What is the best way to dynamically generate 3D objects on a grid in Unity?

Question

I am an inexperienced programmer, I am looking for advice on a new unity project:

I need to generate terrain for a 3d game from fairly large tiles. For now I only need one type of tile, but I was thinking, I better set up a registry system now and dynamically generate that default tile in an infinite grid. I have a few concerns though, like will the objects continue to load as the character moves into the render distance of a new tile (or chunk if you rather). Also, all the tutorials I have found are wrong for me in some way, like it only works in 2d and doesn't have collision, or is just a static registry and does not allow for changing the content of the tiles in-game.

Right now I don't even know what the code looks like to place a 3d object in the scene without building them from vectors, which maybe I could do. I also don't know how I would want to trigger the code.

Could someone give me an idea of what the code would look like / terminology to look up / a tutorial that gives me what I need?

Answer 1

This looks like a pretty big scope for a new programmer but lets give it a shot. Generating terrain will be a large learning experience when it comes to performance and optimization when you don't know what you're doing.

First off, you'll probably want to make a script that acts as a controller for generating your objects and put this inside of the player. I would start by only making a small area, or one chunk, generate and then move on to making multiple chunks generate when you understand what you're doing. To 'place' an object in your scene you will want to make an instance of the object. I'd start by trying to make your grid of objects, this can be done pretty easily on initialization (Start() function) through a for loop, for testing purposes. IE, if you are trying to make 16x16 squares like minecraft; have a for loop that runs 16 times (For the x) and a for loop inside of that to run 16 times (for the z). That way you can make a complete square of, in this case, cubes. Here is some very untested code just to give you an example of what I'm talking about.

public GameObject cube; //Cube you want to make a copy of, this will appear in the editor
void Start(){
    for(var x=0; x < 16; x++){
        for(var z=0; z < 16; z++){
           GameObject newCube = Instantiate(cube); //Creates an instance of the 'cube' object, think of this like a copy.
           newCube.transform.position = new Vector3(x, 0, z); //Places the cube on the x and z which is updated in the for loops
        }
    }
}

Now where you go from here will be very different depending on what you're trying to do exactly but you can start by looking intoperlin noise to add in a randomized y level that looks good. It's very easy to use once you grasp the general concept and this example I provided should help you understand how to use it. They even give good examples of how to use this on the Unity docs.

In all, programming is all about learning. You'll have to learn how to only take the parts of resources that you need for what you're trying to create. I think what I provided you should give you a good start on what you want to create but it will take a deeper understanding to carry things out on your own. Just test different things and truly try and understand how they work and you'll be able to implement parts of them into your own project.

I hope this helps, good luck!