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World Machine to UDK workflow [HELP]

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TheAxiom polycounter lvl 3
Okay so I'm making some large terrain but I think there are some problems with my workflow because I'm at a bit of a halt. I need some advice.

I start by creating some rough terrain in World Machine http://prntscr.com/682rgq

Then I bring it in to MudBox to clean up http://prntscr.com/6828a9

Then I want to bring it back in to World Machine to re-generate the texture maps. This is where I'm having a problem. I'm baking a displacement map in MudBox on to a flat plane, (using 16 bit integer .tig) but all I get is this horrible mess http://prntscr.com/682ah8

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  • repete
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    repete polycounter lvl 6
    16 bit integer.tiff is correct btw so it's not the file type.

    Move the plane down (from zero) using the transform tool to the lowest point on your terrain and take a note of the value.

    Move the plane up (from zero) using the transform tool to the highest point on your terrain and add both the low & high values, this will give you the correct search distance.

    I always use test both sides.

    I have seen your issue before but can't remember what caused it.

    Can you post you displacement map extraction settings?
  • TheAxiom
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    TheAxiom polycounter lvl 3
    Before I do that, could any of these issues be causing it?

    Some tutorials say when exporting as a displacement map, you have to paint only in the Y direction, I didn't do this when editing my terrain from World Mac. I wanted to add some caves and stuff too.

    Secondly, does the plane I'm baking to have to be EXACTLY the same dimensions as the high poly terrain?

    Thirdly, when I brought the World Mac terrain in to Mudbox it was facing sideways, I then rotated it upright. Could there be an issue with it thinking the normals are pointing the wrong way? It also came in very tiny.

    Also a quick question, is there any way to get my terrain in to World Mac from MudBox without using displacement maps? Because for one reason I can't figure out how to make terrain tileable/infinite this way as it sets bounderies in World Mac to that displacement map's size. I need to have seamless skyboxes in UDK.
  • repete
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    repete polycounter lvl 6
    Some tutorials say when exporting as a displacement map, you have to paint only in the Y direction, I didn't do this when editing my terrain from World Mac. I wanted to add some caves and stuff too.

    The reason for this is for quality in your actual sculpt, the displacement map is extracted via height so it's logical to sculpt from the bottom up.

    On my terrain below i used different height maps created in WM for the hills/mountains. It works better when your displacing in the Y axes and it also reduces the chances of errors on your final map.

    You can't add caves in height maps, indentations ok but remember it's Up/Down !


    terrain_zpsma7odfq6.png?t=1424468761



    Secondly, does the plane I'm baking to have to be EXACTLY the same dimensions as the high poly terrain?

    Yes it's better if you use your base plane for the High & Low poly as you will get errors if it's too large or too small.

    Thirdly, when I brought the World Mac terrain in to Mudbox it was facing sideways, I then rotated it upright. Could there be an issue with it thinking the normals are pointing the wrong way? It also came in very tiny.

    I think this is where the problem is, you are not exporting the terrain properly from WM as it should be a TIFF 16bit file. Don't use a "mesh" output file if that's what you have been doing.

    Also a quick question, is there any way to get my terrain in to World Mac from MudBox without using displacement maps? Because for one reason I can't figure out how to make terrain tileable/infinite this way as it sets bounderies in World Mac to that displacement map's size. I need to have seamless skyboxes in UDK.

    You can't import a mesh into WM so displacement maps are the only way. As for tilable maps you can do this from within WM but creating unique sculpts in mudbox and then trying to make them tileable in WM wont work. You could make one large terrain in mudbox, cut up the mesh in Meshmixer and then extract the displacement map for each segment in mudbox. This would be tedious but it should work. You would then have to position each segment in WM and take the following steps:

    https://wiki.unrealengine.com/World_Machine_to_UE4_using_World_Composition
  • TheAxiom
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    TheAxiom polycounter lvl 3
    Ah I got it working thanks. I had to put the mesh in to Max, resize it and put it back in to Mudbox. It works fine now.

    Thanks for all the help, everything you said was very helpful.
    I was able to get some nice tilable terrain prior to importing a displacement map in World Mac by changing the border size, exporting it as a mesh in quads and just cutting out a section.
  • repete
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    repete polycounter lvl 6
    Good job :poly121:

    I like your terrain btw, very natural !
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