Landscape Tool

The Landscape tool has 6 panels (Data Sources, Settings, Natural Layer, Cultural Layer, Preview and Parameters panels) and the Generate button.

• In the Data Sources panel, you should specify the elevation and imagery sources for the landscape generation, as well as landcover and vector data for generation of landcover objects and roads if necessary.
• Settings panel contains a bunch of generation settings: Play Area and Files.
• In the Preview panel, you can specify the play area of the landscape generation. Preview panel depicts the world map in the equirectangular projection.
• Parameters panel depicts parameters of the selected settings or information of the selected data source.

• The documentation on the GDAL library
• The Wikipedia article on Equirectangular projection

Landscape tool creates the terrain based on the real geodata sources, hence you should specify the data sources before proceeding.

To add a new source, click the Add Source button. In the opened windows specify the following fields:

When you add the imagery, elevation, landcover and vector data to the landscape tool, their areas will be highlighted on the Preview panel with corresponding colors: blue for elevation, green for imagery, red for landcover and yellow for vector.

The minus sign button deletes selected data source.

When you select a data source, you can see the parameters of the added source in the Parameters panel.

Elevation data source parameters are as shown below.

You can specify the following parameter:

Imagery data source parameters are as shown below.

You can specify the following parameter:

Landcover data source parameters are described here. This type of data source is optional and should be added when generation of landcover objects is needed.

Vector data source parameters are described here. This type of data source is optional and should be added when generation of roads and communications is needed.

Landscape tool generates a terrain according to the specified output settings. Specify the following parameters:

Play Area

Files

After specifying all the necessary settings, you can generate the landscape by clicking the Generate button.

Landscape tool stores the source data with specified parameters as assets. Therefore, when you click on the Generate button, the window for saving the asset will appear. Specify the name and the path for an asset and click Save.

The generation status window will appear.

After successful generation process, the Landscape tool may offer your world settings optimizations. We recommend you to apply them, however, you can ignore.

If you open the Nodes window, you can see that the Landscape tool created the following instances:

• The landscape_geodetic_pivot Geodetic Pivot object for curving the landscape according to WGS-84 ellipsoid.
• TerrainGlobal Landscape object.
• Beacons - NodeDummy objects generated for all elevation sources in the Play Area. These beacons can be used to quickly move to certain terrain location.
• The Landscape Camera camera object which is placed in the center point of the landscape with specified all the necessary parameters (far and near clipping planes).

First, we create a MeshStatic object, that will be used as a building block for generation of roads or communications (e.g., pipelines).

1. Create a mesh (we use a plane for the road), for this purpose on the Menu bar, click Create -> Primitive -> Plane.

   

2. Specify mesh parameters, for our road we set the following.

   

   Notice

   It is recommended to use more than a single segment to make road curves smoother.

3. Move the mesh to the origin.

4. Inherit a material from the mesh_base, set all necessary textures and parameters and assign it to the mesh.

   

5. Roads and communications are generated by means of extrusion or tiling of the basic mesh along one of the axes X, Y or Z (forward axis). Make sure that you mesh is oriented properly - in this case the forward axis is X (red arrow).

   

6. Export your mesh to a mesh file by clicking the following button in the Nodes window. And delete the node.

   

7. Create a MeshStatic object using the mesh and material you prepared. Move the mesh to the origin and export your mesh to a node file (e.g. road.node) by clicking the following button in the Nodes window.

   

8. Now our basic mesh for roads (road.node) is ready to use and you can delete it from the scene.

Now, we add a vector data source to be used for generation.

1. Open the Landscape Tool window, for this purpose on the Menu bar, click Windows -> Landscape.

2. In the Data Sources panel, specify necessary vector data sources (see Specifying Data Sources section).

   Notice

   Currently only *.shp files are supported.

3. Select each vector data source from the ones you added in the Data Sources panel and specify parameters in the Parameters panel.

   

4. Add tags for each type of roads and communications you are going to generate by clicking Add and specifying a tag name.

5. For each tag you can specify a filter to select certain data from the vector source. You can add as many filters as necessary. This can be done by selecting attributes from the list and specifying necessary values for each attribute. You can specify as many conditions as you need by clicking Add button under the list of values.

   Notice

   Use "+" (plus) button to add a filter, or "-" (minus) to remove one.

   If no filters are specified, all the data from the vector source will be used for generation.

   

6. Now all necessary tags and filters are added and you can proceed to the next step.

Now, we must specify basic objects created at the first step and bind them to the tags.

