The functionality of the Height Tab in the Terrain Editor
Height Tab[]
The “Height” tab will allow you to change the topography and structure of your terrain in both the passable play area and in the border area that creates the bounds of your map.
To alter the terrain, select one of the brushes under the Brush Controls section and Left-Click the terrain. To reverse the direction of the brush, hold down the Control key and Ctrl+Left Click the terrain.
Tip: When using tools such as the surface noise brush which can rapidly change the terrain, be sure to repair or smooth out any visual tears in the terrain before saving and uploading your map.
Tip: If you wish to save a set of Copy Paste brushes for use in another session or map file, simply click the blue diskette icon to save the file. Similarly, if you wish to import a set of Copy Paste brushes, place the file in the same folder as your other Copy Paste Brush Files and then select that file from the drop-down list when in the terrain editor.
- Under Brush Controls, select the brush type you would like to use.
- Additive Brushes (Conical/Spherical) – These brushes will add or subtract height from the terrain in their respective shape.
- Leveling Brush – This brush instantly sets the terrain to the height entered in the height field.
- Ramp Brush – Ramps can be made from one area of terrain to another by clicking the start point of the ramp, clicking the end point of the ramp, then clicking one last time to confirm ramp creation.
- Clamp Height Brush – Brush that pulls terrain toward a preferred height with adjustable intensity and variation.
- Surface Noise Brush – Height adjustment brush which is able to paint variable patterns into the terrain.
- Copy Paste Brush – Brush used to select an area of altered terrain and copy that terrain for placement onto other areas of the map. Copy Paste controls will be activated once a section of terrain has been selected for later use with the Copy Paste function.
- Terrain Mask Brush – Brush used to paint a “mask” onto the terrain. Areas covered by a Terrain Mask are protected from alteration by tools which have that Terrain Mask selected.
- There are various settings available under each brush control, some of which are only applicable for certain brush types:
- Radius – Brush size.
- Blend Radius – Size of area within the brush closest to the preferred height; areas between the blend radius and the brush radius will gradually change to the specified height.
- Intensity – Rate/speed at which the brush alters the terrain.
- Smoothing – Strength of the smoothing effect applied when the brush alters the terrain height.
- Clamp Height – Height at which terrain will be adjusted towards.
- Clamp Range – Height that any terrain variations are able to occupy when terrain is clamped towards the Clamp Height.
- Terrain Mask – Selects the Terrain Mask that will be used to protect terrain areas from alteration by this brush.
- Freeze Objects – Check to disable automatic adjustment of objects placed on the terrain when terrain height changes occur.
- Round/Square/Line – Select the shape of the brush.
- The Copy Paste Controls section will allow you to manage and edit areas you have saved for use with the Copy Paste brush.
- To use the Copy Paste brush, select it from the Brush Controls menu and Drag-select while holding the left mouse button to select the area on the terrain that you wish to add to a Copy Paste brush. When you are satisfied with your selection, release the left mouse button.
- Under the Copy Paste Controls, you will see both the Copy Paste Brushes that you have previously created that session in addition to any other Copy Paste brushes you have saved as a previous Copy Paste Brush File.
- There are various settings in the Copy Paste Controls section which will alter the application of the Copy Paste brush you have selected:
- Height – The absolute position value that the brush will paint onto the terrain.
- Offset – The amount that the terrain features contained within the brush will be offset from the Height value.
- Z Ang. – Angle position of brush in relation to original copied terrain features.
- 90° (R) – Rotates the selected brush at a 90 degree angle. Uses “R” hotkey.
- Scale – Amplifies the copied terrain’s features by the indicated magnitude.
- Drop – Returns the Copy Paste brush to its original Height setting. Uses the “D” hotkey.
- Flip Horizontal/Vertical – Flip the direction of the brush horizontally or vertically.
- Greater/Replace/Less – The mode by which the Copy Paste brush will apply the new terrain to the currently existing terrain. The “Greater” option will only apply the brush to areas of current terrain which would be increased in height by the brush. The “Replace” option will completely replace the terrain which the brush is applied to with the contents of the Copy Paste brush. The “Less” option will only replace areas of current terrain which have a height that is lower than the height of the Copy Paste brush that is applied to them.
- Color/Mats/Props/Splines/Decals – Checkmarks indicate which aspects of the selected Copy Paste brush that will be applied upon use to the current terrain.
- Mask Color to Height – Color present on the copy paste terrain will only be applied to height areas which meet the placement style requirement.
- Mask Mats to Height – Textures present on the copy paste terrain will only be applied to height areas which meet the placement style requirement.
- Track Terrain – Disables the Height function of the Copy Paste brush and automatically adjusts the Copy Paste brush to the current height of the terrain under the mouse cursor.
- Show Patch Grid – Displays the patch grid on the terrain.
- Height Map – A visual representation of the height variations in the map. Here you can import and export PNG files which contain the height information of your map for later use.
- Min/Max – Sets the minimum and maximum height values that will be used when applying the currently loaded height map to the terrain.
- Min Camera – Game camera will never focus below the specified height.
- Water Ht – Sets the Height of the water table.
- Playable Bounds – Allows the user to resize and reposition the map’s playable bounds.
- Center – The position of the map’s center point and playable area.
- Size – The absolute size of the map.
- Tip: When editing the Playable Bounds section, the green outline displayed on the terrain will indicate what changes will be made if you apply the alterations to the map.
- Terrain Resize Tools – Changes the size of the map using absolute value or scaling. Allows the user to alter the alignment of the map’s playable area.
- Center – Adjusts the alignment of the map playable area using the center point as reference.
- Size – Alters the size of the map in the “patches” unit.
- Resize – Increases or decreases the terrain size by the indicated value.
- Rescale – Scales the currently existing terrain size to fit the indicated value.
- Tip: When using the Terrain Resize Tools, the green outline displayed on the terrain will indicate what changes will be made if you apply the alterations to the map.
- Mirror Tool – Allows the user to mirror the terrain of their map along a central line.
- Terrain, Splines, Decals, Props, Game Objects, Regions, Passability, Paths – Includes the checked items in the application of the mirror tool.
- Mirror Reflect – Mirrors the terrain directly across the indicated line.
- Mirror Rotate – Mirrors and flips the terrain across the indicated line.
- Angle – Alters the angle of the central line along which the terrain will be mirrored.
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