High Resolution Heightmap Data - Building Worlds In Unreal - Episode 16

[@daveg4417]

Well done. A few notes for the viewers: - The TIF and GeoTIF file types actually use different file importers and exporters. GeoTIF covers all floating point TIF formats used by Digital Elevation Models, while TIF is for Image Files only. So if you try importing a GeoTIF with the regular TIF importer you will usually get a flat terrain. This is because TIF Images are clamped to 0.0 to 1.0 and DEM GeoTIFs are not. - In newer software builds the UDK button is now called UE for 'Unreal Engine', and in the Settings Dimensions you enable 'Unreal Engine Landscape'. UDK was what Epic called the Unreal Development Kit back when UE3 was released, back when TerreSculptor was initially being developed. The UE button still works the same way as the old UDK button. - In addition to resampling the heightmap data, you could also crop it. If the data is 1 meter data and it is resampled, it will actually change the pixels-per-meter value whereas crop will retain that pixel spacing value. - After resampling or cropping data in TerreSculptor, you should always use the Normalize modifier to reset the heightmap data to full scale, especially before exporting to PNG for Unreal Engine. After Normalizing you can again adjust the Spacing Y property to get the mesh rendered as desired. - If the Settings Units is set to Unreal Engine 4, then TerreSculptor's viewport matches Unreal Editor, meaning that you can use the TerreSculptor Spacing Y value as the same for the Unreal Engine Landscape Scale Z when importing. So adjust the TerreSculptor Spacing Y as desired, then use that exact same value when importing the heightmap into the Unreal Engine landscape Scale Z.

[@BenCloward]

Thank you very much for the extra information, Dave! It's nice to have your support.

[@drlu3823]

How do I fix the FLAT terrain , I went through all the steps on the video correct options and everything but still flat

[@daveg4417]

@@drlu3823 - Have you tried using a GeoTIF from another location to see if you still have the same issue? What do you see when you open the file in paint or photo software like Photoshop? If you are working with a GeoTIF and you end up with a flat terrain there are a number of possible reasons why, including: Make sure that you are using the GeoTIF File Type on the importer; The file might have Voids; The file may not be compatible with the Windows TIF Image API (TerreSculptor is currently being updated to libtif for better TIF and GeoTIF file support); Or the TIF elevation data has negative values, this issue has been fixed in TerreSculptor 3.0. Otherwise I would have to see the actual file to debug it.

[@drlu3823]

@@daveg4417 Yes I tried , I also was looking for Digital Terrain as most didn't show Digital terrain just sculpt , also terrasculptor is so bad is there a different software I can use to convert

[@drlu3823]

@@daveg4417 where can I send it to you ?

[@JoshuaLundquist]

Your opening theme music cracks me up every time, and yr one of the best on the Unreal tuts

[@imperatordernation396]

Big thanks man! I lost the last 5 hours to get a high quality map from different tutorials, watching your video gives me the final result, thanks man good work ;)

[@ShereefHisham]

Can't wait for the completed terrain .. I'm learning something new from you every week .. great work and most appropriated .. God bless you :)

[@AndrewWeirArt]

Just wanted to catch your latest video and say, your tutorials are fantastic! I'm learning a lot and my Artstation Challenge scene is coming together very nicely thanks to your work here!

[@carlossuarez9272]

I have waited all week for this video as the tutorial series on this important topic is scarce and very valuable. Coming from you, it's worth the wait.

[@BenCloward]

Thanks a lot, Carlos! I hope it's helpful.

[@TheSelverFang]

This is a very underrated, thorough, and accessible tutorial. Thank you!

[@pingyao8827]

Very, very helpful tutorial. Not as complicated as it seems, and with super detailed results for the terrain.

[@nobod759]

Great content as always Ben. I'll see if I can use this in my next project. Looking forward to next week's video!

[@simonjulian6499]

Hi Ben. First of all thank you very much for this series. Its so great having somebody not jumping up and down, yelling at the camera or speeding up the video by 500% but just explaining everything in a calm manner! But one question: How to get rid of these horizontal lines that are running around the mountains which you also have in the video showing from 16:34?

[@BenCloward]

Those are roads. They're in the data. I supposed you could use the tools in the editor to erase them, but they are intended to be there in the original data.

[@simonjulian6499]

Thanks! Makes sense👍

[@kobunix]

Hey. Simply thanks you for your tutorials. Working like a charm, performante-friendly :) Keep it up

[@KA-sx3sc]

L3DT is also a pretty good alternative to terresculpter, it is also free - though there was a paid licensed 'pro' version that I had a long time ago but the developer decided to stop development and make it entirely free, but never just removed the license key part so you have to "request" a pro key but it is only a trial so I guess you have to request a new one every so often.. Either way it does have a pretty nifty terrain split feature that will break the map up into whatever size chunks you want and save them in the Unreal coordinate naming system (though no idea if unreal still cares about that so it may not matter)... anyway, just something for people to consider!

[@BenCloward]

I also tried L3DT, but since I was unable to get the pro version, I was limited to a lower resolution height map, and the indications from the web site are that the develop isn't trying very hard to improve things.

[@daveg4417]

TerreSculptor also has a Tile Creator on the Create menu for working with Unreal Engine World Compositions.

[@JorgeAndresSerranoArdila]

Awesome. Thank you so much!

[@danielmiller2462]

Awesome stuff as always Ben! Quick question, when raster isn't available and the only selection available to download is 'Point Cloud' what settings are needed for that. Thanks to you and the entire community!!

[@JesusCSGO]

i had the same issue with Point Cloud. You can set the format to Arc ASCII Grid. Use DEM Generation TIN, the accuracy will depend on the scan data, but using default settings worked fine for me.

[@reesaac5334]

thx for great tutorial

[@MrLyonliang]

Thanks a lot!

[@AlmazovS]

I'm trying to get Fuerteventura island data, but any dataset I use returns crappy 1-2 kb data from OpenTopography...

[@FischersFritze12]

Hi Ben, nice tutorials, the best in the whole WWW. Do you also have tutorials for Substance Designer ?

[@julianriise5618]

Looking forward to it! If the terrain is by the ocean, can we modify the terrain in Unreal later so that it gets depth under water?

[@MoonPatrol]

Thank you for this

[@Zrgi01]

NICE

[@terrablader]

Can you tell me how to get maps for proceedual foliage and trails?

[@lzanlorenzi1]

awesome video.. thank you so much Ben! but i probably doing something wrong.. my maps are too small to download... 14kb. Can you help me with this, please? thx.

[@woodchen1061]

Oh! I'm the first! I will see the video after eight hours. Good night, Ben!

[@DKJens44]

great Tut, Is it also possible to import a 16x16 landscape?

[@BenCloward]

It is, but it has to be broken up into smaller chunks and streamed in. I may cover that topic later.

[@DKJens44]

@@BenCloward That would be great, because I unfortunately do not know what size the chunks must have so that the UE4 also accepts. Then a question about the car material next week. Do you do that with tessellation or parallax occlusion?

[@supercrank85]

What Means "Private Data"? I Selected a Red Area and after it was Marked it tells me Restricted Area Private Data. Am i still Allowed to use it for Mapping a World?

[@richmind5867]

i dont know if topo is restricted or something but it's not working for me

[@decorix]

Great Info realy enjoying these streams. Question: Terresculptor resampeling I'm getting 256 units / 1 unit=2,56 cm If change the XZ spacing it still show this. I'm using IMG heightdata files So is this related to my source file? and can the Geotif be 32 bit color when it does the conversion to GrayScale in Terresculptor? Thanks

[@daveg4417]

The cm scale units values in TerreSculptor are only for relative measurement information and only affect the visual viewport mesh rendering, they have no effect on the heightmap data at all. To change the Units that TerreSculptor is using, go to the Settings Units and if you want to match Unreal Engine 4 choose that from the presets, which will be 1 3D world unit = 1 cm. This again does NOT affect the heightmap data, it only affects the scale of the 3D viewport mesh and the measurement values in the statistics. I have never seen a 32-bit color GeoTIF since RGB/RGBA color is not how digital elevation model data is stored, it is always stored as single channel grayscale 32-bit floating point data. So if you are importing some really oddball 32-bit floating point RGB color TIF your should still get a grayscale heightmap when imported, but it will fall back to the image importer internally.

[@СтепанЖиглов-ч3й]

Ben Cloward,Good afternoon. In the winter of 2020, in December, I made a map of 8 * 8 tiles with a resolution of 1009 pixels. This turned out to be not enough for me. Now I can not figure out how to combine such maps inside the UE4 engine so that you can edit the connection of two independent maps. the size of 16 * 16 tiles, where each tile = 1km * 1km. Is there an option to immediately fit the tiles in UE4 or make a scale of 16 * 16 km?

[@daveg4417]

Unreal Engine does not allow changing Scale values after a tile set has been imported into World Composition. So you would have to delete those tiles and create an entirely new tile set.

[@darianagreen9082]

Hi Ben! As usual here is loads of useful information, I’ve been watching all your tutorials, making huge progress on my UE skills. I am stuck here because my terrain looks exactly the same as yours when exported to UE, but when I zoom in, it’s all pixelated, like made of small cubes, like in Minecraft! I exported the correct version, same map area, did all steps to convert it to UE resolution format in Terrasculptor, exported in png. Exactly same thing happened when I used low res terrain of Grand Canyon from your previous tutorial. What can be wrong? Please , advise, as I want to finish all your tutorials but I can’t move along as all my imported terrains look as if made from cubes...

[@BenCloward]

That happens when you save it as 8 bit png instead of 16 bit. Is your png image saved as 16 bit grayscale?

[@darianagreen9082]

@@BenCloward I don’t see where I can get the option to save as 8 or 16 bit... I download the file on open topography, using the same option as you show in the tutorial, then I resample it in terrasculptor as you advise and the image of terrain looks exactly the same as yours. And then I just save it in png as you do 14:10. But when I import it to Unreal it looks pixelated. How can I save the map in 16 bit greyscale , and at what stage, is it before terrasculptor, like should I use photoshop? or should I change the format on terrasculptor? P.S. Sorry if I don’t understand, should be simple but for it’s all new info about height maps... thank you for your support!

[@BenCloward]

@@darianagreen9082 In TerraSculptor, after resizing your height map, select Export Terrain from the File menu. For the format, select PNG Image (*.png). Make sure you DON'T select PNG [old codec]. After you hit save, a new window will appear and ask you for Format and Source. Choose 16-bit Grayscale and Grayscale. That should do it.

[@darianagreen9082]

@@BenCloward big thank you! I will try that tomorrow, hope it will work and I can’t wait to learn how make automaterial and apply it to the terrain. It looks awesome in your project!

[@SkyNetTve]

next week!!

[@GDi4K]

We just added a way to import HighRes terrain data directly into UnrealEngine: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mH3OYmCLocdqes0

[@digicraft63]

Thumbs up for your tutorials! Did you know you can import the GEOtiff file you captured from OpenTopography into Google Earth?It will place it self on the very spot there with boundaries and all. Useful if you want to see what your intended landscape looks like in Google Earth and the exact boundaries.

[@BenCloward]

Oooh, that's a cool tip! Thanks!

[@hammertl2673]

Hi Ben, get stuck when importing the tif image into terreSculptor, I can only get a flat terrain inside terresculptor, but if you only look at the tif image it is actually a correct heightmap, have no ideal why? Is there any settings I should try to solve this problem?

[@hammertl2673]

I got the answer, because of the tiff image and geo tiff are different importer, so in this case, geo tiff should be used when importing the heightmap download form opentopography.

[@EvanXDev]

How to get USGS 3DEP data?

[@Mr.Mirage_YT]

is this whole playlist still relevant? with 5.4 ue

[@BenCloward]

It is, yes. The main thing that has changed is the displacement - but everything else should be the same.

[@yapanwolf]

hi, thanks for this video! is there a possibility to add mask to terresculptor map? i want to make a crater on my map

[@daveg4417]

You can currently create terrain shapes such as craters in TerreSculptor using the Blend modifier. All you would require is the crater Blend Mask created in software like Photoshop. An actual Crater Modifier is on the future feature list for TerreSculptor.

[@Hotrood999]

Awesome! 10:09 is it measured in meters?

[@BenCloward]

I'm not really sure, honestly. That's something I should have researched a little more closely so that I could get the elevation to match correctly with the real world. I just kinda eyeballed it. I supposed if you wanted it to match really closely, you could get the lowest and highest elevation points on a google map, calculate the low to high range, and then measure the same thing in your Unreal map and adjust the height scale until it matches - but there's probably an easier way.

[@daveg4417]

Unreal Engine Landscape Scale Z of 100 is 100% * 512 meters. If you know the data range of your heightmap after importing into Unreal Engine, you set the Scale Z to the correct percentage of 512 meters. So a 1024 meter altitude range heightmap would have a Scale Z of 200. See the 'UE Landscape and World Composition Scale' video on the Demenzun Media channel.

[@BigRubberDucky]

Hey on this when I import a height map the top of high points are flat, almost like it hits a z max or something.

[@daveg4417]

If you are correctly using the GeoTIF importer file type then this won't be an issue with TerreSculptor, it would have to be an issue with the source dem file.

[@unrealdevop]

I've tried that site on 4 different browsers over 2 days and keep getting Apache errors, is there an alternative site that lets you specify your dimensions? Also I found this tool called ImgOverlay on GitHub the last part is /Apprehentice/ImgOverlay KZbin doesn't like links or I would add it. The program lets you place an image over your screen that's click through. Might be useful for this method. You have to press a button to move it around and you can control the transparency and rotation and scale.

[@superfluousvii9686]

hey great video, but when i tried to do it the terrain in terrescuplor is completely flat i even use the place you did in the video, any suggestions. Thanks

[@BenCloward]

If you click on the Properties button on the right, you can set the Y scale of the terrain to make it not flat. Notice that I do that in the video at 10:11.

[@daveg4417]

Make sure that you are using the GeoTIF file type on import and not TIF Image. They are two entirely different importers.

[@alekjwrgnwekfgn]

Terrain Party is fully dead isn't it? Anyway, glad to find your channel. The TerreSculptor developer's videos are pretty hard to follow, and not very comprehensive. That's the only reason I'm still looking at World Creator, even though TerreSculptor probably does everything I need for free.

[@daveg4417]

What do you find difficult to follow in the Demenzun Media channel videos? Are they not explained well enough? I am working on making the newer videos better quality. If you don't understand a video or concept, there are many support areas for the software, including Discord, Facebook Group, Twitter, Patreon, etc., or you can even ask questions in the video comments.

[@karambiatos]

How does one deal with multi tile DEM data, as there's usually a seam between the different tiles?

[@BenCloward]

That’s tricky. You would need to stitch the tiles together in Photoshop and manually fix seams. That’s one of the reasons I went with data from OpenTopography.org - because it does that work for you and just gives you the data you select.

[@daveg4417]

The TerreSculptor Tile Importer will soon have an option for removing seams, it is on the future feature list, if that was the stitching method that you were using. Until then you can use other software to stitch such as GDAL.

[@playaahhd46]

This isn't working for me. When i download the .tiff from opentopography i get a small 16kb all black image, and when i import it into terreSculptor it's just a flat all black area. Adjusting the properties does nothing.

[@BenCloward]

Try downloading data from another area. It may simply be that the data for the area you're looking for isn't available.

[@sjru4eu4u45urjdrjrj]

TerreSculptor doesn't work for me ... I get thin cracked pillars all over the map. With L3DT it works but I only get level components instead of a single map. How can I make ALL levels into ONE map ???

[@BenCloward]

I bet we can figure out what's wrong with your TerreSculptor result. Could you send me a screen shot of what it looks like? [e-mail]

[@sjru4eu4u45urjdrjrj]

@@BenCloward I send you the screens (E-Mail = hammer...)

[@YASIR.K]

Thanks

[@felixmikolai7375]

i just drop through the landscape when try to play from here at some points of the map, not all.. thats strange.. please help if some1 knows how to fix it. i got 9 parts of my level and its just in a few levels happening, i added 32 collision thickness but no change.

[@felixmikolai7375]

oh and i added data from tangram, splitted it into 9 pieces with gimg, set up grayscale 16bit and a blur.

[@daveg4417]

If the player start in Unreal Engine is below the terrain then the player will fall through. Or if it is a World Composition then you must use something like a cube under the player start because the tile streaming loading will be too slow to catch the falling player.

[@RH-of5cr]

BlenderGIS free plugin does this without having to do as much work. It takes a little know-how with Blender but there are lots of videos out there describing how to use it.

[@vojtaklinkacek393]

Nice tutorial again, but I am still missing how to export videos from unreal engine 4.

[@BenCloward]

Exporting videos isn't a topic I have covered in any of my videos. But I googled it and found some links for you: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4nPpnutntR1hdE , kzbin.info/www/bejne/gX3Fq4GJarSsl5Y , www.prashast.in/babycastlesacademy/RenderingVideo_Unreal.pdf I hope those help.

[@jonah6267]

covers about .000001 of the globe and mostly in the west US - hardly of any use really

[@50shadesofskittles9]

That download page is totally different for me

[@SenEmChannel]

I import 8k map. And my potato gpu explosive. I get what i can you is smaller map.

[@BenCloward]

Sorry to hear that. I would tell you to upgrade your graphics card, but it's really hard to find graphics cards anywhere right now. I bought a GeForce RTX 2070 last year in April - so that's what I'm using, but since then everything has sold out.

[@daveg4417]

You could try using a smaller region of the digital elevation model, such as 2km x 2km.

[@Specter1065]

You are literally 20 miles northeast of the area I’m am trying(unsuccessfully) to map for a train project.

[@BenCloward]

Hahah! What a crazy coincidence.

[@Specter1065]

@@BenCloward I am trying to map the Jemez railroad through Gilman tunnels to bernalillo, it is long abandoned but promises a good operations layout. But I don’t now how to make a grayscale map to use in trainz:a new era. ☹️

[@michaeleber4752]

I guess not enough people donated to the terrain project. Version 3.0 now costs $80 and is no longer free.

[@Kor3Gaming_Ghost]

so small idk how people seeing what u do, should put it a little bigger so we can see good uk

[@abdelrahmanrad]

data is black for me for some reason so rip

[@daveg4417]

This is more than likely because the region chosen on the digital elevation model terrain page didn't have any data to provide. Try choosing a different region in the red area on the page.

[@ThomasBerglund-y8f]

unclick? nothing happens:(

[@agauerm]

There is really no need for such high resolution data, the data you used in your previous video is more than enough, for me at least... I just wanted a quick sculpted landscape, then you can paint, add assets... In the end you gonna add the details yourself with megascans lib, nanite...

[@johndoe35717]

unreal highetmaps are so goofy and overly difficult

[@swiftspod407]

u say its free but its not

[@BenCloward]

It was free when I made the video. Maybe that has changed since?

[@heinzlu8671]

great tutorial, thx! but the music is really annoying in the background and doesnt add anything, so why not leave it out? :)

[@unrealist6967]

Don't waste your time with this, involves to purchase a $80 software.

[@BenCloward]

Since the video was published, Demenzun Media has release TerreSculpter 3 - which is paid software, but in the video, I was using version 2 - which is still free. Here's a quote from their website: "TerreSculptor 2.0 is 100% free to use. This software is “Open Use” and can be used at no cost for personal or commercial or academic use. TerreSculptor 2.0 download links can be found on the Support and Support Archive pages for all older build releases of the software. TerreSculptor 2.0 is no longer in an active update cycle and has been discontinued." Three's a download link on their support page here: www.demenzunmedia.com/home/support/

[@drlu3823]

ANYONE knows where I can find Europe Heighmap especially Balkan on Albanian region , I cannot find anything

[@ИгорьБолдарев-м2э]

Good afternoon, thank you for the videos and for the useful sites. Only I had a question, why use third-party programs. You can get a map of the heights of any place on the tangrams.github.io/heightmapper and immediately import to unreal. Or will the map be more detailed here? I tried both ways, it seems about the same.

[@BenCloward]

Tangrams Heightmapper data is lower resolution and only 8bit. The best quality data is 1 pixel per meter or higher and 16bit.

[@ИгорьБолдарев-м2э]

@@BenCloward Okay, thanks for clarifying.

[@alexanderkartashov8776]

it's very low resolution, basicaly your monitor resolution.