Terrain properties

Terrain has some general properties that can be set in the Terrain Properties tool.
To access terrain properties tool you must click on the icon on the terrain panel top toolbar.
 
3.4.10.2.5. Terrain properties
1

General properties

1. General properties
 

Terrain LOD

Using this slide you can set how far the terrain must have the highest level of detail.
Higher values mean higher level of detail at an higher computation cost.
 

Heightmap Bump

When the terrain is rendered, the engine automatically computes a normalmap starting from the heightmap.
This is useful for keeping high details on the terrain surface also in the distance, when the LOD is reduced.
Greater values means less normalmap bumping. Good values usually renge from 1 to 4.
Values less the 1 could produce artifacts due to eccessive normalmapping.
 

Heightmap Origin

This value represents the vertical origin of the heightmap values.
The default value is 32768 that means the terrain is plasced exactly the half of the maximum range of heightmap values (16 bit).
If you increase this value you will see the terrain to move down, otherwise you will see terrain to move up.
You can set also negative values.


Be careful to change heightmap origin If you have already populated the scene with objects placed on the terrain: Some object couldn't be correctly replaced and, in some cases, this could prodice a crash.

 

Terrain Origin

This paramater represents the position of the whole terrain on the XZ plane.
 

Layer

This is the layer in which you would to put the terrain.
 

Col Group

This is the collision group in which you would to put the terrain.
 
2

Terrain heightmap

2. Terrain heightmap
 
Here you can see the heightmap of the terrain.
You can also use this tool for importing a new heightmap for the terrain:
  • Click on Import Heightmap button
  • Choose the map from the appearing browse dialog.
 
Once imported you will see some information about the map:
  • Source: the aource path from which you imported the heightmap.
  • Resolution: the resolution of the heightmap.


    Be careful to import an heightmap If you have already populated the scene with objects placed on the terrain: Some object couldn't be correctly replaced and, in some cases, this could prodice a crash.

     
3

Terrain color mask

3. Terrain color mask
 
Here you can see the color mask of the terrain.
You can also change it by clicking on the color mask icon or dragging it directly from the project browser.


Color mask is a texture.
This means that, before applying it to the terrain, you must import it in the project browser just as every other texture.

 
Terrain color mask is used for colouring the terrain textures and applying the terrain ambient occlusion.
See terrain paiting for more info about terrain color mask.