Create a Terrain in Unity

If you're using one of the lab computers, you can start by opening Unity, go to Projects and choose EventProjectTemplate from the list. In the Project tab right-click on Empty World, pick Show in Explorer, copy it, paste, and make sure to rename your scene (otherwise you might get conflicts with other people's scenes and yours might get erased!). Go back to unity and you can open this newly duplicated scene by double-clicking on it, again in the Project tab, where it should've appeared as a new item in your Assets folder.

Basic Manipulation of the Camera

To pan the camera hold down middle mouse click and move the mouse around. You can also rotate the camera by holding down the Alt key and moving the mouse around.

Create the Terrain

To create your terrain, first right-click in the tab labeled Hierarchy (see below, the blue dot is where I right-clicked). To get this menu you can right click anywhere inside the Hierarchy tab, as in underneath the tab name of Hierarchy.

Then, go down to 3D Object, and from the sub-menu that appears, choose Terrain. Once you pick terrain, you should see a large blank plane appear, but when you select it, there are a lot of interesting options in the Inspector. (If there is any confusion about where all these tabs are, refer to this guide or the image on the whiteboard.)

Editing Terrain

Hills and Valleys - Adjusting Terrain Height

Select the terrain icon that has an up arrow, then click (or click and drag to make continuous formations) anywhere on the terrain plane to raise it at that point. pressing shift while clicking will lower that part of the terrain, though it won't go below the terrain's initial level, no matter what y coordinate that may be.

Adding Texture to the Terrain

Pick the paintbrush icon from the terrain toolbar.

Add a texture to paint with by going to Edit Texture, then Add Texture, then Albedo (RGB) and Smoothness (A), Select, and choose a compatible image type for your terrain. To enlarge the images in the selection window, use the slider on the top right corner of that selection window. Only textures that are in somewhere in your assets will show up, so import any images you'd like to use first. The first texture you add becomes the default for the entire terrain. If you add another texture aside from that first one, you can paint over the default with the newly added one. Whichever texture has the blue line or rectangle underneath is the texture you have currently selected to paint with.

Brush size is the size of the area you'll edit by clicking on the terrain once.

Opacity is the transparency or amount of texture applied for a given amount of time you paint.

Target Strength is the maximum opacity you can reach by painting continuously.

Trees and Plants

First, select the Tree icon.

Add a Tree

Pick Edit Trees > Add Trees, and then when the window comes up, use the file picker (circled below) to choose something that looks like a tree. It can really be anything you want, but if it isn't setup right as a tree, things may be generated wrong.

Using the brush to place trees

Brush size is how large the area you would like to paint with for 1 click.

Tree Density is how many trees will get placed in the circle when you click or move the mouse when you click and drag. Shift click to remove trees in the area you click with a radius of the chosen brush size.

Test it out!

Normally

You can view your new terrain by pressing the play button at the top middle of the editor.

On the Vive

You can also try this out on the HTC Vive by first clicking on the collab button.

Then press publish.

Next, go over to the computer the Vive is hooked up to, and open Unity, and load up EventProjectTemplate. If the Collab button has an orange arrow next to it (as in ), click on it and update the project (this will make sure your new scene shows up in the Assets folder). Open your scene, press play, and put on the headset to try it out!

If you'd like to learn more about Unity, please refer to our more detailed tutorial!