Terrain & landscapes
Landscapes in Unity range from the built-in Terrain system to fully procedural meshes. These guides cover terrain painting and layers, heightmaps, splat blending, large-world streaming and custom terrain shaders. Related generation techniques live under Procedural generation. 18 hand-picked Unity guides, tutorials, videos and repos, kept current.
- Unity Shader Graph Basics (Part 13 - Terrain Lit Official Support)
Uses Unity 6.3's new Terrain Lit graph type and terrain nodes in Shader Graph.
danielilett.com · Sep 2026 - Cairn technical art deep dive: Rendering gameplay-specific rock materials on top of level design
Using 3D blendmaps and compute shaders to keep climbable rock surfaces consistent between visuals and gameplay.
unity.com · Apr 2026 - Terrain and mesh blending in URP (tutorial with code)
Post with shaders and code to blend a mesh smoothly into an environment mesh or terrain in URP.
patreon.com · Mar 2026 - Terrain/Mesh Blending for URP
Patreon post on blending terrain and mesh surfaces together in URP.
patreon.com · Mar 2026 - Unity Shader Graph Basics (Part 11 - Terrains)
Samples terrain control and splat textures in Shader Graph to shade Unity terrains.
danielilett.com · Oct 2025 - Level layout and terrain workflows in Survival Kids
Terrain and level-building workflows built for fast iteration and fewer reworks in Survival Kids.
unity.com · Sep 2025 - Deus Ex – Alpha Terrain
Explains how Deus Ex alpha terrain blends with stone objects.
simonschreibt.de · May 2023 - GitHub - sichenn/odradek-terrain-scanner: Odradek Terrain Scanner from Death Stranding (Unity)
Repo: Death Stranding Odradek terrain scanner effect in Unity.
github.com · Apr 2023 - How Minecraft ACTUALLY Works (terrain generation)
Explains how Minecraft generates its terrain.
youtube.com · Mar 2023 - The World Generation of Minecraft - Alan Zucconi
Explains how Minecraft generates worlds, biomes and terrain with noise-based layers.
alanzucconi.com · Nov 2022 - Surface Elevation
Catlike Coding tutorial on generating surfaces with varying elevation.
catlikecoding.com · Jul 2022 - My take on shaders: Cliff terrain shader – Harry Alisavakis
Builds a cliff terrain shader using splat maps.
halisavakis.com · ~May 2020 - Hex Map 26: Biomes and Rivers
Hex Map part 26: procedurally generating biomes and rivers.
catlikecoding.com · Feb 2018 - Hex Map 25: Water Cycle
Hex Map part 25: simulating a partial water cycle.
catlikecoding.com · Jan 2018 - Hex Map 24: Regions and Erosion
Hex Map part 24: generating regions and applying erosion.
catlikecoding.com · Dec 2017 - Hex Map 23: Generating Land
Hex Map part 23: procedurally generating land.
catlikecoding.com · Nov 2017 - Hex Map 14: Terrain Textures
Hex Map part 14: supporting terrain textures.
catlikecoding.com · Feb 2017 - World of Torch Siege – Blended Trunks
Breaks down how World of Torch Siege blends tree trunks into the terrain, with the author's anecdotes.
simonschreibt.de · Sep 2013