mantle placeHow to import real-world terrain into Unreal Engine
Turn a real location into editable Unreal Engine terrain with the imagery draped — owned on disk, no streaming.
To import real-world terrain into Unreal Engine, you need elevation for your site as a heightmap or mesh and aerial imagery to drape over it, both georeferenced to the same area. The fastest owned-data route: draw your area of interest on Mantle Place, buy the bundle, and import it with the Mantle Place Importer — the terrain comes in as an editable Landscape, terrain mesh, or static mesh with the imagery already draped and the georeference resolved. Because the files live on disk, there is no streaming, no access token, and nothing to expire in a packaged build. The alternative is to source a DEM and imagery yourself, convert the elevation to a heightmap, align it to the imagery, and build the Landscape by hand.
how to do it
Define your area
Draw the area of interest for your site on the globe. Keep it tight to the project footprint plus the surrounding context you want to show.
Get an owned bundle
Buy the bundle for that area. It includes georeferenced elevation and aerial imagery, downloaded to a permanent vault you re-download forever.
Install the importer
Download the Mantle Place Importer for Unreal Engine from your vault download page and enable the plugin in your project.
Import as a Landscape
Open the importer, pick your bundle, and import the terrain as an editable Landscape, terrain mesh, or static mesh with the imagery draped.
Sculpt and build
Grade the site, cut pads, paint materials, and place geometry on the terrain like any other Unreal Engine content.
frequently asked
Do I need Cesium for Unreal to import real-world terrain?
No. Cesium for Unreal streams terrain at runtime; Mantle Place delivers an owned bundle you import once as an editable Landscape, with no streaming and no token required.
Can I edit the terrain after importing it?
Yes. The terrain imports as a native, editable Unreal Engine Landscape, terrain mesh, or static mesh, so you can sculpt, paint, and build on it like any other geometry.
Does the imagery line up with the terrain automatically?
Yes. The bundle is georeferenced, and the importer drapes the aerial imagery over the terrain so the ground texture aligns with the elevation out of the box.
Get the data for your site.
Draw your area, see the price, and download an owned bundle — terrain, imagery, and basemap ready for Unreal Engine, Blender, and your CAD tools.