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How to make terrains for games

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  • Joopson
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    Joopson quad damage
    Devin, export it as a 16-bit TIFF, bring it into Photoshop, and save it out as a PSD. The PSD should work. I just tested it to make sure.

    See!:
    ZbrushHeights.png
  • bwista
    Great tutorial choco. Your work is stunning and inspiring. I am having a bit of trouble importing my diffuse map into mudbox (about 30 min into part 2). Once I subdivided the imported plane beyond a certain number of polys, it seems to separate the uv for the model into a separate tile (I say this because initially the empty area appears blue) I have tried messing around in the setting to figure it out, but I havent been able to.
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_24_14PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_25_12PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_14_20121_04_11PM.png

    I also tried the equivalent in zbrush, and encounter the same problem as above.
    :(
  • Jimmarn
    @choco
    The tutorial is indeed amazing. I would love to see how/where you got the vegetation too. And I encountered one problem with the skybox. Does not let me change it...
    And I was also wondering, you said you were going to release the files that you worked with when you were done. I cannot seem to find any link to download them anywhere. I would love to get your ToD.xml file.

    Here's what I've made so far.
    MHvfT.jpg

    ybtPB.jpg
  • |MM|
    the skybox. Does not let me change it...

    It's broken. Set the material, reset TOD settings.
  • Jimmarn
    Then I have to fix the whole ToD from the beginning, with totally new values.
    I tried to do this earlier, but the sea and everything got totally screwed up, and I was hoping there was some way to save some time.
    Choco says in his tutorial that he will be releasing the tod and everything else. But I can't find it anywhere. I'd love to try tweak those. It's some nice fog and light settings
  • surfojaro
    Joopson wrote: »
    Devin, export it as a 16-bit TIFF, bring it into Photoshop, and save it out as a PSD. The PSD should work. I just tested it to make sure.

    See!:
    ZbrushHeights.png

    Thanks a lot man!, i was having that same problem, and i can solved it, thanks to u ;)...

    Thank u very much!
  • Benton
    And to think I just use Blender...
    Nice video's though!
  • wardancer
    The uvs are probably fucked, so try to make a new plane and that should work.
    bwista wrote: »
    Great tutorial choco. Your work is stunning and inspiring. I am having a bit of trouble importing my diffuse map into mudbox (about 30 min into part 2). Once I subdivided the imported plane beyond a certain number of polys, it seems to separate the uv for the model into a separate tile (I say this because initially the empty area appears blue) I have tried messing around in the setting to figure it out, but I havent been able to.
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_24_14PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_25_12PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_14_20121_04_11PM.png

    I also tried the equivalent in zbrush, and encounter the same problem as above.
    :(
  • Poloboo
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    Poloboo polycounter lvl 8
    Jimmarn wrote: »
    Then I have to fix the whole ToD from the beginning, with totally new values.
    I tried to do this earlier, but the sea and everything got totally screwed up, and I was hoping there was some way to save some time.
    Choco says in his tutorial that he will be releasing the tod and everything else. But I can't find it anywhere. I'd love to try tweak those. It's some nice fog and light settings



    you dont have to at all.... set the skybox material you want and then in the TOD settings go scroll down to the advanced tab and set Skybox multiplier to 1 and TADAAAA
  • wardancer
    When you are painting with the overlay and grayscale textures, can you also paint adding another layer and with its own diffuse, so that layer will not be overlaying on top of the color map, it will just blend with it.
  • AzzaMat
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    AzzaMat polycounter lvl 9
    this tutorial was awesome dude thanks a lot. Here is what I came up with =D

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C972oK2OndQ"]Mountain Vista - YouTube[/ame]
  • pearlzu
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    pearlzu polycounter lvl 7
    Wow those look amazing! Thanks for sharing!
  • Trixxster
    bwista wrote: »
    Great tutorial choco. Your work is stunning and inspiring. I am having a bit of trouble importing my diffuse map into mudbox (about 30 min into part 2). Once I subdivided the imported plane beyond a certain number of polys, it seems to separate the uv for the model into a separate tile (I say this because initially the empty area appears blue) I have tried messing around in the setting to figure it out, but I havent been able to.
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_24_14PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_25_12PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_14_20121_04_11PM.png

    I also tried the equivalent in zbrush, and encounter the same problem as above.
    :(


    I had the exact same issue. Let me know if you find a fix.
  • pam88
    Hi all. I've two questions.
    1)If I work on a terrain 8196x8196(1mt:1u) in the engine, how does the method change(output, textures resolution, initial mesh etc)?
    2)There is a way to extract hires heightmap from google earth(with strm4.1 and microdem), only available formats are geo(tiff) and bmp; how could I integrate a heightmap like this in the method.

