running into a ton of problems.

the tree itself is a prefab of a bunch of icospheres and a cube enclosed within a gameobject. when i try to add that game object as a tree, it says it cant be instanced because it has no mesh renderer. i add a mesh renderer and mesh filter, and the mesh can only be the branch (cube) or one of the leaves (icospheres). what should i do to fix this?

[winter minnow]

Combine the parts of the tree into one mesh before exporting it

[calm bobcat]

just did that, now the shader is messing up

seems like the shaders for the materials is read only, cant change them to nature/soft occlusion

or i guess new problem: the shader is broken on my system, any material with it is bright pink

[hushed sedge]

Hello， Is there a way to import terrain from a Higher version of Unity ?

im using Unity 2018, I bought some Map Packages, all items are good except the terrain won't show up.

I tried a thing , called "terrain to mesh ", played all of it's settings , both the texture color and the ground normal-map effect, their result is 60% quality, Is there a better way of importing Terrrain from higher version Unity？

[solar swan]

Have you tried simply copying the terrain data asset?

[hushed sedge]

copy ? when I open the bought package map, Unity 2018 and Unity 2022 can both open same file, but 2018 the terrain .asset can't be read. Fail to load . . . .. terrain.asset. Because it was serialized with a newer version of Unity . (Has a higher serializedfile version)

[tardy lark]

what could be the reaosn mesh grass is not appearing on my terrain in urp

i paint but it does not show up

[calm bobcat]

how can i use nature/soft occlusion shaders if i am using a urp 3d template?

[violet oak]

how do i get a seamless shiny texture like this? when i move around the shiny parts all show up randomly as like a reflective effect

[winter minnow]

Which reflective effect, the snow glints of the mirror sheen?
I guess in either case it's a particular shader calculation
Lit materials and even the Terrain material supports smoothness so you can make it reflect as if polished

[violet oak]

the snow glints

[winter minnow]

A custom shader effect, likely taking notes from this: https://youtu.be/wt2yYnBRD3U

[violet oak]

sick thank you

[half belfry]

I have some models that are basically Tiles in 3D.

Is there a tool so I can easily use us and make something similar to the 4th gen pokemon games or will I have to make my own tool?

[dark orbit]

I am having some issues with my details, im placing dowing trees and grass but when i move around in scene view the trees leaves are turning purple at certain angles:

how can i fix this?

[dark orbit]

NVM i fixed it, the problem was he diffusion profile

[random widget]

I'm doing this Udemy FPS game tutorial but since the version the tutor is using is 2019 and I'm on Unity 6 a fair bit is different. I'm using the Unity StarterAsset and sitting with enemy and NavMesh atm, and in the tutorial the guy has a bake button right in the Navigation window which I don't. I placed a NavMesh Surface component on the environment parent object, clicked the bake button but get no "blue zones" anywhere?

Super new to this so pretty clueless as to what to do

[inland jetty]

unfold the "Object Collection" section and have a look at that

It might be targeting the wrong layers.

also, this is an #🤖┃ai-navigation problem, so you should post over there and link back to the original message here!

[calm bobcat]

how can i use nature/soft occlusion shaders if i am using a urp 3d template? im trying to paint trees with the terrain tool and a custom mesh I made in blender, but the only way I can get it to work is by using some LOD component on the trees. this is nice but I still want to be able to have the trees move in the wind, but i can't access the nature/soft occlusion shaders necessary for this

[brisk wolf]

what causes these ugly stains on my terrain?

all height is the same and its only one texture

[drifting crown]

@rugged forge Don't cross-post. No relation to terrain either.

[rugged forge]

sorry i just need answers since ive tried searching up tuts but nothing helps

[thin hearth]

Is it possible to enable mipmap streaming on terrain splat textures somehow? It doesn't have the option in the settings and they account for a whopping 2.5GB of shared memory.

[thin hearth]

It's possible to toggle it by setting the inspector to debug mode. This doesn't appear to help 🙂

[oak wedge]

The images are really impressive. Particularly on Unity. HDRP?

[hybrid flare]

Does anyone know why some of my trees are appearing blue at a distance in/out of game?

They are painted on terrain

[minor merlin]

Might be for lods

[hybrid flare]

Figured it out, it was due to the speedtree shader

[thin hearth]

RequestedMipmapLevel also does nothing.

Is there a better channel to discuss mipmap streaming?

[drifting crown]

In #archived-urp / #archived-hdrp perhaps someone might know more, I'm not familiar with the topic. More technical questions might do better long term in Unity Discussions forum though.

[thin hearth]

Put it here, in case anyone's curious:
https://discussions.unity.com/t/reducing-memory-pressure-of-distant-terrain/1579925

[unborn hemlock]

Haven't really worked on projects for a good 7/8 years so treat me as a complete beginner, but basically I have a custom texture I have made (2048x2048) for a grass terrain. Terrain building is all fine and I can use Unity's pre-existing assets to paint the terrain, but for some reason despite having the exact same settings and file type as the other texture files, when I put my texture into my project I can't select it to use when trying to select it as a Terrain Layer in the Paint Texture "Layers" section. I have other assets which work and appear but for some reason my 1 texture won't. Any ideas? I know probably seems like a really straightforward thing haha

[crisp wraith]

hello! i wanted to ask, why does the terrain look so blocky at higher heightmap resolutions?

[inland jetty]

Show us the import settings for your texture

so, select the asset and then screenshot the inspector

[inland jetty]

How did you create this terrain?

If you have a very high horizontal resolution, then a lack of vertical fidelity is going to be a lot more obvious.

