The problem I am having is creating a large scale terrain lets say like 100 miles x 100 miles in Unreal. This has to be based off satellite data from real life locations and have satellite data for the textures. Mainly for fly through of large open terrains with cities in them and such.
I noticed Unity has something like this
But does unreal have something similar.
Thank you,
Unlike Unreal Engine, Unity does not have built-in support for importing multiple heightmap terrain tiles, and have these layed out in the correct order. In Unity, you need to use third party plugins for this, or do it in a very manual and time consuming fashion. UE has out-of-the-box support for importing a tileset - a terrain split up in multiple raw heightmap files.
You should read about World Composition in the docs (link below) to learn how this works, and also which resolutions you need. Using this method you can easily create a 100 miles x 100 miles landscape.
But first you must have your terrain’s heightmap data, before you can actually import it. There are plenty of sources (google) where you can find real-world topology data.
Here’s is one source: http://gdex.cr.usgs.gov/gdex/
The Unity plugin uses Bing Maps.
You would download the image files you get from here, import them in World Machine and further refine your data, removing small spikes/peaks (ugly), and then export as tiles. World Machine can also export textures and splatmaps. Overlay textures from World Machine, are usually used only for coloring your terrain, and as a distance texture. Splatmaps will define where your more detailed textures go. This is a whole process, you must first learn to use World Machine, then learn the parts you need in UE for this, namely World Composition and Material Editor. You’ll find many tutorials on youtube which show how to setup your material.
I’ll include a link below, which describes the process World Machine to UE. This is just one workflow you could use, but knowing what you know now, I’m sure you can easily discover other.
World Composition:
World Machine to UE
Legal Issues
You should be aware that satellite imagery usually is copyrighted, you are not free to use it in a commercial game without permission/license. This includes the satellite data that the Unity plugin WorldComposer uses.
Glad I read to the end. Did not know that the Satelite Data was protected. Thanks for sharing in detail the process and challenges of World Creation. I have a Mod that I am working on in Bus Simulator 21 that uses 1 km CAD files for maps. My bright idea was to use the Roads layers from the CAD files to connect them to the sample road in Bus Simulator 21.
Now Houdini road tool is used in Bus Simulator 21 and the author suggests starting from this sample road[quote=“E.B.B, post:2, topic:354254, full:true”]
Unlike Unreal Engine, Unity does not have built-in support for importing multiple heightmap terrain tiles, and have these layed out in the correct order. In Unity, you need to use third party plugins for this, or do it in a very manual and time consuming fashion. UE has out-of-the-box support for importing a tileset - a terrain split up in multiple raw heightmap files.
You should read about World Composition in the docs (link below) to learn how this works, and also which resolutions you need. Using this method you can easily create a 100 miles x 100 miles landscape.
But first you must have your terrain’s heightmap data, before you can actually import it. There are plenty of sources (google) where you can find real-world topology data.
Here’s is one source: http://gdex.cr.usgs.gov/gdex/
The Unity plugin uses Bing Maps.
You would download the image files you get from here, import them in World Machine and further refine your data, removing small spikes/peaks (ugly), and then export as tiles. World Machine can also export textures and splatmaps. Overlay textures from World Machine, are usually used only for coloring your terrain, and as a distance texture. Splatmaps will define where your more detailed textures go. This is a whole process, you must first learn to use World Machine, then learn the parts you need in UE for this, namely World Composition and Material Editor. You’ll find many tutorials on youtube which show how to setup your material.
I’ll include a link below, which describes the process World Machine to UE. This is just one workflow you could use, but knowing what you know now, I’m sure you can easily discover other.
World Composition:
World Machine to UE
Legal Issues
You should be aware that satellite imagery usually is copyrighted, you are not free to use it in a commercial game without permission/license. This includes the satellite data that the Unity plugin WorldComposer uses.
[/quote]
to avoid problems. I have the Houdini and Megascans plugins loaded in UE 4.26.2., yet it is not working correctly in either Bus Simulator 21 or in a new project after the engine’s launch. So I am trying to troubleshoot Houdini for use in Bus SImulator 21 or in the version of Unreal that I am using.
I thought I could open the CAD files in Unreal and use the Road Tool to connect them. I realized that performance has to be kept in mind while developing so I thought that I could use the Buildings layers to block out large static meshes of the areas. I also thought that I could use Atlases and event triggers (?) for when the Player is stopped at a light, turns a corner, or [is] looking at/in a direction for [set time(s)=Real Time Driving Rules 0-3 sec, look both directions (is true) checks mirror(s) (is true) then Render Area)
That was contingent on getting the Road Networks to connect or using the Roads Layers as Target Shapes in Houdini. That did not work. My project calls for a training map that is attached and the actual Route Map (4.7mi and 7.7mi respectively).
I welcome any suggestions that you can offer. I also have opened the CAD maps in Unreal and they look great. The problem is they are outside the world sphere on adding to the level, or smaller than the level environments buildings and have to be scaled (50. 50, 50). The character falls through the road, so I think that’s fixable by making the roads have a Nav Mesh correct? I tried exporting the roads in the attached file from 3DS Max >Game Export, and 3DS Max>Export Selected. On import I selected Kililometers as the incoming units. I have my 3DS grid set up and units to match Unreal Units and grid.
Toolhttps://www.sidefx.com/tutorials/ue4-starter-kit/
cadmapper-washington-washington-dc-us.dxf (1.9 MB)
LICENSE.txt (382 Bytes)
