Country Size landscape?

Development World Creation
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1

Hello UE4 friends,

So I’ve spent 5 full (16 hours each day) day’s trying to download topographic info from OpenTopography.org and then converting file with VTBuilder and exporting to World Machine and then to UE4…BUT here is what goes wrong…

Everything…

When I import into ue4, its in a square and is smashed into one landmass…which is huge and awful…The Country of Armenia is what Im trying to put in ue4. And I turned on world comp but it did not work…

Plus Im on ssi so i cant buy WM so im having to use free 513 res…but…what help, advice, or tip can ya’ll give me? This is not for a game, This is for a good cause…

so umm any help would be great :slight_smile:

2

You no longer need the non free world machine for this : Page not found it does support TILES , so you’d be fine. L3DT is what I’ll be using as needed.
VTBuilder I know of, but never used as it didn’t seem to do what was needed.
I’ve used 3dem which is amazing software and does lots more, BUT you can do as such:

Post from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3f-ntPQGU

This process is far too lengthy and unnecessary. Here is the far simpler version with the same result in a quarter of the time:

  1. Import heightmap into L3DT
  2. Resize heightfield (https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Landscape/TechnicalGuide/index.html) < guide to terrain sizes etal.
  3. Export as RAW file
  4. Open Unreal and click on the landscape tab
  5. Select Import height map and select your RAW file
  6. Change the settings to what you need (Z controls height of imported heightmap)
  7. Get on with making your game

He’s right, try it and Gl!!

3

Thank you Neighborlee, Trying it now…but…Is there a way to stream in the map? I don’t think it’ll fit in one level. Will it?

4

Quite welcome, and OH btw so sorry: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Engine/Landscape/TechnicalGuide/index.html
dont use 4092, use one of the values at url, forgot about that ( bc long time ago when new to ue4 I used 5101 tho Ive yet to see any issues,best stil to follow official values).

Yes streaming is part of world comp as without it most computers couldn’t handle the result.
See world comp tutorials if you haven’t already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jqe1MKj1qA , not the only one, but a decent one by ue4 dev.

5

https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/…ser/index.html , talks about streaming and should make it more clear, see:

" LOD Settings

Each level in the world composition can have up to 4 LOD streaming levels. LOD streaming levels are similar to mesh LOD. Depending on streaming distance settings streaming level will be replaced with corresponding LOD level. LOD levels automatically discovered by World Composition using pattern [Package name]_LOD#. Where number should be from 1 to 4. LOD levels can be created manually or with automatic LOD map generator which requires Simplygon.
"

You set the streaming distance,and when applicable depending where player is on map/level the LOD will start,all that dance is about huge worlds and actually making it run without a super computer :wink:

On point,this should get you going ue4 straming LOD tutorial - Bing video .

6

RE scaling the height maps.
Be careful. You want to try and maintain the correct ratio.
If you downloaded a 30m DTM you get 30 meters of terrain in 1 pixel of height map.
So, to make that 1 to 1 you would have to multiply the size of the height map 30,000%.
Doing this will obviously create artifacts and terracing.
If you download a 5m DTM then, the stretch required will be far less.

If you managed to find a 1m DTM, youd have no stretching…

7

Thank you guys :slight_smile: I’ll show you soon what it looks like, still working on it :slight_smile: *side note, 1m DTM means a very small area? or just they way they took picture? the data im using is SRTM GL 3 *30m

8

1M dem’s are VERY rare, lucky if your game shall take place for zones that have them, faik most of u.s has none OR are very expensive ?
IE: 1m DEMs are satelite images very close to ground for nice walkable terrain. 30 M is ‘ok’ too, but 1M would be ideal , and why the reference was made as to why no conversion then is needed.

9

Dtm = digital terrain model. The measure preceding it is the effective size of each pixel in the data. So 1m DTM = 1 pixel is 1 meter. 30m DTM = 1pixel is 30 meters.

A DEM is a digital elevation model.

In most places these 2 mean the same thing.

In America they don’t, the DTM is a vector representation of ridgelines and streets that complements the DEM.

So yea, you would want a 1m DEM. And yes they are super rare.

Grass Gis can probably help lessen the terracing effect. I have to really look into it myself since the areas I want barely have 50m DEMs…

Either way, making the 30m dem 1:1 is not so bad. You can run the smoothing tool over it (low stenght) manually and solve most of the terracing within the playable area. The further out the landscape gets the least the terracing will be visible (to some extent though it will always be visible since every 30 meters will be 1 pixel of data).

10

Thank you so much for the help :slight_smile: I was sent this and wanted to share because it is freaking pro…

problem solved for us all :slight_smile:

11

Ya I’ve used MicroDEm , have it installed and is flat amazing indeed., gdal not so much but interesting to see it used.

12

Only issue i’m faced with is math lol…So I’m still in a hole, my map size is 17,000 by 28,000… And I can’t edit it to fit microdem’s 24,000 limit… So I loaded it in L3DT Pro but not sure what to do next. I never used this program but once lol

13

ok so i got it in engine…and its a huge map but…its still not real world scale…806800cm x 403400cm x 50000, its in 8 files (levels) in world comp…is it because the dem is 30m and not 1m?