Create terrain in 3d max?

Development World Creation
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1

Hello,

I want to create a big terrain about 5km x 7km with a lot details in it so my question here is it possible to create the entire map using 3D Max only with it’s Texture after that add it to Unreal Engine ?

Regards,
Fahad S. Aldaferi

2

If its just the terrain (not counting rocks, tree’s, buildings etc) yes you can make the whole terrain in 3dsmax.
that said, unlike ue4’s build in terrain the mesh terrain will take up some more memory.
Landscapes use 4 bytes per vertex for the vertex data. Static Meshes store position as a 12-byte vector, and tangent X and Z vectors packed into 4 bytes each, and either 16-bit or 32-bit float UVs for a total of either 24 or 28 bytes per vertex.

so you might be better off to make the actual terrain in ue4, and use meshes for big rocks, mountains and other additional details you need.

that said, if you feel you want to make the entire terrain out of a mesh nobody will stop you :slight_smile:

Loads of info: Landscape Outdoor Terrain In Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine Documentation

3

Well, in that case he def. needs to look at it like its lego’s.
Make a few tree’s and place them around in ue4.
same for rocks, mountains, plants, buildings etc.

You cant just make it all one big mesh, nor is it adviceable to make each mesh/tree/rock unique as that is not ue4’s biggest strength.

I def. suggest both you and your artist to read up on ue4 documentation and dont be afraid to ask here, on facebook pages or on any chats you might be on.

4

Thanks Luos,
Actually I will make thrthe entire terrain included mountain, trees, rocks…ets inside 3D MAX becuase the 3D Artist i have didn’t work with game engine before. Let’s say I create all of this in 3D MAX can an experience Environment Artist work with UE4 add all of this into UE4 without any problems ?

5

Thank Luos for this info.

Regards,
Fahad S. Aldaferi

6

What you can do is create a height map based terrain. A map based terrain can be created inside Unity / Unreal / Cryengine and in Max you can use the same height map with the displace modifier on a high poly plane and get the same result.

Then use the height map in Unreal, save more memory and place the rocks and other terrain objects as single meshes on the terrain. Use the LOD max / min range settings to spawn in items as and when required.

7

Yes of course you can use 3ds max (not the best tool for the job, but yes!) to make a heightmap if you so wish:

and : https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Landscape/Custom/index.html#heightmaps