Hmm, then it seems like a bug, because as I said, I tried everything at the exact same position but I’m not abel to reproduce your (using 4.7 preview) 
Probably someone from epic games can solve it -> post it on answerhub
OK will do, thanks for helping me ascertain then, that it is indeed a bug and where to post for help.
Cheers! 
nl
Make sure to include your map file so that they can also test it 
(otherwise it’s pretty difficult to say what could be wrong)
+I will send you my map file -> probably solves the problem
Ty so much for trying to help, but your map file no doubt created in 4.6/7 and I use 4.4.3 , is crashing my editor before editor can even load.
I just don’t know what to try, as Im not a longtime programmer, nor would Ihave any idea where to start tofix ,what seems to likely be a wireframe generation /texture, no clue.
Also I noticed < I think in landscape level window ?> I was getting a error something about overlapping <no lightmap>terrain errors, but I have no idea what it was about, I wonder if is causing my spikes ?
I’ll try to find out where I was and post later about that, but in case anyone has any idea, there it is.
Cheers
nl
I will try it again with the 4.4.3. Could you post the exact error? Mostly UV errors are caused by bad lightmaps
Sorry for calling it lightmaps, not my intention, I meant to infer that lightmaps was not what I was talking about, but I didn’t state it clear enough sorry.
I’ll try to find error again, it was something about terrain overlapping, and it was several iines < which makes sense as the spikes occur in several spots> and had < x x> coordinates on each line for where I guess the overlaps were.
Cheers
nl
Tested it and still no success (everything works as it should)
-copy the landscape into another map
-copy the map into another project
-use a newer version of the engine
-reinstall the engine (dont think that it works, but you never know…:))
I’m not sure if it’s related, but a long time ago (would have been 4.4.x or earlier) I did have issues with some of my landscape tiles (using world composition) where they weren’t lining up right (using right click -> Add adjacent landscape level) and there was some strange behavior (it was last year so I don’t remember exactly what). Just to reiterate they looked fine, but editing them did not work fine.
My fix was to delete the problem level/s and re create them (make sure to copy/backup your project first =p) until they worked.
You could try exporting your heightmaps, recreating the levels then re-importing heightmaps, but I’m not really sure will fix anything and it might just be a waste of time.
I’ve had no issues so far on 4.6/4.7.
Ok thx for info I appreciate it.
I wanted to stated for the record, that I realized when I bought into UE4 that it wasn’t in a perfect’ state’, I guess I had no idea landscape of all things might suffer from bugs, I figured it would more likely be in more advanced things, but I was warned 
I’ll think about upgrading but I can’t help but wonder ,what bugs I"ll find there that I can’t fix without a programmer on my team, which atm I have none ;))
Cheers
nl
In my case it was always an easy fix after I realized there was a problem, I think it’s actually the only problem I’ve encountered since UE4 release other than the odd crash when copy/pasting nodes.
still strikes me as a bit odd though, that old project I was working on was shaping up to be 100Kmx100Km of landscape SHAPED IN EDITOR (though I’d only done gone over 1/4 to 1/2 of it =p) and it only happened two or so times.
I’m pretty much out of ideas, seems like a pretty rare occurrence as I could only find your answerhub thread after a small amount of google searching.
I guess fighters last post is really the way to go.
Depending on how much you’ve done it might not take too long to make things from scratch or just migrate your assets over to a new project, is the first time I’ve seen and I really would be surprised if it happened again.
On the upside as someone who just re-subbed, 4.7 is shaping up pretty nicely =]
If you do have another go, write down exactly what those errors say as it should help sort things out.
The fact its rare is irrelevant, the fact it happened to even one person, is enough to give rise to reconsidering using UE4 at all.
I’ve used unity for ages, and not once did I ever encounter a project squashing bug like , so I see no reason to conclude that I’ve done anything wrong here,not that anyone is suggesting that, but what else does it leave ?
Its not my GPU given unity has never caused any of , so what does that leave ?
Im very surprised not ONE single UE4 dev has commented on tnis, its as if nobody really cares about anything but taking your money, short of those here as that have tried to help but ultimately while trying gave zero results that would effective in the form of allowing me to continue my project with complete confidence that I could be a artist and not worry about errors derailing my entire project.
I tried making a new project and uninstall and reinstalling UE4, to zero effect of a fix. I had the same problem with the same terrain, although of course ‘new’ terrrains not showing that behavior.
It it was my hdd, I would also have issues with unity I"d think as I started with terrain creation with them and did so over a few months with as noted, no errors of anykind.
