mantle placeHow to import real-world terrain into Unity
A real site in Unity as owned meshes — no streaming SDK, no token, just the standard import pipeline.
To import real-world terrain into Unity you either stream it through an SDK like Cesium for Unity or bring it in as owned geometry. For a specific site, owned is simpler: draw the area on Mantle Place, buy the bundle, and add the terrain to your project — the OBJ imports natively, or use the GLB through a glTF importer package. The aerial imagery arrives draped as the mesh texture, and the surrounding buildings ship as a separate glTF layer. If you want a sculptable Unity Terrain object rather than a mesh, the bundle’s heightmap can drive one, though Unity’s terrain importer expects RAW, so plan a conversion step. There is no Mantle Place Unity plugin, and none is needed — standard files through the standard pipeline is the point.
how to do it
Draw and buy
Define the area of interest and buy the bundle; it downloads to a permanent vault you can re-download on every machine that needs it.
Import the mesh
Add the OBJ terrain to your project for native import, or install a glTF importer package and bring in the GLB with its materials intact.
Check scale and orientation
Confirm the import scale is meters and the up-axis matches Unity’s Y-up convention before placing gameplay or lighting.
Optional: drive a Unity Terrain
Convert the heightmap PNG to 16-bit RAW and import it as a Unity Terrain heightmap when you need a sculptable terrain object instead of a mesh.
Build the scene
Drop in the buildings layer, add colliders and lighting, and treat the site like any other geometry in the project.
frequently asked
Do I need Cesium for Unity to get real-world terrain?
No. Cesium for Unity streams global tiles at runtime and is the right tool for planet-scale work. For one owned site, importing a bundle as plain meshes is simpler and carries no token or connection.
Will the terrain work in builds without a connection?
Yes. The site is ordinary geometry and textures baked into the build — nothing streams, nothing expires, and the packaged project runs fully offline.
Can I get a sculptable Unity Terrain instead of a mesh?
Yes, via the bundle’s heightmap. Unity’s Terrain system imports heightmaps as 16-bit RAW, so convert the PNG first; after that the site behaves like any sculptable Unity Terrain.
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.