Terrain Shader with Splatmap

[l3lessed]

Could you use a alpha/transparent layer type texture that randomly lays land features/hi-res textures and things over the default ground tile? This would solve the issue of larger texture tiles looking repetitive. Not sure how splatmap or unity works when it comes to this area, so just a thought.

[MasonFace]

Could you use a alpha/transparent layer type texture that randomly lays land features/hi-res textures and things over the default ground tile? This would solve the issue of larger texture tiles looking repetitive. Not sure how splatmap or unity works when it comes to this area, so just a thought.

Oh yeah, I think I could do something like that, or maybe some sort of secondary albedo and/or normal map to break up the repetition. It would definitely help with the grass, dirt, and water texture, but maybe not as well with the stone road texture.

[jayhova]

It's been a little while since there has been anything said about this. I really like the idea of smoothing those jarring texture collisions with a smoother transition.

[Jeoshua]

I wanted to do something about the random rock and dirt patches on the terrain, put them in more realistic places like slopes and flats, or something, but found that I didn't have much of an ability to do so. A splat map would be very helpful.

[BadLuckBurt]

Could you use a alpha/transparent layer type texture that randomly lays land features/hi-res textures and things over the default ground tile? This would solve the issue of larger texture tiles looking repetitive. Not sure how splatmap or unity works when it comes to this area, so just a thought.

Oh yeah, I think I could do something like that, or maybe some sort of secondary albedo and/or normal map to break up the repetition. It would definitely help with the grass, dirt, and water texture, but maybe not as well with the stone road texture.

I know Real Virtuality (the engine that runs the Arma games) uses a high-res satellite image for terrain in the distance and blends into normal tiled terrain which is defined by a splatmap as you get closer. Not sure how well your shader would support that but it may be worth looking into.

[MasonFace]

Unfortunately, I've bitten off more than I can chew in my personal life and it doesn't look like I'll have time to develop this idea any further.

The shader portion of it was very easy. There are lots of examples of splatmap terrain shaders online that will work just fine. The more difficult portion of this project would be converting the DFU tilemaps to a splatmap to sample into the splatmap terrain shader, which I never got around to.

Ideally, the splatmap would accept at least 6 channels to assign terrain textures to just to be sure to cover all possible features for each climate (grass, rock, road, water, dirt, etc.). I was able to handle 5 textures in one pass by using R,G,B, and alpha channels of a splatmap texture painted over a default texture. I think it would be necessary to move to a multi-pass splatmap terrain shader to allow more textures, but maybe not.

Anyhow, I like I said, I don't have enough free time nowadays to make any more progress in this area, so if someone else wants to make an attempt at creating a splatmap terrain texture solution, I will gladly support it.