00:00 Hey, what's up guys and welcome back to
00:01 

00:01 Ask NK. So, the folks at Quad Spinner,
00:03 

00:03 creators of Gaya, have just recently
00:05 

00:05 released Gaya 2.2. And for those who
00:07 

00:07 have no idea, Gaya is an interesting
00:08 

00:08 tool that allows anyone to start
00:10 

00:10 creating terrains easily. And this works
00:12 

00:12 procedurally, which makes it super easy
00:14 

00:14 for you to dial up and dial down any
00:16 

00:16 kind of creation that you're making. So,
00:18 

00:18 from terrains to simulation all the way
00:20 

00:20 to dealing with textures and all that
00:21 

00:21 stuff, Gaya has you covered. And version
00:23 

00:23 2.2 comes with some interesting updates
00:25 

00:25 that deals with additional nodes. And
00:27 

00:27 these nodes deal with bulb remover,
00:28 

00:28 distress, glaciers, shapes, scree, hill,
00:31 

00:31 shrubs, and so on. There's also 20 plus
00:34 

00:34 improvements to existing node and a 100
00:36 

00:36 bug fixes and stability update now ships
00:38 

00:38 with this one. Something that is also
00:40 

00:40 pretty interesting with this new update
00:41 

00:41 is version 2.2 now comes with a good
00:43 

00:43 number of templates which you can simply
00:45 

00:45 use and start working with it. So for
00:47 

00:47 those who like to take a look at this,
00:49 

00:49 you can simply come over to the link in
00:50 

00:50 the description where you'll be able to
00:52 

00:52 download this totally for free. So,
00:54 

00:54 there's a community version that you can
00:56 

00:56 get. This is totally free. You can
00:58 

00:58 simply go ahead and use it. It is a
01:01 

01:01 non-commercial license, but it gives you
01:02 

01:02 a head start to knowing how this tool
01:05 

01:05 works. And of course, you can go through
01:06 

01:06 and work with it however you want. And
01:08 

01:08 for those that might be wondering, does
01:09 

01:09 this have a plugin or so? Yes, there is
01:12 

01:12 an Unreal Engine plug-in and also a
01:14 

01:14 Houdini plugin. So for the Unreal Engine
01:16 

01:16 plug-in, it is quite interesting to note
01:18 

01:18 that recently the made the plug-in open
01:21 

01:21 source and you can simply go ahead and
01:23 

01:23 pick it up and work with it with Unreal
01:25 

01:25 Engine. And for those working with
01:26 

01:26 Unreal Engine 5.6, you would notice that
01:28 

01:28 there is a very cool update that is now
01:30 

01:30 available for 5.6. So you can come
01:32 

01:32 through download this and of course you
01:34 

01:34 can go ahead and download that. So once
01:36 

01:36 you download and install it, this is
01:37 

01:37 what you'll be getting. We can go ahead
01:39 

01:39 and turn on GPU because we like to use
01:40 

01:40 GPU to do pretty cool stuff. And we're
01:42 

01:42 going to simply select industry standard
01:44 

01:44 for the navigation keys. So basically
01:46 

01:46 once you select industry standard, it is
01:48 

01:48 the alt key stop. So you've got alt key
01:51 

01:51 with your left mouse button to rotate,
01:53 

01:53 alt key with your right mouse button to
01:55 

01:55 zoom in and out, alt key with your
01:57 

01:57 middle mouse button to pan. And right
01:59 

01:59 here is where you build your nodes.
02:01 

02:01 Building nodes on this stuff is
02:03 

02:03 literally easy. So you want to build
02:05 

02:05 mountains, all you need to do is just
02:07 

02:07 throw in the mountain node and it does
02:09 

02:09 it. So it is literally that simple. you
02:12 

02:12 want to scale this mountain up, you can
02:13 

02:13 go ahead and do that. Maybe you would
02:14 

02:14 like to increase the height. Maybe you
02:16 

02:16 like to drop the scale down. You can
02:18 

02:18 literally go in and do all of that
02:20 

02:20 stuff. Maybe we would like to add a
02:21 

02:21 river. So, if you like to add a river to
02:23 

02:23 this, all you need to do is type in that
02:25 

02:25 word river and you've got a river right
02:27 

02:27 there. So, you can also come through and
02:30 

02:30 increase the depth of the river. You can
02:32 

02:32 also increase the down cutting. Maybe
02:34 

02:34 you like to increase the width of the
02:36 

02:36 river. You can go in and do all that.
02:39 

02:39 What if you don't want a river? Maybe
02:40 

