How to obtain this awesome result?

Unity Engine
1

Hi all :smile:

I’m here again in this awesome forum because I need some information: you probably know what “The Hobbit” is, if you never read the book maybe you’ve seen the movie, if you didn’t read the book and you didn’t see the movie perhaps you heard about it, but that’s not important. The important thing is that Google made an awesome “Chrome Experiment”, which is a browser-based game that allow you to explore Middle Earth (Hobbit’s universe). Of course they made a fantastic job, just look at this pictures:

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Awesome isn’t it? I wonder if is possible with Unity to get such a fantastic result…i think not. Anyway, another picture for you:

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Well, my question is: how the hell they achieved this result? It’s like looking at Google Maps! Do you have any idea about HOW can we make something like this? What software they used? I’m quite sure they did not modelled the whole map manually, it’s too big and it would take years to realize it! Then, how? I hope someone of you can explain this to me, I really need to know how :smile:

Thanks in advance for reading my thread, have a nice day :smile:

2

It’s probably based on a height map, which might be generated.

Possible with Unity to display this? Of course. There is not much that wouldn’t be possible. When it comes to Google it’s not so much about which software they use, but more which software they wrote to do it.

3

From what i can see in the website : Proximity Tesselation shader + displacement w/ heightmap + rgb map based on heightmap + cinematic effects (DOF, lens chromatic abberation, lens border blur, tonemapping) + text appearing based on proximity :slight_smile:

1 Like
4

Thanks a lot for answering :slight_smile:

So @jvo3dc and @raphael-ernaelsten-heaj it’s possible to realize something like this in Unity? May you please post a link to a tutorial or an explanation about Proximity Tesselation shader, displacement w/ heightmap and rgb map based on heightmap? I’m quite new to Unity and I really don’t know what you’re talking about :confused:

Also, you know any good book/Youtube series about level design with Unity 5? What’s the best way to learn everything about it? I explored the “Learn” section of the website but I have the sensation that lots of thing are not explained there, maybe I’m wrong.

Thanks again :smile:

5

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/37322
for example :wink:

By “rgb map based on heightmap” I meant that you must do a Diffuse/Albedo texture that matches coherently the heightmap :wink: