Great tutorial. Finally one that doesn't let me follow along for 30 minutes and than casually mentions, oh yeah you need the professional version of this tool which costs thousands of dollars to proceed. Thanks, this really helped.
Couple of questions- 1) As you can see at 1:40, it seems that the aspect ratio of the SRTM tile show in the map (greyscale rectangle) is something like 2:3 but it is exported (bil, tiff, etc) as a square. Why is this and does the exported file need to be adjusted to compensate? 2) When I import the SRTM file (.bil) into TerreSculptor, the height is completely off. The elevation is much too extreme. Do you know why this is? Thanks!
Hi, on min 8:08 when I try to multiply the scale number, it goes back to 100. I mean multiplying 26,7865 * 100.0 is not changing. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!
"The provided maps are not for purchase or download; it is to be used as a guide for reference and search purposes only" Download option is greyed out. Is there a way around this?
Thanks so much for this tutorial! I was wondering if you could do a follow up that includes some additional visual data. I'd like to bring in satellite and OSM imagery, and use it as reference to recreate landscapes within UE.
How would you blend 2 of these height maps together? I have a very particular part of the world I'd like to do this to but the feature I want to build around is split in half on 2 files.
@loganfrancel9275 I'm using ErrantWorlds landscape plugin and you can turn features into brushes and have pretty performant large landscapes with it. You can feather out edges and prioritize brushes that overlap in a layered approach
FYI for new users "The UDK Button has now been renamed to the UE button. You can enable it by going to the Settings, Dimensions, and enabling the Unreal Engine item."
When I import into TerreSculptor the terrain is skewed, seems to be multiplying the Z axis a lot so it's very tall and spiky. It seems to be different to use terrain map from outside the US. (I'm trying to use somewhere in Scottish Highlands) I went into Modify > Altitude and shrunk the min/max values to get something, but it was pure eyeball work
@@merited8379 Not really. Outside the US the maps tend to have lower resolution, so you need to stretch the map out so it gets flatter, then you're left with what looks like a tomb raider 2 landscape, so manually go over it with the smoothing tool in UE editor. By the end of it I was basically just hand crafting a map anyway :) There's probably higher resolution maps for your region if you know where to look, but I got the result I wanted so I didn't do any more searching.
Hello, i know this is a longshot, but would you be willing to make a topographical map like this, but of jamaica? cut down to a certain scale of course, maybe even like 1:10, i'd have to do some calculations. if you are interested, please feel free to message me or reply or whatever
yes if you go to the purchase page and read the description, there is a link to download terrasculpter 2.0 for free from the archives page. here is the link www.demenzunmedia.com/home/support-archive/
But of course... just ONE tile is not going to cut it. E.g. just go two or three tiles further to the north in the USGS earth explorer (starting from this tutorial's map) to the Monument Valley,... but to capture the entire scenery you need at least 4 tiles. Importing 4 of those resampled tiles is possible in Unreal Engine 5 to compose the entire landscape piece by piece... buuuuuuut, the satellite did not do us a favor so all images have different shading, hence different DEM data. To fix this do (works for 1/3 ARC, 1 ARC, 3 ARC): 1) Download QGIS-application then install 2) Instead of BIL, download the 3rd option GeoTIFF (has georeference) from Earth Explorer 3) Just mark all the tile-tiffs and drag into QGIS... wait for it to load them all (QGIS is fast) 4) Go to Menu "Raster" then select misc then "Virtual Raster"... 5) Select all the imported tiles and choose highest resolution (not average) then RUN 6) The result will be a perfectly stitched mega-map (depends on how many tiles were loaded) which is perfectly GPS-aligned even Now from here things get really difficult, of someone needs accuracy. But for "just fun" all you need is to export the map e.g. as PNG (choose "virtual" layer for extent, and choose higher DPI to get a bigger map... select 1:100000 scale or whatever ya need). And that's is when just wanting to play around and test. It will look fine for small areas. Spoiler: For accuracy, the WGS84 map would have to be reprojected to UTM zones first, which is a pain in the ass. For that, QGIS allows to create vectorized grids. "UTM Zones" are 6-degree aligned so the X-spacing has to be 6.00 but Y-spacing can be anything. Choose 6 for equilateral quads. I wont go into the details but once the grid is setup (must be on exact ZONE full coordinates like -10 or 44, to align with the tiles from USGS), use "Raster -> extract -> from mask" tool to split the "virtual" stitched map back into the former tiles (albeit retaining the normalized heights now). Use the "grid" and click on the round arrows to use each grid-component as mask to clip the big virtual input map. When done correctly, QGIS will create tiles again from the big map. Now at this point you can use those TOO in case the big virtual map was too big for Unreal to handle. They will load tile by tile. But there will be distortions doe to WGS84, which is why the reprojection is needed). So back in QGIS, need to to "Raster -> ... -> wrap" then select ONLY ONE clipped tile (the correct one for the zone) then choose input CRS to WGS84 and then further down use predefined CRS and lookup the zone for UTA/ARIZONA Monument Valley or any region you took the tiles for. And click run. You have to repeat for EACH tile with the correct zone... so this step is cumbersome, but batching is possible too. Finally, because the reprojection to UTM also introduced seams, create another virtual raster from these too and the final map is done. After this I would suggest to split the map into multiple small pieces (8K x 8K for example) instead of those humongeous 21K x 21K or the original tiles, using the vector grid again. Then export tile by tile. (Be sure to enable bilinear resampling or better every time projection etc is done for smoother results) If anyone has a more relaxed GDAL-script only workflow for this, I would be happy to hear.
After I scaled up the landscape with the same settings as in the video, I find myself unable to get close to the landscape without it disapearing. I am in UE5 and trying to make this work with world partition. Any suggestions?
@@BushdoctorsLab I did find the solution, in world settings search up the "enable large worlds" option and check that, works like a charm. Good luck to you.
Could you show us a way to efficiently import a height map of the entire world? It seems like downloading it from USGS that way would take an extreme amount of time.
it will not let me rescale the landscape it in the landscape creation tools. When i type 28,7865*100 and hit enter, it just resets back to 100 like i did nothing
I think he is using a comma in place of a decimal point. If you try 28.7865*100 instead it does take the formula. The problem I am having is at that scaling it still does not look right.
Sentinel-2 or one of the NASA Visible Band Maps (google the name) should be in the same webpage he got his height map from. Look for it in the dataset section
There have been changes since you made this video. 1) They require that you have an account and be logged in to download data. I tried to register but ended up in an endless loop. 2) The second program is no longer free to use. You must pay $85 for the program in order to use.
1. It has always required a account (I might not have really pointed that out well, this was one of my first videos...). 2. That is actually true for version 3 of the program, but version 2 used in the video is free. Here is a link to that (this is an official drive link from the website): drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ymTqvO2iavh-eWFk7LZorXcbuyP0S3Fb 3. But yeah, this video definitely needs a redo. I've grown my channel quality and Unreal knowledge a lot over this time. :-)
For anyone being scared, don't worry. I'll release videos again after the weekend. Just hold in there ;-).
Great tutorial. Finally one that doesn't let me follow along for 30 minutes and than casually mentions, oh yeah you need the professional version of this tool which costs thousands of dollars to proceed. Thanks, this really helped.
lol this has cost so many times before. spend 10 hours collecting data and then find out you need to convert it in a paid software or something
Amen!
@@Kevinbaconator_ That is why I 'll never try again. Now I try to make games without landscapes
Couple of questions-
1) As you can see at 1:40, it seems that the aspect ratio of the SRTM tile show in the map (greyscale rectangle) is something like 2:3 but it is exported (bil, tiff, etc) as a square. Why is this and does the exported file need to be adjusted to compensate?
2) When I import the SRTM file (.bil) into TerreSculptor, the height is completely off. The elevation is much too extreme. Do you know why this is? Thanks!
Hey did you ever find a fix for this issue?
I have the same issue :(
Hi, on min 8:08 when I try to multiply the scale number, it goes back to 100. I mean multiplying 26,7865 * 100.0 is not changing. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!
it won't download for me, in the results section. how come?
"The provided maps are not for purchase or download; it is to be used as a guide for reference and search purposes only" Download option is greyed out. Is there a way around this?
create a USGS account
hi, im trying to do the math for the scaling inside UE but, lol i have no idea what the original resolution was lol
I don't understand the formula, though. The map I downloaded was 8129, so...
Thanks so much for this tutorial! I was wondering if you could do a follow up that includes some additional visual data. I'd like to bring in satellite and OSM imagery, and use it as reference to recreate landscapes within UE.
how can I connect 2 terrains, so that are perfect aligned on the sides, otherwise I have to sculpt all the sides of the terrain
Is there a way to combine several heightmap files into a larger area file? or is the current process to import them one by one, and line up in UE?
Yes
did you ever do the heightmap using blender gis ?
Ugh Terresculptor is not free anymore! is there any other way to turn the heightmap into a PNG without spending money?
You can use goggle map transport into unreal 5
@@麻吉-h5b no you can’t. Google maps does bot have height map Information
TerreSculptor 2.0 is free
How can i optimize the terrain for a first person shooter? There must be better ways intead of sclupting the whole map for great details.