02:40 you want a C. You can of course do that
02:42 

02:42 as well. So I'm just going to type C and
02:44 

02:44 we can throw in a C. And you know
02:46 

02:46 because this is fully procedural, it
02:48 

02:48 means that you can, you know, switch
02:50 

02:50 back and forth and get the desired
02:52 

02:52 result that you're going for. We can
02:53 

02:53 also, you know, crank in that level if
02:55 

02:55 we like the C to be a bit much. We can
02:57 

02:57 do that for the shoreline. We can also,
02:60 

02:60 you know, make that down. We can
03:01 

03:01 increase the shore weight. Of course, we
03:03 

03:03 can also play with the variation of the
03:05 

03:05 shore. We can turn on or turn off the
03:08 

03:08 coastal erosion. So you've got that too.
03:11 

03:11 And you know mountains are not the only
03:13 

03:13 thing that you've got here. There is a
03:15 

03:15 ton of things. So maybe you want a
03:17 

03:17 crater. You can also add a crater right
03:19 

03:19 there. And automatically we now have a
03:22 

03:22 crater in the middle of our mountain.
03:25 

03:25 Maybe you like to add ridges or steps.
03:27 

03:27 You can of course go in and add in those
03:29 

03:29 steps right there. And you can merge
03:31 

03:31 things together. So right here we've got
03:33 

03:33 what it looks like this. And right here
03:35 

03:35 we've got what it looks like. So if we
03:37 

03:37 like to merge things together, all we
03:38 

03:38 need to do is get the output of this and
03:41 

03:41 the output of this. And once we put them
03:42 

03:42 together and let go, we now have a
03:45 

03:45 merge. So in this case, we are now
03:47 

03:47 creating stuff. And you know, because
03:50 

03:50 this is fully procedural, we can
03:51 

03:51 actually go in and scale things up and
03:54 

03:54 also increase the density. We can also
03:56 

03:56 choose to play with the seeding if this
03:58 

03:58 is also what we're going for. Within the
03:60 

03:60 merge node, you can go through the
04:01 

04:01 ratio. Maybe you like one to be more
04:03 

04:03 dominant than the other. You can also
04:06 

04:06 proceed to do all that. So this is
04:08 

04:08 literally very simple. And for those
04:10 

04:10 that might be asking, what about
04:11 

04:11 scattering? Can you scatter things? Yes,
04:13 

04:13 you can. So you can scatter a ton of
04:15 

04:15 things. Say maybe you like to just
04:18 

04:18 scatter. So we can just type in the word
04:19 

04:19 scatter. And most of the things that we
04:21 

04:21 can scatter just pops up things like
04:23 

04:23 stones. So we can scatter all that. And
04:25 

04:25 you can see that we've got stones like
04:27 

04:27 so. We can play with the density of
04:29 

04:29 course. We can drop that down. We can
04:31 

04:31 increase that and do all of this. What
04:34 

04:34 about texture? Texture is also pretty
04:36 

04:36 cool. So, we can also go in and do a
04:38 

04:38 simple texture. So, I can come in here
04:41 

04:41 and we can throw in a texture base which
04:43 

04:43 is really nice. So, this is going to be
04:46 

04:46 a simple texture base. So, we can have
04:48 

04:48 that we can crank this up if that is
04:51 

04:51 what we want. We can also increase the
04:53 

04:53 flow of how we want things to be
04:56 

04:56 especially for the texture. And from
04:58 

04:58 here, we can also go ahead and get out
05:00 

05:00 the satellite map. So this uses
05:03 

05:03 satellite maps to texture and that is
05:06 

05:06 also good. So within the satellite map
05:08 

05:08 section, we can play with the biases. We
05:11 

05:11 can also go through all of these other
05:14 

05:14 uh presets that are here. So we can drag
05:16 

05:16 this out. Say maybe we like to get some
05:18 

05:18 greenery around. We can have that there
05:20 

05:20 and you know we can just go back and
05:22 

05:22 forth. If we like to split things in and
05:25 

05:25 out however we want, we can do all of
05:28 

05:28 that. And by default, this just lets you
05:31 

05:31 start creating pretty cool stuff easily.
05:34 

05:34 So for those who won't be thinking about
05:35 

05:35 lighting, you can definitely change the
05:37 

05:37 lighting condition however you want from
05:39 

05:39 here and you can see things a bit more
05:42 

05:42 better. Now this is barely scratching
05:43 

05:43 the surface of things that you can do
05:45 

05:45 with it. And if you like to see even
05:46 

05:46 more stuff that you can do, you can
05:48 

05:48 definitely open up the examples and from
05:50 

05:50 here you would find a ton of examples. I
05:54 

05:54 think they've added up to 60 interesting
05:56 

05:56 examples here. So that also looks cool.
05:59 

05:59 I didn't mention you can also throw in
06:01 

06:01 things like snow and you know trees and
06:04 

06:04 and all that stuff. So yeah. So you've
06:06 

06:06 got these ones as well. So if we like to
06:08 

06:08 throw trees in there, we can just simply
06:10 

06:10 throw trees and we're going to have
06:12 

06:12 trees scattered all around our model. So
06:16 

06:16 this is looking pretty pretty pretty
06:18 

06:18 good. So there's a ton of examples that
06:20 

06:20 exist which you can use to learn how to
06:23 

06:23 create stuff with Gaya. Now with that
06:25 

06:25 out of the way, let's talk about a few
06:26 

06:26 more things. I think you guys need to
06:28 

06:28 know. So, we've talked about the idea
06:29 

06:29 that you can simply press your tab key
06:31 

06:31 right here and get a simple mountain.
06:33 

06:33 Now, there's a mountain of things that
06:35 

06:35 you can still do with this one, which
06:37 

06:37 includes loading in a simple object from
06:41 

06:41 wherever. So, we can just go ahead and
06:43 

06:43 type in object. And if you already have
06:45 

06:45 a 3D model that you like to use to sort
06:47 

06:47 of create an idea of what you want your
06:49 

06:49 terrain to look like or maybe create the
06:51 

06:51 shape of the terrain, you can load that
06:53 

06:53 in. So in this case, we already have
06:55 

06:55 Suzanne from Blender. I'm just going to
06:57 

06:57 go in and load that here. And you can
06:60 

07:00 see what we have. So you can go ahead
07:02 

07:02 and make some changes. Let's say you
07:04 

07:04 like to reduce the offset. You want to
07:07 

07:07 bring that down or you know, you want to
07:08 

07:08 make changes like this. You can of
07:10 

07:10 course go ahead and do that. However, I
07:13 

07:13 would like to say that there is a
07:15 

07:15 transform tool that you can also use. So
07:17 

07:17 you can throw in that transform tool.
07:19 

07:19 Click right here. you've got yourself a
07:21 

07:21 nice gizmo which you can move around and
07:24 

07:24 that is that is pretty cool. Another
07:26 

07:26 tool or another thing I think you guys
07:28 

07:28 may need to know about is within the
07:31 

07:31 terrain section there is a bunch of
07:33 

07:33 textures that you can work with. So
07:35 

07:35 these textures include things like the
07:37 

07:37 veroni texture. So that is a a very nice
07:39 

07:39 one. So you can load in a veronite
07:41 

07:41 texture like so and then you have
07:43 

07:43 yourself a veronite texture. You can mix
07:46 

07:46 stuff with it. There's also textures
07:47 

07:47 like the gabble texture as well. So we
07:49 

07:49 can throw in a gabble. So we can just
07:52 

07:52 throw in a simple gabble texture like
07:54 

07:54 so. And you can also see that right
07:56 

07:56 there. I can go in just get rid of that.
07:59 

07:59 Have the gabble texture selected. So you
08:00 

08:00 can see what this looks like. So we can
08:03 

08:03 mix these things up and create
08:05 

08:05 interesting looking stuff with them. Of
08:08 

08:08 course there is also the whole direction
08:10 

08:10 depending on how you like things to
08:11 

08:11 work. You can mix that up as well with
08:13 

08:13 it. There are some nice stuff that you
08:16 

08:16 can also do like throwing in erosions
08:17 

08:17 here and there. You can do that. Like
08:20 

08:20 maybe throwing in a simple crack. I
08:22 

08:22 guess we can do that as well. Yeah. So,
08:24 

08:24 we can throw in cracks in there and you
08:27 

08:27 can have this cracks all around. So,
08:30 

08:30 again, mixing these things up is
08:32 

08:32 something that is super possible. So, we
08:34 

08:34 can have that going and we can also just
08:36 

08:36 go ahead have this selected and play for
08:39 

08:39 example with the Z-axis and just sort of
08:42 

08:42 bring that a little bit lower and have
08:44 

08:44 this, you know, have this sort of thing
08:46 

08:46 going for us. At the same time, because
08:48 

08:48 you're using the transform node, you can
08:50 

08:50 also go ahead and scale things in, move
08:53 

08:53 things around. All of these are super
08:56 

08:56 possible. Of course, just looking at the
08:58 

08:58 nodes might be a bit intimidating, but
08:60 

08:60 if you go in and start playing with
09:02 

09:02 these things, you will definitely find
09:04 

09:04 them super super interesting to work
09:06 

09:06 with. And maybe, for example, you would
09:08 

09:08 like to get a low poly version of this.
09:11 

09:11 Of course, you can. So, you can get
09:13 

09:13 things like I think the origami. So, I
09:16 

09:16 think there is uh a node like that.
09:19 

09:19 Yeah. So, we can throw in a node like
09:21 

09:21 this. Use that to get, you know, some
09:24 

09:24 very low poly styled stuff. Again, this
09:27 

09:27 is totally depending on the kind of
09:28 

09:28 style that you're going for. So, we can
09:30 

09:30 use this to get some style like that. At
09:33 

09:33 this point, you want to throw in a
09:35 

09:35 texture, you can go ahead and throw in a
09:37 

09:37 simple, you know, texture base if this
09:39 

09:39 is what you want. And you can, of
09:41 

09:41 course, go in and get a sat satellite
09:44 

09:44 map. And I think this also super
09:46 

09:46 possible. Yes, it's also super possible
09:48 

09:48 for you to get coordinates and use that
09:50 

09:50 to drive how you would want your
09:53 

09:53 creations to look like. Now, there's an
09:55 

09:55 interesting tool that can also allow you
09:57 

09:57 create stuff exactly how you want them,
09:59 

09:59 and that is the draw tool. So, with the
10:01 

10:01 draw tool, all you need to do is just
10:03 

10:03 drop that there, click on the open
10:05 

10:05 painter, and that's it. So, the more you
10:08 

10:08 paint, the more you create your terrain.
10:11 

10:11 So, you can literally just go ahead and
10:13 

10:13 create your terrain based of how you're
10:17 

10:17 painting or how you want this to be. So,
10:19 

10:19 you can increase the hardness, increase,
10:21 

10:21 you know, the height. I can drop that a
10:23 

10:23 little bit lower. And we, you know, we
10:25 

10:25 just get a little bit of lower stuff. So
10:28 

10:28 you can paint your terrains how you want
10:31 

10:31 them to be. And once we're ready, we can
10:33 

10:33 go ahead and close that off. We can
10:35 

10:35 throw in a transform node. So just move
10:37 

10:37 that to a side. You possibly want to
10:39 

10:39 have a lake. Okay. So we can go in and
10:41 

10:41 throw in a simple lake. Possibly you
10:43 

10:43 like to throw in a crater so we can
10:45 

10:45 blend them together. So we can have a
10:47 

10:47 crater field like so. And just blend
10:50 

10:50 this together. And of course, this is
10:53 

10:53 just going to be on this side. So, you
10:56 

10:56 know, we can we can do cool stuff with
10:58 

10:58 this. Maybe we'll like to raise this a
10:60 

10:60 little bit higher. Maybe we like the
11:02 

11:02 whole, you know, lake thing to also come
11:05 

11:05 into play. So, there is a an endless
11:08 

11:08 level of possibilities with something
11:10 

11:10 like this. Again, depending on what
11:11 

11:11 you're trying to make, you've got a ton
11:14 

11:14 of things that you can explore with and
11:17 

11:17 create nice and amazing stuff. Now,
11:20 

11:20 speaking about things that this offers
11:21 

11:21 to creators, it is also worth mentioning
11:23 

11:23 that the community version currently
11:26 

11:26 only allows you export stuff to Unreal
11:29 

11:29 Engine. So, just in case you're thinking
11:31 

11:31 about exporting stuff to Unreal Engine,
11:33 

11:33 this is also pretty, you know, it's
11:35 

11:35 pretty simple. So, how you get things
11:37 

11:37 going is as easy as going over to the
11:40 

11:40 GitHub where you can download Unreal
11:42 

11:42 Engine plug-in. And if you have no idea
11:44 

11:44 how to install Unreal Engine plug-in,
11:46 

11:46 I'm going to put a link in the
11:47 

11:47 description that can explain how you can
11:48 

11:48 do that. Now, once you install the
11:50 

11:50 Unreal Engine plug-in, you need to go
11:52 

11:52 ahead and fire up Unreal Engine and then
11:54 

11:54 turn on that plugin. In this case, we're
11:56 

