Documentation for Tiny Terrain v1.1

Introduction

Thanks for using Tiny Terrain! Don't forget to leave a review on the store page if you liked it, this helps us a lot! https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/tiny-terrain-236464

Description

Tiny Terrain is a lossy Terrain Data compression technology for Unity Terrain Engine, which allows you to reduce the size of the data that Terrain takes in the project many times and significantly reduce the size of your application.

You pay a little CPU time and additional memory usage, but save tens and hundreds of megabytes for each Terrain in the project.

Even though the compression is lossy, in most cases you won't see any visual difference at all.

A very high compression ratio is achieved due to the author's data preparation algorithms and then compression using Brotli.

Even if your build or AssetBundle is already compressed using LZ4, LZ4HC or LZMA, Tiny Terrain will be able to reduce its size. Of course the difference in size won't be as huge as with the uncompressed data, but it's still pretty big.

Tiny Terrain is not a 3rd party Terrain Engine, and you can use Unity Terrain API and any terrain tools you like, such as Real World Terrain, Gaia, Vegetation Studio, etc.

Quick Start

Select Terrain in the scene, add Tiny Terrain Loader component, change the compression settings if necessary, and click Compress. Wait for Terrain compression to complete.

After compression, three files are created next to the original terrain file: [TERRAIN_NAME].tinyterrain.asset - Contains compressed data. [TERRAIN_NAME].tinyterraininfo.asset - Contains compression information. Not included in the build. [TERRAIN_NAME].runtime.tinyterrain.asset - An empty Terrain Data with minimal settings into which the data will be decompressed. Present to work around a Unity bug that causes the wrong grass shader to be used for dynamic Terrain Data.

The compressed Terrain will be automatically loaded and displayed in the scene instead of the original one.

Tiny Terrain Loader

Tiny Terrain Loader component compresses and decompresses a single Terrain.

When no compressed data is selected, the component will look like this:

Tiny Terrain Data - compressed data to be used. If you select a value, it will be loaded into the current Terrain. If you select None, the original Terrain will be restored. Heighmap Accuracy - The number of bits used to store the heightmap value. Alphamap Accuracy - The number of bits used to store the alphamap value. Compression Mode - Tiny Terrain can compress data in main or separate threads. Compress - Compresses the current Terrain. Restore Previous Compression - Present if the Terrain has already been compressed. Allows the previous compression state to be used.

After Terrain is compressed it will look like this:

Decompression Time - How many seconds was the last decompression, including how long the Unity API took to set values for Terrain. Will update every time the Terrain is loaded.

Decompression Mode - Tiny Terrain can decompress in the following modes:

• Manual - Decompression will not be performed automatically. Use API to load Terrain.
• Main Thread - Decompression will be done on the main thread and may cause editor and application freezes.
• Separate Threads - Each Terrain element (heightmap, alphamap, detailmap, trees, holemap) will be decompressed in a separate thread.
• Async - Decompression will be done asynchronously.

Compressed Size - The total size of the compressed data in bytes.

Compression Time - How many seconds did the compression take.

Saved Space - Reducing the size of compressed data compared to uncompressed ones. Hover over the progress bar for more information. You can expand the progress bar to see how much space is saved for each Terrain element.

On Load Complete - Event called when the Terrain is loaded.

On Progress Changed - Event called when Terrain loading progress has been changed. Important: Use the method in the Dynamic section. Otherwise, you will always have the value specified in the inspector.

Restore Original Terrain - Restores the original Terrain. Use if you want to change Terrain or compression settings.

Convert to Bulk Loader - Moves Terrain load to Bulk Tiny Terrain Loader and removes the current component. If Bulk Tiny Terrain Loader is not present, creates it.

Bulk Tiny Terrain Loader

Bulk Tiny Terrain Loader compresses and decompresses multiple terrains.

Decompression Mode - Tiny Terrain can decompress in the following modes:

• Manual - Decompression will not be performed automatically. Use API to load Terrain.
• Main Thread - Decompression will be done on the main thread and may cause editor and application freezes.
• Separate Threads - Each Terrain element (heightmap, alphamap, detailmap, trees, holemap) will be decompressed in a separate thread.
• Async - Decompression will be done asynchronously.

Items - List of Terrains to load.

