Greetings pilots!
Over the past week, I've been revisiting my terrain tools. Since I originally wrote them, I've moved away from Unity's terrain system and now use my own custom solution. That meant a lot of the old code needed updating. Most of that is now done, and I've finally reached the fun part: testing that everything still works!
To do that, I searched "Best canyon in the world" and one of the results was the Verdon Gorge in France. By entering the GPS coordinates and a few more parameters, with a single-click, my tools generated a 5x5 grid with each tile measuring 4km x 4km. The system automatically downloaded the terrain height, ocean floor depth, and satellite imagery. It then combines them and produces this:
When flying around the level, I don't want the player to see the edge of the world. I want terrain stretching as far as the eye can see. To achieve that, I generate progressively larger tiles: first 50km x 50km, then 100km x 100km, and finally 200km x 200km:
The operational ceiling of the SR-71 is 85,000 feet (approximately 26,000m). If I put the camera at that height, the 200km tile doesn't extend far enough:
I want to see terrain going to the horizon, so I keep going with the tiles. I add a 400km and a 1000km tile:
Now, I can't resist pushing things...so I added a 2000km and a 5000km tile:
That should do it!
I am currently re-enabling my procedural terrain modifiers. These allow me to add detail to the downloaded height (which might only contain 30m resolution data). I will share more next week!
Don't forget that I am hosting a Developer Q&A on Thursday 20 November at 8pm (GMT) where I will answer any and all questions. Join me, won't you?
Rich