Export Unity Terrain from Equator Studios

Terrain is a fundamental component of game development and tends to be the starting point for most games. Equator Studios supports exporting to Unity’s .raw heightmap format, which we’ll be using in this tutorial to create terrain for a game.

Creating Unity Terrain With Super Accurate Real World Data

How do I use the export tool?

Navigate to maps.equatorstudios.com

Click “+ NEW SITE” to define an area for the export.

Click the “Data” tab and select “Heightmap” as the export format.

Select “RAW” as the format, and open the advanced menu to select a resolution.

Click “Generate” to produce the export.

Step by step can be found at “Exporting Topography“

How do I make a unity project?

Assuming you have unity installed from https://unity.com/ you can use the Unity hub to make a new by selecting New->3D.

how do I import the terrain?

You can import the .raw file by selecting Assets->Import New Asset. Alternatively you can just drag the .raw file into the assets folder.

How do I create a terrain object in Unity?

To create a new Terrain Object we go to GameObject -> 3D Object -> Terrain

Now what?

Now we will apply our heightmap (.raw) to the terrain.

We do this by going to the terrain settings under the Terrain component and under “Texture Resolutions” we hit “Import Raw”.

Finally we set the X and Z to our height and width of the file we downloaded before, and hit import.

Note: you can adjust the Y size to get more impact from the terrain.

Can I play?

To make a basic playable game, Download the asset at the link below. You can import the asset into Unity under Window->Package Manager. Once imported, bring in a car prefab, I recommend the Utility vehicle due to a potentially bumpy ride!

Get The Asset Here!