• Tiny Data - Compressed data.
• Terrain - Terrain in the scene where the data will be decompressed.
• Runtime Terrain Data - An empty Terrain Data with minimal settings into which the data will be decompressed. Present to work around a Unity bug that causes the wrong grass shader to be used for dynamic TerrainData.

On Load Complete - Event called when Terrains is loaded.

On Progress Changed - Event called when loading progress has been changed. Important: Use the method in the Dynamic section. Otherwise, you will always have the value specified in the inspector.

Heighmap Accuracy - The number of bits used to store the heightmap value.

Alphamap Accuracy - The number of bits used to store the alphamap value.

Compression Mode - Tiny Terrain can compress data in main or separate threads.

Compress All Child Terrains - Compresses all child Terrains.

Compression Algorithm

Tiny Terrain prepares Terrain Data map data and compresses it using Brotli.

Brotli has a very high compression ratio close to LZMA, fast decompression and very good support in the industry.

The downside of Brotli is the slow compression speed, which doesn't matter in this case because you only need to compress Terrain once in the editor.

Note: Trees are not compressed with Brotli. Tiny Terrain removes unused parts of the data, reduces data precision where possible, and only uses 12 bytes per tree.

After compression, three files are created next to the original terrain file: [TERRAIN_NAME].tinyterrain.asset - Contains compressed data. [TERRAIN_NAME].tinyterraininfo.asset - Contains compression information. Not included in the build. [TERRAIN_NAME].runtime.tinyterrain.asset - An empty Terrain Data with minimal settings into which the data will be decompressed. Present to work around a Unity bug that causes the wrong grass shader to be used for dynamic Terrain Data.

Compression Ratio

Heightmap. Unity Terrain Engine stores a heightmap of 2 bytes per value. Tiny Terrain compresses this from 2:1 to 20:1 lossless or lossy.

Alphamap. Unity Terrain Engine stores an alphamap in ARGB8 UNorm textures. Tiny Terrain compresses this from 5:1 to 50:1 of its original size lossless or lossy.

Detailmap. Unfortunately, I don't have exact information on how Unity Terrain Engine stores the detailmap, but my observations is that it uses 1 bytes per value. Tiny Terrain compresses this from 5:1 to 50:1 lossless.

Trees. Unity Terrain Engine stores trees 36 bytes per tree. Tiny Terrain removes unused parts of the data, reduces data precision where possible, and only uses 12 bytes per tree, resulting in 3:1 compression ratio.

Holes. Unity Terrain Engine stores holes of 1 byte per value, which adds over 4 MB when used. This is very wasteful. Tiny Terrain compresses holes from 1000:1 to 10000:1 lossless, making them almost weightless. In most cases, the holemap will be less than 1 KB in size.

On average, in real projects, you can expect an overall compression ratio of 3:1 to 50:1 with no visible difference, and up to 100:1 with visible quality loss.

API

Tiny Terrain has an API for compressing, decompressing and loading Terrain.

You can read more about the description of fields, properties and methods in the API Reference:

https://infinity-code.com/doxygen/tiny-terrain/index.html

Updating Asset

We send to Unity Asset Store only stable versions.

Tiny Terrain has a built-in update system, using which you can download the latest versions of Tiny Terrain and get early access to all versions and updates.

Important: Always back up the project before updating assets.

Select "Tiny Terrain Loader / Help / Check Updates", to open the updater window. Enter your Invoice Number or Order Number, select the update channel and click "Check New Versions".

You can find your Invoice Number in Unity Asset Store order confirmation email, or on the orders page in Unity Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/orders

If more than 10 updates were released in the selected channel from the current version, only the last 10 updates will be shown.

If updates are available, you can read the list of changes and download the update.

If you have problems installing the update, then:

1. Remove "Plugins / Infinity Code / Tiny Terrain" folder.
2. Import the new version of Tiny Terrain into the project.

If you want to return to the previous version of Tiny Terrain, then select the channel "Stable Previous". Using this channel, you can get 10 previous stable versions.

Tiny Terrain automatically checks for updates every 24 hours. If the new version is available, you will see an icon in the Actions. Clicking on this action will open the updater window.

Automatic update check does not require an Invoice Number, and works on a previously selected update channel. If you did not select the update channel, then only stable versions will be checked.

Troubleshooting

Known Issues

Grass is rotated relative to its original Terrain orientation Unity Terrain Engine does not support grass rotation. This is a bug in Unity Terrain Engine displaying grass in dynamic Terrain Data. Waiting for a fix from Unity.

Your problem is not listed

Try to update to the latest version of the asset, using the built-in update system. Perhaps we have already fixed this problem.

If the problem persists, please contact us about this problem using email (support@infinity-code.com), forum (http://forum.infinity-code.com) or discord (https://discord.gg/2XRWwPgZK4). We will try to fix all bugs and release the update as soon as possible.

Support

We provide support using email (support@infinity-code.com) in English and Russian, using forum (https://forum.infinity-code.com) or discord (https://discord.gg/2XRWwPgZK4) in English.

If something does not work for you, you have found a bug, or you have a suggestion, please contact to us. When contacting, please specify your OS, the version of Unity Editor and the version of Tiny Terrain. We try to respond to all request to the support within 24 hours.

Other Infinity Code assets

Huge Texture

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/input-management/huge-texture-163576

Huge Texture allows you to import and use textures larger than 8192x8192px.

How it works: When importing a texture, Huge Texture splits the texture into pages and saves it as a Texture Array. Texture Array is combined on the shader side, which does not create extra draw calls and has almost no effect on performance.

Features:

• The maximum size of the texture: PNG and JPEG up to 16384x16384px, RAW up to 2GB (0.715 gigapixels, 26624x26624px for square textures without transparency);
• Standard Render Pipeline, Universal Render Pipeline (URP, LWRP), High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP);
• Compressed and uncompressed formats;
• Does not produce extra draw calls. You will have as many draw calls as you would with a regular texture;
• API for working with huge textures, as with regular Texture2D;
• Integration with Mesh to Terrain, Real World Terrain;
• Built-in update system.

Requirements:

• Not all platforms support Texture Arrays. The list of supported platforms is here: https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/SL-TextureArrays.html
• The field must accept Texture (not Texture2D), and the component must accept custom material or shader. For example, Huge Texture can be used in Mesh Renderer, Raw Image, etc.

Mesh to Terrain

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/mesh-to-terrain-7271

Mesh to Terrain is a tool for easily and quickly converting a 3D terrain model created in 3ds Max, Terragen or any other editor to Unity Terrains. Mesh to Terrain can convert textures to SplatPrototypes (Terrain Layers), generate terrain from several models and split the model into several terrains.

Features:

• Unlimited number of models and terrains used in the component;
• Terrains are created in the same place where the meshes;
• Convert the textures of models to textures of terrain;
• Seamless result, when working with multiple terrains;
• Manually adding models or automatic detection of all models in the layer;
• No need to manually add the components of physics;
• Integration (optional): Huge Texture, Relief Terrain Pack;
• Built-in update system.

Online Maps

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/integration/online-maps-v3-138509

Online Maps is a universal multi-platform mapping solution for your 2D, 3D, AR / VR and mobile applications and games.

Fully customizable, incredibly easy to learn and use, and at the same time is one of the most powerful and flexible solutions in the industry.

Supports a huge number of services for any mapping needs, and has integration with the best Asset Store assets.

The package contains the complete source code without dependencies, and if you want to add or change some feature, you can easily do it.

Don't have programming experience or don't know C# - Online Maps supports visual scripting using Bolt and Playmaker.

All the features to create any map in Unity in one asset.

Features:

• Standalone, Android, iOS, Windows Store, WebGL;
• Online and offline maps;
• 2D maps and 3D maps with elevation;
• 2D, 3D, billboard and custom markers;
• You can display the map anywhere: on UI, in a scene, or draw into texture;
• Huge number of predefined tile sources: Google Maps, Mapbox, ArcGIS, Nokia Maps, Bing Maps, Open Street Maps, and many others (16 providers, 88 map types);
• Ability to create your own map style or use your own source of tiles (e.g. WMS);
• Multilingual map with or without labels;
• Support Google API web services: Direction API, Elevation API, Geocode API, Places API, Places Autocomplete API, Roads API;
• Other web services: AMap Search, Bing Maps Elevation API, Bing Maps Location API, HERE Routing API, Open Route Service Directions, Open Route Service Geocoding, Open Street Map Nominatim, Open Street Map Overpass API, QQ Search, What 3 Words;
• Show Google Street View using uPano;
• Additional Features: GPS (with emulator), cache, traffic, Overlays, Drawing API, runtime 3D buildings;
• Integration with: Bolt, Curved UI, EasyTouch, Fingers - Touch Gestures, NGUI, Playmaker, Real World Terrain, TouchScript, uPano;
• Easy-to-use and powerful API. Large number of examples of using is attached. Atlas of Examples;
• Built-in update system.

