[Unity] Create Your Own Scenery with the Terrain Tool

In this article, I will show you how to use Unity’s “Terrain Tool” to create the following scenery on a STYLY scene.

Scenery we will create

Scenery we will create

When creating a scene, it takes a lot of time and effort to attach materials to each terrain you create.
It is also inefficient to place objects such as trees, plants, and flowers one by one.

With the Terrain Tool, you can create terrain, set textures, and add objects sensitively with a brush.
It also helps you adjust the quality of your scene by allowing you to set the details freely.

You can create landscapes with ease!

You can create landscapes with ease!

Let’s try to master it.

*The recommended scene size when uploading a whole scene to STYLY is 20MB or less, but Terrain tends to grow in size, so please be careful.

Sample

Before we move on to creating a scene, let’s take a look at a scene created using the Terrain Tool to get an idea of what we’re talking about.
In this case, we will create a scene in the mountains as shown below.

Preliminary preparations

First, import the Terrain Tool into Unity as a preliminary preparation.
Open the Package Manager by going to Window > Package Manager and check Show preview packages from Advanced at the top of the window.

Enable the preview version of the package to be shown.

Enable the preview version of the package to be shown.

Then search for “Terrain Tool” in the search field at the top right and install it from “Install” at the bottom right!

Install Terrain Tools

Install Terrain Tools

Next, prepare the materials.
This time, we will use the following four free assets, which you can import from the links below.

Placing the Terrain

Once you are ready, let’s create a terrain.
Right click on the Hierarchy and select 3D Object > Terrain to place the terrain in your scene.

The default size is too large, so select Terrain and change the Terrain Width and Terrain Length to 50 in the Inspector’s Terrain Setting > Mesh Resolution.

Adjusting the size of the Terrain

Adjusting the size of the Terrain

Adjust the size of the Terrain by changing the Width and Length, not the Scale in Transform.

Creating a Topography

Next, let’s create a topography for the terrain.
Open the Paint Terrain in the Inspector and select Raise or Lower Terrain.

Click on the Terrain in the Scene to raise the ground.
Holding down the control key while clicking will push the ground down.
The topography is created by combining these two.

You can create topography like a brush.

You can create topography like a brush.

However, when creating complex topography such as a large number of mountains, it is very troublesome to just raise and lower the ground.
When creating such complex topography, “Stamp Terrain” is useful.

Select Stamp Terrain

Select Stamp Terrain

You can easily create a complex topography by selecting Stamp Terrain, choosing your favorite brush, and clicking Terrain.

Creating a topography with Stamp Terrain

Creating a topography with Stamp Terrain

In this example, I created the following topography.
The three directions of the stage are surrounded by stamped mountains to make the border between worlds less noticeable, and another Terrain is used to create a distant view.

Terrain created in this project_1

Terrain created in this project_1


Terrain I made this time_2

Terrain I made this time_2


Terrain created this time_3

Terrain created this time_3

Setting up the textures

Let’s set up a texture for the terrain we have created, since the same color will not look good.

Setting a texture for the terrain

Setting a texture for the terrain

Select Paint Texture.

The Terrain Tool manages the terrain by creating layers in the terrain and setting a texture for each layer.
To do this, let’s create a Terrain Layer.

Let’s change each texture of the Ground Texture asset we imported to a Terrain Layer.
Open the folder containing the textures and create a Terrain Layer from Create.

Create > Terrain Layer

Create > Terrain Layer

 

Attach a diffuse texture to “Diffuse” and a normal texture to “Normal Map”.

Applying a texture to a layer

Applying a texture to a layer

 

That’s all for creating a Terrain Layer.
Return to Terrain and select Add Layer from Paint Texture > Layer Palette to add the layer you just created.

Adding a Terrain Layer

Adding a Terrain Layer

 

Let’s add another layer.
You can color the terrain with a specified texture by clicking on the Scene while the layer is selected.

Try painting the terrain with Paint Texture.

Try painting the terrain with Paint Texture.

まYou can also switch the applied texture by changing the order of the layers.

Changing layers also changes the texture.

Changing layers also changes the texture.

Note that the default texture in Terrain is the one on the top layer.

In this case, I painted the terrain as shown below.
The texture layers we used are as follows.

  • Grass 05
  • Ground & rocks 02
  • Grass & dead leafs 02
  • snow(Terrain Layer)

This texture painting_1

This texture painting_1


This Time Texture Painting_2

This Time Texture Painting_2


This Time's Texture Painting_3

This Time’s Texture Painting_3

Placing the trees in the scene

The scene is now more colorful and complete, but it still looks a bit bleak.
So, let’s add a tree to the scene.
Select “Paint Tree”.

Paint Trees > Edit Trees

Paint Trees > Edit Trees

Open the Edit Tree > Add Tree window and set the imported tree assets.
You will now be able to add trees freely.
If you want to delete a tree, hold down the control key and click on it.

Placing a tree in Paint Trees

Placing a tree in Paint Trees

The details of each item in Settings are as follows

  • Brush Size → Size of the generated area
  • Tree Density → Density to be generated
  • Tree Height  → Height of the generated tree
  • Lock Width to Height → Whether or not to lock the width of the tree to the height
  • Tree Width → Width of the generated tree

    Let’s place the trees in the scene as you like.
    In this case, I placed them as follows.

Tree placement_1

Tree placement_1


Tree placement_2

Tree placement_2


Tree placement_3

Tree placement_3

Placing flowers and plants in the scene

This is much better than the first.
Next, let’s add some flowers and plants to the scene.

Paint Details > Edit Details

Paint Details > Edit Details

Open a window from Edit Details > Add Grass Texture and set the texture of the imported grass.
Within this window, you can set the height and width of the grass.

Setting the height and width of the grass

Setting the height and width of the grass

Once the settings have been made, select the grass from the Details section and click on the scene to place it.

Let’s set the texture of the flower in the same way and add it to the scene.

Adding flowers and grass to the scene

Adding flowers and grass to the scene

Placing the wind in the scene

Now it’s time for the final touches.
To add movement to the scene, we will add swaying trees caused by wind.

Adding wind to the scene

Adding wind to the scene

Add a new “Wind Zone” to the scene.
This Wind Zone has the ability to simulate the force of the wind.

3D object > Wind Zone

3D object > Wind Zone

 

By default, the wind is quite strong, so let’s change it to the following values.

Setting up the Wind Zone

Setting up the Wind Zone

A detailed explanation of Wind Zone can be found in the following article.
Please refer to it if you are interested.

This concludes the creation of the sample scene.
How was it? We were able to create a natural scene with relatively little effort.

You can add effects in STYLY Studio to make the scene more moody.
Please give it a try.

Try adding accents in Studio

Try adding accents in Studio

By the way, the God Ray in the sample scene above can be made from the following article.

Information referred to

This article was created based on the following materials.
Unity: How to build beautiful landscapes in Unity using Terrain Tools
Let’s make a game with Unity! Unity: How to build open world terrain

How to upload to STYLY

Let’s upload your 3D model to STYLY.

Create a STYLY account

How to create an account

How to upload to STYLY

How to upload from Unity to STYLY

In this article, I showed you how to use the Terrain Tool to create scenery.
With this tool, you can create beautiful scenes efficiently.
Creating a scene efficiently means that you can afford to pay more attention to the fine details.
I hope this article will be useful for your creation.