Hello, I am working on a strategy game project. That is a game which user will be able to control and move many units. I do not have enough time so I want to get advices before I go for something. Many people use landscape editor for their level. that is ueful for large maps for open world games. In constrast, strategy games like AoE use smaller maps and models than other types. I will do the same thing for memory consideration. I can sculpt mountains and natural shapes realistic with external tools then I can put texture them on low poly meshes. I want to do something like that. Instead of using landscape I want to use a single mesh or meshes as map. Still mesh/meshes will be very large but not like open world size.
I have performance concerns about this. I am not sure if landscape has something very special about performance. If landscape is no differet than a mesh / meshes I may use mesh instead of it because my mountains and other natural shapes will ve very small since that is RTS.
Landscapes use 8-bit data, and meshes use 16-bit data, and from a number of other factors it is far better to use landscape creation than meshes only in terms of memory and speed. It’s also rather difficult to sculpt meshes in UE, if needed, than it is to sculpt a generated landscape in UE. In an external program it’s easier to sculpt meshes with the right tools, such as in Blender. But UE doesn’t have extensive mesh sculpting tools that function in-editor to produce immediate results. For smaller maps in an RTS, try making smaller landscape sizes with higher resolution levels. You can even generate a 2x2, 3x3, 4x2, etc. landscape per map and select higher quads / component (little squares per big square). To get a 4x2 or 1x3, or something similar, first generate a 4x4 or 3x3 respectively, and then delete components until the basic layout/shape is created. Enable the Landmass plugin for some useful editing tools that are not available in the base landscape tools.
I’m using landscape because it lets me paint materials directly on it. I can paint gravel paths or different grass types to avoid repetition or visible tiling. I also can place foliage automatically with a landscape material. I can place a whole set of grass and flowers with one material or just plain lawn grass with another. And I can align the terrain itself to meshes placed in the scene without leaving the editor. Those are really useful features.
I have a love / hate relationship with landscape. There was a big overhaul a few years ago but I think it made it even more difficult and confusing to use. Especially the landscape setup is weird from a creators stand point. I find it pretty hard to understand and I have worked with unreal for many years. And features like smoothing just doesn’t work the way it should.
As a performance tip: use higher resolution landscape at walkable areas and low resolution for the background landscape. You can have multiple landscape actors in a level. You can copy paste high res landscapes and then modify them to fit new areas. I think it even copies any painted foliage with them.
Thanks for respones during this time I worked on unit formation of my game. I still work on it. I will go with landscape as I can detect mouse hits on it easily. I may use meshes for natural shapes like mountains, dunes for realistic looking. For simple slopes I will use landscape tools.