[crisp wraith]

imported from gaea

[crisp wraith]

not sure what u mean with that

[inland jetty]

"gaea"?

[inland jetty]

suppose you use an 8-bit PNG to store a heightmap

there are only 256 possible brightness values for each pixel

As you increase your heightmap resolution, you make it more and more obvious how few height values you have

[crisp wraith]

sry i meant to say it was created through the terrain toolbox heightmap thing

misread the question

[inland jetty]

imagine if you had a 256x256 heightmap with 256 possible height values

in that case, you could theoretically have a nice smooth slope all the way from one side to the other

but if you had a 512x512 heightmap, it would be impossible to have a smooth slope going from one side to the other

you don't have enough height values!

0, 1, 2, 3, ..., 254, 255 -- but you're only halfway across the terrain

[unborn hemlock]

The lower half of the inspector is different but I believe this is due to the file size of each file. The "CartoonGrass_Grass" works absolutely fine as a layer in the Layer Pallette but for some reason my one won't. It's probably something super obvious I'm missing but any help is appreciated!

[inland jetty]

The only thing that sticks out here is the texture format

I don't know if that matters here

[inland jetty]

Can you share the heightmap you're using?

[crisp wraith]

one sec

[inland jetty]

hmm, okay, this is a 16-bit PNG

[crisp wraith]

would that be enought? i have the resolution at 1025

also why is it 1025 and not 1024 lol

[inland jetty]

i dunno -- I guess it wants to create a power-of-two number of cells, so it needs one extra height value in each direction to do that

[inland jetty]

Yes, 16-bit color is pretty common for heightmaps

that gives you 65536 possible heights

[crisp wraith]

so any ideas why its so blocky? should i just use a higher resolution map?

[inland jetty]

Increasing the horizontal resolution won't help here

You already have large areas of exactly the same height

oh -- what're the import settings for that texture?

Yep, that's your problem

[crisp wraith]

what is it?

[inland jetty]

default settings on the left, R16 format on the right

[inland jetty]

Select the texture asset in the project window and look at the inspector

The default importer settings for a texture will wind up storing it in some kind of 8-bit format

I configured it like this

Alternatively, turn on "Use Raw File" and then pick the file directly.

By default, you're using an imported texture -- so the import settings matter

[crisp wraith]

it becomes red?

i tried with the raw file at first but it came out all broken

[inland jetty]

Yes, it turns red

R16 means that the image has only one channel (the red one), and that it uses 16 bits per channel

[crisp wraith]

very random but hey it works, cheers

[inland jetty]

it's not random at all, though (:

If you're presented with a Unity object picker, instead of just directly selecting a file, that means that you are working with the output of an importer

[crisp wraith]

yeah but i mean why r 16 lol

[inland jetty]

there's no "gray" channel

so the closest you're going to get is just using a single channel

and the first channel is red

[inland jetty]

the file could be a 300 terabyte 128-bit-per-pixel monster, but that doesn't matter -- only the output of Unity's importer matters

[cerulean sluice]

Hey all
I'm new to unity and I need help with a terrain issue that I'm facing

Problem:
I have the heightmap(RAW) and the basecolor image map of a terrain exported from a different software
I've successfully set up the terrain inside of URP unity pipeline using the heightmap
Now I'm facing an issue of assigning the base color map as a texture for terrain

What I tried:
I created a new material and added this basecolor image to BaseMap and when I'm assigning the material to the terrain, the terrain kinda disappears and unity outputs a warning that terrain object won't use a regular material and I have to change the shader type to URP/Terrain/Lit
The moment I do that, I lose all the options to add the texture images

I tried setting up everything in blender and then exporting the terrain as a mesh and textures from blender, I imported the terrain and a normal mesh fbx and set up the materials in unity, then used a free tool to convert the mesh to terrain, but again, the moment I do that I lose all the texture data and there is no option to add the texture as a BaseMap.

I know that we can paint textures in unity and I'm not talking about that, that I'm able to do.
What I wish to do is to take the basecolor image map of the terrain, which I've made in a different software, I wish to map it as a whole, to the terrain generated using heightmap inside unity.

Is this even possible? Please guide me on what I should do and how I can achieve this

[thin hearth]

Basemap is basically a fallback image for far away terrain. I've never tried to replace it though

[cerulean sluice]

I kinda figured it out, but then decided to go the other way since it didn't look the way I thought it would

[unreal torrent]

I stands for Single channel (R) texture format, 16-bits unsigned integer

there's a lot of technically different ways to store color/texture data https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/ScriptReference/TextureFormat.html R16 is one of many

For all intents and purposes, it just means that you're able to store a higher resolution image, as having more bits lets you pack way more data inside your texture

And as all you really want is a single float value, you would never use the Green or Blue channel, you only use Red

[faint dust]

Hey, i'm a little bit confused on how to place my trees with terrain tools in regards to optimization.
I'm creating a test scenario with a standard tree from SpeedTree, which already come with instancing compatible materials.

Now the Terrain-Detail docs mention a specific form of instancing, that improves performance https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/terrain-Grass.html#:~:text=lighting aren’t supported.-,Unlike,-regular instancing where

Should i paint in my trees as detail mesh and take advantage of that instancing? Whats the difference to "normal" instancing?

Maybe these two links are relevant:
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/TreeInstance.html
https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/DetailInstanceTransform.html

[jolly basin]

any idea how to create this using unity's terrain system? (a hole/cut in the terrain itself to form a bridge like this)

[zenith loom]

you cant. im pretty sure the unity terrain is just a heightmap

i think you'd have to make it a seperate model to the terrain, using something like blender.

