Ground&Terrain

1. Introduction

This asset contains 65 tileable ground textures that have been grouped into different folders according to similarity. Each texture image is 2048 by 2048 pixels. The diffuse textures and normal maps have been used to create 69 different terrain layers that can be used to paint terrain in your unity project. The textures include various combinations of soil, moss, stones, sand, mud, algae and grass. A simple animated water prefab has been provided too.

2. Guide to Using Layers

Each layer is made up of a diffuse texture and its accompanying normal map for example, the layer named “L2Soil.terrainlayer” is made up of 2_Soil_2048_Diffuse.png and 2_Soil_2048_Normal.png. The terrain layers have been tiled at a size of 4. Dry looking layers have been given a smoothness of 0.125, damp layers a smoothness of 0.25 and wet layers a smoothness of 0.5. You can create your own layers or adjust the settings of these layers to suit your project. The main folder in which the textures and their layers have been placed is entitled “GroundTextures”. There are various sub-folders containing groups of ground textures based on similarity.

Most textures and layers have two versions of a similar type for example, 1b_Soil_2048_Diffuse.png and 2_Soil_2048_Diffuse.png have the same range of brown colours but spread differently and the accompanying normal maps for each has cracks and bumps in a different arrangement to each other. Combining the two texture layers randomly on the map will allow the terrain to look more natural and less tiled.

Some layers are basically the same, but have one or more different added features for example, L1bStonesSoil.terrainlayer and L1bStonesMossSoil.terrainlayer essentially have the same background colour, bumps and cracks as L1bSoil.terrainlayer, but stones and moss have been added. This allows these textures to blend better when painted next to each other.

Two similar textures can be layered on top of one another with transparency to, for example, reduce the brightness and sharpness of the moss L1bStonesSoil painted onto L1bStonesMossSoil with 50% transparency would reduce the bumpiness of the moss and make it more brown in colour, but would retain the sharpness and colour of the stones.

Textures and layers have been included to represent a ground texture of ilmenite and fine sand created by flowing water in a river or stream. These can be found in the “SiltFlow” sub-folder in the “WetSandTextures” folder. The textures and layers have been named according to the direction of flow represented for example, LFlow+X indicates that the water flow is in the direction of increasing X coordinate values on the terrain, whereas LFlow-X-Z indicates that water is flowing diagonally in the direction of decreasing X and Z coordinate values on the terrain.

Textures meant to represent wind-blow sand ripples have been included in the subfolders in the “DrySandTextures” folder. These textures don’t really indicate the exact direction of the wind, but can be used to represent a particular axis, for example L1RippleBeigeX represents wind blowing either in an increasing X coordinate direction or a decreasing X coordinate direction, and L1RippleBeigeDiagonalA represents wind blowing in either a +X+Z direction or in a -X-Z direction. The illusion of direction can be achieved by painting the particular texture on the windy side of the bump representing the dune in the terrain.

3. Example Scene

An example scene (IslandExampleScene) has been included with an example terrain (IslandExampleTerrain) which has been hand sculpted and painted to show the effects that can be achieved. A portion of the terrain has been left relatively unpainted for you to practice on, if you wish, using the rest of the terrain as a guide. The example scene can be found in the “Scenes” folder. On opening the “IslandExampleScene” and clicking the play icon, the camera has been animated in a loop to fly across the terrain to show various areas and ground textures. You can disable this camera by unchecking it in the inspector, then place a character controller (not included) into the scene to move around and look at different terrain features.

4. Contact

For support email: [email protected]

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