I came here because I felt for what Iwas doing ue4 was far superior and I still feel that way, but at what POint do I continue on feeling that way, if one day I wake up and find the same error , and looking at a possibility of ‘remaking’ my entire terrain by hand. Thats a NON starter
Cheers
nl
Have you tried using the Flatten tool in the Landscape tools (sorry haven’t read the whole thread)? If not is the easiest way to get rid of any spikes/dips in the landscape.
To do so you want to place the circle beside the spike first and then click and drag over the spike a couple of times, that should remove it.
Another thing that is worth trying is the “Retopologize” tool, try running that over the spike a couple times, and then try using the flatten tool again in the same way.
Hope that helps, you will need to re-smooth the area again afterwards but hopefully that gets rid of your spike.
It could take a while till someone from epic games answers you (it’s a strange problem and something that might be difficult to solve) -> report your problem on answerhub
Btw, I sent you a heightmap file from your landscape -> import it and try if you still get the same problem
Also it would be really helpful if you could post the link to your AnswerHub post here. That way if an Epic staff member reads post they can look into it further.
https://answers.unrealengine/questions/162119/using-smooth-tool-on-my-terrain-causing-spikes.html < answerhub post.
Also I think I fixed it, as noted here:
anwerhub reply by me:
Smooth tool strength is .85, falloff is zero brush size is 1788.155884 , circle brush and style of falloff is smooth.
thx for any help you can offer on , its not a deal breaker buts its impeding progress a bit.
I had someone PM me from forum, with a landscape < I’ve been getting some forum help but alas no fixes yet> r16 format they are asking me to try out,and if it fixes it I’ll let you know.
OK WEIRD, I think I fixed it!!
EDIT EDIT EDIT: I unchecked ‘detail smooth’ under ‘tool settings’ on of course smooth tool, and no more spikes..
Maybe is something that should be investigated and verified in most current versions of UE4. I wasn’t using file sent to me by , just the one already in my project, but thanks to for being so nice and going out of his way so far, to help me fix , and thx to everyone else who did their best to help me resolve , all appreciated!
Good to hear that it’s fixed now -> the strange thing is, that I wasn’t abel to reproduce your problem (I tried everything -> also the thing with the detail smooth)
Ya that is weird, only other thing I can think of , is a GPU ? I have AMD HD 7750, but like I say, Ive never had unity do any of in the months of using its tools, so it would seem hard to nail it down to the GPU ?
Cheers
nl
Unity is a different program - UE4 is going to have bugs and anectodal evidence doesn’t affect that. It’s obviously not a very common problem- I could say I’ve been using the terrain tools for months now and have had only 1. Doesn’t mean problems don’t exist. Only means I haven’t encountered them.
Best thing to do is keep trying and don’t give up! Game development is not easy but it will reward the ones that persevere.
Its not about not giving up on ‘game dev’ itself, its about knowing the engine ‘has my back’
I get UE4 isn’t 1.0 software, it warned me early on it wasn’t so I can’t blame anyone but myself on that level
I never imagined I’d have issues with terrain of all things,but I guess is a new engine so anything is possible right
Unity is established on that front, but I came here because I felt for $20 ( they get the most on other end, which is fine by me) I got SO MUCH MORE than unity ‘free’ could ever give me.
I still feel that way , and I’m not going anywhere,it was just a tad bit of a scare as you could imagine, all based on having no idea that the smooth brush tool setting for ‘detail’ was not working right. Were there warnings about that setting I missed in landscape tool, &/or was that setting fixed in subsequent engine versions, and if so where would I check to verify that given atm Im not subscribed to github/UE4 ?
Cheers
nl
Glad it’s sorted =]
I would have been surprised if it was a GPU, my GPU is about as close as it gets to yours (HD 7850).
Detail smooth was on my mind as I have used it to smooth out steep inclines (to make the texture look better) without disturbing the whole shape of where I’m editing, and near the edges of the brush I noticed it was not smooth at all and I’d go over it again with a very small non detail smooth brush. But I had never had anything nearly extreme as your results so I didn’t mention it -_-.
I was thinking it might have been an with exporting heightmaps from Unity into UE4 or something (though it wouldn’t explain why couldn’t replicate the).
I’m still a little bit curious about the landscape errors.
Today I’ll do some work on my current landscape (in 4.6.1) paying attention to detail smooth when I use it, but as I never experienced such extreme behavior in the first place it won’t be a 100% guarantee or anything, if I do notice anything I’ll have a go in 4.7 or maybe get my hands on the promoted branch.
If I had to make a guess, I’d say falloff set to 0 might be a big part of it.