Terrain3D is a new editor plugin for Godot 4 that enables you to do 3D terrain sculpting and painting. It is an essential tool for developers creating open world 3D games.
This is a plugin originally created for the Out of the Ashes game, which has been generously released by the developers for the Godot community. It is a joint effort between Cory Petkovsek from Tokisan Games and Roope Palmroos from Outobugi Games.
The Terrain3D editor plugin being used in Godot 4.
A terrain system is one of those highly anticipated features that is still missing from the Godot game engine. While some GDScript-based terrain solutions are available, Terrain3D is a new solution purposefully developed for Godot 4 using C++ as a GDExtension.
This means that integrating it into your game should be seamless. It is also expected to outperform existing solutions in terms of performance. Currently, Terrain3D stands out as one of the best tools for terrain creation while we wait for an official built-in solution or potential integration of this terrain system into the engine.
Let's now have a look at its current features:
- Written in C++ as a Godot GDExtension plugin, which works with official engine builds
- Geometric Clipmap mesh terrain (as used in The Witcher 3)
- Up to 16k x 16k, sliced up in non-contiguous 1k regions (think multiple islands without paying for 16k^2 vram)
- Up to 10 levels of detail (LODs)
- Up to 32 textures
- Sculpting, texture painting, texture detiling, paint colors or wetness
- Supports importing heightmaps from HTerrain, WorldMachine, Unity, Unreal and any tool that can export a heightmap (raw/r16/exr/+)
Terrain 3D has been launched as an "alpha" version, and while it is still in its early stages, it is relatively stable. It primarily requires extensive testing and additional features.
It is available for download on the project's GitHub page.
