16-bit Heightmap Stamps For Terrain Sculpting

Hola!

I’m trying to have a process with terrains where I can use 4k-8k resolution, 16-bit grayscale heightmap stamps to sculpt out terrain. The goal is to stay in-engine as much as possible to keep iteration/testing time speedy and to keep the terrains highly editable (would prefer to avoid WorldMachine for level design). The current terrain stamps with 8-bits per channel work okay for smaller brushes, but if you want to sculpt larger features into your terrain you’ll get terracing artifacts and clumpy height detail. Since we’re usually importing 16-bit raw heightmaps from WorldMachine/etc into Unreal anyway, it makes sense to keep the tools consistent and support the same formats for the terrain brushes :slight_smile:

Another helpful bonus would be the option to preview the heightmap change with a terrain brush selected. Stamping the terrain to preview the strength of the brush and then un-doing, making another strength adjustment, stamp again, etc - is tedious, an interactive preview would be more predictable and would give a good boost in workflow.

I’ve attached some screens to illustrate these two features. If these are already features then I would really appreciate some info how to set them up in Unreal! :smiley:

Cheers!

rob m