I imported a landscape into a map with World Partition enabled, but there seems to be no option for exporting or importing the paint layer masks there.
If I import the terrain as a single heightmap with no partitioning switched on then I do get those options back.
So what is the intended workflow now for terrain + world partition. I noticed that exporting the heightmaps exports them as tiles instead of one large heightmap so will this work the same for paint layers? And if so is it simply not implemented yet or is there something Iām missing?
No, at the moment (if ever) there seems to be no method allowing you to save the HeightMap in UE5 with World Partition.
Here is MY workflow. Do how you see fit.
Get a height map (me, I chose an island in Hawaii).
Edit the height map in your favorite image editor so that the LOWEST (darkest) is modified to be 50% (basically this SHOULD raise all shades of gray). This is APPROXIMATELY 0 (I canāt get exactly zero).
Do basic image cleanup in the image editor.
For things that need 3D editing (finding spikes in real world data) I use UE4.26. The tools are reasonably stable.
In UE5 I have three maps:
Dummy Map
Map
Map without landscape
Dummy map is what I set the editor to in case UE5 pukes. I donāt want to come back to a barfed map (it has happened).
Map is my working map
Map without landscape is my working map MINUS the landscape. How do you do that? With the working map open, open all the little chevrons like so and do a copy:
I appreciate the thorough response. But I actually how no issues reimporting height maps into my partitioned world. And I am able to sculpt the terrain in a layer so that the original heightmap is preserved. These are another topicā¦
My question is how I can import maps into landscape paint layer(For the landscape material).
Usually, I would use World Creator to generate splat maps that I would import into the paint layer. But these import and export options are missing in UE5.
Yeah I also can import/export tiled heightmaps, not really a problem there.
But the paint layers just seems to be broken, I canāt believe Epic would have just forgotten to get them working with partitions - but who knows!? A lot was made of this new system and tiled worlds so this seems a massive oversight.
For instance the landscape layering system in materials, procedural foliage, foliage grasstypes, even road splines that can render into a landscape layer - all use landscape layers. So the question is why do they not work with world partition?
There are workarounds for shaders/splatmaps but for any of the other stuff to work you need the layer system
I got too cocky saying I could re-import the heightmap onto the existing partitioned terrain. Seems like I cant even do that anymore without everything blowing up!
I will try your method @cannasoftware. I really hope this all gets fixed pretty soon
EDIT - Ah I donāt see anything there about reimporting, Iām just gonna assume this is knackered too and try working in a non partitioned level for now.
I been trying to replicate the steps I needed to do to be able to reimport the terrain from an edited World machine file and this is what got it working (today at least).
So there was no option on the āimportā tab for the heightmap, it was just greyed out. What I did was go to ānewā and import a new terrain from the heightmap file. This created a second terrain in the scene. Then I went back to āimportā and lo and behold the import was now un-greyed out and the button was available to press again (had to choose the right terrain first from the dropdown) I then did save all and reloaded the map and for whatever reason the newly created heightmap was no longer in there and the old one had the import button available again.
I donāt know why that worked but it worked so Iāll take it for now. Will post any further workarounds in this thread.
I gave up on the idea to have the option enabled, and now I just create the terrain (with imported heightmap and paint layers) under UE4, convert the project to UE5, then convert the level into WP.
I guess/hope the option will be re-enabled in one of the next UE5 release, but for now this works fine!
Yeah, @anonymous_user_81f8c29b, I fought this until I came up with my āworkaroundā ā the reasons for the Dummy map is there is an edge case where you do everything right and starting up UE5 blows up loading the map. I hope it is rare (it happened to me enough that I said some foul language and went with my āstupidā solution).
No import like in 4.26 so, yeah, meh.
The āMap without Landscapeā is everything BUT the height map. Downside is that every time you make changes to the level, you have to copy everything over. Total mess.
Iāll let you know if I find a workaround for the landscape layers (thatās my next bit of work).
For the guys in this thread, I asked on UDN and they are currently working on the landscape system and they know about this issue (well they sure do now :)).
Unfortunately he couldnāt give me an ETA on when it will be fixed tho
-Set the landscape gizmo to cover your landscape.
It is important to specify the dimensions of the landscape gizmo:
for example, if your landscape is 4033m x 4033m, set your landscape gizmo to size 403300 x 403300 x enough z height to cover your landscape.
-Copy Data to Gizmo
-Export file.
You can use this raw file to import to a new landscape, just set the resolution manually.
If you would like to convert it to a more standard 16bit png, you can use (for example) imagej Fiji image tool. When importing the raw file, set the resolution correctly (gizmo size \ 100) and choose little endian / 16bit unsigned.
BTW, just for people who stumble upon this thread, UE 5.0.3 seems to have fixed this problem.
The ONLY issue is that it now asks if you want to export the layers (YES PLEASE) ā however, THAT doesnāt appear to work. Or if it does, Iāve no idea where the file(s) go.
Reason: sometimes the landscape gets FUBARED and starts blinking. Bad sign. Usually means it is corrupt (log messages have errorsā¦ but the flashing is pretty indicative).
CURRENT workaround is to reload the height map which erases my painting of terrain materials which is a pain. Oh, and if you have a spline layer (for rivers or fences or ANYTHING) that goes away.
IMPORTANT EDIT: Ughā¦ Okay, I just realized that it wants you to enter a filename when saving the paint layers. Why it doesnāt suggest one is beyond me. This is one case where Epic makes it MUCH harder than it needs to be. Saving works (when I do it right) except it dropped a paint layerā¦ probably because it ALSO CRASHED. But loading layers seemed to work.
Moral of the storyā¦ Make sure everything saves correctly. This is STILL a nasty workaround for an intermittent bug (yes, Epic Engineers, Iām quite familiar with them and it is maddening).
But at least I can finally get some of my artwork out of the way.
But I actually how no issues reimporting height maps into my partitioned world. And I am able to sculpt the terrain in a layer so that the original heightmap is preserved. These are another topicā¦
