Procedural Terrain Generation with Unity

About this course

Updated for Unity in 2024The creation of beautiful virtual terrains isn't just the domain of the artist, but also of the programmer. What if you could use your programming skills in C# to manipulate a mesh to create realistic landscapes, using algorithms developed by researchers studying landscape formation and erosion? Well now you can.In this course, Penny introduces procedural terrain generation techniques using her internationally acclaimed holistic teaching style and expertise from over 25 years of teaching, research and work in games and computer graphics. Throughout the course you will follow along with hands-on workshops, designed to teach you the fundamental techniques used for generating realistic virtual landscapes.Learn how to program and work with:Voronoi TessellationMidpoint DisplacementPerlin NoiseSplat MapsTrees and VegetationCloudsWeatherErosionWater and new to 2024Working with Multiple Terrain ObjectsDealing with URP and HDRPContents and OverviewThe course begins by examining the nature of a landscape and the design considerations you should include in making decisions on structure, colour and vegetation. You'll learn what makes for a natural looking terrain, so you can replicate this in Unity.Following on, we will examine some of the most popular algorithms used in generating terrains (including many fractal and tessellation techniques) that can be used together, to form random and yet convincing mountainous vistas.Once you are confident with landscape formation, we'll move onto texturing the terrain with a variety of images that can be placed via splatmaps onto differing heights and gradients. Then, continue to decorate the terrain with trees, rocks and grass placed with an a

Course objectives

• to teach fundamental terrain generation techniques using programming
• to enhance programming skills through practical application in landscape creation
• to explore algorithmic approaches to simulate natural landscape features