What terrain tools do you use and why

Development Architectural and Design Visualization
1

Hi I posted a similar thread in the main forum. I have access to several tools World Creator, World Machine and Vue xtreame and would most like peoples thoughts on the “best” workflow.

Thanks in advance .

2

I have the same question. I have always created sites and terrains in 3ds and exported that into Unreal. Sometimes the sites come from CAD files or Revit files, which is why I take it into 3ds. My problem is when I take that into Unreal, you can’t use all of the same features you can if you build using the terrain tool in Unreal. You can paint foliage, but it is difficult to separate stuff like grass from site objects like sidewalks. There always seems to be a lot of overlap. And you can’t use the nice paint feature on the site for grass and rocks like you can in the terrain tool.

3

Well its nice to know I’m not the only one with questions about work flow for terrain creation. UE4 can give such stunning results and it does not cost $3800 dollars like Lumion rt!!

4

When I used to mess around with landscapes I always used World Machine. I think a lot of people still do, even though IIRC the developer isn’t supporting it anymore.

5

Thanks!! Gee I did not know World machine is not supported any more!! I had the “pro” version

6

If u use worldmachine, check out geoglyph plugin

7

I was messing around with WM as well, though I found that I needed to dig deeper into landscape material creation, since this is such a big part of it. Ive checking out a few different approaches to it, but this guy got a really good series:

I also saw this talk by the environment designers on Ghost Recon Wildlands, where they showed how they used world machine in their pipeline. I coudnt find it just now when I searched for it, but I thought it was a GDC talk. Anyway, it was interesting to see how they created a pipeline around it. Ill add the link if I find it again.

8

Si it seems that most people use world Machine then I will go that route then. I will also try Vue as well and see how they compare as I like Vue’s results better when using V-Ray for example.

Thanks for all your answers keep 'em up!