Cluster of Islands -- Scale / Height

Geology and Terrain
#1

Hello, my goal right now is to create a terrain that consists of a cluster of 5 islands. I’ve seen a few examples around, and watched the video tutorials, but they all mainly deal with creating just one island or land mass. Has anyone created multiple islands before? I am having a hard time applying the principles I have learned thus far to work on a correct scale where I can get realistic looking features on multiple islands using the filters available to me. For instance, using the advanced perlin works fine if I am working on one large island that takes up most of my work space, but if I am working on five separate islands, the features either totally break up the islands into jagged, fractal looking points or have no effect at all.

Also, on a related note, I like the coast erosion tool, but it always levels out my beaches to the ground plain of my terrain. This is a problem in the game engine I am using, as the ground level of the terrain and the generated water plate in the engine z-fight with each other. Is there a way to use the coast erosion tool at a higher altitude (i.e. create the smoothing effect of beaches around my islands, without flattening out the rest of my ocean plane as well).

Thanks!

#2

Hi there,

Everything you’ve learned should apply to multiple islands. One of the most important points, however, is choosing a feature size that works for the size of your island. Using a noise for the land that is either too large or too small will do exactly what you say – seem like either no noise at all, or just a noisy lumpy field. However, this shouldn’t be any different whether you have one or several islands. I usually just slide the feature size until it looks right, but another good rule of thumb is to make the feature size be somewhere around ~ 1/5 to 1/2 the size of the island.

Also, note that you can have several different types of terrain easily by simply having multiple paths in your world and then combine them together. I’ve included an example file here that has 4 islands, 2 of each type of land mass. All of the islands are combined together into a final terrain that is then eroded further.

Regarding the coastal erosion tool, you can set the water level to whatever value you want within the device by making sure “Global water level” is unchecked and then setting the water level slider to the level you want. If you want to have it only effect certain parts of the terrain, you can drive the Mask input to control what areas are eroded.

Does the example island attached help at all?

#3

This is a really good sample – it helps me a lot! There’s just one problem I am running into with it, and it’s still related to the water level / coastal erosion topic.

To me, this sample would be perfect to along the lines of what I want to do, except the beaches still level out into a flat water plane. If I could have this exact sample, but have it all raised up, and have actual terrain under water then it would be perfect! If I leave it like this, then the water in my game engine and the flat water plane we have in this sample will z-fight… hope I am making sense.

Basically what I am trying to get at is everything in this sample is great from mountain to beach, but I am wondering how to keep the terrain slopes going under water like a real island, rather than just cutting off at the water plane?

#4

Hello,

Just wanted to post an update – I have made some progress and was able to raise the islands to have some terrain under the water. Where I am stuck at now is being able to smooth out the beaches into a nice gradual slope instead of the harsh cut off I have right now. I attached the project I have so far in World Machine, and a screenshot of the results in the game engine I am working in – showing how the beaches just aren’t quite right :slight_smile:

#5