Terrain

The basic concept of Terrain in UT2003 is based around creating a large static mesh based on a heightmap and centered around a TerrainInfo Actor. Once that is in place, the terrain tool bundle, which is actually a collection of tools, can be used to perfect or even create from scratch a block of terrain for the map. The possibilities for this are endless. It can be used for rolling terrain, the floors and ceilings of caves, and probably many more things that creative UT2003 mappers are sure to come up with in the future.

Terrains can be scaled as big or as small as you want (and you can also have as many as you want). A terrain could be a small area of a map within architecture, such as a sandy courtyard, or the basic world space, such as with a large outdoor level.

Tutorials

Terrain Mode – overview
Creating A Terrain - In-depth illustrated tutorial on using a heightmap to create terrain
Terrain Texture Layer – adding and editing texture layers
Terrain Decoration Layer – adding and editing deco layers (in progress!)
Using The Terrain Tool - Tutorial which will cover using the terrain tools to build terrain
Manipulating Terrain - Advice from 1337 mappers on how to use terrain to optimize your terrain experience.

Quick UT2003 Terrain

Create a room: Subtract a 8192 by 8192 by 8192 cube.
Add an Actor >> Info >> ZoneInfo. Set ZoneInfo properties ZoneInfo → bTerrainZone = True
Add an Actor >> Info >> TerrainInfo
PSP: Create 128x128 image. Paint heightmap. Reduce to grayscale. Save out as .bmp
Import into texture browser (untick generate mipmaps - they aren't required)
Set TerrainInfo → TerrainMap to 8bit image
PSP: Create 128 x128 pure white texture and save out as is to .bmp
Import into texture browser (uncheck generate mipmaps seems to have a problme for me ???)
Set TerrainInfo → Layers → 0 → AlphaMap to this texture.
Layers → 0 → Texture to whatever
UScale and VScale to anything greater than 1

(you can probably build at this point & see the terrain. needs confirming. Certainly works with just Zone lighting)

You need to add an Actor >> Light >> SunLight? into the level and turn the directional arrow so that it faces the terrain. (use lighting only mode Alt+0 and in actor rotate mode with Ctrl+ LMB for height and Ctrl+RMB for left to right). Note the position is unimportant, as the light rays emitted are simulated and parallel.
Create a Skybox? (It's the same procedure as it was in UT), and select fake backdrop in the properties sheet of the sides of your large subtracted level cube. If you don't create a Skybox, SunLight won't work, although your terrain will still be there - it will be stopped by any non-fake backdrop surfaces.
Build All. The terain should show up now. Set TerrainInfo → TerrainScale accordingly (you'll probably need something like 16*16 X*Y for an 8192 cube).

The terrain editing is realtime in the editor, you define various layers (as you would in photoshop) and you paint over the terrain with various opacity brushes. The brushes are scalable, you can add noise, pressure, etc. If you really wanted you could bring in those alpha or height maps yourself, but I don't see that you would ever really NEED to do that. After that, you can select a layer and change the texture associated with it, scale that layer's texture, rotate it, etc... Two textures with alpha blending on top of each other, with different scaling and rotation generally don't tile badly.

Source: [Polycount Message Board]

3rd party programs

Aphex's G16ed

Program to edit a heightmap in UEd3's native G16 format. Keeps the 16-bit accuracy of the heightmap, so you can change it while developing the map in the editor.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/martingbell/ut2003/

Latest version has fractal noise creation and PSP-like interface.

External Links

Big Cleanup

Cleanup & Refactoring

Tarquin: I've actually had a play with the terrain tool, and started to get a feel for it. Based on that, and what we have here, I suggest we need to divide up information into:

creating a terrain – tricky, because you can import heightmaps, or make from scratch. We either have 2 tutorials, or 1 tute with different options within it
editing terrain height – working with all the tools
working with layers
working with decoration layers

any thoughts?

Category Mapping