1. In the Cultural Layer panel, select Roads&Communications and the following settings will be displayed in the Parameters panel.

   

2. Add a basic mesh object for generation by clicking Add button at the top of the Parameters panel and specify object's name. You can add as many objects as nesessary.

3. For each basic object specify the following parameters:

   

   Tag	The tag to be used for the selected basic object from the list of the tags specified at the second step.
   Node	The path to the basic mesh object's *.node file and the type of the node.
   Drop to ground	Flag indicating if the generated object will be aligned with the landscape surface.
   Height offset	Distance from the lanscape surface along the Z-axis, in units. Notice If you see the generated object partially, You can try to increase this value to lift it above the landscape surface.
   Split segments	Flag indicating if segment splitting is enabled. Notice This parameter can be used to provide better alignment of roads and communications with the terrain.
   Split segment length	Length of the segment for splitting mode, in units. Notice The lower the value the more segments will be generated. Setting too low values may significantly reduce performance.
   Forward axis	Axis along which the basic mesh is to be extruded or tiled.
   Mode	One of the following: stretch - in this case the basic mesh will be extruded along spline segments. tiling - in this case the basic mesh will be tiled along spline segments. Notice If the stretch mode is selected the number of meshes in the generated object is significantly lower which makes it more performance friendly.
   Max visible distance	Maximum visibility distance for the generated object, in units. Notice Larger values make it possible to see the object from distant positions.
   Min visible distance	Minimum visibility distance for the generated object, in units.

4. Now all necessary basic objects are specified and bound to tags.

Now you can generate roads and communications by clicking a dropdown of the Generate button and selecting Roads only option, in this case only roads will be generated.

Here is a landscape fragment with roads generated on the basis of vector data using the basic mesh object we created.

First, we create a basic object that will be used as a building block for generation of landcovers (e.g., grass, trees etc.). The following types of basic objects are supported:

• Grass object
• Mesh Cluster object
• Mesh Clutter object

1. Create a basic object of the desired type.

2. Specify parameters of the basic object.

   Notice

   Intersections with parent object must be enabled for all types of basic objects! The intersection flag can be found on the tab of the Nodes window corresponding to the type of the object.

   

3. Inherit a material, set all necessary textures and parameters and assign it to the basic object.

4. Export your mesh to a node file (e.g. grass.node) by clicking the following button in the Nodes window. And delete the node.

   

5. Now our basic object for grass (grass.node) is ready to use and you can delete it from the scene.

Now, we add a landcover data source to be used for generation.

1. Open the Landscape Tool window, for this purpose on the Menu bar, click Windows -> Landscape.

2. In the Data Sources panel, specify necessary landcover data sources (see Specifying Data Sources section).

   Notice

   R8 and RGB8 mask textures are supported.

3. Select each landcover data source from the ones you added in the Data Sources panel and specify parameters in the Parameters panel.

   

4. Add tags for each type of landcover objects you are going to generate by clicking Add button at the bottom of the Parameters panel and specifying a tag name. To remove a tag use Remove button.

5. For each tag you can specify a set of filters (OR) to select certain data from the landcover data source. You can add as many filters as necessary. This can be done as follows depending on the type of the landcover data source:

   • For an R8 texture data source - by setting the range of bits (from value, to value) to be treated as a certain type of landcover objects.
   • For an RGB8 texture data source - by selecting a base color and setting threshold value for a color gradient to be treated as a certain type of landcover objects.
   Notice

   Use "+" (plus) button to add a filter, or "-" (minus) to remove one.

   1-channel R8 texture.	3-channel RGB8 texture.

6. Now all necessary tags and filters are added and you can proceed to the next step.

Now, we must specify basic objects created at the first step and bind them to the tags.

1. In the Natural Layer panel, select Vegetation and the following settings will be displayed in the Parameters panel.

   

2. Add a basic object for generation by clicking Add button and specify object's type and name. You can add as many objects as nesessary.

   

3. For each basic object specify the following parameters:

   

   Node	The path to the basic mesh object's *.node file.
   Tag	The tag for the selected landcover object from the list of tags specified at the second step.

4. Now all necessary basic objects are specified and bound to tags.

Now you can generate landcover objects by clicking a dropdown of the Generate button and selecting Landcovers only option, in this case only landcover objects will be generated.

Here is a landscape fragment with grass generated on the basis of landcover data using the basic grass object created.