Heightmap > MESH > Studio workflow

[ProfessorOfK3ology]

I was wondering what people did when wanting to import terrain as a MESH (important!) when using a heightmap as source data. Right now, I’m using Blender to make the heightmap into a mesh, and then importing the mesh into Roblox in parts due to the 20k triangle limit.

Basically, this is my workflow

1. get heightmap data
2. use the Displace modifier in Blender to displace a plane with the heightmap data
3. subdivide the plane like 100 times to get the appropriate amount of geometry for the heightmap
4. export the plane in small parts because of the 20k triangle limit for meshes
5. import whatever part I exported into Studio
6. repeat steps 4 and 5 until the terrain is complete

I can’t help but feel there’s a better and more efficient way to do this, because I’ve seen games before with beautiful mesh terrain based on real-world heightmap data (I’ve seen some flight sims do this, there was a thread on here a while back that I can’t find again) and they’re clearly doing it in some different way than me. Does anyone have any idea of the proper workflow for making mesh terrain look good???

This is what mine looks like right now, you can clearly tell this was hacked together

…

I emphasized “mesh” at the beginning there because I know for a fact some idiot’s gonna come in like “uSe tHe RoBlOx bUilT in TerrAiN” like no that’s not what I’m asking thanks

[SubtotalAnt8185]

Yeah, you can’t really do this yet unless you run a script to raycast downwards and generate the terrain.

[sethsethisthebest (womanslayer609)]

Right now your current workflow is the only way to get it in as a mesh.

There are other ways to get heightmap data into Roblox of course - you’ve already mentioned Smooth Terrain, you can also use Parts if you convert the image into data useable by scripts and plugins (like data provided by Google’s API). Roblox has recently announced that we’ll soon be able to read images on a pixel basis, so we’ll soon see Part terrain pulled directly from imported heightmaps. Maybe we’ll see deformed meshes used as terrain too; similar to mesh waves. But even that’s gonna need some copy+paste too due to the tri limit.

But for the foreseeable future, if you need your terrain as a mesh, you’re likely already using the best method to do so. The only real workflow improvement I could suggest would be exporting from Blender as an FBX, so that Studio can import all of the terrain meshes at once. You’ll still have to split things up in Blender, but it’ll save you some back and forth.

[ProfessorOfK3ology]

@SubtotalAnt8185

Yeah, you can’t really do this yet unless you run a script to raycast downwards and generate the terrain.

I’ve never seen this done before; is there an example available that I can look at?

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@sethsethisthebest

Roblox has recently announced that we’ll soon be able to read images on a pixel basis, so we’ll soon see Part terrain pulled directly from imported heightmaps.

Thanks, I wasn’t aware of this new feature.

@sethsethisthebest

The only real workflow improvement I could suggest would be exporting from Blender as an FBX, so that Studio can import all of the terrain meshes at once

I also didn’t think of importing it all at once as an FBX, thanks for the suggestion