World Machine + UE4: Full Workflow
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Ruslan Nazirov showed how you can create beautiful landscapes in the World Machine and import them into the Unreal Engine 4. Ruslan started working with the Unreal Engine just a year ago, but already shows amazing results.
1. Creating the right terrain in World Machine. I use the GeoGlyph macro library to speed up the landscape creation process.
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2. Create the necessary height maps for landscape layers. You can use standard Erosion-outputs, such as Flow, Wear or Deposition. Or you can use third-party macros, for example, ReFlow from GeoGlyph. In this case, you will need to attach these maps to the Splat Converter to ensure the correct location of the Splatmap weight.
3. At this stage you can start painting the landscape in order to understand how the material will fall on it. Also at this stage you can start searching for the necessary textures for the landscape, because in UE4 they are used instead of simple colors.
4. The next step will be the export of elevation maps for the landscape and layers (They will be needed to properly overlay the material on the landscape in UE4)
5. After that, you need to create the correct landscape material in UE4. It is difficult, but I will give one piece of advice: You need to use different tiling parameters for textures, which will depend on the distance to the camera. In this case, remote areas of the landscape will use stretched versions of textures to prevent noticeable repetition of textures.
6. Landscape material usually contains several layers. You need to work with each layer separately.
7. Repeat this for each layer, and then use the Landscape Layer Blend node to blend all the layers into one.
8. You can improve the layer setup by adding more parameters and using the Ambient Occlusion, Roughness and Displacement maps to add more detail to the landscape.
9. You can use distance dependent tessellation to dramatically increase performance when using a Displacement card. Use the code below for tessellation multiplier. Remember that you need to disable the Adaptive Tesselation checkboxes (Adaptive Tessellation) and Crack Free Displacement in the material settings.
10. Instead of manually painting the grass, you can use one of the exported layers from the World Machine. To do this, use the Grass node and set its parameter to your layer (Use the same name as in the Landscape Layer Blend node). You also need to create an aside Landscape Grass Type to set parameters for grass, such as density, size, and others. In general, you can use this method not only for grass, but also for stones, trees and other objects in the landscape.
11. When the landscape material is ready, it is time to import the landscape itself. Open the Landscape tab in the Modes window. Select Import From File. Then select the landscape material you created. After that, select the elevation map for the terrain you created in World Machine. Create a Layer Info for each layer (Weight-Blended Layer). For each Layer Info, select the desired layer map you made in World Machine. You can set the Scale (scale) to the landscape, if needed. After all these steps, click Import and you will get the landscape with the material you created.
12. After that, you can start adding objects and details to the landscape, adjust the lighting and the Post Process. There are many other things you might want to do with the landscape. For example, a good idea would be to make a low poly landscape geometry to visually expand its boundaries. Keep experimenting and you will get the desired result. I hope you found useful information here that will help you create your own worlds in UE4.
Ruslan Nazirov showed how you can create beautiful landscapes in the World Machine and import them into the Unreal Engine 4. Ruslan started working with the Unreal Engine just a year ago, but already shows amazing results.
Landscape creation process for UE4
1. Creating the right terrain in World Machine. I use the GeoGlyph macro library to speed up the landscape creation process.
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2. Create the necessary height maps for landscape layers. You can use standard Erosion-outputs, such as Flow, Wear or Deposition. Or you can use third-party macros, for example, ReFlow from GeoGlyph. In this case, you will need to attach these maps to the Splat Converter to ensure the correct location of the Splatmap weight.
3. At this stage you can start painting the landscape in order to understand how the material will fall on it. Also at this stage you can start searching for the necessary textures for the landscape, because in UE4 they are used instead of simple colors.
4. The next step will be the export of elevation maps for the landscape and layers (They will be needed to properly overlay the material on the landscape in UE4)
5. After that, you need to create the correct landscape material in UE4. It is difficult, but I will give one piece of advice: You need to use different tiling parameters for textures, which will depend on the distance to the camera. In this case, remote areas of the landscape will use stretched versions of textures to prevent noticeable repetition of textures.
6. Landscape material usually contains several layers. You need to work with each layer separately.
7. Repeat this for each layer, and then use the Landscape Layer Blend node to blend all the layers into one.
8. You can improve the layer setup by adding more parameters and using the Ambient Occlusion, Roughness and Displacement maps to add more detail to the landscape.
9. You can use distance dependent tessellation to dramatically increase performance when using a Displacement card. Use the code below for tessellation multiplier. Remember that you need to disable the Adaptive Tesselation checkboxes (Adaptive Tessellation) and Crack Free Displacement in the material settings.
10. Instead of manually painting the grass, you can use one of the exported layers from the World Machine. To do this, use the Grass node and set its parameter to your layer (Use the same name as in the Landscape Layer Blend node). You also need to create an aside Landscape Grass Type to set parameters for grass, such as density, size, and others. In general, you can use this method not only for grass, but also for stones, trees and other objects in the landscape.
11. When the landscape material is ready, it is time to import the landscape itself. Open the Landscape tab in the Modes window. Select Import From File. Then select the landscape material you created. After that, select the elevation map for the terrain you created in World Machine. Create a Layer Info for each layer (Weight-Blended Layer). For each Layer Info, select the desired layer map you made in World Machine. You can set the Scale (scale) to the landscape, if needed. After all these steps, click Import and you will get the landscape with the material you created.
12. After that, you can start adding objects and details to the landscape, adjust the lighting and the Post Process. There are many other things you might want to do with the landscape. For example, a good idea would be to make a low poly landscape geometry to visually expand its boundaries. Keep experimenting and you will get the desired result. I hope you found useful information here that will help you create your own worlds in UE4.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/335610/
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