[jolly basin]

yeah it seems only way to do it is in blender or a separate terrain which won't be ideal either
im doing it in blender now, thank you for helping

[solar swan]

You paint trees as trees, not as details. If you want actual performance you need to make or buy a custom terrain object renderer that uses the instanced indirect API and a compute shader for calculating transforms of terrain objects

You also gain a lot from using a good impostor shader/generator for your last LOD and use that aggressively.

Naturally you need well optimized meshes for all your objects to beging with.

[faint dust]

Thank you.
i am aware of other optimization methods, my question was specifically regarding the mentioned special form of detail mesh instancing and the mentioned performance gain as per linked documentation

[hardy mica]

My paint brush is not working

[hardy mica]

<@&502884371011731486> what's the solution

My texture paint and mesh paint is not working

[drifting crown]

@hardy mica Don't ping moderators with non-moderation related issues. Or anyone not in a conversation with you. #📖┃code-of-conduct

You can find resources pinned in this channel meanwhile.

[hardy mica]

Will you give me some solution?

How to reset teren inspector

Only this two things is not working paint texture and paint grass mesh

[hardy mica]

😄 Problem fix after watching six videos in YouTube

[flat umbra]

digger

that

[kindred violet]

Hi Everybody i have GaiaPro2023 but i'm just a beginner forever in Unity and not a programmer either. GaiaPro seems so difficult with all the settings and everything(maybe it was a mistake i bought it). Is it better to just use the Unity Terrain tool? or can something like this product called "Endless" be a good thing to get ? It's a little bit i don't' think it would be for me because i don't really care about making super huge things and this one says it makes Infinite terrains at runtime which makes me think you need a powerful computer and GPU which i dont have. I have a quite old comptuer. But it's now 25 dollars and that's quite cheap compared to Gaia 70 something and GaiaPro close to or past $200 . Or what terrain tools would be better for a beginner? Also i don't like those that use Nodes, i've heard about some that use nodes. Nodes are hard. I like more visual stuff. Like Gaia where you just set settings but just that Gaia Pro had way too much stuff to set up and it's difficult to understand and have to do all kinds of stuff and preparations. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/package/270032

[solar swan]

What are you trying to make? Gaia actually tries to convince you that you have to make everything it’s way and your actual goal maybe not within it’s intended use cases, which then causes unnecessary friction. The same goes with other tools that try to help you with different goals.

[zinc dune]

I've had a lot of luck finding free assets for procedural erosion, plants, textures. It is looking great except I can't find any tools for placing rocks

[rigid junco]

Why do you need a tool specific for rocks? Wouldn't any scattering/object painting tool help here?

[kindred violet]

i just want to make realistic terrains. so then you think just sticking with the Terrain tool(free and included ) is best? Cause i also kind of think so and that it would be a waste to spend money on other thing. But they make it so like good advertising that you can make all these magnificent terrains and with rivers and all kinds of stuff and grass and flowers. I haven't actually spent much time with Terrain tool but maybe it can do the same, i kind of briefly saw some tutorials and they achieve some pretty great stuff

[solar swan]

If you want to make realistic terrain you need to use good quality stamps or a 3rd party generator like world machine, gaea or world creator (stamps are made with these, but they can also generate large scale landscapes). The terrain tools will only ever be suitable to sketching and small modifications when realistic appearance is the goal. You should also aim for using a non-destructive workflow, terrain tools can’t do that.

The procedural tools that you can buy as unity assets aren’t even close to the quality you can achieve with these external tools. But unfortunately, they are quite expensive.

[charred snow]

Hi, trying to use brush mask filters on the terrain tools to paint foliage, and when adding a layer modifier, it stretches out the inspector window like this and spews out a bunch of errors. Unity 6000.0.34f1.

[cursive garnet]

Hi guys, do you know how to make terrain like this? I'm new to this

[winter minnow]

It's a mesh with a texture on it

Not Terrain exactly

[cursive garnet]

Ok so you make the map in blender and then import it in unity with already all the "terrain shapes"

and then u add vegetation, houses, water, etc

right?

[winter minnow]

Yes
Or if you prefer the vegetation etc can be made in blender on the map too
Or inversely the ground can be made of modular smaller meshes that you can piece together

Kind of depends what's a more convenient workflow and how much asset space you want to reuse

[cursive garnet]

as far as you know it's an efficient method in terms of optimization right? for large maps

[winter minnow]

More efficient to re-use map areas or map pieces

[split hull]

Anyone know how to paint a part of a terrain at runtime

[solar swan]

Textures with this: https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/ScriptReference/TerrainData.SetAlphamaps.html

Elevation with this https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/ScriptReference/TerrainData.SetHeights.html

[frigid stag]

The tree wii cartoon tree couldn't be instanced because one of its LODs contains renderer of type other than MeshRenderer and BillboardRenderer.
UnityEngine.GUIUtility:ProcessEvent (int,intptr,bool&)

hi im trying to paint some trees on a terrain and im getting the above error, but in my LODs I got these, not sure whats wrong:

[split hull]

just used decals, thanks ya though

[rigid junco]

The error explains it pretty well. Look for incompatible renderer components in each LOD object

Not the LOD Group component, but the objects assigned to its LOD slots, so pCone3 in this case

You can show pCone3's inspector if you are still unsure

[undone sundial]

Not sure if this belongs here but I have a chess like board that shows up drawn with line renderers, and the tiles highlight by using sprite renderers. On levels where I don't have any foliage painted on the terrain they show up just fine, but on levels with grass I can't really see them. Is there some way to make them show through the grass? Sorting levels and layers didn't seem to change anything

[solar swan]

You can use this to overdraw specific objects https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.universal@13.1/manual/renderer-features/renderer-feature-render-objects.html

[coral cliff]

Hello! I'm looking to create realistic or semi realistic mountain ranges / valleys that my game will take place in. for that, i thought about using Magic Map2, but the tutorials are a bit lacking. Does anyone have extra info on magicmap 2 or might be able to direct me on what im looking for? Im using these rn, but isnt giving the best results.

