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 terrain generation, as well as landcover, vector and procedural data sources for generation of details, vegetation, roads, communications, buildings, etc. if necessary.
• Settings panel contains a bunch of generation settings: Files, Play Area, and Processing Priority.
• Natural Layer panel contains settings for the elements that constitute the natural features of the landscape: Terrain LODs, Detail Masks and Vegetation.
• Cultural Layer panel contains settings for cultural features of the landscape such as roads and communications, fences, pipes, etc.
• 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 Global terrain article.
• 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. All data sources are divided into five types (layers):

• Elevation (optional) - this type of data is used to generate terrain geometry.
• Imagery - this type of data is used to generate textures for the terrain surface.
• Landcover (optional) - this type of data is used to generate natural features of the landscape (details, grass, trees, etc.).
• Vector (optional) - this type of data is used to generate roads, communications, buildings, landmarks, etc.
• Procedural (optional) - this type of data is used for procedural refinement.

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, vector or procedural data sources 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, yellow for vector and magenta for procedural. Area size of procedural sources is adjustable.

The minus sign button deletes selected data source.

When you select a data source, you can see its parameters 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 terrain details or vegetation is needed.

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

Procedural data source parameters are described here. This type of data source is optional and should be added when it is necessary to refine data from elevation, landcover or other procedural data sources.

At this step you can check out the parameters of Terrain LODs to be generated for all data layers (elevation, imagery, normal, and detail masks) and determine which natural features of the landscape are to be generated:

• Terrain detail masks - the tags specified for landcover data sources that determine the areas for terrain details to be placed.

  Workflow: Generating Detail Masks.

• Vegetation (grass, trees, etc.) - Grass, Mesh Cluster, and Mesh Clutter objects will be generated and placed in certain areas of the terrain according to specified landcover tags.

  Workflow: Generating Vegetation.

At this step you can determine which cultural features of the landscape are to be generated: roads, communications, fences, pipes, buildings, landmarks, etc.

Objects of this layer are divided into 3 groups depending on the type of vector data used for their generation:

• Spline (Roads, Communications, etc.) - objects of this type are stretched or tiled along Bezier splines.

  Workflow: Generating Spline Objects.

• Vector (Fences, Pipes, etc.) - objects of this type are generated and placed along vectors.

  Workflow: Generating Vector Objects.

• Point (Buildings, Landmarks, etc.) - objects of this type are generated and placed at certain points.

  Workflow: Generating Point Objects.

Landscape tool generates a terrain according to the specified settings. Set the following parameters before starting terrain generation:

Files

Play Area

Processing Priority

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

In the Generation Steps window that appears you can select what is to be generated.

Landscape tool stores the source data with specified parameters as assets. Therefore, after clicking on OK in the Generation Steps window, you will see the window for saving the asset. 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 terrain according to WGS-84 ellipsoid.
  Notice

  This object will be generated only when Curved option is selected in the Generation Steps window
• 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 terrain with specified all the necessary parameters (far and near clipping planes).

First we should add a new landcover data source to be used for generation. If necessary landcover data source is already added, you may skip to step 3.

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

2. In the Data Sources panel, add 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 detail mask 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.

   Notice

   You can't add tags named "height" and "mask" as these names are reserved for procedural refinement.

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 detail mask.
   • 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 detail mask.
   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 determine which tags are to be used to generate detail masks.

1. In the Natural Layer panel, select Detail Masks and the list of tags determined for all landcover data sources will be displayed in the Parameters panel.

   

2. Check the tags you added at the previous step to be used for generation of detail masks.

3. Now all necessary detail masks are specified and bound to tags.

   Notice

   If the terrain is already generated and you want to add only detail masks - proceed to Step 3.

   Otherwise - return back to setting other parameters of terrain generation.

Now you can generate detail masks by clicking Generate button and selecting Terrain -> Details option in the Generation Steps window, in this case only detail masks will be generated.

First, we create a basic object that will be used as a building block for generation of vegetation (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. If the data source is already added, you may skip to step 3.

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

2. In the Data Sources panel, add 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.

   Notice

   You can't add tags named "height" and "mask" as these names are reserved for procedural refinement.

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 vegetation.
   • 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 vegetation.
   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.

   Notice

   If the terrain is already generated and you want to add only vegetation - proceed to Step 4.

   Otherwise - return back to setting other parameters of terrain generation.

Now you can generate vegetation by clicking Generate button and selecting Landcover objects option in the Generation Steps window, in this case only vector objects will be generated.

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

First, we create a MeshStatic object, that will be used as a building block for generation of roads.

