Suggestion: Improved Helper for Landscape Data

[Amerio.Stephane]

Hello,

Currently, in order to identify the layers of the landscape at a specific location, we have to go to Helpers / Show Landscape Data and then try checking/unchecking all layers one by one until we find the one we are interested in. This can become very tedious as we have around 15 active layers, and each checking/unchecking takes up to 3 seconds.

As a suggestion, what about adding a toggle in Helpers ( Helpers / Show Landscape Data Info, maybe) than would display in the lower right corner all layers and the values of the landscape point under the cursor (or at the center of the screen).

In this way, it would be very easy and quick to know which layers to edit, without incurring a full redraw every time.

Thanks!

[silent]

Hi Stephane,

I'm not entirely sure what the exact use case is that you're looking to improve. Could you please provide a bit more detail? If your goal is to paint on a specific mask, there are an ability to give mask a name for easier navigation:

Is there a specific case you're trying to address? Could you please explain why you need to visualize the mask before painting on it, rather than simply using its name to paint directly onto the desired mask?

Thanks!

[Amerio.Stephane]

Sorry if wasn't clear. I'm not trying to paint the mask, instead I'm trying to edit the materials layers. As a specific landscape area can be influenced by zero, one, or many layers, it is frequently tedious to identify which mask/layers are influencing a specific area. To do this identification, currently I have to "Show Landscape Data" for each mask one by one. Then, when I have dully noted which mask influence the area I'm trying to edit the materials for, I can go and edit said materials.

What I'm suggesting, *as a complement*, is a way to display on screen the percentage of influence of each mask for a specific point (maybe under the cursor, or simply the centre of the viewport). In this way, I could see right away which layers materials I have to edit. 

[silent]

Hi Stephane,

Thanks for the clarifications. For that specific use-case I think you can already develop an Editor plugin on your side using existing LandscapeTerrainFetch API to get the information under the cursor. An example of such fetch requests can be found in a C++ sample pack (Fetch sample):

 

You can additionally display details names by modifying sample code to something like that:

int mask_index = 0;
for (int mask_detail_index = 0; mask_detail_index < terrain->getDetailMask(mask_index)->getNumDetails(); mask_detail_index++)
{
	String name = terrain->getDetailMask(mask_index)->getDetail(mask_detail_index)->getMaterialFilePath();
	Log::message("mask %d detail %d: '%s'\n", mask_index, mask_detail_index, name.get());
}

But if you have like 15+ masks and details at the same pixel it might be quite confusing to read and parse these information.

We'll definitely consider ways to improve terrain details configuration in future updates. That said, we can't provide a specific ETA at the moment—sorry about that.

Even if we add a mask visualizer toggle directly in the LandscapeLayerMap mask list, switching between them still will take the same amount of time. However, it would save a few extra clicks compared to accessing the visualizer through the Helpers menu.

Thanks for your feedback!