UDK Terrain CIS 488588 Bruce R Maxim UMDearborn
UDK Terrain CIS 488/588 Bruce R. Maxim UM-Dearborn 10/23/2021 1
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 10/23/2021 2
Height Map • Used to define elevation and contours • Use must use G 16 pixel shading format, if you plan to use Unreal’s Terrain editing dialog • Determines terrain’s physical dimensions: Resolution. X * Terrain. Scale. X – Terrain. Scale. X Resolution. Y * Terrain. Scale. Y – Terrain. Scale. Y • The default scale is 64 units in all axes 10/23/2021 3
Layers • Controls the visual aspects of the terrain • Terrain. Info 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) 10/23/2021 4
Deco. Layers • 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) 10/23/2021 5
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 10/23/2021 6
Terrain Editing Dialog Functions • • Creation and manipulation of height maps Assignment and blending of texture layers Assignment and manipulation of Deco. Layers Automatic terrain generation 10/23/2021 7
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 10/23/2021 8
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 10/23/2021 9
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