Level Editor/Tools/Terrain
| Terrain | |
|---|---|
| Where | Toolbar: Create Terrain and Paint / Sculpt Terrain |
| Shortcut | [ ] size; 1-4 sculpt modes; 5-8 paint layers; 9 / 0 cut / fill hole |
| Works on | Large sculpted and painted outdoor ground |
| Settings | The Terrain tab |
A terrain is large outdoor ground made of square tiles that you sculpt into hills and valleys and paint with up to five textures. Use it for open landscapes; for small sculpted patches inside a level, displacements are simpler.
There are two tools: Create Terrain makes a terrain, Paint / Sculpt Terrain shapes and paints it. Their settings are in the Terrain tab.
Creating a terrain
- Pick Create Terrain on the toolbar.
- Drag a rectangle on the ground. The footprint snaps to whole tiles (32 m by default) and is created at the height you clicked.
- Or just click: you get a single tile at that spot.
Sculpting and painting
- Select the terrain.
- Pick Paint / Sculpt Terrain on the toolbar.
- In the Terrain tab choose a Mode (Sculpt, Paint, Detail or Scale), a brush and its size.
- Drag on the terrain. Each stroke is one undo step.
Sculpt brushes: Raise (1), Lower (2), Smooth (3), Flatten (4, press again for angled flatten), Cut hole (9) and Fill hole (0). Paint layers: 5 to 8. [ / ] change the brush size, Shift+[ / ] its strength.
Growing and trimming
Select one terrain with the Move tool: flat arrows appear on its edges. Drag an arrow to add or remove whole tiles on that side. The terrain is not stretched.
G on a terrain grabs it and moves it with the mouse (it is not shown as a ghost).
Caves and openings
Cut hole removes ground so a cave entrance or tunnel can go through. For a prop that carries a terrain cut (such as a cave mouth), place it and use Edit > Cut Terrain Under Selection to cut exactly its opening.
Terrain settings (inspector)
Select the terrain to see these in the inspector. The texture layers are managed in the Terrain tab, not here.
| Setting | Type | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tile Size | Metres | 32 | The side of one square tile. |
| Default Resolution | 2 to 129 | 65 | Vertices along each side of a new tile. Change single tiles with the Terrain tab's Detail mode. |
| Default Control Resolution | Texels | 512 | How finely paint is stored on a new tile. |
| Lod0 Distance | Metres | 96 | Camera distance at which a tile switches to a coarser version of itself; each further step doubles it. Lower is cheaper and coarser in the distance. |
| Generate Collision | Check box | On | Build collision so players can walk on it. Turn it off for a distant backdrop terrain nobody touches: it makes the map load faster. |
| Generate Navmesh | Check box | On | Bake bot navigation over it at export. Turn it off for backdrop terrain: it makes export faster and the map smaller. |
Tips
- Start with a low resolution and raise the detail only where players walk.
- A terrain inside the 3D skybox miniature shows in the skybox as scenery.
- For a mirrored map, Stitch mirror seam in the Terrain tab joins a terrain to its mirrored copy.