Hello! In this blog, I will talk about the new map I have created using a heightmap template map found online. It has been completely changed in terms of scale to fit my game as a very large map is not needed. The original heightmap can be found here: RainstoryGames (2022) 15 Free Terrain Heightmaps for UE 4.27 | Free project download. Available at: https://youtu.be/QUayz48Gg2Q (Accessed: 24 March 2023).
In-game screen shot from build
Creating the Map
The map took quite a lot of time to create as it was my first time using the Unreal landscape tool so it was a learning process. I had found some templates online of already created maps in Unreal 4 that I was able to port over to Unreal 5 and into my project. Once I had done this, I opened it up and started to experiment with the landscaping tool and tried to figure out what each tool could do. With the help of a video also found online referenced at the bottom of the blog, I was able to learn what all of the tools did and began to use them to form the map that I envisioned. This video helped with using the free for the month asset pack to create procedurally generated foliage placed all over the map. The map looks significantly better now that there's foliage compared to when I started and it was bland and has no texturing.
A road was created using splines and connecting them together around the map and putting them into a group. A road texture was then applied to the group and they were merged with the ground to create a realistic looking road as seen in the screen shot above. The textures were all downloaded at 4k but have been downscaled to 1080p-1440p as they were causing very low frames at 4k. They still look stunning at 1080p.
All the lamposts placed along the road were hand placed. They do emit light as I have added spot lights into them. They do not have a big impact on performance as I have made sure that they are only visible from within a certain distance. In the screen shot, you can see that the lights in the distance, even the second closest to the player, isn't emitting light whereas the one closest to the player is. This saves performance as having them all at once and not being visible is a big performance waste. They also have a nice animation of them fading in and out of view.
The original map was enormous and not suited for the game being created at all. As this was just meant to be one level, the map was shrunk as this also increased the frame rate as world partitioning was not being used. I still feel as though the map is too big in the stage it is at so will likely be cut in size again.
This concludes the map update. I have began making the base that the player must infiltrate but it is not ready to be shown yet. It will be included in the next blog. Objectives have also been added as can be seen in the bottom left of every video and screen shot. I will go more in depth on these systems in the next blog.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the next blog which will release soon!
References
Maelstrom Library (2022) How to create your MAE Oak Forest under 15 minutes! | Unreal Engine 4. Available at: https://youtu.be/VgV2Dj6MRuw (Accessed: 24 March 2023).
RainstoryGames (2022) 15 Free Terrain Heightmaps for UE 4.27 | Free project download. Available at: https://youtu.be/QUayz48Gg2Q (Accessed: 24 March 2023).
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