Hey Guys! I’m working on a game and my target platform is PC. My game is a narrative kinda game with lot of outdoor scenes. So, I was wondering what method should I use in order to create my maps or outdoor terrains.
Should I make them using World Machine(and UE4 landscape tool) or create some mesh and place them by hand as done inside the elemental demo. I’m trying to achieve a terrain something like the one in Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
I’m new to PC game development, so I thought I should ask the experts or the experienced ones. And I also want to know which method is gonna be more CPU friendly(optimized).
I personally would do it with landscapes (world machine, ue4 tool), because you can modify it directly in the engine + they already have LOD’s + texture painting After that add meshes (e.g foliage, buildings,…) to it -> you create those assets in your 3d program
There are really three ways you have to work with some outdoor style terrains that I would use.
Landscape Tool in UE4
World Machine, Terragen, or similar third party heightmap generation program
Sculpting a static mesh in your modeling program of choice
Often times there may be a combination of these that you would use rather than focusing on one particular one. It all depends on your skill with varying programs and the look/style your want for your game.
For optimization out of the box I would suggested UE4’s Landscape tool and a heightmap generated from #2. The landscapes that UE4 already use a LOD system to keep them optimized and since option #2 gives you a heightmap you can plug into the Landscape tool to get your terrain it is fully optimized in that sense.
If you make a Static Mesh variant you would need to create LODs for your mesh and since this is based on screen size/distance if you’re near it the entire mesh will be that single LOD. You would want to break your mesh apart into chunks to keep the LODs more optimized which can be labor intensive. I wouldn’t discount them all together based on this as there are situations where you may want to use these when other options don’t seem to give you the results you need.
I’m sure others with more experience in World Machine and similar software can offer more information than I can on it and hopefully they’ll offer some great tips, tricks, and advice for you as well.
Thanks for your suggestion guys. I think I’ll go with world machine for creating terrain as it comes with LODs and it will generate a more natural looking terrain. And also it’ll be a bit difficult for me to create LODs myself for all the Static Mesh variants.
After that add meshes (e.g foliage, buildings,…) to it -> you create those assets in your 3d program