How to Generate A Flat Terrain Using Only Blocks

Questions & Answers
1

Greetings,

I am new to unity and also to scripting, i wanted to generate a flat infinite terrain, with the help of only blocks(like in minecraft)…

I placed a block at the center of the world and attached a script to it which generated four other blocks at four cardinal directions, but what is found is that when i run the game, my instantiated blocks keep overlapping each other which causes a lag, so i tried placing colliders around block to check whether a block is near it or not, but it does not seem to work…
this is the script is used for the block…

var spawn : boolean = false; //this will be a boolean var to check whether to spawn or not.
var spawner : GameObject; // this will be a gameobject which spawns the new blocks
var Dis : int; //distance between the player and the block
var Player : Transform; // our player(gameobject with tag "Player:)


function Start () {

}

function Update () {

Player = GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("Player").transform; // getting the player
	if(spawn) // checking if block has to spawned
	{
		spawner.SendMessage("SpawnNow"); // messaging spawner to instantiate blocks
		spawn = false; // setting spawn to false to ensure only one block will be spawned.
		
	}
	Dis = Vector3.Distance(transform.position, Player.position); // calculating the distance between player and block.
	if(Dis>20)
	{
		Destroy(gameObject); // destroying if the distance is more than 20 blocks.(taking size of one block as 1).
	}
}

function OnTriggerEnter(other : Collider)
{
	if(other.tag == "Player") // checking if Collider is player or not.
	{
		spawn = true; // player has come near, let's spawn a block.
	}
}

function OnTriggerExit(other : Collider) 
{
	if(other.tag == "Player")// player has gone
	{
		spawn = false; // let's do not spawn now.
	}
}

here is the script i used for my spawner, currently only spawning in one direction…

var Block : GameObject; // our prefab of the block to be generated.
var canSpawn : boolean = true; // can we spawn a block?
var targetpos : Vector3;


function Start () {

}

function Update () {
targetpos = Vector3(transform.position.x,0,transform.position.z+1);

}

function SpawnNow() // will be executed when the "DeleteBlock" Script orders us.
{
canSpawn = true;
var allBlocks : GameObject[] = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Block");
// an array of all the blocks present in the game, can be upto 80 in size.

yield WaitForSeconds(0.1); // to prevent force acting on the block by physics engine.
if(canSpawn)//check if we are capable to spawn?
{
	var newBlock = Instantiate(Block, targetpos, Quaternion.identity);
	 canSpawn = false;
	for(var current : GameObject in allBlocks)
	{
	if(current.transform.position == targetpos)
	{
		Destroy(newBlock);
	}
}
}
}

is there any solution to this, by which i can generate a flat terrain without the blocks overlapping?

so when i go back from the block collider and reneter, the blocks overlap, cant seem to figure this out, i think my spawner script is not configured correctly…

2

Currently you are spawning only in the z direction by setting the targetPos to the z+1;

If you want to spawn in four direction you need to use four target positions to spawn.

The script above is in line with how you were doing it:

#pragma strict

var Block : GameObject; // our prefab of the block to be generated.
var canSpawn : boolean = true; // can we spawn a block?
var targetpos : Vector3;
 
 
function Start () {
	
}
 
function Update () {
	targetposForward = Vector3(transform.position.x,0,transform.position.z+1);
	targetposBackward = Vector3(transform.position.x,0,transform.position.z-1);
	targetposLeft = Vector3(transform.position.x+1,0,transform.position.z);
	targetposRight = Vector3(transform.position.x-1,0,transform.position.z);
}
 
function SpawnNow() // will be executed when the "DeleteBlock" Script orders us.
{
	canSpawn = true;
	var allBlocks : GameObject[] = GameObject.FindGameObjectsWithTag("Block");
	// an array of all the blocks present in the game, can be upto 80 in size.
	 
	yield WaitForSeconds(0.1); // to prevent force acting on the block by physics engine.
	if(canSpawn)//check if we are capable to spawn?
	{
		var newBlock : GameObject;
		
		// Spawn forward block
		newBlock = Instantiate(Block, targetposForward, Quaternion.identity);
		for(var current : GameObject in allBlocks)
		{
			if(current.transform.position == targetposForward)
			{
				Destroy(newBlock);
			}
		}
		
		// Spawn backward block
		newBlock = Instantiate(Block, targetposForward, Quaternion.identity);
		for(var current : GameObject in allBlocks)
		{
			if(current.transform.position == targetposForward)
			{
				Destroy(newBlock);
			}
		}
		
		// Spawn backward block
		newBlock = Instantiate(Block, targetposLeft, Quaternion.identity);
		for(var current : GameObject in allBlocks)
		{
			if(current.transform.position == targetposLeft)
			{
				Destroy(newBlock);
			}
		}
		
		// Spawn backward block
		newBlock = Instantiate(Block, targetposLeft, Quaternion.identity);
		for(var current : GameObject in allBlocks)
		{
			if(current.transform.position == targetposLeft)
			{
				Destroy(newBlock);
			}
		}
		
		canSpawn = false;
	}
}

I guess this should do it. But there are more efficient methods and algorithms for what you are looking for. I would suggest you to take a look at them.