11:56 using Unreal Engine 5.5. So, once you
11:58 

11:58 turn on the plugin, restart Unreal
12:00 

12:00 Engine. And you now notice they've got a
12:02 

12:02 tiny Gaia sign right here. So, from
12:05 

12:05 there is where you'll be able to import
12:06 

12:06 your terrains. So, how you can now
12:08 

12:08 export this terrains from here is by
12:11 

12:11 simply relying on a simple Unreal Engine
12:14 

12:14 node. Now, for us to be able to export
12:16 

12:16 stuff, let's just quickly go ahead and
12:18 

12:18 create something. you know, get all that
12:19 

12:19 good old setup there and, you know, play
12:22 

12:22 with these things, get something that we
12:23 

12:23 want. From there, we are also going to
12:25 

12:25 go ahead and add an Unreal Engine node.
12:29 

12:29 So, I'm just going to add an Unreal
12:30 

12:30 Engine node after we have just created
12:33 

12:33 the last primitive. In this case, that's
12:34 

12:34 the canyon because every other thing
12:36 

12:36 would actually act more like a texture
12:37 

12:37 on top of it. I don't know if that makes
12:39 

12:39 sense. And after that, I'm also going to
12:41 

12:41 add another node after the sub map. So
12:44 

12:44 that will be able to export the texture
12:46 

12:46 while the other one will export the
12:48 

12:48 geometry. So once you have that ready,
12:50 

12:50 you need to go over to where you've got
12:52 

12:52 the build. And then you can now proceed
12:55 

12:55 to build your stuff. Now while you're
12:57 

12:57 building, you can simply keep things the
12:59 

12:59 way they are. In this case, we'll like
13:00 

13:00 to have a 1K map. So target size is
13:03 

13:03 going to be 109 by 109. And from there,
13:07 

13:07 we will also go ahead leave things the
13:09 

13:09 way they are and execute the build. And
13:11 

13:11 so once you execute the build, this is
13:13 

13:13 going to go ahead and build the stuff in
13:16 

13:16 the directory that you specified. And
13:18 

13:18 once you've got that going, you can now
13:20 

13:20 go into Unreal Engine. Click on the GIA
13:22 

13:22 landscape importer button. And once the
13:24 

13:24 dialog box appears, you need to click on
13:26 

13:26 import height map. And this is going to
13:28 

13:28 open up your directory. And you can
13:30 

13:30 simply go through search up for the
13:32 

13:32 builds within the directory that you
13:34 

13:34 actually saved the height map and select
13:36 

13:36 the specified height map and import it.
13:39 

13:39 And automatically this is going to load
13:41 

13:41 into Unreal Engine. And so this is how
13:43 

13:43 easy it is for you to just simply go
13:46 

13:46 from, you know, toggling with some
13:48 

13:48 interesting nodes to creating very cool
13:51 

13:51 looking landscapes. So for texture, you
13:54 

13:54 can simply go ahead and check out how to
13:55 

13:55 work with the texture. That's also
13:57 

13:57 pretty easy. And you can also go ahead
13:59 

13:59 and check out how you can get started
14:01 

14:01 with some of the cool tools and cool
14:03 

14:03 nodes that are currently available with
14:05 

14:05 this particular release. So this is it
14:08 

14:08 for those who like to, you know, throw
14:09 

14:09 in things like debresides and stuff.
14:11 

14:11 Maybe you like to work with the
14:12 

14:12 glaciers. Maybe you like to work with
14:14 

14:14 some of the extra nodes that are now
14:16 

14:16 available because there are some very
14:18 

14:18 interesting nodes that are now here. You
14:20 

14:20 can go through and check out the release
14:22 

14:22 blog and see all of these things for
14:24 

14:24 yourself. Additionally, this is
14:26 

14:26 currently having two bridges like we
14:27 

14:27 mentioned earlier, which is that for
14:29 

14:29 Houdini and also Unreal Engine. Unity,
14:32 

14:32 Blender, 3D Studio Max, and of course,
14:34 

14:34 Cinema 4D might be coming later in the
14:37 

14:37 future. So, this is it. Tell me what you
14:39 

14:39 guys think of this one in the comment
14:40 

14:40 section. And of course, if you like this
14:41 

14:41 video or you learned something from
14:42 

14:42 this, you can go ahead and give a like.
14:44 

14:44 And don't forget to share with a friend.
14:45 

14:45 And until I see you guys in the next
14:47 

14:47 one. Peace.
14:49 

14:49 [Music]