I am very new to UE, and this is my first post, so if these questions sound stupid, then that’s probably why.
Firstly: Is there a way to make terrain that goes under itself? I have tried to do this with the terrain editor but it doesn’t seem to work (probably because it uses heightmaps). I am trying to make floating islands if that helps.
Next: Is there a way to make terrain move? As I said, I am trying to make floating islands, and it would be very useful if there was a way to make the islands move (for puzzles, etc.)
I assume for these criteria I would need to manually model the islands and give them textures, but I have no idea how I would do this.
Hey there @Moocow2cow! Welcome to the community! The landscape system, (as you already surmised) is based on heightmaps, so it doesn’t quite have the ability to do terrain under the map. Games that end up doing this with the landscape system tend to use static meshes for their “Caves” and moving the full scale terrains aren’t ideal with the built in UE landscape. The built in landscape system is meant for mostly one layer terrains.
For your floating islands, depending on their size and your gameplay needs, you may want to build them as static meshes. Alternatively you can go with voxels or other methods if you need terrain deformation, but it gets a bit more complex past that. How large are you intending to make these moving islands?
I probably want to make very large floating islands, but I don’t need the larger ones to actually move - I just don’t need them to for what I am doing, I only need the much smaller ones to move.
If you don’t require anything like runtime modularity, static meshes will work in both cases, though for large variants it’s recommended to have them broken up so it’s easier to cull or stream in.
Okay. I suppose making a game with floating islands with heightmaps is a bad idea anyway! Anyway, how would you suggest I make some meshes for terrain? Is there a way to model directly in UE, or should I use something like blender (which I do have)?
My recommendation is to model them in another program like Blender or if you’re going the procedural route you can generate them in Unreal but that gets a bit more complex.
Ah okay, thanks! Also, no, I’m not making procedural terrain. I just thought UE had a moddeling tool. Anyway, time to watch hundreds of Blender tutorials!
While Unreal does have modeling tools, they are better for basic previs than anything else. You can absolutely use them for simple things, but you will definitely want more control and easier workflows. I also agree with MH, as you can use your heightmaps directly in blender or even learn Houdini as if you are planning to work in the industry, it’s for lack of a better word “Magic”, though a bit complex to start.
Do heightmaps in blender allow for terrain that goes under itself? Also, no, I’m not planning to to have this as a job or anything, just wanted to try out something new.
In blender you’d be able to handle any overlap necessary, it’s still recommended to have caves/anything that requires vertical overlap to be separated meshes.