Tutorial 02 Shaping the land

Part of the tutorial: page 2 of 12

▶ Watch this page: part 2 of the tutorial video (about 2 min), with narration and subtitles.

Tutorial 2: Shaping the land

Use the Terrain tool to set how the engine shapes the coast, the land and the sea, then sculpt the ground by hand with the terrain brushes.

Start from: 01-new-world.json, the map as it is at the end of Tutorial 01 A new world. Download it, then open Maps on the rail and click Import JSON; the map is listed under its name, and Load opens it. Or carry on with your own map from Tutorial 01 A new world.

On a Guided map your land masks decide where the land is; the Terrain tool decides what it looks like. Its Generation settings shape the coast and the rise of the land and sea floor across the whole map, and its brushes let you sculpt the ground in one place.

Each Generation setting rebuilds the whole map, which takes a few seconds at this size: wait for the map to update before changing the next one.

Steps

1. Click Terrain on the rail, the second tool in the Shape group. (If you have carried on from page 1, Terrain ▸ under Next at the foot of the panel does the same: every panel ends with the tool that usually comes next.) The Generation section holds the Guided engine's settings: Coastal fracture, then the Land, Sea and Land & sea groups.

   

   The Terrain tool on the tutorial map, with the Guided engine's Generation settings.

2. Set Coastal fracture to 0.1. It bends the edges of the land: higher values break the coast into bays, inlets and small islands; lower values keep it rounder. It is the only setting here that moves the coastline itself.

3. In Land, set Coastal plains to 0.2 and Continent scale to 400. Coastal plains is a band of low, gently rolling land along the coast; continent scale is how far inland the land takes to reach its full height beyond it. Together they give this world wide lowlands and mountains well inland.

   

   Wider coastal plains and a larger continent scale: the land rises slowly from broad lowlands.

4. In Sea, set Continental shelf to 0.2 and Ocean scale to 200. The continental shelf is a band of shallow sea along the coast; ocean scale is how far out the seabed then takes to fall to the deep ocean floor. Leave Mid-ocean ridges at 0.5.

5. In Land & sea, set Detail to 8. Detail adds fine texture: low values give rolling hills, high values jagged, rocky ground. Leave Erosion at 500.

   

   The tutorial map with all its terrain settings.

   Tip: a higher Detail takes longer to generate. On your own maps, keep it at the default while you try things out and raise it before you export.

6. Now sculpt the ground by hand. Click Start terraforming in the panel: the bar's brushes come into use, with Raise chosen, and the Generation section pauses until you stop. On the bar, set Size to 40 px, Strength to 0.01 and Feather to 0.8: a wide, gentle, soft-edged brush, for a rise that blends into the land around it.

   

   Terraforming: the brushes and their settings on the bar, and the paused Generation section.

7. Zoom in on the large island to the east of the continent (scroll over it). Then drag once along the length of the island, from its north end to its south, to raise a low ridge along its spine. Each stroke is one step of undo, so if you don't like it, click Undo and try again.

   

   The island with its new ridge.

   Brush strokes are kept as strokes, laid over the generated terrain, so you can still change the Generation settings afterwards and the ridge stays.

8. The northernmost of the three eastern islands has a sharp range of mountains along it. To wear them down into hills, click Reset view, zoom in on that island, open More on the bar and choose Smooth. Set Size to 40 px and Strength to 0.05, then drag along the mountains from west to east, back again, and along once more. Smooth pulls the ground towards the average of the ground around it: the peaks come down, but the ground is left smooth.

   

   The island's mountains after Smooth: lower, but too smooth.

   Smooth never moves the coastline, so you can smooth right up to and across a coast.

9. Choose Roughen (also in More) and drag along the island once, west to east. Roughen gives the ground the same fine, natural texture as the land around it without raising it, so the worn-down range becomes rolling hills. It only adds the texture once, however often you go over the same ground.

   

   After Roughen: the range has become textured hills.

   Strength and Feather are hidden while Roughen is chosen, since it always lays the same texture.

10. Click Stop terraforming in the panel. The Generation section is available again.

11. Click Save map on the rail. The map already has a name, so it is saved straight away.

What you should see

The continent's coast is smoother, with broad lowlands along it and the highest ground well inland; wide, shallow seas run along every coast before the sea floor falls away. The large island to the east has a low ridge down its length, and the northernmost island has rolling hills where its sharp mountains were.

To compare your map with the tutorial's, or to start the next page from exactly this map, download 02-shaping-the-land.json and import it in Maps with Import JSON.

In Foundry

Everything on this page is the same in Foundry.

On your own map

Try each Generation setting on your own map before you sculpt: they apply to the whole map at once, and brush strokes stay where they are when you change them. The brushes on the bar (and in More) each have their own job: Lower digs, Smooth flattens fine detail without moving the coast, Roughen adds a natural texture, Level flattens to one height, and Slope up and Slope down build ramps. See Terrain for every setting and brush. On a Standard map you also have Sea level and the Noise window, to explore the endless terrain for a landmass you like.

Next: Tutorial 03 Climate and biomes

Related: Terrain, New map, Map Canvas