[pliant bough]

You will need more noise at different scales and intensity to really give it variety.

Plug more of those noise dongles into the blend gizmo.

[coral cliff]

thank you so much! That realy helps

[solar swan]

realism is all about the erosion filters, if it has any. iirc its very difficult with MapMagic to create 'realistic' appearance, compared to whats theoretically possible with other tools.

[coral cliff]

I went with magic map, as it was the only free one. is there another one thats recommended over magic map for being easier/more robust? i didnt want to spend money on terrain tools if i can help it, i just want the geometry to be something that could be found somewhere irl, as its for an immrsive experience

[solar swan]

the "real" tools are very expensive, you may want to check them out for reference: Gaea, World Machine, World Creator (those are standalone tools, not unity assets), if you have infinite money and time, also check out Houdini.

[nova grotto]

Hi friends, let me ask you a question, when I navigate the ready-made scene in unity time ghost, the grass is rendered in the whole terrain, but in my own projects, the grass is not rendered in my scene, is there a setting for the grass to be rendered in all of the large plots, just like in Time Ghost?

or a shader

@sick coral

[solar swan]

How are you rendering grass in your own game? Time ghost uses entities to place/cull grass instances for the normal hybrid renderer. In your own game you typically use the terrain renderer to do that. Alternative methods exist that allow more instances than either of those approaches.

[nova grotto]

I render with the GPU but after a certain distance the grass disappears. Just wondering how to do it in Time Ghost

If there is a shader for this or a source that shows this, could you share it with me?

[solar swan]

Are you just painting grass on the terrain?

How much do you understand about entities and computer shaders?

[nova grotto]

Dude, how can I render the grass in an optimized way on large maps with shader like in Time Ghost

[solar swan]

theoretically you can increase the grass/details draw distance on your terrain by a lot, then grass will fill the entire terrain. Bug that will destroy your performance.

[nova grotto]

I increase it in the terrain settings but it doesn't work

[sudden bear]

how can i get better lighting or graphics because my game looks horrible

[coral cliff]

egt, what do you want the better lighting/ graphics to do. Do you want the shadows more detailed, the ground, the leaves? do you just want the light to be brighter?

[sudden bear]

I want better graphics

[coral cliff]

better graphics incompasses many thing youll need to do. Just saying "better graphics" doesn't tell me what you want to change. Understanding what you want is needed to help refine your game

[sudden bear]

well how do i get shaders

[coral cliff]

do you mean like changing how light affects your trees?

[sudden bear]

yeah

[coral cliff]

thats more so tinkering with a dirctional light then shaders, check the lighting window in unity as well, and the help docs for directional light, and see if that makes your game look bettr

[sudden bear]

should i bake the lightning?

[coral cliff]

Alright, so ive tinkered with the settings a bit more, and the mountains look a bit better, but they are still a bit jagged, any advice on make th sides of the mountain look better?

[coral cliff]

depends on your game, if it has a day/night cycle then no. Othrwise it depends on what you want light to affect. Prebaking improves the performanceat the cost of making it harder to change iirc (a bit beyond my expertise)

tutorials on lighting would probably hlp you better thn i can

[sudden bear]

alr

[inland jetty]

You're throwing out half of your dynamic range here! Everything on the left half is being flattened.

Try making the curve a bit less intense

[coral cliff]

i want to make mountains, but i want to also have valleys, because i need a decent amount of opn spacethat i can create the village on.

[inland jetty]

ah, so you need some very flat areas

[coral cliff]

i need some decently flat areas, its kinda mountainsare the boundary of the area.

im trying to create a type of geomatry that involves mountains, like a mountain range would be irl, im not describing it very well.

valleys wherethe game will take place, and the mountains that are the backdrop

[pulsar bramble]

somebody know why my texture is so insanely pixilated?

can't seem to find a setting that would fix this isseu

issue

but i cant leave it like that cuz thats just terrible

can i only increase texture size in terrain settigns?

also not sure what the correct channel is so i'm gonna post it here.
I fucking hate how it looks. it looks so unnatural and wrong. Everything..
I like how it looks above water but below water its just ass.. Anybody got any recommendations?...

[pulsar bramble]

tried doing it with various layr but UGH

[unreal kayak]

how can I fix my grass details from doing this?

[pliant bough]

There is not much more you can do. The control texture resolution is the issue I think.

You can only blend to hide it

[pulsar bramble]

ye increased it to 2kx2k

but honestly it still looks freaking ugly

[pliant bough]

Yeah. It's not fantastic

[pulsar bramble]

i honestly dont know how to make terrain look... good?

idk

espeically under water

[pliant bough]

I have been doing custom mesh terrains

Based on GIS data

[pulsar bramble]

GIS?

Would love to learn more about it

[pliant bough]

I suggest hiding it with plants and rocks.

[pulsar bramble]

thats the idea i got aswell

[pliant bough]

GIS is just means global information services I think. It's basically satellite data

Like Google earth

[pulsar bramble]

interessting

since I'm kind of a noob regarding terrain (or unity in general) how would you approach creating islands (both rocky and flat) in an ocean?

kinda odly specific, but I would love to know how others approach this

This is my 2nd time working with enviroment and I'm currently taking part in a game jam

[pliant bough]

I'm generating a mesh at runtime, and then downloading the heightmaps and textures from APIs

[pulsar bramble]

so basicall you create an ocean thats flat and insert meshes inside the oceans, with heightmaps + textures that u get from API's?

