Terrain Generator

In this lesson, we are going to use the Terrain Generator to create basic terrains.

Open the Terrain Creator

• Start from a new empty project.
• Click the Terrain button to open the Terrain Creator.
• Choose Generate New Terrain from the drop down menu.

Generate Terrain

There are many different options for types of terrain that can be generated in Core. You can click any of the terrain types to see a description of what it will generate.

Terrain Settings

The General section contains settings that will apply to all types of terrain. The Voxel Size setting determines how large the voxels of the terrain will be. A voxel is like a 3D pixel. The smaller the voxels are, the more detail the terrain can have. The Terrain Size setting determines how many voxels the terrain will have. The higher the voxel count, the larger the terrain can be. The downside of increasing the number of voxels is that the terrain uses up more of the limited terrain memory space.

The Parameters section contains settings that will vary depending on the terrain type selected. For example, the Cube World is the only terrain type with the Edge Length setting.

• Select Rolling Hills.
• Change the size to 256 x 256 voxels and 0.50 meters.
• Click Generate.
• Press Play or = to explore the newly generated terrain from a player perspective.

Rearrange the Scene

After pressing play, you may have fallen through your terrain. This is because your Spawn Point may be where “Default Floor” still exists in the scene.

• Find the Spawn Point in the Hierarchy and move it to a new spot, above the new terrain.
• Right click on “Default Floor” in the Hierarchy and select Delete.
• Click the Terrain button again to see that it now lists the Terrain (Rolling Hills) as Primary.

Note: Primary Terrain is the terrain in your scene with collision enabled. You can have multiple terrains but only one that players can actually walk on.

Apply a Material

Any material can be added to a terrain. However, materials that begin with “Terrain” are designed to be used specifically for terrain and will apply different textures to the steeper and flatter parts of the terrain.

• Open the Materials tab of Core Content.
• Search the Core Content tab for terrain.
• Find Terrain – Grass and drag it onto the terrain.
• Add a Material to the Terrain.

Examples of terrains generated with the Terrain Generator