Procedural Terrain Generation with Unity (Udemy.com)

Programming realistic environments with C# through the algorithmic manipulation of mesh and vegetation data.

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Created by: Penny de Byl

Produced in 2019

What you will learn

Use various algorithmic approaches to create procedurally generated content.
Manipulated terrain meshes with code to create realistic looking landscapes.
Texture terrain meshes procedurally.
Discuss the design principles involved in producing aesthetically pleasing terrains.
Manipulate the render settings in Unity to produce better looking camera results.
Create custom Unity windows and graphical user interface elements for use inside the Editor.

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Course Description

The creation of beautiful virtual terrains isn't just the domain of the artist, but also of the programmer. What if you could use your programming skills in C# to manipulate a mesh to create realistic landscapes, using algorithms developed by researchers studying landscape formation and erosion? Well now you can.
In this course, Penny introduces procedural terrain generation techniques using her internationally acclaimed holistic teaching style and expertise from over 25 years of teaching, research and work in games and computer graphics. Throughout the course you will follow along with hands-on workshops, designed to teach you the fundamental techniques used for generating realistic virtual landscapes.
Learn how to program and work with:
Voronoi TessellationMidpoint DisplacementPerlin NoiseSplat MapsTrees and VegetationCloudsWeatherErosion...
and waterContents and OverviewThe course begins by examining the nature of a landscape and the design considerations you should include in making decisions on structure, colour and vegetation. You'll learn what makes for a natural looking terrain, so you can replicate this in Unity.
Following on, we will examine some of the most popular algorithms used in generating terrains (including many fractal and tessellation techniques) that can be used together, to form random and yet convincing mountainous vistas.
Once you are confident with landscape formation, we'll move onto texturing the terrain with a variety of images that can be placed via splatmaps onto differing heights and gradients. Then, continue to decorate the terrain with trees, rocks and grass placed with an algorithmic approach before investigating erosion methods, that will add that extra level of realism.
The course concludes with the development of a cloud generation system and an exploration of particle systems for adding rain, snow and other atmospheric effects to the finalised landscape.
Throughout, we'll be developing our own custom Unity editor code that will allow you to build extra functionality and structure into the Unity Inspector, as well as create Editor Windows of your very own.
What students are saying about Penny's courses:
Penny is an excellent instructor and she does a great job of breaking down complex concepts into smaller, easy-to-understand topics.
Penny's teaching style is exceptionally well-motivated and illustrated.
This course is awesome. The lecturer explains everything you need to know and encourages you to experiment and challenge yourself.
Who this course is for:
Anyone interested in learning the algorithms used in procedural generation.
Those wanting to develop code to manipulate meshes, to produce realistic landscapes.
Anyone keen to find out how to write custom Unity inspector editors.

Time: 15h

Instructor Details

Penny de Byl

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Hi, I'm Dr Penny de Byl. I'm a full stack developer of most things computer sciencyand academic with a true passion for teaching. I've been teaching others about games development, programming, computer graphics, animation and web design for over 25 years in universities inAustralia and Europe at the full professor level.I've also consulted for Unity, SAE, the Australian Institute of Entertainment and Wikitude. My best selling textbooks including Holistic Game Development with Unity are used in over 100 institutions world-wide. My graduates work at companies like Apple, Ubisoft, LinkedIn and Deloitte Digital.
I have an honours degree in computer graphics and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence for games characters. Over the course of my career I'vewon numerous awards for teaching excellence at the state, national and international levels including the Australian Learning and Teaching Council's Excellence in Teaching Award and theUnity Mobile GameCurriculum Competition. My approach to teaching computer science and related fields is project-based giving you hands-on workshops youcan immediately get yourteeth into.
I want youto leave my virtual classroomfully armed with a toolkit of skills for life-long learning. I'm excited to now be focussing my efforts full-time on Udemy to bring my years of knowledge and experience to those eager to learn about technology.