Conventional Export
Overview
This article presents an overview of the different options and variants that you can use in World Creator to export your terrain. It also includes a quick example of how to load terrain in a third-party DCC tool.
Video Guide
The Export Preset System
The export system of World Creators is based on export presets. Export maps for your renderer/engine of choice can be bundled into a single preset.
For example, when rendering terrain in Blender, the required map formats/types can be matched perfectly using a custom export preset. The preset may include height map, color map, normal map, and potentially splat maps if there's a need for adjusting materials in Blender or a mesh when you don't want a displaced plane.
After configuring the export preset, it can be saved in the Presets section's Export folder. This feature enables you to easily reuse your preconfigured export preset in any upcoming project.
Export Map Types
There are a couple of different versions of World Creator available that each have restrictions in terms of their export capabilities:
Standard World Creator
Can export everything besides the Octane package
Otoy Black Friday version
Can export everything
Standard Octane version
Can only export Octane packages!
Height Map
The heightmap is the main output you want from World Creator. It stores all height data in the most efficient memory format. Ensure you use a bit depth greater than 8-bit when exporting for a close-up terrain. Refer to the section Choosing the Right Bit Depth to understand why this is necessary.
You can deactivate Auto Normalization in the parameters. This allows you to set minimum and maximum values of the heightmap to customized values. By default, these values are automatically set according to the lowest and highest points of the terrain.
Splat Map
The splat map contains all your splat layer information. By default, World Creator tries to group up to four splat layers, depending on your selected texture format, into a single texture. They are then layered in the following order, into individual texture channels: red, green, blue, alpha.
In some formats, you can choose to either deactivate the 'Use Alpha Channel' option, which restricts World Creator to only pack up to 3 channels in each texture, or activate the 'Single Channel' option, telling World Creator to create one texture per splat layer.
Color Map
The color map stores the colors of your terrain. It results from blending all the splat layers into one texture.
The color map enables you to deactivate Include Texture Data. Disabling this will exclude all textured materials from the resulting color map and replace them with their tint color. This feature enables you to reproduce material blending in your preferred DCC application and achieve the highest quality texture tiling.
Normal Map
A traditional normal map of the terrain. There are several orientation options available for rendering in different renderers. Additionally, you can choose to Include Texture Data. If this is disabled, materials that utilize textures will not be included in the resulting normal map. This option enables you to replicate the material blending in your preferred rendering application and obtain texture tiling of the highest quality.
Mesh
In World Creator, you can export your terrain as a mesh. At the bottom of the mesh export settings, you will find options for the parameters that you want to include in your mesh.
Please consider that a mesh is not the most memory-efficient method for transferring your terrain into another application because a mesh requires considerably more data per height point than a 2D height map. For example, a terrain of 1024x1024 pixels as a height map only consumes 2 MB of memory, while a mesh for the same terrain requires a total of 56 MB.
Important Note:
If you intend to export a mesh for use with Nanite in Unreal Engine, it is recommended to import it as a height map and utilize the Use Nanite checkbox available in the Unreal terrain system. This is the preferred method for optimal results.
Roughness Map
A roughness map stores data for Physically Based Rendering (PBR). You can disable the Include Texture Data in the roughness map. Disabling the inclusion of texture data will exclude any material that uses textures from the resulting roughness map. This enables you to recreate the blending of materials in your preferred rendering application, thereby achieving the highest quality texture tiling.
Metalness Map
A map that contains data for physically-based rendering of metallic surfaces. This map allows you to exclude texture data by disabling 'Include TextureData'. Disabling this option will exclude all textured materials from the resulting metalness map. This enables you to recreate the material blending in your preferred rendering application for optimal texture tiling and quality.
Spline
Spline Export allows you to select a spline object within World Creator and export it as a .dae file. Currently, supported spline objects include Path and River layers.
Topo Map
A topology map, or topographic map, represents the three-dimensional terrain of an area on a two-dimensional surface. It uses contour lines to indicate elevation, with close lines showing steep slopes and wide spacing indicating gentle slopes. These maps are used for navigation, urban planning, military operations, and environmental studies. Key patterns, like concentric circles for hills or V-shaped lines for valleys, help interpret terrain features. Topology maps are essential for understanding landforms and planning activities effectively.
Heat Map
The heat map captures the influence of distributions, allowing you to export terrain distribution areas, such as slopes or cavities, etc, from World Creator.
Simulation
The simulation map stores data about changes in a specific simulation layer, including the height values of added sediment after the simulation.
AO Map
An Ambient Occlusion (AO) map is a grayscale texture used in 3D rendering to simulate soft shadows in areas where surfaces are close together or occluded from ambient light. It enhances the perception of depth and detail in a model by darkening crevices, corners, and other areas where light would naturally be obstructed.
AO maps don't represent actual light sources or shadows but instead provide a baked approximation of how ambient light interacts with a surface
Unity Mask Map
The Unity Mask Map is a channel packed texture used in Unity. It holds a Metallic output in its red channel, an AO map in the green and a Smoothness (inverted Roughness) in the alpha channel.
Octane Package
With World Creator, you can directly export your terrain with all materials for rendering in Octane. The resulting .orbx file can either be opened in OctaneRender as a standalone application or imported by using an Octane plugin in another application. (only available in World Creators Octane and Otoy Black Friday version)
File Formats and their Appropriate Uses
Please note that the file formats and their settings may differ from those found online since World Creator only provides options that are relevant to terrains.
Row
16bit, 32bit
up to 4
height maps
Tiff
8bit, 16bit, 32bit
up to 4
height maps, color maps, splat maps
Png
8bit, 16bit
up to 4
height maps, color maps, splat maps
Exr
16bit, 32bit
up to 4
height maps
Jpeg
8bit
3
color maps, splat maps
Tga
8bit
up to 4
color maps, splat maps
Bmp
8bit
3
color maps, splat maps
Selecting the appropriate Bit Depth
When working with height data, it is crucial to choose a higher bit depth. This is because of the variation of available values per pixel. The bit depth determines the number of possible values a pixel can take between 0 and 1 (in our case, we will use a 0-1 range; however, 32-bit images can go beyond the 0-1 range).
These are the number of steps for each bit depth:
8bit: 28 = 256
16bit: 216 = 65536
32bit: 232 = 4294967296
This already indicates that there could be a potential problem. Since an 8-bit image has a limited 256 values per pixel, the number of possible levels of elevation between the lowest and highest point of the exported terrain is limited, resulting in visible steps in the exported terrain.
The below three images demonstrate this issue where the 8-bit image shows significant artifacts in the terrain. However, there is no significant differentiation between the 16-bit and 32-bit versions. Thus, it is advisable to export the height map usually with a bit depth of at least 16 bits. If there are any visual stepping issues found in the 16-bit map, it should be increased to 32 bits.
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