1. Tree Atlas Support in the Tree Node
Currently, the Tree node in Gaea 2.0 renders using a single generic green spiky pine placeholder, regardless of the biome or terrain style being previewed. This makes it hard to get an accurate sense of how vegetation will actually read on a given landscape (e.g., dry scrub terrain, deciduous forest, tropical biomes, etc.).
I’d suggest replacing this with support for texture atlases (sprite sheets containing multiple tree/foliage variants — different species, billboards, or LOD variations) that users can swap in or select from a library. This would let artists:
I. Preview more realistic and varied vegetation directly in Gaea rather than a single stand-in asset
II. Match tree types to the biome they’re designing for (conifer, deciduous, palm, dead/burnt, etc.)
III. Get a more accurate read on density, scale, and color/shading when doing final composition or terrain presentation renders
2. Custom HDRI Import
Right now, lighting/environment options appear limited to whatever presets ship with Gaea. Adding the ability to import custom HDRI environment maps would let users:
I. Light their terrain previews and renders with environments that match their target scene (matching an Unreal/Unity level’s lighting, a specific time of day, or a particular mood)
II. Get more accurate reflections, ambient lighting, and sky color for portfolio-quality renders directly out of Gaea
III. Reduce the need to re-light or heavily color-correct renders in a separate application afterward.
Together, these two additions would make Gaea’s built-in preview/render pipeline much more useful for presentation-quality output, rather than just a technical terrain-generation preview.