Saving splatmaps(alphamaps) in a Scriptable Object

Unity Engine
1

Hello everyone! I’m trying to save the 3 dimensional float array returned by the “GetAlphamaps (…)” function of the terrain data to a Scriptable Object in a variable of the same type. When I hit the save button in the script I have the save function, apparently this 3-dimensional array is saved in the scriptableobject it creates and saved in the folder of my choice. But when I press the Play button, and I stop the execution again. The 3-dimensional array acquires the value of null. I have read some articles and posts related to this topic and the reason seems to be that multidimensional arrays (among other types of variables) cannot be serialized by Unity and therefore their value becomes null in this case. But I would like to know if there is any article, video, post, method or class that I do not know and have not found to be able to save this array in an optimal way? I am attaching the code fragments of the scripts that are related to the creation and saving of the ScriptableObject, so that you know better what I am trying to do.

I call from a editor Script:

if (GUILayout.Button("Save Splatmaps", GUILayout.Width(currentWidth / 3)))
{
    SplatmapSerializedData serializedSplatmaps = myTarget.SaveSplatmaps();
    if (previousPath == string.Empty)
    previousPath = "Assets/";
    string path = EditorUtility.SaveFilePanel("Save Splatmap Data Asset", previousPath, myTarget.name + "_SplatmapData", "asset");
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(path)) return;
    previousPath = path;
    path = FileUtil.GetProjectRelativePath(path);
    TYLER_SplatmapData splatmapData = ScriptableObject.CreateInstance<TYLER_SplatmapData>();
    splatmapData.splatMapdata = serializedSplatmaps;

    AssetDatabase.CreateAsset(splatmapData, path);
    AssetDatabase.SaveAssets();
    AssetDatabase.Refresh();
    myTarget.LoadSplatmapData = splatmapData;
}

And the method SaveSpaltmaps():

public SplatmapSerializedData SaveSplatmaps()
{
    if (Tiles == null || (Tiles.GetLength(0) != terrainXSize || Tiles.GetLength(1) != terrainZSize)) Tiles = GetTyles();

    SplatmapSerializedData serializedSplatmaps = new SplatmapSerializedData();
    serializedSplatmaps.splatmaps = new SerializedSplatmap[Tiles.Length];

    int cont = 0;
    for (int x = 0; x < Tiles.GetLength(0); x++)
    {
        for (int y = 0; y < Tiles.GetLength(1); y++)
        {
            Texture2D[] alphamaps = new Texture2D[Tiles[x, y].OriginalTileTerrainData.alphamapTextures.Length];
            for (int i = 0; i < Tiles[x, y].OriginalTileTerrainData.alphamapTextures.Length; i++)
            {
                alphamaps[i] = Instantiate<Texture2D>(Tiles[x, y].OriginalTileTerrainData.alphamapTextures[i]);
                alphamaps[i].name.Replace("(Clone)", "");
            }
            serializedSplatmaps.splatmaps[cont] = new SerializedSplatmap(new Vector2Int(x, y), Tiles[x, y].OriginalTileTerrainData.alphamapResolution, alphamaps);
            cont++;
        }
    }
    return serializedSplatmaps;
}
2

One approach is to write some code to marshal it out of the multi-dimensional array and into a single array of some type that you know Unity can serialize.

Of course you’d need the reverse of that function to turn it back into the data shape needed at runtime.

3

I’m sorry I took so long to answer. But I have already found a faster and more efficient way to save splatmaps. Sorry for the inconveniences.