My terrain is large - what is the world machine export process?

Hey there,

Yesterday I was asking about exporting from world machine into unreal and was given some advice - it was easy!

However, in my water thread today, it was mentioned that having a 15km by 15km terrain was probably unwise and that it can be broken down into smaller chunks like in TES (I am guessing this is the elder scrolls)

My question then is -

If I create a large terrain in world machine, and export it as a tiled terrain… what it the process to bring it into unreal and have it behave well in terms of performance AND detail?

Thanks

-Take a look at the world composition tool -> https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/LevelStreaming/WorldBrowser/index.html
-use culling volumes
-make sure that you use good LOD’s
-use low poly meshes
-dont use too complex materials :slight_smile:

Is there a video on this stuff? Would be awesome to follow along.

Just those two :slight_smile:

  • ?v=fUx8vLosDLY (might be outdated)
  • ?v=YIKa3riX_MI

daaayum, I don’t think either of these are really what I am trying to do - I was able to export my world machine terrain as 4 files, when I try to import one it comes in all crazy - but if I export it all a raw16 file, it imports perfectly.

What exactly do you mean with “crazy” ^^ -> could you post a picture?

Trying to follow this - but it just doesn’t appear to be the same in 4.7.1 :frowning:

https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/LevelStreaming/WorldBrowser/index.html#leveldetails

Adding images…

this is for x0 y0

Settings
Settings.png

Imported block (viewport)

At runtime - nothing on my world machine scene looks anything like this shape

Any ideas?

World machine shot for reference


Thanks

You will have to decrease the scale of the Z axis -> select the landscape - in the details panel go to scale Z - choose a lower value (e.g half of the original value) :slight_smile:

Ah, okay - that improved my situation a little - but now I have another problem! :frowning:

When I go to “levels” and create a new one, that new level has no option in terrain tools to import the next block! :frowning:

In the landscape tool you have to go to the manage tab. There you should somewhere see a button to import another one :slight_smile: https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/Landscape/Editing/ManageMode/index.html

Okay, thanks - now I have all four tile brought in…

However, its still a little crowded, and squished in - is there something going on with the scaling?

Thanks so far!

Image for reference 8f232cba4d56f35b1ede7ee44d6d54a30a57f7c5.jpeg

This is clearly down to scaling - how does world machine scale next to unreal? Is there an algorithm I can follow for that?

Probably you can find some useful information in here: https://wiki.unrealengine/Landscape_-_World_Machine_perfect_integration :smiley:

but normally 1uu=1cm

Make sure to use one of those resolutions:
4033x4033
2017x2017
1009x1009
509x509
505x505
255x255
253x253
127x127

Thanks again, do you know if these resolutions for the “Render extents and normal build resolution -> Normal Build Resolution” or are they for the “Tiled Build Options -> Tile Resolution”?

All your help is massively appreciated .

Wouldn’t this all actually be infinitely easier if I scrapped world machine - created a bunch of terrains side by side, sculpted them in unreal editor, then set up the level streaming? I feel like this is a layer of extra pain to go through.

Yes and no. ^^ When you get it to work, you can create really realistic terrains in a very short period of time. Otherwise you can also do it with the landscape tool, but there it takes a while till you have enough practice to create really realistic terrains.

Dont know exactly what you mean :stuck_out_tongue:

The resolution setting when you click on world extents to set the resolution in world machine - in that box there are two tabs, and those two types of resolution are mentioned.

I would ASSUME it is the first of the two - but then, I am wrong a lot… lol

No matter what I seem to do - this simply does not end up anything like what I have in world machine.

Unreal engine has some amazing video tutorials from epic - it would be awesome if there was one for this that was up to date. I feel like it is something a lot of people will be confused about.

The Perfect integration guide seems to be about creating the terrain in unreal in the first place, which in my opinion makes world machine pointless in the first place.

Is there a “step by step” anywhere on this stuff?

I dont think that there is a step by step tutorial about that topic, but I will test it + post my steps (currently downloading world machine) :slight_smile: