Terrains and maps are one of the most important parts of some games. In a 3D game a good-looking terrain can make the experience more enjoyable. But, designing every detail of the terrain yourself can be a tedious task. Unity Terrain generators can make that task easy. So, here are some of the best unity terrain tools that make the terrain generation process simple. Know how terrains are procedurally generated.
The process of terrain generation has a lot of small tasks involved. Like basic terrain formation, texture creation with normal map, creating the objects required to be placed in terrain and so on. With the help of terrain generators, a lot of these tasks can be automated and can be completed in a matter of seconds.
All in one Terrain Bundle (Recommended by Vionix Studio)
Read the conclusion to know why you should get the World Building bundle.
Best Terrain tools
1. Gaia 2021 – Best Terrain Generator
GAIA gives you the flexibility to go fully procedural or fully manual or somewhere in between and delivers simple, fast and pretty terraforming, texturing, planting and placement using our sample assets or yours as you prefer.
You can generate good looking usable terrain in minutes (using the standard configurations) or, in a couple hours if you want to customize the spawners, textures, rules, etc. That’s hardly any time given the great results.
2. MapMagic World Generator
It’s a node based procedural and infinite game map generator. Each node on a graph represents a terrain or object generator like noise, voronoi, blend, curve, erosion, scatter, forest, etc. Once the nodes are connected a game map will be created.
The best thing about this tool is its ability to export the maps it creates as regular terrains. This means you can make your terrain in a separate project and export it to the game without having to install Map Magic into the main project.
3. TerraLand 3 – Real-World 3D Terrain Generator
TerraLand 3 is a real time terrain generator that can generate terrains from real world data. If you want a quick terrain then you can just select the location from multiple Map service providers like Google, Bing and TerraLand will have the terrain generated for you.
This is the best unity terrain generator tool for people who don’t like to spend hours painting a terrain and want a quick terrain with easy customization.
4. Terrainify 2D : free unity terrain tool
A free and dynamic seed-based generator of 2D terrain using Perlin noise and Unity’s Tilemap system, combined with a robust chunking system for loading them efficiently within adjustable bounds and with an adjustable chunk size.
It’s quick and easy to start generating terrains with Terrainify. The developer has added crystal clear documentation for every feature in this asset.This assets uses perlin noise algorithm for terrain generation which results in really randomized terrains and the best part is its free.
5. TerraTex Lite : free version of terraTex
This is a lite edition of TerraTex. The lite version does not have all features but has enough for you to create simple textures as a base. This is good for new developers who can develop simple games using this lite version.
Terratex lite is free and can be very useful for trying out new terrains.
The above tools are the best for terrain generation, but if you are looking to generate low poly terrains then there are more specializied tools for that. Check out out post on best low poly terrain tools in unity.
Conclusion
These are the top terrain generators available in Unity asset store. Gaia is the top terrain generator available in Unity asset store. Gaia seriously reduces a lot of effort put into terrain generation with the inbuild automation. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or advanced Unity user. Having Gaia is definitely a plus point in your game development process.
Gaia can generate terrains but not build worlds. You will need more tools to create vegetation, trees, rivers, villages, paths, sounds and other objects to complete your world. So, if you are ready to invest then it’s better to go for the world building bundle which includes the following assets.
GeNa Pro – Powerful level designer – splines, rivers, roads, villages, and more.
Gaia Pro 2021 – Powerful all in one open-world creation & level generation.
Ambient Sounds – Interactive soundscapes, sound fx and music system.
Pegasus – drive anything along a path, great for cut scenes.
SECTR – open world streaming, massive mobile games.
Buying these assets individually will cost your around $650. If you get the world building bundle then you will save more than $100.