    Thank you very much!
  • mikepaton
    Hey, so I made a video showcasing the problems I was having following the tutorial. Any help would be greatly appreciated so that I can properly continue on with the tutorial in creating some awesome terrain! Thanks! :)

    Couldn't get the video to embed, but got it to in the post below.
  • mikepaton
    So as you'll be able to see in the video, the sides of my terrain gets clipped and I get distortion when I increase the poly count. I'd really appreciate it if somebody could help me with this.

    [ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=CzSwxLJ7rMk"]Issues Creating Terrain with Mudbox + World Machine - YouTube[/ame]
  • tac0m
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    tac0m polycounter lvl 6
    +10 points... this needs to go up on the banners
  • FullSynch
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    FullSynch polycounter lvl 11
    Skummel wrote: »

    BIjJa.jpg

    I'm getting this same problem, but in Mudbox. I've tried with .tif and .png. I'm using the trial version of WM so I'm limited to 512 if that makes a difference. help?
  • mikepaton
    Just wanted to post an update as to how it goes for fixing my problems. Someone on the CryDev forums suggested to me a bunch of things to help me fix things (have direction constraint set only to the y-axis, render out in 16-bit, ensure smooth positions is turned on...)

    So basically what ended up being the issue for the terrain distortion was that I'd unchecked "Smooth Positions" before adding new subdivisions levels because from watching the tutorial I was under the belief that this was supposed to be done.

    In terms of fixing the issue with the clipped sides I still need to look into that. 1 issue down, 1 to go! :)
  • Wesley
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    Wesley polycounter lvl 13
    I'm still struggling to get my height map in zBrush without that stepping issue. I've done everything people have suggested in zBrush, but I'm struggling to to get the tiff saved as a PSD. When I load up the tiff in Photoshop it looks like this:

    tiffPhotoshop.jpg
  • RappyBMX
    Awesome. Thanks for posting/uploading!
  • FullSynch
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    FullSynch polycounter lvl 11
    I've been bumbling around with it more, but if I get any results at all from my sculpt operations, it always has this stepping :(

    SteppingError.png
  • Leodido
    bwista wrote: »
    Great tutorial choco. Your work is stunning and inspiring. I am having a bit of trouble importing my diffuse map into mudbox (about 30 min into part 2). Once I subdivided the imported plane beyond a certain number of polys, it seems to separate the uv for the model into a separate tile (I say this because initially the empty area appears blue) I have tried messing around in the setting to figure it out, but I havent been able to.
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_24_14PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_25_12PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_14_20121_04_11PM.png

    I also tried the equivalent in zbrush, and encounter the same problem as above.
    :(

    I have this exact same problem, did anyone find a solution?

    By the way awesome tutorial Choco!
  • MakaoCloud
    I actually used World Machine in my environments, but I honestly can't wait to try out your process! Your stuff looks awesome! Can't wait to get my hands dirty with this!
  • mindschnapps
    thanks for making this tutorial
  • Keytay
    Does anyone know how you would use masks for the detail maps with this method?


    ps. thanks a million for the great tutorials Choco!
  • King Mango
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    King Mango polycounter lvl 10
    Fullsync I know I'm a little late, but that looks like you're using the low precision output format type. 8 bit per channel. You need to use one of the high precision output types in the 16 bit column when writing your build to disc.


    Keytay: What detail maps do you mean? A normal detail map? A diffuse micro-detail map?
  • Ryper
    bwista wrote: »
    Great tutorial choco. Your work is stunning and inspiring. I am having a bit of trouble importing my diffuse map into mudbox (about 30 min into part 2). Once I subdivided the imported plane beyond a certain number of polys, it seems to separate the uv for the model into a separate tile (I say this because initially the empty area appears blue) I have tried messing around in the setting to figure it out, but I havent been able to.
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_24_14PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_13_201211_25_12PM.png
    th_Screenshot-5_14_20121_04_11PM.png

    I also tried the equivalent in zbrush, and encounter the same problem as above.
    :(


    I had the Exact same issue, Not sure if all this is needed, but to fix it, I recreated a new plane in max, added a UVW map modifier, collapsed the stack, and used reset Xform. Seemed to solve it for me.


