IN THIS ARTICLE
Terrain Surface Gradient List Component
The Terrain Surface Gradient List component defines mappings between a gradient and a surface type on a terrain layer. When you assign a gradient to a surface, the gradient defines the strength of that surface in the displayed terrain. For example, you can assign a gradient to a rocky surface to make parts of it appear through a grassy region.
Usage
Terrain surface weight mappings control the strength of a surface type across the terrain surface. Multiple surface types and weights can exist at the same point. For example, a surface can be 30% grass, 50% dirt, and 20% rock. Other systems query these weights to determine how to render the terrain, what physics properties to apply to the terrain, and so on.
You select a gradient either by dragging an entity containing a gradient component to the GradientEntity field, or by clicking 
. Once a gradient is assigned, you can select the surface type that this gradient represents, by using the Surface Tag pull-down menu. You can configure the dimensions and priority of the layer using the required
Terrain Layer Spawner.
More than one gradient to surface type mapping can be defined in this component. Each gradient needs to map to a different surface type. A simple example of multiple gradient mappings would be to have two surface types where one gradient is the inverse of the other. You can have more than two as well that can be blended together.
Provider
Dependencies
Properties
| Property | Description | Values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gradient to Surface Mappings | An array of gradient entities and surface tags to map together. | ||
| GradientEntity | The gradient entity to assign to this layer. | Gradient Entity | None |
| Surface Tag | Sets the
surface tag that this gradient represents. See the adding surface tag names guide for creating your own surface tags. | Surface Tag | (unassigned) |
TerrainAreaSurfaceRequestBus
The TerrainAreaSurfaceRequestBus is an internal EBus used by the terrain system to query individual Terrain Surface Gradient List components. Other systems generally do not need to use this EBus since nothing outside the terrain system should need any information from the individual component instances. However, if a use case arises, the following request functions on the TerrainAreaSurfaceRequestBus EBus interface can be used to query the individual Terrain Surface Gradient List components.
| Request Name | Description | Parameter | Return | Scriptable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
GetSurfaceWeights | Returns all of the surfaces that are assigned to this component, along with the gradient’s weight value at a specific position. | Position: Vector3 | Surface Weights: Surface Tag Weight List | No |
GetSurfaceWeightsFromList | Returns all of the surfaces that are assigned to this component, along with the gradient’s weight value at a list of positions. | Position: Vector3 List | Surface Weights: Surface Tag Weight List of Lists | No |