Cartographer

Cartographer: A Powerful Terrain Editor for Godot 3

Cartographer is a GPU-accelerated terrain editor designed specifically for Godot 3. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools for creating and customizing 3D terrains, making it an invaluable asset for game developers looking to add detailed environments to their projects.

Key Features

• GPU Clipmap LOD Terrain Mesh: Efficiently renders large terrains with level of detail (LOD) based on distance.
• Layered Terrain Material: Supports up to 16 terrain layers with weightmaps for blending.
• GPU Heightmap Sculpting: Allows for real-time terrain sculpting using GPU acceleration.
• Custom TextureArray Importer: Provides a stable and performant way to generate TextureArrays from JSON files, overcoming limitations of Godot's built-in importer.
• PBR Material Support: Full Physically Based Rendering (PBR) support for realistic material rendering.
• Terrain Holes: Create holes in the terrain for features like caves.
• Physics Integration: Generate physics collision shapes directly from the heightmap.

Installation and Usage

Cartographer is easy to install as a Godot addon. Simply enable the cartographer singleton and add a CartoTerrain node to your scene. The editor provides intuitive tools for sculpting, painting, and managing terrain layers. The custom TextureArray importer simplifies the process of creating complex terrain materials.

Optimizing Terrain Performance

To improve runtime performance, it's recommended to save heightmap and weightmap textures as external files. Additionally, the custom TextureArray importer can greatly enhance performance compared to using Godot's default importer, especially when working with multiple terrain layers and detailed textures.