Hey, it's Hal...
I wanted to share what I’ve been working on over the last few weeks.
Ever since we first started building the ‘next’ Amazing frog? with higher fidelity graphics, the terrain has undergone several reworks and phases.
Initially, the terrain was crafted and imported into Unity from a separate software, and piece by piece the elements were assembled together in the Unity3D game engine. Any alterations to the landscape required a back and forth between software, making adjustments labour-intensive and time-consuming.
Then came ‘Houdini’.
While I had already made several Houdini tools for ‘Amazing Frog?' such as fencing, electric pylons and fairy lights it was while remastering the world for 'Quest for the Magical Mystery Toilet' I seized the opportunity to delve deeper into creating tools that were more intertwined. This not only helped streamline the workflow but also enhanced the richness of our environments.
I’m now beginning to rework the world of AF2 in the same way. This entails migrating the whole terrain and its features into Houdini, leveraging the power of Houdini Engine within Unity3D to generate the landscape and its additional elements all at once. This shift gives us unprecedented control and flexibility, allowing different data sources to blend and influence additional details. For instance, the erosion simulations that shape the island can drive natural rock placement. The position of trees in Houdini can create raised mounds around their roots. While their coverage can dictate the density of grass growing underneath. I can specify areas that are suitable for trees to grow and have areas that are not. Other data such as the roads can then feed into these ‘masks’ and Houdini can cleverly scatter them. This fosters greater iteration and refinement possibilities.
In the past, our roads were modelled in Maya and imported into Unity, making any adjustments or additions cumbersome. In our new framework, roads are generated within Houdini using simple hand drawn splines. These splines are projected onto the terrain surface, shaping the landscape to conform to their placement. Additionally these splines can be marked with other data that can drive additional details about how they are generated, such as there width or what road markings they have.
Houdini Splne Projection
Meshes generated from Spline projection in Houdini
The end product in Unity Editor with world materials
In previous versions of the terrain splat maps which dictate material placement (like rock and sand) were controlled and generated procedurally at a shader level. While this approach enabled us to quickly create expansive landscapes with a reduced memory overhead, it also restricted our ability to tailor specific details. In this new iteration of the world the terrain is split into 16 chunks each with their own set of image based splat maps. This means again other elements such as buildings and roads can drive the materials around them. All being updated automatically when elements are repositioned or added.
Splatmaps
Here are a some of the changes I’ve made to the area around flight school, now we have this flexibility (All very much work in progress).
Due to changes in the terrain scale and world position the runway needed shifting. There wont be any successful flights taking place here!
Existing Flight school in the new Terrain
I started out by making a more suitable plateau to accommodate the existing runway.
WIth Terrain Sculpting
With all this extra space I decided to extend the runway and make it more suitable for larger and more varied aircraft in the future. I also added fences and a few car parks to flesh out the area. Additional details are still needed like lights signs and airport ‘stuff’, all of which will be added later in the process.
Upcoming Flight School with extended runway
Other areas such as the dam and road bridge are receiving a similar treatment. Bringing them to a basepoint that we can detail and flesh out more as we progress.
DAMN...
I’ll be back to update you all again with more progress when things have moved further along.