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. As it was mentioned spline objects 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. Geometry is very resource consuming. Thus, to maintain acceptable performance you should set up LODs for the basic mesh. For each surface of the mesh specify visibility and fade distances. These settings will be used for managing LODs of generated spline objects.

   For more information on LOD settings see Setting Up Object LODs.

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

   

8. 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.

   

9. 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 spline objects you are going to generate by clicking Add and specifying a tag name.

5. For each tag you can specify a set of filters (AND) 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 filters as you need.

   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 Spline (Roads, Communications, etc.) 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.
   Type	Type of objects to be generated. One of the following: Geometry - a static mesh will be generated. Static meshes may require additional alignment with terrain surface, they are costly in terms of performance, but they offer collision detection. This option can be used for example to generate a railway track for the train simulator. Decal - a mesh decal will be generated. Decals do not have problems associated with alignment with the terrain surface, as they are projected onto it. They are also performance friendly, but collision detection for decals is not available. This option can be used for example to generate roads for a flight simulator. Both - both a static mesh and a mesh decal will be generated. This option can be used to generate static meshes that will be visible within a close distance range (according to LOD settings of the basic mesh) and decals for a long-distance range.
   Collider	Flag indicating if collisions for the generated object are to be detected. Notice Available only for geometry type.
   Drop to ground	Flag indicating if the generated object will be aligned with the terrain surface.
   Height offset	Distance from the terrain 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 terrain surface.
   Decal texture height	Resolution of baked texture for decals. Notice Available only for decal type.
   Split segments	Flag indicating if segment splitting mode is enabled. In this mode all spline segments will be divided into subsegments of the specified length (if this length does not exceed the length of the segment itself). Notice This parameter can be used to provide better alignment of spline objects 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.

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

   Notice

   If the terrain is already generated and you want to add only spline objects - proceed to Step 4.

   Otherwise - return back to setting other parameters of terrain generation.

Now you can generate spline objects by clicking Generate button and selecting Vector objects option in the Generation Steps window, in this case only vector objects will be generated.

Here is a terrain 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 - any *.node file containing a single root-node with any hierarchy.

This step is the same as Adding a Vector Data Source and Specifying Tags for Spline objects.

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

1. In the Cultural Layer panel, select Vector (Fences, Pipelines, etc.) and the following settings will be displayed in the Parameters panel.

   

2. Add a basic 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 object's *.node file.
   Autosize	Enables or disables autosize mode for node placement. When this mode is enabled, basic objects are placed with zero-spacing so that bounding boxes of the first and the last basic objects are aligned with start and end points of the line segment respectively.
   Fit to size	Enables stretching/shrinking of basic objects so that they are placed along line segments without spaces between them. Notice Available only when autosize mode is disabled.
   Step	Distance between two adjacent basic objects, in units. Notice Available only when autosize mode is disabled.
   Start offset	Offset of the first basic object's pivot from the start point of the line segment, in units. Notice Available only when autosize mode is disabled.
   End offset	Offset of the last basic object's pivot from the end point of the line segment, in units. Notice Available only when autosize mode is disabled.
   Collider	Flag indicating if collisions for the generated object are to be detected. Notice Available only for geometry type.
   Drop to ground	Flag indicating if the generated object will be aligned with the terrain surface.
   Height offset	Distance from the terrain 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 terrain surface.
   Forward axis	Axis along which the basic object is to be tiled: X, -X, Y, -Y.

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

   Notice

   If the terrain is already generated and you want to add only vector objects - proceed to Step 4.

   Otherwise - return back to setting other parameters of terrain generation.

Now you can generate vector objects by clicking Generate button and selecting Vector objects option in the Generation Steps window, in this case only vector objects will be generated.

First, we create a basic object, that will be used as a building block for generation - any *.node file containing a single root-node with any hierarchy.

This step is the same as Adding a Vector Data Source and Specifying Tags for Spline objects.

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

1. In the Cultural Layer panel, select Point (Buildings, Landmarks, etc.) and the following settings will be displayed in the Parameters panel.

   

2. Add a basic 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 object's *.node file.
   Collider	Flag indicating if collisions for the generated object are to be detected. Notice Available only for geometry type.
   Drop to ground	Flag indicating if the generated object will be aligned with the terrain surface.
   Height offset	Distance from the terrain 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 terrain surface.

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

   Notice

   If the terrain is already generated and you want to add only vector objects - proceed to Step 4.

   Otherwise - return back to setting other parameters of terrain generation.

Now you can generate vector objects by clicking Generate button and selecting Vector objects option in the Generation Steps window, in this case only vector objects will be generated.

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