Landing on the Moon

Being in space is great and all, but it’s time to find a surface. The mission is to reach the moon and it will be reached soon!

Overview

This lesson will cover using terrain, foliage, and materials to create a vast moon planet. Terrain is a large mesh that allows creators to sculpt mountain, ravines, and other environments with a robust editor. Terrain Editor has tools for adding foliage (trees, grass, rocks) and material.

Generating a Terrain

Click the Terrain Creator button at the top of the Core Editor. Then click the Generate New Terrain button to open the Terrain Generator window.

Terrain Generation Options

There are a couple options available when generating a new terrain. The terrain for the moon surface should be large with some slight slopes.

1. Start by selecting the Rolling Hills type on the left side.
2. Increase the Voxel Size property to 3 meters, which will increase the terrain size.
3. Set the Height property to 10 meters, which will lower the height of the hills.

Click the Generate button on the bottom right. There should be a vast terrain with some slight hills.

Terrain Properties

Select the Terrain object in the Hierarchy window and then open the Properties window. The Properties window has special tabs unique for terrains.

Terrain Materials

The terrain can be painted on using materials. Open the Paint tab in the Properties window for the terrain.

Adding Default Materials

Click the Create new terrain material button which will add four default materials. The button will also paint the entire terrain using the first material.

Editing Terrain Materials

Click the Edit Materials button to open the Material Editor window.

Double click the Material 1 Base icon to open the Material Picker window. Search for moon in the top search bar and select the Moon Surface 01 material.

The Terrain should now be painted with a moon-like material.

Sculpting Terrain

To define the inhabited area of the moon, you can sculpt a crater in the moon terrain.

Open the Sculpt tab in the Properties window of the terrain. There are many different tools and options for sculpting terrain. These are the steps to make a quick crater on the terrain.

• Set the Tool property to Level.
• Select Destructive Mode option next to the Tool property.
• Set the Radius property to 100.
• Set the Height property to 2.
• Set the Falloff property to 0.

The click on the terrain in the scene window. The crater should be created after a single click.

Painting Terrain Material

The crater should be repainted to stand out even more.

Open the Material Editor

Open the Project Content and open the My Materials side tab. Double click on Terrain Material_1 to open the Material Editor window.

Edit the Second Material

Change Material 2 Base to be Gravel Raked 01. Also set the Color property to be a pale yellow.

Paint the Terrain

Open the Paint tab in the Properties window of the terrain.

1. Select the 2nd material.
2. Set the Strength property to 0.75.
3. Set the Size property to 100.
4. Set the Falloff property to 0.1.
5. Set the Falloff Type property to Smooth.

Then click in the center of the crater and it should paint the gravel material.

Smooth Crater Walls

Another handy sculpt tool is to smooth ledges created in the terrain.

Open The Sculpt tab in the Properties window of the terrain.

• Set the Tool property to Smooth.
• Set the Strength property to 0.1.
• Set the Size property to 3.

Gently brush over any edges in the crater that are too harsh.

Terrain Foliage

A nice touch that can be added is scattered rocks and boulders. Foliage can be associated to a material to populate it automatically.

Edit a New Material

To avoid adding rocks to the entire moon surface, a third material can be made to mimic the moon surface but include foliage.

Open the Material Editor window and set the Material 3 Base material to Moon Surface 01.

Add Foliage

Open the Foliage tab in the Properties window of the terrain. Click the Add Foliage button in the top right. Search for rock and select the Rock 01 mesh. Set the Material Channel property to the third material.

Paint the Foliage

Open the Paint tab in the Properties window of the terrain. Select the third material and set the Size property to 20.

Paint around the crater and there should be rocks added in the painted material.

Summary

The moon surface is looking pretty authentic! There is always more that can be improved such as more foliage, blending materials, and even adding a secondary terrain for background mountains.