Unity previews terrain improvements

Unity Technologies has posted a new blog post showcasing recent improvements to the game engine’s landscaping tools thanks to a new team dedicated to terrain. 

The forthcoming 2018.3 update will include new tools and improved performance by taking better advantage of the GPU. It also adds per-pixel normals for terrains instead of the old per-vertex system for higher fidelity with the same triangle count, plus scriptable GPU tools for users to create their own terrain tools. 

Multi-terrain editing has also been improved with the ability to paint seamlessly between terrains and manage the connection between adjacent terrains automatically.

Two new terrain assets have been added. TerrainLayer defines materials independently of the terrain object so that it can be tracked across multiple areas. A new Brush asset defines the brush shapes used to paint and sculpt using the terrain tools. 

Find out more about the new features on Unity’s blog.