Mountain, Lake City and Sunset

Summary

This project is an in-depth exploration of procedural generation. I used Houdini to generate terrain and created auto terrain material in UE. Additionally, I procedurally generated scenes through PCG and completed the final environment design. These techniques have significantly deepened my understanding of open-world environment production.

Showcase

Houdini Tech Flow

Layer 1 – Noise Node

Layer 2 – Landscape Pattern

Layer 3 – Patteren Detail

Layer 4 – Adding Mask

Layer 5 – Blending layers

Layer 6 – Peak Feature

Layer 7 – Blending layers

Layer 8 – Adding Detail

Final Terrain

Terrain Mask

The process uses various HeightField nodes to simulate terrain features: Flow Mask for water flow direction, Cliff Mask for steep areas, and Peak Mask for summits. Mountain Edge Mask enhances mountain details, and Cliff Mask Real adds realism to cliff edges.

Auto Landscape Material

Houdini heightfield mask generation was unsatisfactory, so it was replaced with a material that recognizes height.

Material Function

Material

Create complex terrain materials by adjusting techniques to fit scene needs. Despite the lengthy process, experimenting with various materials was essential for optimal results

Terrain View in Unreal Engine

Detailed PCG Graph Setting

Add a Projection node to make sure all the meshes fit the landscape. Use the Transformation Point to control the size and rotation of the meshes. This makes the scene look more natural. I can use the Static Mesh Spawner to add meshes to the scene.