In this tutorial we will go over the basic options of editing your terrain to create hills and valleys.

First thing we will want to do is create a large terrain mesh and in this sample map I used 15 X 15 density. I think it goes without saying that the smoother the terrain you want to accomplish the higher the density will be required.

Now I like to use the option of rendering my mesh as wireframe since to me it helps see the definition in my mesh.

Now with the mesh still highlighted hit “Y” and this will open the “Advanced Patch Editing Options”. The inner and outer radius controls the surface area that the editing option will affect and the amplitude controls the intensity of the edit. The four editing commands that we will cover are Paint Height, Flatten, Smooth, and Grab Value.

These are the options you will be using a lot so let’s go over each one briefly. For these options to work “Alt” has to be held down while performing them.

Paint Height simply increases height that your mouse is over with the left mouse button depressed and decreases it with the right mouse button depressed.

Flatten works in connection with the “Height” box in the lower right corner of the dialog box. Enter a height that you want an area of a mesh to be and then click and drag with your left mouse button over that area.

Smooth is a nice tool to “clean” up your work. With this option selected use either mouse button and drag you mouse over the terrain. It will try to even out and normalize the height of a certain area.

Grab Value is an extension of Flatten. If you want to copy a certain height in your mesh select the option and click the area to copy. After that has been done you will be automatically switched to Flatten and now ready to make other areas of your mesh the same height as the area you copied.

So now we are ready to use some of these options on our test map. Lets start with Paint Height first and make a hill. Remember to use the left mouse button.

Now lets move over a bit and create a valley. Remember to use the right mouse button.

Then by using the Smooth option we can go over the hill and valley and normalize the differences in height. Use either mouse button.

Now there’s an area on our mesh that we know we want a certain height. Lets use the Flatten command and use a value we want in the height box. Remember to use the left mouse button.

Again we will use the Smooth option to “clean” up our work.

And there you go. Now we have some varied terrain. Last I will add a water effect in the valley and add a skybox with a spawn and then test it in game.

NOTE: There is an issue with ground textures containing "_" in the name and having a white box around the texture image. They will be non-solid in game.

Written by General Death