Hi, im now making a map for my racing game project, and i found the possibility to import heightmaps and create terrain from them. The question, is the use of large landscape correct, or normally i should use something else for terrain that is far from the player?
In other games i have seen the use of a big plane down the terrain, but in my case i want mountains to have a shape.
I have in mind importing all the area in the photo
probably i will delete some areas which are not seen from the road and wont be seen when playing.
Thanks in advance 
Greetings, Finni,
I’m going to give you the most annoying, yet true, answer to your problem (and most others)…
Ready for it?
…
…
…
IT DEPENDS.
But to assist you in making a decision, if you are creating a game where the player’s perspective is moving quickly, you probably do NOT need an actual landscape. HOWEVER, if you are not an artist or comfortable with creating your own terrain meshes, then I highly suggest using the Landscape Tool instead.
Keep in mind that Nanite is particularly adept at handling high-resolution landscapes, so if you are planning are creating a high-resolution, expansive landscape, that may be the way to go…
UNLESS
Your character is moving very quickly, in which case, a low-resolution landscape is better for performance.
So, it depends on what you need.
Okay thank you for the clarification ,
My game is about racing cars so it will move fast, but i would like to do a photo mode in pause menu or in a specific locations (not sure yet)
So I will try with higher resolution heightmaps to be able to blend the road splines correctly, and maybe use lower resolution one for far terrain, as its only decorative.
You probably shouldn’t use landscapes anyway.
In your case, since grass and similar foliage arent a necessity outside of the racing path, it makes things even easier.
Use an external DCC to create the terrain meshes.
Split up the meshes so that the occlusion makes sense foe the specific track. (There’s papers written on the subject, so it can get pretty complex).
Import the meshes into the engine and place them in the level.
Check what tris count you are in, and if/where needed add and properly reduce the LODs of the parts.
Dedicate your tris count and rendering to what is directly in the racing path.
Using Nanite on the meshes could potentially be a way to go about reducing tris count instead of making your own LODs, but if you are looking to release a playable game any time before 2026, I’d suggest sticking to UE4 .25 or even prior, which precludes nanite being an option.
