Importing Terrains

Use the Gaea Unreal Tools, specifically the Gaea Landscape Importer, to easily import a Gaea terrain in Unreal Engine 5 with a single click.

This documentation is now obsolete.

Please go to https://docs.gaea.app/ for the latest version.

Importing terrains into Unreal Engine can be a complicated process, especially when dealing with various scales. The Gaea Unreal Tools aim to make this an easy, seamless experience for you.

Exporting your Terrain

In Gaea, once you have your desired terrain shape, connect it to an Unreal node. This node will export your terrain for UE5.

In the Unreal node's settings, select your desired terrain resolution in Unreal-friendly resolution.

NOTE: Both PNG and R16 are fully supported. Future builds will add RAW support.

Go to PROJECT > Build and Export in the main menu.

In the BUILD window, select the resolution closest to the Unreal-friendly resolution you selected in the Unreal node. You can then set the path and other specifics to where you might want to save the files.

Click START BUILD to compile your terrain. In most cases, simple terrains will just take a few moments.

Once your terrain is exported, you are now ready to import it into Unreal.

Importing into Unreal Engine 5

If you have installed the UE Tools as mentioned in Gaea Unreal Tools, you will see the Gaea Landscape Importer in the main toolbar.

Clicking it will bring up the Gaea Landscape Importer window. Click Import Heightmap and select the PNG file that was exported from Gaea. The Importer will read the heightmap file along with the metadata saved by Gaea for UE-scale conversion, and populate the specifics in the window.

Click Create Landscape and you're done!

This is very preliminary documentation, as well functionality in the Unreal Tools. Expect a lot more tooling, especially with materials, tiled terrains, world partitions, and more in the following weeks and months.