Gaia doesn't seem to see terrain data, causing runtime errors

[aldaluin]

Gaia Pro 3.4.1 on Unity 22.3.9 with BRP and a custom controller (Eadon Character Controller + Cinemachine).

At start of run (x3):

Updating terrain wind settings had a issue Object reference not set to an instance of an object This came from   at Gaia.ProceduralWorldsGlobalWeather.UpdateTerrainWindSettings () [0x00018] in /home/charlie/projects/jacals/FastJac01/Assets/Procedural Worlds/Gaia/Gaia Pro/Weather/VFX/Scripts/ProceduralWorldsGlobalWeather.cs:3196 

Every frame:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
Gaia.GaiaScenePlayer.Update () (at Assets/Procedural Worlds/Gaia/Scripts/Scene Managment/GaiaScenePlayer.cs:118)

Neither of these make sense to me.  They both refer to Terrain.ActiveTerrains[?].TerrainData, which I thought came straight from Unity.  I only have one terrain in the scene and only one scene in the project.  Can you point me in the right direction? 

[Bryan]

Are you using the Gaia Custom Controller and then plugging in your Eadon Character controller to that? 

 

[Peter]

@aldaluin I checked those error messages, and it looks to me as well like the terrain.terrainData seems to be missing. Normally this is created & managed as part of the unity terrain object, but from past support experiences we have seen cases where the terrain lost its reference to the terrainData object, or where the terrainData object was deleted from the project hierarchy.

Can you please check for the affected terrain if it still shows a valid reference to the terrainData object when you switch the inspector into Debug mode?



If there is no Terrain Data object, can you please check if it is still part of the project hierarchy? If the terrain was created by Gaia, the Terrain Data object can normally be found in the Session folder associated with the scene:



If it is still there, you should be able to restore the reference by dragging the Terrain Data object into the slot on the terrain while the inspector is still in debug mode. If it is missing entirely it is a bit difficult to say where it went - Gaia does normally only delete the terrain data when creating a new world from the world designer & deleting the old world in the process.

[aldaluin]

@Peter This is what confused me in the first place.  The Terrain Data reference is there, and the splatmaps in the asset look good.  Exactly where you (and I) expect it.

@Bryan Yes, I'm trying to do it properly this time (see image).  But when I update the runtime it says the terrain data is missing!

Let me see what I can find...

Nope, still no clue - that's just reiterating the original problem.  Code doesn't think the terrain data is there even though the Inspector is certain that it is. 

I'll try a clean project to see if I can find a workflow error, but I have too much (non-Gaia) time in this scene to let it go and start over.  The only other thing I can think of that shouldn't make a difference, is I started the scene with a Gaia first person player and changed it to custom later.

 

[aldaluin]

Also, the terrain is imported from another project.  I'm using Gaia 3.4.1 scripts only package instead of the whole thing.  Art and Gaia user settings get imported with the terrain in a custom package. 

[aldaluin]

Ok, I fixed it.  Removed Gaia elements from the scene (Tools, Runtime, Terrain).  Removed all Gaia User Data from the assets.  Renamed the scene.  Reimported the scene package, with this exception: in Gaia User Data, I unchecked and did not import Terrain Scenes.  Added all the props back in from the renamed original.  After the Terrain Scenes file rebuilt itself, everything worked perfectly.  

Note I had previously just deleted that file, but it the errors recurred after it rebuilt.  It took removing and reimporting the scene asset and all the user data (minus that file) to make it work.  

 

[Bryan]

Thank you for the update!