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UDK Terrain. CIS 488/588 Bruce R. Maxim UM-Dearborn. What is Terrain?. Terrain is a tessellated piece of geometry used to model outdoor areas The geometry’s shape is driven by a height map (the z-axis defined by an 8-bit or 16-bit gray scale image) Dark shades used to define valleys
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UDK Terrain CIS 488/588 Bruce R. Maxim UM-Dearborn
What is Terrain? • Terrain is a tessellated piece of geometry used to model outdoor areas • The geometry’s shape is driven by a height map (the z-axis defined by an 8-bit or 16-bit gray scale image) • Dark shades used to define valleys • Brighter shades are used to so peaks
Height Map • Used to define elevation and contours • Use must use G16 pixel shading format, if you plan to use Unreal’s Terrain editing dialog • Determines terrain’s physical dimensions: ResolutionX * TerrainScaleX – TerrainScaleX ResolutionY * TerrainScaleY – TerrainScaleY • The default scale is 64 units in all axes
Layers • Controls the visual aspects of the terrain • TerrainInfo actors can have 32 layers stacked on top of one another • Each layer has two texture maps a color map and an alpha map (controls transparency and blending)
DecoLayers • Decoration layer textures are used to drive the placement of decoration objects (grass blades, trees, shrubs, etc.) • Three types of texture maps associated with each Decolayer (density map, color map, scale map)
Terrain • In UDK you start from tools select New Terrain • The you make adjustments with the terrain editor from the left hand tool pallet • You can also right click and select properties for the terrain actor and make some adjustments there
Terrain Editing Dialog Functions • Creation and manipulation of height maps • Assignment and blending of texture layers • Assignment and manipulation of DecoLayers • Automatic terrain generation
Skybox • In UDK a skybox is a static mesh with a sky material applied (can be cylinders or spheres as well as cubes) • Use to provide the illusion of clouds, suns, moons, etc. far off in the distance • Great for creating cloudy skies, night scenes, and futuristic space scenes
Skybox Principles • Select a sky static mesh from the content browser • Position it in world using the view windows • Make some property adjustments to get realistic lighting and shadows • The trick is to avoid creation of seams in the sky box • You can use fog to hide things