Unity 4 Beta terrain normal maps help

Hey, in the Unity 4 beta, it lets me choose a normal map for my terrain’s textures, but instead of working automatically it gives me this message: Note: In order for normal map to have effect, a custom material with normal mapped terrain shader needs to be used.

There is no built in shader with a name anything like that, and materials can’t be dragged onto terrain objects anyway. How do I get the terrain normal maps working? Thanks.

New material, Nature - terrain bump.

I guess you mean Nature>Terrain>Bumped Specular. Ok thanks. But now what do I do with it? It won’t let me drag it on to my terrain so else is there?

Nevermind I figured it out, I go to the terrain settings tab and choose which material to use there. Thanks.

What “terrain settings tab”? And also is this a pro only feature?

AH, never-mind, you meant the Gear button, it doesn’t say settings, but that’s what it is. Cool, works in free.

I still dont get it :confused: Shouldn´t by here some texture slots?

No there shouldn’t. The textures are the terrain’s textures (there can be arbitrary number of them).

Hello Aras. Is it possible that only the first 4 material slots support normal maps on terrain? Because, when i added a 5th material it has black borders and doesnt blend right in the other materials.

its all so shiny!!!-my terrain is not made of metal. if i change the shine it doesnt look good-if a change the shine colour it doesnt look good any help?

The shininess amount is stored in the alpha channel of the texture. Change this to change how shiny it is.

I still don’t get it, how to set normal map on terrain…?

1 Like
  1. Create Terrain
  2. Click Terrain in Hierarchy
  3. Click Paint Brush icon in inspector
  4. Click edit textures
  5. Click add texture
  6. Observe two texture slots, which includes normal map.

Thanks,
Chris

Full step-by-step instructions for applying a normal mapped texture to the terrain…

  1. Under the Project tab, create a new Material (eg: mat_Terrain).

  2. Click on mat_Terrain and in the Inspector, for the Shader, select Nature > Terrain > Bumped Specular. (That’s all you have to do with that material, it’s just to define what shader to use.

  3. Create Terrain.

Now it’s time to select which textures to use on the terrain…

  1. Click the Terrain object in the Hierarchy.
  2. In the Inspector, under the heading “Terrain (Script)”, click the Paint Brush icon (called “Paint Texture”).
  3. Click Edit Textures, and add your preferred Texture and a Normal Map.
  4. Now click the Cog icon (called “Texture Settings”).
  5. From the Project tab, drag mat_Terrain (your Bumped Specular material) into the Material slot of the Terrain Settings.

Done.

Murray
www.muzboz.com

Thankyou chief!

So glad I found this thread, as I couldn’t find information.

How are multiple normal map materials added though?
When I drag across the material I made for, there is only one slot.
How do I add normal map materials for each texture I have used?

thanks for any help in advance

Steve

Every time you add a new texture by clicking the “Edit Textures” button, the pop up dialogue will give you the option to have a normal map with that texture. If you dont get that option, post a screenshot of the dialogue box.

Hello

I did exactly what you said and it worked.
But now I have the problem, that my textures looks tiled, like the normalmaps wouldn’t overlay each other.
I tried to set all normal maps from diffuse to normal, but that multiplied the effect.
Also the shading is wrong at the edges.


I’ve turned ambient occlusion off, so it’s not wrong that one side of the mountain is black.

Edit:
I figured out what I did wrong. The normalmaps need to be marked as normalmap, but when they are already normalmaps (not marked), then you need to remove the “create from Greyscale”, else it gets ugly…

Greetings
chillersanim

Just a quick note about the specular on terrains. If your terrain textures have NO alpha channel, that means they basically have white alpha, as far as the terrain is concerned, which means FULL specular.

As a test you can go to one of your textures and turn on the Alpha from Grayscale option, click apply. And you’ll see the specular on the terrain change.

So if you want no specular, go into photoshop and add a black alpha channel and save as 32bit TGA, or some equivalent.

My textures looks extremely shini. I’ve turned the shininess all the way down. Need help :slight_smile:

I know where the textures and normal maps should go - but how in the world will I get those two ‘adjusters’ for Specular Color and Shininess to appear to my ‘terrain material’?

(For information, I have just recently downloaded the ‘basic’ version of unity - so its relatively new, though I know this thread started already some time ago.)

The thing is - my ground is now as shiny as though metal or wet ice. Not good… even without normal map it looks better. Well I did make the texture to look as much as though already ‘bump mapped’ as possible… but I want better results… and to be able to use several textures for detail, with normal maps that blend nicely. For now I can not adjust the shiny feature to become more ‘mat’ anywhere, or to get rid of the shiny.

Maybe I need to make my toon with scates? ^^

Yes I read this tread and some others, but I do not understand how to make even Specular Color and Shinines appear adjustable for the material - like they actually are in the image Feeron posted.

(No I am NOT looking texture slots - I said that I do not have in my material the adjusters that Freeron does have in that image. I simply wanted to refer to this image, to explain very clearly what I do not find… as I suspect those might be reason why I can not adjust shininess for example.)

Any newbie help for someone who does not know to script and is just trying to get started with unity? Maybe I just have not understand all I read - but I would really appreciate simple explanation that will also tell where I find the settings or such I must do - not just what needs to be done. Someone said its shader to be set up / fixed… but how. Please - thank you.

I could not see the normal effect in mobile even with normal map…