[pliant bough]

Yes

[pulsar bramble]

that sounds actually insanely clever

i have no idea how that could work, but i like it

[pliant bough]

I spent more than a year working on it. I can make anywhere on earth at varying levels of detail

Up to 16k textures

It has a world of issues though. XD

[pulsar bramble]

oh damn okay

so nothing i could create in a game jam 😏 XD

[pulsar bramble]

i can imagine

sounds like an extremly big asset

[pliant bough]

Haha, probably not.
But it could be used to create a terrain that is in a game jam game.
I have a runtime version, and also can save the mesh as obj.

The Manhattan map is all obj

[pulsar bramble]

uhh i see, clever

how does it work? do you pass coordiantes?

[pliant bough]

yeah, I just tell it the GPS coordinates and it returns the closest map tile

Microsoft MapPoint does the conversion from GPS to tile system coordinates

[pulsar bramble]

Mind if we talk in dm's?

Don't wanna spam the channel anymore

[pliant bough]

I have to run anyway.

Sry

Join the GDL, I chat all day there

[pulsar bramble]

GDL?

[pulsar bramble]

haha alright, thanks for the talk tho, was very informative

will take a look thx

[rigid junco]

GIS

[pulsar bramble]

when i paint trees this shit happens

basically this small tiny model throws a GIANT fucking projection of itselfs?!

[rocky cargo]

https://github.com/Rumesic/spline-stamper-unity-terrain-tool

Is there a tool that can adjust Unity's built-in Terrain using Unity's Spline package?

[solar swan]

There is an asset, Microverse, it has a module that allows you all kinds of shaping via splines, meshes, masks etc. It’s not a particularly magical process, you can DIY, but whether you should depends on your particular situation and needs.

[untold dagger]

has anyone worked with the naturemanufacture environment assets? i'm having a problem with height-based blend on URP

there is a shader named "URP Terrain" included in the pack which also comes with an option of height based blend

unfortunately, it's not been working when i apply it to the terrain

[solar swan]

you should need no special shader, just a mask texture with height in the blue channel. Any you need to enable the option and not use more than 4 layers. if you want better performance and more options, microsplat (asset) is usually the way to go.

[pulsar bramble]

Solved: lod's reducr billboard size

[hard stratus]

Hey there, so i need some help with Mesh and Terrain. I made a Floating Island with ProBuilder and now i want to add some good ground texture to the surface of the island and i want to add some grass and trees. But on probuilder mesh objects you can only use materials and not things like grass and stuff like you can use on terrain right? So is there any way to snap a terrain exactly on the surface of this island so i can add some grass and trees? (pls Tag me on answers so i noticed someone answered XD)

[solar swan]

You may want to look into the polybrush package to paint textures and prefabs onto mesh surfaces. If you want to use a terrain like shader for texturing you may want to check out microsplat (asset) which has an option to be used with mesh terrains.

Attaching a terrain to a mesh doesn’t work that well. Especially if the meshes aren’t on the same square subdivisions as the terrain.

[brisk surge]

does anyone know why my trees are pink in the background and the normal colours when they are close

[hard stratus]

Hey Anikki, so i spend some time trying out Polybrush and it seems very nice, so thanks for the answer👍

[solar swan]

Your billboard shader is probably broken

[winter minnow]

Pink and green usually indicates a problem with diffusion profiles, assuming you're using a shader that's capable of subsurface scattering
But it could be anything

[untold dagger]

i did check, i have mask maps and everything assigned to the terrain textures.. i did check the urp shader as well and have enabled heightbased bledn since the start. the number of textures is 4... somehow it still doesn't work.
i'm very new to unity.. i'm so confused

lmk if you require any specific screenshots of settings, etc

[solar swan]

Can you check your blend distance (should neither 0 or 1) and show a screenshot of an area in the terrain where you expect a height blend?

[untold dagger]

these are the patches im tryna put a height based blend on

is this the blend distance setting?

[solar swan]

They look height blended to me, maybe try a softer brush or less opacity on the brush to better see the effect

[untold dagger]

haha i see why they look like that to you.. it's a good asset pack

check this out, might give you a better perspective

i think you're right

i was watching a tutorial and his height blends looked like this (although with a noise brush)

i this it's the noise brush that made it more effective

[solar swan]

iirc unity’s default shader doesn’t do pure height blending. It’s a mix of linear and height blending.

[untold dagger]

oh right, thank you so much man :))

[winter minnow]

Do you have more than four TerrainLayer materials as the info box warns you there?

[untold dagger]

nope, i have four but it still warns me

[untold dagger]

😕

[winter minnow]

Do you have visible settings for each layer? Such as Opacity as Density or Mask Map fields

Under Layer Properties I assume

[untold dagger]

yeaa this one

[winter minnow]

Actually I'm confused what's the difference of Height-based Blending and Opacity as Density

[untold dagger]

the blend is working now tho, @solar swan helped me fix it :))
idk why there's a warning

[untold dagger]

ahh i think this actually might have something to do more with the latter because the blending depends on my brush opacity, it barely shows any good visual effects without the opacity turned down

height based blending on and off comparison for reference

[winter minnow]

This is not really what I'd expect height based blending to look like
But it's very difficult to tell with your choice of textures

[untold dagger]

you can notice that the texture is spread around indiscriminately around the terrain with the setting off

[untold dagger]

yeaa, that's what i thought initially as well that's why i came here to ask but as anikki said, it's not purely height blending in the default unity shader

i think that might have something to do with it

[solar swan]

You could try a layered rock type material next to sand/gravel. that should illustrate whether it’s working as intended.

