Heightmap - what map resolution should I use in Unity ?

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Hi

I’m considering to make a heightmap and import it into Unity.

However, I have no knowledge of how to determine what mapsize (resolution ?) I should use in Unity.

The plan is to make and use a heightmap of an area that is roughly 4100 km. by 2400 km.

I obviously need to use some kind of scale for the map, but I don’t know much about this subject.

When I opened a project in Unity for the first time the map was 2 by 2 km. and from a video tutorial I have watched I have gotten the impression that map sizes of that size is very hard to work with and they put a strain on the system.

So what should I do ? any tutorials I can read as I’m completely lost on this subject ?

1 Answer

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You will need many, many heightmaps for that kind of area, unless you intend to have extremely low resolution. Note that resolution and size are completely independent. Size can be anything, resolution needs to be square, power of two plus one (so 257x257, 513x513, etc., not to exceed 4097x4097).

Thank you for replying I just have one more noob-ish question: if the map is subdivided into smaller segments for example 4 pieces which are 257x257 each, then I will need to create a new scene for each of them and then make some sort of a script which load the next scene as soon as I reach the end/edge of one of the maps/scenes. Am I correct or is something entirely different ?

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No, you don't need to create a new scene for each piece.

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Hi Okay, then I'm a little confused ! What do I do then ? Do I make for example 4 map segments and then load for example heightmap2 once I get close to the edge of heightmap1 ? Or does it work in an entirely different way ?

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You can just have multiple terrains.

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Hi Multiple terrains ? I simply don't know what you mean ??? - would you care to elaborate a little more thorough on this ! I thought that 1 scene could only have 1 terrain I might sound a little ermm. ignorant, but I didn't knew this.

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