Landscapes with Spec and Normal Maps

[fragfest2012]

So, I don't get how I am supposed to create a blending landscape material (so I can paint where I want the different textures) that uses specular and normal maps. Is this simply impossible? I tried to add specular maps but it crashed the editor when I attempted to compile the shader. Should I just make the terrains as static meshes? Ugh...this is frustrating.

Any help would be appreciated!

[fragfest2012]

Oh, and so you know, I have a fairly large playable space that would be an extreme pain to make with static meshes. Not to mention extremely inefficient.

[Jacky]

How many textures do you have in total?

[fragfest2012]

Well, I was attempting to do 5 layers, but 1 was derived from another, so 4 textures x 3 (diff, norm, spec).

[Chicken+Ribs Combo]

Well, I was attempting to do 5 layers, but 1 was derived from another, so 4 textures x 3 (diff, norm, spec).

So in total you would have 12 texture samples. I've found that UDK gets a little nuts if I go over 10 texture samples with random crashing and crashes on saves. If you multiply your green and red channel, you can derive a specular that way and save yourself an extra texture sample.

[Chicken+Ribs Combo]

Also, you really, really need to plan out what sort of landscape you'll be creating so that you can narrow it all down to about 5 or so base diffuse textures, maybe more if you can give up some normal maps or re-use them between similar textures ie: using the same normal map for both a sand and soil diffuse. You can do some tricks with scale and color overlays to create more variation in your textures. I currently have 16 layers, all derived from 5 textures so you can really make it go a long way if you employ a few tricks.

[fragfest2012]

Hmm...That is really interesting. Do you think that Landscapes are the better way to go over terrains for small areas?

[WinningHarp177]

This is a good tutorial to get you started with Landscape layer blending.