Also make sure you use a wide enough transition area where both textures overlap to see it.

[winter minnow]

1. Brush opacity only
2. Opacity as Density
3. Height-based Blend with low Height Transition
4. Height-based Blend with medium Height Transition

This should demonstrate the expected effect
Which I'm not really seeing with the particular example

The lower layer should show through in parts of the texture that have a low height value, or opacity with opacity as density

[untold dagger]

ooo, i think the rocks do achieve the effect (3.) have a look at this

[solar swan]

Fwiw, I’ve found that the nature manufacture materials need some tweaking in the height mask to blend nicely. But I’ve only ever used them with microsplat

[winter minnow]

That looks clearer

But usually it helps to use a bright color underneath for testing and verifying it unambiguously

[untold dagger]

yeaa, i had to tweak some stuff with the brush and all

i'll give the height mask a shot asw

[solar swan]

I would assume the heights of the gravel and grass are fairly similar and the rock has much more contrast, so that’s why you see it here

[untold dagger]

yeah, you're right

[solar swan]

IMO, get microsplat

[untold dagger]

okay! the free version or the $20 version?

[solar swan]

Free version doesn’t work in SRP

[untold dagger]

only hdrp?

[solar swan]

and the fun stuff is all extra. I’d recommend the ultimate bundle 💪

[solar swan]

All SRPs

Sad truth, pretty terrain and foliage in unity is expensive

[untold dagger]

haha got it, im on a budget rn tho

the $20 version works tho right?

[solar swan]

for a proper AAA quality foliage/terrain you are looking at $300+ (just for the features)

[untold dagger]

it's okay i might buy the ultimate bundle when it's on sale 😬

[untold dagger]

i seee

[solar swan]

It’s a rabbit hole

[untold dagger]

im working on an indie project, i don't wanna keep my environment so polished that they stand out weirdly from all the other assets xD

im using good assets but i think i wouldn't call them AAA... prolly AA-ish

[solar swan]

Good idea, but those tools also give you control and better workflow, you don’t have to make them stand out

Also don’t forget performance, which isn’t great on standard terrain

I’d say builtin unity terrain is almost useless. Visually not very capable. In any style.

[untold dagger]

ah damn

i did realise that when i switched to 4k in game

[solar swan]

And it can only really handle 2k resolution (per terrain)

4K is very slow

[untold dagger]

do you think that the $20 version of microsplat would help me fix that for now?

[solar swan]

Also it uses huge amounts of memory (assets won’t fix that)

[solar swan]

its probably an improvement, more control but not complete

[untold dagger]

fr... i can only imagine how it would work on lower end cards, if cuts my fps down to 40% of what it does in 1080p even on a 3080

[inland jetty]

(if you're unclear -- "SRP" means Scriptable Render Pipeline. The Universal Render Pipeline (URP) and High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) are both SRPs)

[solar swan]

It’s not that drastic of an issue right away. You notice it when you build out your game and zones become larger

It’s tough getting large maps on low end hardware

[untold dagger]

i agree

[solar swan]

Unity has no good tooling for making large maps… beyond 1K in a typical 1st/3rd person game it quickly gets sluggish in the editor and you need to start being clever about splitting stuff up

[untold dagger]

i'll get it on the sale then :)
my map is gonna be small for this game so i guess i can make do till a sale for the ultimate pack

thank you so much for the heads up bro

[coral cliff]

if im not mistaken, microsplat is only for shading terrain, you still need to get something for generation? assets are expensive to get imo for even basic development, once you make money $100 is trivial, but to start out it feels so demorializing.

[solar swan]

yes, terrain generation and placement is where it gets really expensive. Generally I find that terrain is a significant time-sink that should not be underestimated when scoping out a project. its easy to get something on the screen but making a game involving terrain (and what that usually entails) are two entirely different things.

[coral cliff]

Yeah, terrain is the first part of creating a great game. the terrain influnces how you build your levels and your game in 3d enviroments

[coral cliff]

so uh, for anyone that wants to know, always have a reference building or person for creating terrain. I thought i made some decent looking mountains, and uh

they are REALLY big compared to human made things

any tips for making terrain that seems reasonable size?

[solar swan]

Lesson 1 of level design

[coral cliff]

yeah, should of thought of that XD. Game design classes never really taught me level design

[solar swan]

It’s difficult, assume a character walks at 6m/s and scale features based on how quick you want world traversal to feel in your game

Typically everything needs to be 2x the size of real world equivalent when it comes to doors/windows/interiors and 1/2 to 1/4 when it comes to building exteriors.

[coral cliff]

Trying to make a mountain range that would feel "Filled" by a village with like 10-20 houses. is pretty hard. Making interior bigger on the inside then the outside is key?

[solar swan]

You can use fallout 4 and Skyrim as a useful reference. They are quite easy to decompose on terms of level design.

[coral cliff]

do fallout 4 and skyrim have mountainous terrain i could look at? ill be honest ive never played them, only watched some content

[solar swan]

Yes

But understand, players hate walking on sloping terrain

Most games don’t really give you mountains as terrain, they are usually only backdrop or boundaries for roads

[coral cliff]

I'm not looking to create mountainous terrain, that you go up/down, just using it as a backdrop.

i mean i will be INSIDE the mountainoius terrain

[solar swan]

If you want a game with actual mountains: Death Stranding, ArmA

[coral cliff]

thank you for the games to look at. Just want to convey that the game will take place in valleys between mountains, imagine living in canyons.

