[BETA PROGRAM] Landscape Builder - realworld, GPU acceleration, prefab placement

Tinjaw · May 8, 2016, 9:44am

Downloading now. Thanks.

Tinjaw · May 8, 2016, 10:43am

Here I have used LB (Beta) with Aquas and Easy Roads v3. I created a racetrack and lined it with trees and added a little pond.

A short video of a drive along the track.
http://screencast.com/t/7eOv6vyH

sstrong · May 8, 2016, 11:05am

If you want to remove the trees that are right on the edge of the road you can use the techniques outlined in this forum post.

Tinjaw · May 8, 2016, 11:10am

That is what I used. What I would like to see is the ability to set a min and max width. This way I can map out something that doesn’t butt up against the road, but would be a little offset.

sstrong · May 8, 2016, 11:20am

Sounds like a good idea - we’ll add it to the list. You can also overcome this in ER, by putting the Road Network back into Edit mode, ticking “Remove Trees”, then Building the road again (Build Terrains button). That will remove all vegetation that is too close to the edge of the road. I think the default tree distance in ER is 5 metres so in this case you might want to lower this in the ER Setting, Terrain Management section. You could safely set it to 1 meter or even 0.

Tinjaw · May 8, 2016, 11:29am

Thanks for the tip. That worked great.

Tinjaw · May 8, 2016, 3:15pm

I am using Terrain.Party and have a question (or feature request). The Terrain Height of LB defaults to 2000. But if I import a heightmap, it looks like you might be normalizing the values and using the full 2000m. Am I correct? This shows up when I import a height map that has the highest point below 350m.

It doesn’t look like Terrain.Party provides the info needed for me to know what the min and max height are in the chosen area.

So, I guess what I am asking is not to normalize, or to handle the data differently so heights remain faithful to the real world data.

sstrong · May 8, 2016, 9:29pm

Yes, we introduced this to resolve another issue. We’ll provide an option to enable/disable normalizing the input image. We’ll have it off by default for Image Base layers and maybe on by default for Image Additive and Subtractive layers.

We will also look into how we can provide more info about the range of values for input images. I’ll post an update when we have a fix available.

sstrong · May 9, 2016, 5:04am

There is a patch in the download area: v1.3.0 Beta 4a. It includes some new options:

Image Source (Default or Terrain Party)
Normalise Input (on/off)
In the Landscape tab under Stats - the min/max heights of the landscape

The new Stats info is there to help you match Layer Image Base/Additive/Subtract heights and ensure you are getting what you expect. We are considering offering some more Image Layer options but we’d like some more feedback and suggestions so that we can determine what people want.

We’ve seem lots of forum posts of people struggling to import real world data into Unity and we’d like Landscape Builder to be able to solve some of those issues. So, if people have suggestions or even a problem with importing data, ADD IT HERE.

sstrong · May 9, 2016, 5:18am

About Full Beta versions and patches

The correct way to apply any patch for Landscape Builder is as follows:

Before you upgrade Landscape Builder in a Unity Project, take a full backup of the Unity project folder.
Version 1.3.0 requires Unity (Free or Pro) 5.3.4 or newer.
To upgrade Landscape Builder, open a new scene before importing the upgrade package. If you don’t do this, the demo scene will not be upgraded correctly.
Restart Unity or re-load the existing project. In the Landscape Builder window, on the Landscape Tab, verify that the Version number is 1.3.0.
If a landscape was created in an earlier version, you will be notified of this in the Landscape Tab after importing the new Landscape Builder package. Click “Fix Now” to automatically upgrade the landscape.

Patch or Full?

If in doubt, download the full beta version which looks something like LandscapeBuilder_v1.3.0_Beta2f.unitypackage.
This will upgrade all the components of your current project (that’s why you need to take a backup of your project first).

If you have updated your project “recently” and the _READ ME - updated regularly.txt in the download area doesn’t mention a breaking change that requires the full version, you may be able to just apply a patch which is MUCH faster to download and apply. It will typically be called LandscapeBuilder_v1.3.0_Beta2f_patchonly.unitypackage or something similar.

But either way, ALWAYS restart Unity or reload the existing project else you could get some pretty weird behavior. This happens when we add some new features which needs to store additional information in the scene (like say a new Layer or Texture setting). If the scene hasn’t been reloaded and you attempt to say apply textures, you may run into an error while a progress dialog box is displayed. The only way out of this (afaik) is to click File Open Project or File Exit from the Unity menu.

sstrong · May 11, 2016, 9:21am

We’ve added some more features for better EasyRoads integration.

v1.3.0 Beta 5d includes:
EasyRoads integration - min/max distances from edge of road
EasyRoads integration - option to combine all roads into single map
EasyRoads integration - option to overwrite all existing road maps in destination folder

The patch is available for download now, or if you have an older version download a full beta first.

sstrong · May 14, 2016, 1:59pm

In v1.3.0 Beta 6e we’ve just added a new terrain shader that improves texturing on cliff faces. The standard Unity shader tends to stretch materials and doesn’t do a great job of tiling on near-vertical areas of a landscape. This new shader, selectable from the Landscape tab under Terrain settings, should help. Let us know what you think.

sstrong · May 19, 2016, 5:39am

Here is a link to help people get started with Layers

sstrong · May 20, 2016, 5:04am

We’re currently working on a Camera Path / Animator extension that will allow you to follow the path of one or more EasyRoad roads in your scene. We’re also looking at closer integration with our LB Lighting component (which is part of Landscape Builder) so that we can offer fade in/out with the animator so that people can start working on cut scenes. If there are other features people would like to have with the camera path system - let us know.

Also, if you have a scene that you’d like to test this with we’d love to hear from you. Note: The EasyRoads v3 roads can’t be finalized when creating the initial camera path (unless you want to manually add the camera path data points).

sstrong · May 25, 2016, 11:44am

To create a camera animation that will follow one or more roads perform the following tasks:

Install LB 1.3.1 Beta 1a or newer
Create a new Unity Scene
Save the Scene
On the LB Landscape tab, create a new landscape
On the topography tab add a new layer
Select “Desert Floor Base” from Preset popup
Generate the topography
On the Texture tab, select a preset and apply textures
On Landscape tab, expand Scene Settings and “Add Camera Animation to Scene”
Follow instructions in manual “Camera Animator” on pg 62. You can get the latest manual also from the beta download area.

jonfinlay · May 25, 2016, 1:56pm

How did you manage to get the picture to animate? Can this be done an any resolution screenshot? Looks really nice.

Tinjaw · May 25, 2016, 1:58pm

I would venture to say that it is a simple animated GIF made from a video recording. Nothing “special” about it.

sstrong · May 25, 2016, 2:07pm

http://ezgif.com/

jonfinlay · May 25, 2016, 2:30pm

Thanks, didn’t realise gifs could be so big, normally they are quite small. Works well on landscape screenshots, brings the photo to life.

sstrong · May 26, 2016, 9:49am

If you are using the Landscape Builder Camera Animator with EasyRoads3D you’ll need to be on at least ER3 Beta 7.7.1 which should be released shortly (potentially as soon as today so I’m told).