Unity Developer Showcased Planetary-Scale Terrain Demo Using HDRP & DOTS

You might remember hoahluke for their Unity project featuring a Christmas tree, and this time the developer has shared a demo of their upcoming game, showcasing planetary-scale terrain.

As they explained, the approach differs from most traditional terrains. Here, LOD is managed by subdividing an icosahedron. Each terrain patch is triangular and can be subdivided into four smaller triangular patches as needed. The entire system is built using Burst and DOTS on the CPU, which makes adding physics colliders simple.

The planet featured in the video has a radius of roughly 830 km, but the system is capable of supporting Earth-sized planets, as demonstrated in this clip:

Next on the terrain roadmap is improving distant rendering. Right now, all terrain details are based on per-vertex attributes, so the plan is to add a few pre-rendered global maps to enhance the view from afar. Adding elements like trees, vegetation, and rocks is also on the list.

More details and learning resources can be found in the original Reddit thread. Subscribe to our Newsletter and join our 80 Level Talent platform, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.