Landscape

Watch the tutorial: Architecture Design Workflow Tutorial EP.03 | Landscape | D5 Render

Understanding the topography and getting input on the landscape design from partners help us make informed decisions. D5 comes in handy when reproducing realistic landscapes.

Terrain

D5 Render provides simple solutions to simulate terrains in the real world.

- Ocean

When you need an ocean or lake for your project, simply add a plane model from the library and adjust its size appropriately.

Apply a water material to the plane.

You can check the “keep texture shape” option to retain the texture shape after non-proportional scaling and rotation.

Now, you’ve created a lifelike ocean material.

- Mountains, basins, and other terrains

We prepare a straightforward approach in D5 for you to create mountains with ease, the terrain tool.

Watch this tutorial to learn more about the Terrain tool:

3D Terrain Tutorial | D5 Render | Sculpting Brush, Heightmap, Terrain Templates

• Sculpt brushes

The sculpt brush can elevate/sink ground, flatten/smooth out slopes, and remove the created terrains.

• Heightmap templates

D5 Render offers a bunch of heightmap templates in the D5 Asset Library. Simply choose the template you need and place it to the ground. It instantly generates realistic terrain.

These mountains can blend seamlessly with each other.

• Terrain materials

You can edit materials on different areas of the terrain.

The ground section manages the textures on the ground surface. We can layer up to six different textures to enrich the ground's appearance.

The slope section controls the material of the middle segment.

The peak texture determines the material at the top of a mountain.

Every texture supports advanced settings similar to other materials.

You can create realistic terrain following the above steps.

Vegetation

D5 Render features over 4,000 high-quality plant models sourced from around the world in the D5 Asset Library, covering distinct species such as bushes, palms, broad-leaves, and conifers.

To help you create landscape with ease, we provide the following user-friendly tools.

- Placeholder Replacement

D5 LiveSync plugin makes it super easy to export placeholder models and swap them with your desired plants in just one click.

- D5 Scatter

D5 provides a procedural scattering tool ideal for landscapes with complex vegetation patterns. It's particularly useful when you're looking to cultivate multiple types of plants in one area.

Watch the tutorial for D5 Scatter:

D5 Scatter Tutorial | How to use this procedural landscape scatter tool?

• Create Scatter

First off, hover over the "Add Scatter" button. You can create a scatter area by selecting the material or model.

After creating the scatter surface, numerous highlight points will appear to indicate the area.

• Divide Scatter Areas

If your landscape design requires following specific patterns for plant distribution, you can create a color-coded map where each color represents a different segment. Select "Image Divide" and import this map, allowing you to scatter different plant species in each sub-area.

If there are no specific pattern requirements, simply proceed to the next step and select plants for scattering.

• Scatter Plants from D5 Asset Library

To scatter plants on each area, you can choose to apply a content preset or manually add each plant species.

The distribution panel controls the overall vegetation density and the scattering pattern.

You can adjust the scaling, density, and collision volume for each kind of plant scattered in the area.

The Transformation panel can set random scaling, rotation, and offset for the scattered vegetation to create an organic effect.

• Save Scatter to D5 Studio

To facilitate the use of presets across various projects and among team members, you can save the scatter settings to D5 Studio either in your personal space or in the shared team space. You can double click to apply the scatter presets in other projects.

*D5 Studio is our cloud workspace to store environment, effect, brush, scatter, and path presets.

Repeat the steps to finish setting up the rest of the garden, and you will get a natural lawn as shown in the following image.

To quickly master D5 Scatter, watch this video for a detailed walkthrough of all its features: D5 Scatter Tutorial | How to use this procedural landscape scatter tool?

You can also apply the scatter tool to a terrain surface. Simply right-click on a terrain texture and select “Create Scatter Area.”

- Path & Brush

We also provide intuitive asset placement tools such as brush and path.

• Brush

You can adjust the brush radius, density, and the size and randomness of the plants. Simply paint over the area where you want the plants to appear.

The Path tool comes in handy when you need to line up plants in a row. You can randomize the plants on a path to avoid rigid appearance.

Completing the above steps, you can create a natural landscape as shown in the following image.