Unreal Terrain Questions

[anonymous_user_3975ea69]

Hi guys, I’m currently using Cryengine, but want to make the switch to UE4.

But first, for my current project I need to make sure UE can do a couple things with terrain before I decide on learning Unreal and doing the switch.

Can UE4 terrains be setup to:

• Blend materials with different displacement maps?
• Use a global mask texture for each material that can then go onto be freely painted in the editor?
• Use a global color texture map, that can then be freely painted further in the editor?

Is there any recommended documentation on setting this up if it’s possible?

If anyone can enlighten me with whether these are possible I’d be very thankful.

Cheers guys.

[TimeSpirits]

• Blend materials with different displacement maps?

Epic has said that tessellation materials on landscapes are not recommended but I have seen it working. I do not know if blending works on that level, I want to assume it does- someone else will have a better answer.

• Use a global mask texture for each material that can then go onto be freely painted in the editor?

Yes- except you will need to create another layer slot for each material in your mask in addition to the masked material. It will affect performance, I’m not sure by how much. For example your layered materials would look something like this-

Layer 1) Masked material rock/dirt/grass
Layer 2) Rock Material
Layer 3) Dirt Material
Layer 4) Grass Material

I’m in the process right now of experimenting with possible other ways to do this.

• Use a global color texture map, that can then be freely painted further in the editor?

This one is trickier, you can certainly setup a large texture to blend/multiply/whatever you want on top of the terrain textures. Is that the intended effect?

Freely painting, I’m not sure how you could then paint those colors on the map.

I do wish UE4 had vertex color painting on the terrain, maybe it is possible with a blueprint?