How would you blend 2 of these height maps together? I have a very particular part of the world I'd like to do this to but the feature I want to build around is split in half on 2 files.
i need to blend like 30 for my game lmfao if you ever find out PLEASE tell me
@loganfrancel9275 I'm using ErrantWorlds landscape plugin and you can turn features into brushes and have pretty performant large landscapes with it. You can feather out edges and prioritize brushes that overlap in a layered approach
FYI for new users "The UDK Button has now been renamed to the UE button. You can enable it by going to the Settings, Dimensions, and enabling the Unreal Engine item."
the program isnt free anymore
@@therealbstreets version 2 is free, version 3 is not.
@@airmanparker I didn’t see where to download anything free on the site
@@therealbstreetsGo to the support page, 2.0 is there.
under the support tab @@therealbstreets
I don't get the map as polished as yours, I get many sharp peaks of height
how can you change the setting to be 1 arc instead of 3 arc
How do you stitch together multiple maps? trying to download a whole country, please help me bro!
Doesn't work anymore. Website request login and a lot of personal data to create account
it works! And it's a US Government page lol
... Do you need to have an account to download from Earth Explorer? all the download buttons are greyed out for me.
Login required at the usgs page
When I import into TerreSculptor the terrain is skewed, seems to be multiplying the Z axis a lot so it's very tall and spiky. It seems to be different to use terrain map from outside the US. (I'm trying to use somewhere in Scottish Highlands) I went into Modify > Altitude and shrunk the min/max values to get something, but it was pure eyeball work
having this same issue.. the bil file is rectangular but when imported is shrunk one direction into a square which skews the whole heightmap
Did you all ever find a fix for this?
@@merited8379 Not really. Outside the US the maps tend to have lower resolution, so you need to stretch the map out so it gets flatter, then you're left with what looks like a tomb raider 2 landscape, so manually go over it with the smoothing tool in UE editor. By the end of it I was basically just hand crafting a map anyway :) There's probably higher resolution maps for your region if you know where to look, but I got the result I wanted so I didn't do any more searching.
@@phraggers Noted. Thanks for the reply!
I really wanted to do that, but the warning on the gov site made me back off. I don't like the idea of being monitored.
Hello, i know this is a longshot, but would you be willing to make a topographical map like this, but of jamaica? cut down to a certain scale of course, maybe even like 1:10, i'd have to do some calculations. if you are interested, please feel free to message me or reply or whatever
You said free software but when i hit the link to download the Terrasculptor, it's cost 99$. Is there any free version?
yes
if you go to the purchase page and read the description, there is a link to download terrasculpter 2.0 for free from the archives page. here is the link www.demenzunmedia.com/home/support-archive/
Can you make and updated one for UE 5.1 and show how to place multiple tiles from USGS and TerreSculptor, thanks.
Hey so terrasculptor is this free anymore. Do you know of another method that does that require a lot of money?
Hi! I am geographer and I wander if I can and how to georeference my SRTM or DEM in UE5?
Explained so clearly. ! Thumbs up, and subscribed (all videos)
But of course... just ONE tile is not going to cut it. E.g. just go two or three tiles further to the north in the USGS earth explorer (starting from this tutorial's map) to the Monument Valley,... but to capture the entire scenery you need at least 4 tiles. Importing 4 of those resampled tiles is possible in Unreal Engine 5 to compose the entire landscape piece by piece... buuuuuuut, the satellite did not do us a favor so all images have different shading, hence different DEM data.
To fix this do (works for 1/3 ARC, 1 ARC, 3 ARC):
1) Download QGIS-application then install
2) Instead of BIL, download the 3rd option GeoTIFF (has georeference) from Earth Explorer
3) Just mark all the tile-tiffs and drag into QGIS... wait for it to load them all (QGIS is fast)
4) Go to Menu "Raster" then select misc then "Virtual Raster"...
5) Select all the imported tiles and choose highest resolution (not average) then RUN
6) The result will be a perfectly stitched mega-map (depends on how many tiles were loaded) which is perfectly GPS-aligned even
Now from here things get really difficult, of someone needs accuracy. But for "just fun" all you need is to export the map e.g. as PNG (choose "virtual" layer for extent, and choose higher DPI to get a bigger map... select 1:100000 scale or whatever ya need).
And that's is when just wanting to play around and test. It will look fine for small areas.
Spoiler: For accuracy, the WGS84 map would have to be reprojected to UTM zones first, which is a pain in the ass. For that, QGIS allows to create vectorized grids. "UTM Zones" are 6-degree aligned so the X-spacing has to be 6.00 but Y-spacing can be anything. Choose 6 for equilateral quads. I wont go into the details but once the grid is setup (must be on exact ZONE full coordinates like -10 or 44, to align with the tiles from USGS), use "Raster -> extract -> from mask" tool to split the "virtual" stitched map back into the former tiles (albeit retaining the normalized heights now). Use the "grid" and click on the round arrows to use each grid-component as mask to clip the big virtual input map. When done correctly, QGIS will create tiles again from the big map. Now at this point you can use those TOO in case the big virtual map was too big for Unreal to handle. They will load tile by tile. But there will be distortions doe to WGS84, which is why the reprojection is needed).