Project Context Actions

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/project-context-actions-267429

Project Context Actions is a standalone free toolkit from Ultimate Editor Enhancer asset that speeds up work with the Project window by adding contextual actions based on item type.

Supports one-column and two-column layouts.

Context actions are displayed when you hover over a row or cell in the project that matches certain criteria.

List of actions:

• Create Folder. When you hover over a folder in the Project, it shows a button to create a subfolder. Left-click to create a subfolder and manually enter a name. Right-click to select from the list of standard names;
• Create Material. When you hover over the Materials folder in the Project, it shows a button to create a material. Click to create a material;
• Create Material from Texture. When you hover over a texture in the Project, shows a button to create a material from the texture. Click to create a material with Standard shader and set the texture in Albedo;
• Create Script. When hovering over the Scripts folder in the Project or its subfolder, it shows a button to create a script. Left-click to create a MonoBehaviour. Right-click to create a script from templates or Assembly Definition;
• Play AudioClip. When you hover over AudioClip in the Project, it shows a button to play the audio. Click to play the audio. Press again to stop playback. Click on another audio to stop playback of the previous audio and start playback of the current audio.

Real World Terrain

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/real-world-terrain-8752

Real World Terrain is a tool for automatically creating high-quality terrains, meshes, Gaia stamps and RAW files based on real-world data with global coverage. Incredibly fast and easy to use, and allows you to create high-quality terrains in a couple of clicks. In addition, Real World Terrain can create buildings, roads, trees, grass, and rivers based on Open Street Map data. Real World Terrain is incredibly powerful and flexible. It has a powerful Editor API to automate the generation of terrains, and Runtime API positioning objects by coordinates, etc. Real World Terrain has integration with the best assets of the Asset Store, which gives almost unlimited possibilities in the generation of terrains.

Features:

• Elevation Heightmaps:

  • ArcGIS resolution of max 10 meter per pixel;
  • Bing Maps resolution of max 10 meter per pixel;
  • Mapbox;
  • SRTM v4.1 resolution of 90 meters per pixel;
  • SRTM30 resolution of 30 meters per pixel.

• Texture providers: ArcGIS, DigitalGlobe, Map Quest, Mapbox, Mapy.CZ, Nokia Maps (here.com), Virtual Earth (Bing Maps), Open Street Map , Sentinel-2 + ability to download tiles from custom url;

  • Satellite images resolution of max 0.25 meter per pixel;

• Can create: Unity Terrains, Meshes, Gaia stamps, RAW files;

• Can generate regular textures and Huge Texture (up to 26624x26624px) for each terrain.

• Can generate Terrain Layers based on Mapbox vector tile data;

• Can create objects based on Open Street Map:

  • Editable roads for EasyRoads3D Pro v3 and Road Architect;
  • Editable buildings for BuildR (editable) or built-in building engine;
  • Rivers as meshes or for R.A.M 2019;
  • Trees;
  • Grass.

• A tool to select area directly on Google Maps;

• A lot of extra tools for working with coordinates, objects and postprocessing;

• Unlimited number of generated terrains;

• Integration (optional): BuildR, EasyRoads3D Pro v3, Gaia 2, Gaia Pro, Huge Texture, Online Maps, Playmaker, R.A.M 2019, Relief Terrain Pack, Road Architect, Ultimate Editor Enhancer, Vegetation Studio, Vegetation Studio Pro, VolumeGrass, WorldStreamer.

Run Desired Scene

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/run-desired-scene-262762

Run Desired Scene is a very powerful and easy to use tool that allows you to start playing from any scene without opening it. After exiting play mode, you will return to the scenes open for editing.

Features:

• Select any scene in the project, and start playing from that scene on every run.
• Start playing from any scene in the project without opening it.
• After exiting play mode, you will return to the scenes open for editing.
• Load any scenes from Build Settings additively at startup.
• Convenient scene filter with CamelHumps support.
• Add scenes to favorites for quick access to them.
• Open scenes without using the project window.
• Integration with Ultimate Editor Enhancer.
• Built-in update system.

