Terrain Capture Tool

[Isaac]

Hi Everyone!

In conjuction with the new GeNa Mesh Extrusions tool, we are also looking at better blending options in the radius where the holes are cut. We are working on getting a tool set up that, when giving an area, can create a set of PBR textures reflecting the final blended terrain at that position. 

This saves us from having to sample the terrain shader more times than actually needed, and allows us to explore other areas where sampling the color of the terrain below a surface could be used.

Here are some screenshots showing the final result being sampled on a plane gameobject, next to the terrain it sampled from. Can you notice the seams where the plane intersects the terrain?

 

This tool is also supported on multiple terrains (4 terrains are used in this picture, intersecting where the area is captured, with one of them highlighted in orange).

 

We also sampled some other data that Unity's terrain component provides as textures, such as their splatmaps, heightmaps and world normal. Here is a comparision without some of the more detailed terrain textures utilised:

Before:

After:

 

Sampling the color on the terrain below on object also allows us to blend it with objects on top, such as this rock example!

 

What other uses do you think this could be used for?

[BunnyViking]

something that might be cool if you could do it would be to offer the option of exporting the terrain geometry around the hole as part of the process. This would make it easier (less steps at least_ for an artist to take that geo and model a cave entrance, etc. in external software.

[Isaac]

12 hours ago, BunnyViking said:

something that might be cool if you could do it would be to offer the option of exporting the terrain geometry around the hole as part of the process. This would make it easier (less steps at least_ for an artist to take that geo and model a cave entrance, etc. in external software.

Great idea! I believe we currently do have a method of generating a seperate mesh around the area where the hole is cut, hence why this terrain capturing tool was invisioned as to provide a cheaper shader for this separate piece to render. We've been working hard to get the normals of this mesh matching the terrain normals so as to not cause any noticable seams between it and the terrain.