I’m trying to import a terrain into Unity using a heightmap, but I’m encountering an issue where the imported terrain appears flattened compared to the original 3D mesh. Here’s the workflow I followed:
I originally created the terrain as a 3D mesh in Rhino and exported it as an STL file.
To import it into Unity as a terrain, I converted the STL into a PNG heightmap using this tool (STL2PNG - javascript edition), choosing a standard resolution of 1024.
I then imported the PNG as a heightmap in Unity’s Terrain tool.
When comparing the Unity terrain to the original mesh (which I converted to OBJ to display in Unity), I noticed that the Unity terrain is significantly flatter than the original model. I suspect this is due to certain parameters in Unity’s terrain settings that I may be setting incorrectly.
Could someone guide me on which settings in Unity’s Terrain tool I should adjust to get the heightmap to accurately represent the original terrain’s elevation? I tried tweaking several options, but nothing seems to correct the flattening effect.
There is a “Terrain Height” parameter in the terrain settings, under “Mesh Resolution”. However, I don’t know what the correct setting would be to get the same height. By the way, how are you using a PNG as heightmap? You can only import RAW, as far as I’m aware, and it looks like the heightmap is compressed to a lower bit depth, probably from 16 to 8, resulting in visible steps in the terrain.
Initially, it didn’t work because part of the model was below the zero level. After some frustration, I realized I just needed to move the entire model above zero, as shown in the second picture. And boom—problem solved!