Smart Gallery

Smart Gallery is an elegant, flexible and efficient solution for displaying image, video and audio galleries for your project.

Key features:

• Unique Modular Architecture: Each element of the gallery is a separate module, resulting in extraordinary flexibility of the asset. You can easily customize modules to achieve the design and functionality your project needs.
• Diverse Content Types: Texture, Video, Audio, Remote Texture (from URL, Resources, Streaming Assets or Persistent Data Path), Remote Video, UI Prefab, YouTube Video.
• Easy Extensibility: Modular architecture and a powerful API give you limitless extensibility. You can easily add your own module, transition, or content type to fulfil any needs of your project.
• Very easy to use: Even if today is your first day in Unity, you'll be able to use this.
• Package Contains: 7 viewer styles, 21 modules, 8 transitions.
• Powerful API.
• Built-in Update System.

Render Pipelines: Built-in RP, URP, HDRP, Custom RP. Input Systems: Old, New, Both. Platforms: PC, Mac, iOS, Android, UWP, WebGL. Other platforms have not been tested, but most likely Smart Gallery will work well.

Terrain Quality Manager

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/terrain-quality-manager-28949

Terrain Quality Manager allows you to change the resolution of Heightmap, Detailmap, Alphamap and Basemap, without losing data. If you need to increase the quality of terrain, or optimize terrain for better performance, with this tool you can do it.

Features:

• Allows you to change resolution of Heightmap, Detailmap, Alphamap, Basemap and Resolution Per Patch, without losing data;
• Works for single terrain, all terrains in scene, all terrains in project;
• Allows you to scale up and scale down terrain maps;
• Seamless result, when working with multiple terrains;
• Very easy to use.

Tiny Terrain

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/terrain/tiny-terrain-236464

Tiny Terrain is a lossy Terrain Data compression technology for Unity Terrain Engine, which allows you to reduce the size of the data that Terrain takes in the project many times and significantly reduce the size of your application. You pay a little CPU time and additional memory usage, but save tens and hundreds of megabytes for each Terrain in the project. Even though the compression is lossy, in most cases you won't see any visual difference at all. A very high compression ratio is achieved due to the author's data preparation algorithms and then compression using Brotli. Even if your build or AssetBundle is already compressed using LZ4, LZ4HC or LZMA, Tiny Terrain will be able to reduce its size. Of course the difference in size won't be as huge as with the uncompressed data, but it's still pretty big.

The asset has highly optimized code using direct memory access, which allows for fast compression and decompression, and minimizes additional memory usage. On average, one Terrain is loaded in about 1 second. Tiny Terrain is not a 3rd party Terrain Engine, and you can use Unity Terrain API and any terrain tools you like, such as Real World Terrain, Gaia, Vegetation Studio, etc.

Using Tiny Terrain is very easy, and anyone can do it, even if it is their first day using Unity. Just add Tiny Terrain Loader component to Terrain and click Compress. If you are an advanced user or programmer, Tiny Terrain has events and API that will help you take full control of the loading process.

Features:

• High compression ratio from 3:1 to 30:1 with no visible difference, and up to 100:1 with visible quality loss; - Heightmap. Compression from 2:1 to 10:1; - Alphamap. Compression from 5:1 to 50:1; - Detailmap. Compression from 5:1 to 20:1 lossless. Note: Unfortunately, I don't have exact information on how Unity Terrain Engine stores detailmaps, so compression ratio is based on my observations; - Trees. Compression 3:1; - Holes. Compression from 1000:1 to 10000:1 lossless;
• Minimal visual differences. In most cases, you won't see visual difference at all;
• Does not affect rendering and can be used with any Render Pipeline: Built-in RP, URP, HDRP, custom RP;
• Fast compression and decompression;
• Synchronous, asynchronous and multi-threaded decompression;
• Terrain API and third party tools for Terrain can be used;
• Third party terrain shaders like RTP and GTS can be used;
• API for compression and decompression;
• Built-in update system.

Platforms: The asset was tested on PC, Mac, Android, iOS, WebGL. The rest of the platforms have not been tested, but the asset should also work well on them.

Tree Tool