Unreal Engine 5.6 Landscape Painting for Beginners

Quick Setup (Project + Level)

  1. Create/open a project → Games → (Third Person or Blank) → UE 5.6.
  2. In your level, open Modes (top-left) → Landscape.

Make the Landscape

  1. In the Landscape panel, set a size (e.g., Section Size 63×63, Components 8×8 for a medium map).
  2. Click Create to spawn the Landscape actor.

Build a Paintable Landscape Material

  1. In Content Browser: Right-click → Material → name it M_Landscape.
  2. Open it and add a LandscapeLayerBlend node. Add layers (e.g., Grass, Rock, Dirt, Path).
  3. For each layer: plug BaseColor, Normal, and Roughness textures (from your library/Megascans).
    • Use a LandscapeLayerSample (or the Layer input pin on LayerBlend) to mix textures per layer.
    • Add a LandscapeCoords node to control tiling (Start with Mapping Scale ~0.2–0.5; adjust later).
  4. Optional quality: add a macro texture (large, low-freq) and lerp it in using a LandscapeLayerSample or world-space noise to break tiling.

Apply Material + Create Layer Info Assets

  1. Select the Landscape actor → in Details, set Landscape Material to M_Landscape (or a Material Instance of it).
  2. Go back to Modes → Landscape → Paint tab. You’ll see your layers listed but grayed out.
  3. For each layer, click the + icon → Create Layer Info → choose Weight-Blended (Layer) (recommended). Save these *_LayerInfo assets.

Start Painting

  1. In Landscape → Paint, select a layer (e.g., Grass). Choose a brush size/falloff (try Brush Size 1500–3000, Falloff 0.4).
  2. Paint on the terrain. Use low Tool Strength (0.1–0.3) for natural blends.
  3. Switch layers (Rock/Dirt/Path) and paint transitions. Use larger falloff for soft blends, smaller for crisp edges.
  4. If you see sharp tiling, return to the material and tweak LandscapeCoords or add macro variation.

Add Depth & Believability

  1. Slope/height blends (optional): In the material, use PixelNormalWS (dot with Up Vector) to bias Rock on steep slopes; use height maps with HeightLerp for better layering.
  2. Runtime Virtual Texture (optional, great look):
    • Add Runtime Virtual Texture Volume around the landscape.
    • In Landscape Material, write to Runtime Virtual Texture Output.
    • On meshes (rocks/paths), use RVT samples to match ground color and kill seams.
  3. Foliage pass: Open Foliage mode, add grass/flowers/rocks and paint instances.
    • Advanced: use LandscapeGrassOutput in your material to auto-spawn grass per layer.

Lighting & Post

  1. Use Lumen (default in UE5.6). Add a Directional Light, Sky Light, Sky Atmosphere, Volumetric Clouds if needed.
  2. Add a Post Process Volume (Infinite Extent) → tune exposure, contrast, saturation to taste.

Performance & Polish

  1. Keep textures reasonable (2k–4k). Use Material Instances (MI_Landscape) to tweak tiling/roughness without recompiling.
  2. If world is big, enable World Partition and use HLOD/foliage culling.
  3. Test in Play-In-Editor and tweak brush strength/tiling until terrain reads clean at player height.