So back in QGIS, need to to "Raster -> ... -> wrap" then select ONLY ONE clipped tile (the correct one for the zone) then choose input CRS to WGS84 and then further down use predefined CRS and lookup the zone for UTA/ARIZONA Monument Valley or any region you took the tiles for.
And click run. You have to repeat for EACH tile with the correct zone... so this step is cumbersome, but batching is possible too.
Finally, because the reprojection to UTM also introduced seams, create another virtual raster from these too and the final map is done. After this I would suggest to split the map into multiple small pieces (8K x 8K for example) instead of those humongeous 21K x 21K or the original tiles, using the vector grid again. Then export tile by tile.
(Be sure to enable bilinear resampling or better every time projection etc is done for smoother results)
If anyone has a more relaxed GDAL-script only workflow for this, I would be happy to hear.
Really great tutorial thank you ! Gonna try this later when I get home
Great Nick Name i thinked on "Keyboard Not Found, press any key to continue" lol Useful video Buddy thank you
How do you do this if you want to load in say a whole state vs just a small section?
After I scaled up the landscape with the same settings as in the video, I find myself unable to get close to the landscape without it disapearing. I am in UE5 and trying to make this work with world partition. Any suggestions?
same
@@BushdoctorsLab I did find the solution, in world settings search up the "enable large worlds" option and check that, works like a charm. Good luck to you.
Where does the 3601 ratio come from?
What if you try to do this with a piece of landscape with Buildings on it?
Could you show us a way to efficiently import a height map of the entire world? It seems like downloading it from USGS that way would take an extreme amount of time.
So I tried this usgs tool for extracting data from my home town, but there're no results. It's outside of the US if that helps
do you live in iceland or one of the far northern regions?
1-arcsecond (30 meters) is unusable...
I'm new to unreal engine, but if I realize I've screwed up after pressing import is there no way to edit or delete the environment that was created?
it will not let me rescale the landscape it in the landscape creation tools. When i type 28,7865*100 and hit enter, it just resets back to 100 like i did nothing
I think he is using a comma in place of a decimal point. If you try 28.7865*100 instead it does take the formula. The problem I am having is at that scaling it still does not look right.
ty so much man, i will try it right now! all other tutorials i watched did not work with my desired map :'D
You are underrated fr g
Hi, I wondering if you can make a video explaining how to use height res data using the new World Partition System in UE5?
Sure, the system is way simpler than world composition in UE4. Stay tuned for that video.
Is there a way to also download the satellite color image?
Sentinel-2 or one of the NASA Visible Band Maps (google the name) should be in the same webpage he got his height map from. Look for it in the dataset section
Would this work for unity??
Outstanding work. Thank you so so much
It looks like TerreSculptor is now paid? Any legacy versions for free out there?
Realised if you go to the Downloads part of their site & select Version 2.0, that version is still free. V3.0 has more functionality.
You're a hero!!
Really disappointed that I can’t find terrasculptor 2.0 anywhere.. how can a software just disappear off the face of earth? The new terra 3.0 is $75
Go to support, then to the support archive. You can find 2.0 there, I just did it!
@@bigsky7617 thank you. I was so frustrated🤣
@@Instant_Nerf you bet! I was too, especially since every other video tells you about 10 minutes in that you need some premium software 😡
This is a good tutorial bra!
i do not see udk landscape but see unreal engine
Same thing, far as I can tell. Just updated.
There have been changes since you made this video. 1) They require that you have an account and be logged in to download data. I tried to register but ended up in an endless loop. 2) The second program is no longer free to use. You must pay $85 for the program in order to use.
1. It has always required a account (I might not have really pointed that out well, this was one of my first videos...).
2. That is actually true for version 3 of the program, but version 2 used in the video is free. Here is a link to that (this is an official drive link from the website):
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ymTqvO2iavh-eWFk7LZorXcbuyP0S3Fb
3. But yeah, this video definitely needs a redo. I've grown my channel quality and Unreal knowledge a lot over this time. :-)
Great! Thanks :)
The software is no longer free :(
its just hidden on their site under support
@@optimuspr1mate762 Thanks, I used qGIS to open the tiff and convrted it to PNG. That worked well too..
Thanks for sharing.
I'm not even going to try, I've spent too much time trying already, with no success
Do you have a email? I would like to pay you to do me a service
your brilliant
Fix you’re description.. it’s not free it’s $75
If you go to the support tab, then down to support archive, you can find 2.0 for free
lol now you have to fix your comment haha
how to know the original size of the terrain
?