Build Manager

Introduction

The output from your project must be saved to a file in order to use it elsewhere. To do this, you must build the output. When you build the output, Gaea will create it at your target resolution. This may take a while to build depending upon the complexity of your terrain and the effects used.

Over the course of a complex project, saving and managing the appropriate outputs can become a tedious task. Managing outputs for several different nodes, especially those with multiple outputs (like the Erosion node), can make it even worse.

The Build Manager simplifies how builds are saved, organized, and managed for future use.

Node List

Any node marked for export shows up in the Build Manager list. You can also add other nodes directly using the Add Node button.

Each node will expose its savable filename, the format in which it will export, and the different outputs it exposes.

Managing Ports

Helpful Options

Normal Build

Split Build

Tiled Build

Build Destination

This is the path where the built output will be saved. By default, it is saved in a version-controlled path in the Builds repository. You can always enter a normal path directly, or pick from presets in the dropdown.

For additional information, see Organizing Builds below.

Build Definition

Resolution

The output resolution of the build. Higher resolutions give you better detail, but longer processing times.

Format

This dropdown allows you to choose the format in which your output is saved. You can also select per-node file formats in the node list. If you change the selection here, all nodes will default to the selection made here.

Mesh Formats are not available globally and must be chosen per node.

For details on the individual formats available, see File Formats.

Output Range

Custom Range only applies to heightfields and masks. Color data will be forced to standard range.

Tiled Output

Tiled output is experimental at this stage. It will be stabilized in future updates.

Additional Options

Resample

This option is for builds that need to be taken to Unreal Engine, Unity, or other applications where standard resolutions don't work. It is turned off by default. Unreal Engine requires particular dimensions for ingesting terrains. To meet their requirements, Gaea will build the terrain at its own fixed resolutions and then faithfully downsample to the desired resolution.

Pick the nearest Gaea resolution in the main Resolution dropdown, then select the target resolution in the Resample dropdown.

Color Space

You can choose to save color maps in RGB, sRGB, or scRGB color spaces. Does not apply to grayscale heightfields or masks.

Mutations

Gaea provides a mutation facility during build to create multiple variations of the same terrain. You can select up to 99 mutations. This will run the build once per each mutation where seeds of all nodes are randomized. This gives you a unique terrain in every mutation while still following the core recipe of your graph.

Each mutation's .tor file is stored with the output, so you can manually tweak a specific mutation if desired.

Build Options

Organizing Builds

The Location field in the Build Manager provides 2 built-in options for storing your builds.

The first option is the central build repository, which is stored in Documents\Gaea\Builds\[Filename] by default, but can be changed to any location — even to a local network or an online shared folder with OneDrive, Dropbox, GDrive, etc. This can be useful in team situations.

The second option is to have it stored alongside the file in a Builds folder. So if your file is called MyTerrain.tor, a folder called MyTerrain_Builds will be placed next to it.

In both cases, inside the Builds folder, a subfolder with the build timestamp is created. The build output files, a build.info file, and the .tor copy are stored inside this subfolder.

Example paths

Central Repository: C:\Users\Username\Documents\Gaea\Builds\EastRiver\2018–06–22_22–55–31\

Local File: D:\Work\Terrains\EastRiver_Builds\2018–06–22_21–55–31\

These are not the only options. You can explicitly specify a location instead of choosing a template, or you can create your own combinations using an absolute path and variables such as:

So you could create your own path template, such as:

[Builds]\[Filename]\[Timestamp]\[Resolution]\

which would create:

~\Documents\Gaea\Builds\EastRiver\2018–06–22_21–55–31\8192\

Or something more specific, such as:

\\00.00.00.00\Team\Terrains\[Username]_[Timestamp]\ 

which would create:

\\00.00.00\Team\Terrains\Bob_2018–06–22–55–31\

If you encounter trouble writing to network shares, we recommend hosting the share as a drive instead.

Version Controlling Terrains

Gaea's Build Manager and Build Stack give you low level version control without additional overhead.

The "Save copy of .TOR" option is useful when you want to manage different versions of your actual project file. When turned ON, every time your build finishes, a copy of the .tor file in the exact state of that particular build is stored alongside the build output. You can easily go back to any older build state for your file and save it as new file.

You can also map the folder to almost any modern version control system (Git, Mercurial, Visual Studio Team Services, etc.), or share on a network folder with your team.