[solar swan]

Also check out mountains on Witcher 3… they are comically small

[coral cliff]

Will do, alot of research to do now

[solar swan]

Far Cry USA has mountains

[coral cliff]

i have played far cry 5, but that wasnt very mountanious

[solar swan]

The map in assassins creed Valhalla is also very instructive

[coral cliff]

Your making me wanna spend $200-300 on games just to learn about level design

[solar swan]

, yes but if you look at the map it’s very mountainous

[solar swan]

Good 🥳

Compare those mentioned above with the map in Elden Ring, totally different approach

[coral cliff]

is there a game that involves it primarly taking place in canyons?

[solar swan]

Also consider various instances of Hyrule

[coral cliff]

I also have not played zelda, unfortunatly, but i will also take a look

[solar swan]

Most non open world games take place in tunnels/canyons

[coral cliff]

thats the type of game im going for, but trying to make it feel a bit more open iig

[solar swan]

Oh, also check out metal gear solid 5, for a very realistic vibe/approach

[coral cliff]

noting this all down

[solar swan]

A canyon approach is much easier than open world

[coral cliff]

I used to live in a mountain valley that has high mountains all around and the view is gorgeous. I want to apply that sort of terrain to my peaceful games that i make, if that makes sense. You would be able to look up at a mountainside above you, with rock formations and other things, but climbing up it is almost impossible without rock climbing

[solar swan]

Maybe also look into Firewatch. Pretty linear/canyon but feels open

[coral cliff]

i did love watching firewatch

its just a steep learning curve to make terrain that you see in your minds eye

thank you again for the info, will try watching some videos, or downloading maps or something to learn if need be

[swift sorrel]

Hey does anyone know how to add GPU instancing for rendering many trees/grass?

[solar swan]

Look here for DIY:
https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/ScriptReference/Graphics.RenderMeshIndirect.html
Look here for a turnkey solution:
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/package/267618

[swift sorrel]

Not guna lie i dont know anything but thank you

[inland jetty]

It seems like a good exercise for learning indirect rendering.

[haughty lantern]

If I want to make a grid system on an Uneven Terrain for Tower Defence, how would I proceed?

[solar swan]

Can you show an example of what you have in mind?

[haughty lantern]

this is a terrain example, I want that a grid system exists on it such that player can place any defences arround the terrain strategically

[solar swan]

1. learn to make screenshots
2. raycast the pointer ray against the terrain, then RoundToInt() the x & z coordinates of the hit point.
3. to adjust the grid size, do

var gridPoint = new Vector3(
    Mathf.RoundToInt(hit.point.x * gridSize) / gridSize,
    hit.point.y,
    Mathf.RoundToInt(hit.point.z * gridSize) / gridSize
);

4. instantiate or move your prefab to that grid point

[haughty lantern]

Thanks I will try this, the 1st point really seems hard to learn tho (pun intended)

[mellow rampart]

why is the tile so small

[inland jetty]

This isn't a terrain question. Ask about this in #🖼️┃2d-tools

[waxen surge]

do yall know any program i can work on to make my own terrain texture

[solar swan]

What do you mean specifically?

[waxen surge]

like that i can paint or design my own texture so i can use it on a terrain

like for a project we need to do EVERYTHING ourselves

no asset store

[solar swan]

Substance designer, photoshop, zbrush + substance painter, 3d coat, quixel mixer. All depends on what you need.

[supple quail]

might seem like a weird thing, but how would i go about moving the trees on terrain down or so? to stop this from happening?

[inland jetty]

Is the tree made from an empty object with some renderers parented to it?

You could move them down a little

That would cause the tree to be stuck slightly underground on flat ground, of course, but it wouldn't be too obvious

[supple quail]

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

[weary geode]

guysss

can anyone help me i have a problem with the terrain

my brush isnt working

nothing with my terrain

[pliant bough]

Are you trying to paint detail objects?

Is the brush something you imported?

It is saying the brush is read only, which may mean it needs to be set to read write enabled in the import settings

Anyway, you have no detail objects selected, so nothing will happen there anyway

[west remnant]

What could be the case, when im trying to use a single Area Light, and generate lighting as a lightmap, to my wall having these kind of shadows?

[winter minnow]

They likely don't have lightmap UVs generated
#archived-lighting

[normal thistle]

Does anyone know why my trees are so dark from far away, but pop in? I see here my trees are being replaced by some sort of billboard, but its super dark.

[thin hearth]

How are your trees setup? Both the prefab and how they're configured on the terrain.

[normal thistle]

I found a solution that works for me

I just made the trees far away and set the draw dist to 0 because i want them ot be in the distance

[tepid mantle]

https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com.unity.render-pipelines.high-definition@17.0/manual/Tessellation.html
Dang, what's the reasoning that URP doesn't get tessellation or any sort of parallax mapping?

Any possible way to make a terrain shader with shader graph or meh?

[thin hearth]

It's possible to create a terrain shader with Amplify Shader Editor, but it's quite a difficult thing to do.

