Tuesday, November 19th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerBiteTheBytes releases World Creator 2024.3html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Originally posted on 21 April 2024. Scroll down for the World Creator 2024.3 update.BiteTheBytes has begun its World Creator 2024 releases, the latest annual series of updates to the GPU-based terrain generator.World Creator 2024.1 adds a new rivers system, carving river valleys through terrain, plus Polygon Layers for raising or flattening terrain, three new filters, and a bridge tool for Blender 4.1.World Creator 2024.2 adds a 3D stamping system and support for MatCap materials.World Creator 2024.3 adds new snow and debris Simulation Layers, a new Shape Layer for 3D primitives, plus new filters and distributions.Pricing and licensing for the software has also been updated, changing the prices of perpetual licenses, and re-introducing rental-only subscriptions.A procedural GPU-based terrain generator used by leading games and VFX studiosA GPU-based terrain generator combining procedural and manual editing workflows, World Creator has been used by artists at games and VFX studios including Blizzard Entertainment, Crytek, Blur Studio and Cinesite.The software began life as a plugin for the Unity game engine, before evolving into a standalone application in 2017, and becoming independent of Unity with 2022s World Creator 3.Artists create terrain using a layer-based workflow, sculpting or stamping the basic 3D forms, and generating linear land forms like mountain ranges, rivers and roads along vector paths.The terrain can be modified using a large set of filters, including those mimicking the effects of erosion and sediment deposition, previewing the results using World Creators built-in ray tracing renderer.Users can export terrain to DCC applications and game engines in 3D formats like OBJ, FBX and glTF, or as 2D texture maps, including height maps and flow maps, with support for 32-bit EXRs.New rivers system carves river valleys based on slope angle and water flowThe main new feature in World Creator 2024.1 is the new Rivers system.As the name suggests, it carves river valleys through terrain, with users able to generate the rivers automatically, from hand-placed source points, or from scratch for greater control.The width, depth and sinuosity of the river is determined by the slope of the terrain at each point along its length, and by flow parameters controlling the throughput of water.Users can also modify the results with parameters to control river and valley shape, and overall settings to control branching, lake formation and sea level.Other changes: Polygon Layers, new filters and performance updatesOther key changes include the return of Polygon Layers, for creating custom raised or flattened areas in terrain.The feature was previously available in World Creator 2, where it was known as Shape Layers.There are also three new filters, Hexagons, Squeeze and Rocky Layers.Under the hood, performance has been improved, and for users of non-NVIDIA GPUs, there have been fixes for all AMD issues.The Bridge Tools the integration plugins for DCC applications have also been updated, with a new plugin for Blender 4.1.BiteTheBytes puts its changelogs in its customer portal, so you can only view them if youre an existing user, but you can find more details of the new features in the online documentation.Updated 22 June 2024: BiteTheBytes has released World Creator 2024.2.Key changes include a new 3D stamping system: the Model Shape Layer can be used to import a 3D mesh and place it into terrain as a 2D projection, as shown above.The update also adds support for MatCap materials, which can be used for terrain visualization via the updated Fast Render mode.There is also a new render mode, Textured Render, intended for low-end GPUs. It shows terrain colors, but is not ray traced.In addition, there are 10 new noise types, available as Distributions and Filters.Updated 19 November 2024: BiteTheBytes has released World Creator 2024.3.Its a sizeable update, adding two new Simulation Layer types one for snow, and one for debris and a new Shape Layer type for 3D primitives.There is also a new Erosion filter for Sediment Flows, five new Effect filters (Chipped, Scatter, Shore/Beach, Strata, Kuwahara), and four new distributions (Sea Level, Filter Change, Melt, Occlusion).The update also improves workflow for creating gradient/sat-map materials, and makes terrain generation about 15% faster than in the previous release.Pricing: new perpetual license prices and subscription plansSince the release of World Creator 2024.2, BiteTheBytes has also changed the pricing and licensing for the software.Previously, pricing was based on number of staff, with Professional licenses, for studios with up to five employees, costing $289, and Company licenses, for larger studios, costing $1,289.That has now changed to a revenue-based model, with Indie licenses, for users with revenue under $100,000/year, costing $149. Terrain is capped at 4,096 x 4,096px resolution.Professional licenses are now for users with revenue under $500,000/year, and cost $249.98, while Enterprise licenses now cost $1,699.98. By default, prices include 12 months maintenance, although it is possible to cancel this.BiteTheBytes has also re-introduced subscriptions, with rental costing $119.88/year for Indie users, $179.88/year for Professional users, and $1,289.88/year for Enterprise users.Availability and system requirementsWorld Creator 2024.3 is available for Windows 7+ only. Integration plugins are available for Blender 2.93+, Cinema 4D R25+, Houdini 19.0+, Unity 2020+ and Unreal Engine 4.26+.For users with revenue under $100,000/year, perpetual Indie licenses cost $149.98, and are limited to 4K resolution. Rental costs $119.88/year.For users with revenue under $500,000/year, perpetual Professional licenses cost $249.98. Rental costs $179.88/year.For users with revenue over $500,000/year, perpetual Enterprise licenses cost $1,699.98. Rental costs $1,289.88/year.Read an overview of the new features in World Creator 2024 on the product websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). 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