Creating Cliffs using Voxel Objects

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Author Crytek
Skill Level Not specified.
Compatibility 1.0
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Date Added Not specified.
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In this tutorial, we are going to use Voxel Objects (VO) to create an overhanging cliff.

Contents

Prerequisites

  • A map with a Hill

Setting up the Voxel Area

Let's say we already have a hill which looks like this:

To create a seamless integration between your VO and your heightmap, you need to align the VO to the hightmap's grid sectors in the X and Y position. The simplest way to do this is to activate Snap to grid before placing the VO. The size of the grid should be set to 64 meters, which is the size of a terrain sector. It is also useful to turn on the visual display of terrain sectors grid by typing 
e_terrain_bboxes 1
 into the console. This will cause blue bounding boxes depicting the terrain sectors to appear in the perspective viewport. Now, go to the rollup bar and select Misc→VoxelObject, and place a new VO in to your level.

Initially, your VO will be empty and you will only see its empty red box helper object.

Link to Terrain

Now, we need to make the VO rather than the heightmap engine render the terrain surface. Select the VO and activate the LinkToTerrain checkbox in the VoxelObject parameters. Visually, there should be no difference apart from the blinking of your currently selected VO.

Note
The LinkToTerrain option does not copy your heightmap data into the voxel array. It just enables the usage of the heightmap during VO mesh generation. This way, you can still use the heightmap editor and layer painter in your voxelized area. Copying of heightmap data into VO is also possible, and it's covered in the Creating Caves example.

Editing the Voxels

In the rollup bar, go to Terrain Voxel Painter, and in Brush Settings, set the type to Create.

Now, start adding overhanging geometry to the top edge of the cliff by following these steps:

  • Left Mouse click will create to new geometry.
  • Reducing the radius will reduce the size of the geometry created.
Note
Using the Align to Plane functions is a good for controlling the geometry you create. First click on Setup position, then move and rotate the plane to where you want it to be, and finally click on Align to plane.

Now, paint your voxel on the plane to create the cliff. Use the type BLUR to remove sharp edges.

Result

See also

Voxel Objects

Creating Caves using Voxel Objects

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