[tepid mantle]

What would be the best way to get some textures to pop out a bit more with the URP terrain as is? Not too sure what height-map blending implies here

the 4 layer limit does stink tho

Like I have some AOs and Height textures, but I'm not sure if I can use them

There is this 'Mask' channel and docs say that's density but what kind of map is that? lol

[thin hearth]

You should probably use Microsplat to get around the limitations, if you don't feel comfortable writing HLSL

[tepid mantle]

Yeah I've seen that before. Was just wondering if shader graph was possible and to toss on a parallax node or something

[thin hearth]

Nope. It's not that simple

[tepid mantle]

Boo, I guess next project I'm doing HDRP then

[thin hearth]

HDRP is still limited to 8 textures

No tessellation or parallax on terrain either

[tepid mantle]

Docs up there says has tessellation

but not URP /shrug

[thin hearth]

The shader has a bunch of:

// TODO: Tessellation
// TODO: 16 layer support

[tepid mantle]

Oh huh, well. Maybe some terrain support eventually because as it seems the VFX graph is becoming the next best thing

[thin hearth]

We'll get a new terrain system in Unity 7. For now, try Microsplat.

[tepid mantle]

Would really like some voxelized terrain too ;p

[thin hearth]

That's a whole different thing 😉

[tepid mantle]

How much of this asset is free? Dudes got like 50 dlcs on it

[thin hearth]

$20 for URP support. Another $20 for tessellation

I think by default it has up to 32 layers?

[tepid mantle]

If I want the tessellation, right?

Yeah seems like every feature is a dlc

probably rolling in cash

[thin hearth]

Rapidly losing his sanity from having to support three render pipelines

[sand karma]

I currently have roads setup like this but im facing a problem. whenever i walk from one to another theres a bump. how to fix this?

[thin hearth]

Use a set of box colliders instead of a mesh collider

[tepid mantle]

Let's say I want to populate a terrain or plane with a bunch of grass with a specific interactive grass material. Usually you use instancing of some sort, but that still requires you to wrap this instance in a gameobject if you want to visually see it when working on the editor. So the question is more on if the tree populating tool would suffice for this as I do believe it does some sort of instancing/baking onto the terrain, but I'm not entirely sure how that applies to other gameobjects that aren't using the speed-tree tech.

Or maybe some other tools I should be aware about like polybrush, but I don't think that instances things either

[thin hearth]

Why not just use terrain details? Those are properly instanced, and the built in one (at least with HDRP) is the fastest I've tried.

[manic summit]

How do I place terrain dm me if you know how

[solar swan]

What is your goal? Grass reacting to a character walking through?

[tepid mantle]

Yeah, character & other entities so probably sending an array of uniform variables (I think that's the way most interactive grass works right)

[thin hearth]

Yeah that could work. Or you could draw to a RenderTexture like The Vegetation Engine does

Either way you can have it rendered by the terrain details system. No need to roll your own

[tepid mantle]

I'm not seeing a material for the vegetation nm, I'm blind. It was right there with Grass Texture .

[solar swan]

Best way is rendering a utility texture and referencing that in the grass shader.

[tepid mantle]

oh yeah that's not a bad idea

[solar swan]

Each object that interacts shows up in that texture, say as a sdf or a mask

You probably have to constrain that texture to represent only 100-500m around the camera

[tepid mantle]

sounds like something similar to how I did some fog system before

[solar swan]

a more performant approach would be injecting N float4 into the shader to represent interactions

But that relies on static shader properties and you need to coordinate which object is importantly enough to show up

[tepid mantle]

This all would require some copy operation per frame though, right? Wondering how I could keep this completely in the shader if possible

[solar swan]

I would avoid using a texture as a structured buffer in a shader.

[solar swan]

No, the render texture doesn’t

[tepid mantle]

not a big deal honestly, just wondering if there's a super secret way to do this without cpu communication

[meager linden]

My add texture button is grayed out for the grass, im trying to add grass but the option to add texture for it is grayed out

It lets me do mesh but not texture

[solar swan]

Render textures and structures buffers/textures from a compute shader

[solar swan]

https://screenshot.help/

[limpid pewter]

Another weird thing was, after creating the float value for alpha, it never appeared in surface inputs in the inspector.

If anyone could help, id be more than thankful 🙂

I'd also note that switching to HDRP isn't an issue

[tepid mantle]

Are you assigning black as alpha in the import settings? Also try exposing a property for the alpha and playing with that. If that's not appearing then I'd resolve that first

[limpid pewter]

Let me check, not sure

[limpid pewter]

Ohh i figured it out, partially

[tepid mantle]

I'm actually working on this myself and it seems to work with lit

[limpid pewter]

The shader has the grass texture selected

its defined in the grassTexture node

however in the material inspector, input for grassTexture is empty

I can manually add it and it works ?

[tepid mantle]

Ah, I guess it didn't update when you added the default texture I guess. Assuming the property is exposed

[limpid pewter]

Weird...

Anyhow, thanks, wouldnt notice it without you

Oof

No changes set in the shader actually update

I can see that in the float value. If i change it in shader graph, it wont update on the inspector (nor visually)

Any idea where i made the mistake ?

[tepid mantle]

For the sake of testing, just use Unity's lit shader and see if you can get that working

[limpid pewter]

Is Exposing now replaced with just Show in Inspector ? Does it do the same thing ?

Manually resetting it works and it updaates

[tepid mantle]

Yeah, by expose I mean make it editable in the editor. Otherwise it's just a property that can be set inside of the graph.

[limpid pewter]

Yeah, i have no idea why it isnt updating. Gonna head to sleep, and will try tomorrow. Thanks !

[tepid mantle]

May want to check that you're using the correct material instance as well, but otherwise the graph looks fine to me.

[limpid pewter]

Its solved, by setting the Scope of exposed values to Global. I really dont understand why did they rename and change half of the UI. Years of docs are useless

[tepid mantle]

Oh, huh. Are you sure that the detail mesh material is the correct instance? I guess this would imply that perhaps it's creating a material for each instance? That doesn't seem right.

[limpid pewter]

Yeah, i typed the message way too soon. Il redo this in the morning from scratch