    And amazing tutorials, world machine is a fantastic tool
  • weedude
    Thank you very much my friend! You dedicate a lot of your time to help us get better terrains... I got crazy watching your windows clock going all the way from night to day... lol.
    Thanks man!
  • cmtanko
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    cmtanko polycounter lvl 10
    Awesome awesome awesome tuts... Have seen all of them like 3-4 times.
    I dont know where would I start if I dint have seen the tutorial.. Thanks a lot...
    I am doing a landscape for 1st time in UDK, all is fine but

    Just wondering Is there a way, I can texture paint with slope angle ?
  • Eric Chadwick
    Sure you can. They are separate controls, slope vs. handpainted alpha maps. You just have to wire the two results together.
  • Fisty
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    Fisty polycounter lvl 8
    awesome tuts :) than you !
  • cmtanko
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    cmtanko polycounter lvl 10
    Sure you can. They are separate controls, slope vs. handpainted alpha maps. You just have to wire the two results together.

    Thanks , Excuse me but, "slope vs. handpainted alpha maps" where is that option or how to do it? I dont see any such option in landscape edit or material ? Can you please help me with it ? :)
  • Eric Chadwick
    There's no pre-built setup for this, as far as I know. I just did a lot of research, and some testing in the Material Editor.

    I adapted my slope setup after seeing this thread: http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/811440-UDK-material-expression-incompatability-with-landscape-mode?p=28745069&viewfull=1#post28745069

    More good tips here:
    http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TerrainAdvancedTextures.html

    Here's an example setup I made. This gets the slope and multiplies it as a color value on top of the layered bitmaps. You could replace that color value with a texture if you wanted. Also this uses the older Terrain layering system, which you could replace with the newer LayerBlend setup.

    Good luck!

    UDK_LandscapeSlopeMaterial.jpg
  • cmtanko
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    cmtanko polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks a lot Eric Chadwick , It will be a great help... I'll check on it tonight on my map. Thanks again (love this forum)
  • FireTruck
    what video is the one that shows how to do the skybox ? :D trying to find it but no luck i know its on here some where :o
  • niittymaa
    This tutorial is still very good. I found Word Machine first time now and trying it. Feels very good tool. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
  • jake60
    Skummel wrote: »
    Very nice tutorials choco they're very detailed. I have run into a bit of a problem while following them though if anybody has a solution.

    BIjJa.jpg

    I was following along using Zbrush instead of Mudbox, I got this kind of stepping problem when importing the height map from zbrush to World Machine but then I just used a blur node and continued. Once I imported the modified height map back into Zbrush I got the stepping and that weird flat solid wall on 2 of the edges of my terrain.

    Anybody have a solution to this? I've tried 8-bit, 16-bit, CMYK, Greyscale, RGB, larger image sizes, so far the best results ive had is the 2048x2048 8-bit RGB which is what's in that picture.

    It imports into UDK fine but I would like to be able to take it back into Zbrush to sculpt in a few more details and bake out another AO and such


    i still have this kind of stepping problem when i import it in zbrush , anyone have solution on how to solve it ?
  • armagon
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    armagon polycounter lvl 11
    There's no pre-built setup for this, as far as I know. I just did a lot of research, and some testing in the Material Editor.

    I adapted my slope setup after seeing this thread: http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/811440-UDK-material-expression-incompatability-with-landscape-mode?p=28745069&viewfull=1#post28745069

    More good tips here:
    http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TerrainAdvancedTextures.html

    Here's an example setup I made. This gets the slope and multiplies it as a color value on top of the layered bitmaps. You could replace that color value with a texture if you wanted. Also this uses the older Terrain layering system, which you could replace with the newer LayerBlend setup.

    Good luck!

    UDK_LandscapeSlopeMaterial.jpg

    Where do you get those amazing textures? Did you capture them yourself?
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Thought this was going to be a starcraft 2 thread, then I realised you actually said "TerraIn", doh
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