Hex Terrains Framework is a powerful and performant terrain system built entirely on Unity DOTS (Entities, Jobs, Burst). Designed for large-scale strategy, simulation, and sandbox games, it allows you to create massive, interactive hex-based worlds with real-time editing, modular rendering, and efficient job-based updates.
Features:
- Brush-Based Terrain Editing Edit terrain in real time with brush tools that support size, opacity, stamping, alt-sampling (like a color picker), and auto-painting — just like Photoshop.
- Dynamic Terrain Creation Create new terrains at runtime with custom dimensions, cell resolution, and layer configuration. Resize or regenerate terrain without restarting.
- Modular Data Layer System Add or remove data layers (heightmap, biomes, countries, items, entities, etc.) on demand. Each layer is self-contained and supports dirty flagging and job-safe dependency tracking.
- Surface Layers & Water Support Render complex layered surfaces (e.g., ground, water, snow, oil) using custom or built-in mesh generators. Water is its own elevation map — fully interactive and editable.
- Highly Optimized Mesh Generation Meshes are generated using Burst-compiled jobs with support for simplified or detailed topology. You can extend it with your own generators for custom visuals.
- Minimap with Viewport Sync Real-time minimap renders any data layer texture. Click-to-center camera control. Camera position indicator with normalized tracking included.
- HDRP & URP Ready Sample content provided for both pipelines. Choose your look and customize with Shader Graph.
- Custom UI Toolkit-Based Editor In-game terrain editor built with Unity UI Toolkit, featuring fully data-bound property windows, tool panels, and a modular view model system. Easily extend with your own tools.
- Save/Load Support Modular binary serialization built-in. Save and load entire terrain states, including all data layers, runtime changes, and surface configuration.
- Wraparound Map Support Connect terrain edges horizontally and vertically (e.g., like a globe or Civ-style map). Seamless camera movement across terrain boundaries.
- Built entirely on Unity DOTS (ECS 1.0)
- Burst-accelerated hex math with axial/offset and flat/point top options
- Minimal allocations and full job safety — optimized for large terrains
- Data layers store per-chunk dirty flags and read/write job handles
- Render system designed for Graphics.DrawMeshInstanced, as well as hybrid entities (for CellEntities feature)
- Designed for multi-terrain projects (e.g., Earth, Moon, Mars...)
