QuadSpinner has released Gaea 1.0.29.5, the latest update to its next-gen terrain design tool.
The 1.0.29.5 update is a bugfix and performance release, but it seemed like a good opportunity to report on the new tools in Gaea 1.0.29 itself, including the new 2.5D viewport and light baking node.
QuadSpinner has also previewed some of the features due in the major QuadSpinner 1.2 update next month, including its ‘Infinity Graph’ system, new ice and snow nodes, and new flow map and cartography map types.
Powerful procedural terrain generation plus artist-friendly direct sculpting
First released last year, Gaea is intended to provide an artist-centric approach to terrain generation for games, combining powerful procedural controls with a range of direct input methods.
As well as by creating and editing a conventional scene graph, users can control terrain forms through a Photoshop-style layer system or by direct sculpting.
The software includes a procedural erosion system capable of mimicking snow, scree and sediment deposition, which can even be used to ‘sculpt’ fine details into a terrain.
Once generated, terrains can be exported as meshes, point clouds or height maps, with the option to generate LODs or variants via a built-in terrain mutation system.
New in Gaea 1.0.29: new unified renderering system powers a new 2.5D viewport
Major features in the 1.0.29.x release cycle – the original release was in January – include a complete new rendering system, used for both 2D and 3D rendering, and powering the new 2.5D viewport.
According to QuadSpinner, the new viewport, shown in the image above, features “accurate real world lighting … with controllable soft shadows, ambient occlusion, and more”.
Workflow improvements in the release cycle include a unified popup for atmosphere, water, and terrain settings; support for height and mask gradients for terrains in the viewport; and redesigned colour editors.
Other new features since we last wrote about Gaea include full 32-bit EXR support, and the option to save and revert the states of nodes within the node graph.
