World Creator - Documentation and Support

The 3D viewport displays your terrain in three dimensions. Three different rendering modes are available:

• High-Quality Render Mode
• Textured Render Mode
• Matcap Render Mode

By default, World Creator uses its High Quality Render Mode when running. The program utilizes a high-quality, real-time ray-tracing algorithm to render a photorealistic version of the terrain. This rendering mode is expected to perform well on a computer using a powerful graphics processing unit (GPU), for example, the 1080 Ti and above, or an equivalent AMD GPU.

High Quality Render Mode

Additionally you have the option to use the Textured Render Mode. It allows you to work on your textured terrain while disabling advanced rendering features and light computation to provide a more responsive workflow.

Textured Render Mode

The Matcap Render Mode, while not as realistic or sophisticated as the High Quality or Textured Render Modes, is much faster and allows the user to concentrate on designing the terrain without the need for a powerful GPU. To further customise your experience, you can load your own custom matcaps or choose from the available matcaps that ship with World Creator. See Options/Graphics for more information.

Matcap Render Mode

Switching render modes is effortless. Simply click on the corresponding icon in the toolbar.

By opening the Scene node in the Tree-View, you can access all available World Creator's renderer settings, which can be customized as needed (detailed in a later topic on this). For the moment, it is recommended to keep the default settings unchanged, as they should suffice.

The 3D viewport displays two notable HUD elements:

• Directional Compass
• Altitude Meter

The directional compass is situated at the top of the viewport and assists you in orienting yourself on extensive terrains. World Creator's terrain system is highly robust, enabling the creation of terrains that are unlimited in size and detail. Hence, it may be important to know the direction you are facing, similar to real-life scenarios. Another update in the future will add a minimap to the viewport. The minimap is designed to assist you in finding particular locations on your terrain more rapidly.

The Altitude Meter is situated to the left of the viewport. The Altitude Meter displays the altitude of the viewer (i.e. the camera which is used to view the scenery) and the min/max height of the whole terrain.

The viewer is facing northeast at an altitude of around 800 meters above the zero point

To hide the HUD, click on the HUD icon in the toolbar.

Next, we will examine the camera controls, as well as additional shortcuts that allow for quick access to useful functions inside World Creator.

To move the camera, use the following keys:

• W, A, S, D (to move forward, left, backward, right)
• Q and E (to move downwards or upwards)

You can move the camera faster by holding down the left SHIFT key.

Moving the mouse and pressing the right mouse button allows you to change the vantage point. You can also use the mouse to move quickly across the terrain. To move quickly, click the middle mouse button while targeting a location on the terrain and move the mouse. Use the mouse wheel to zoom into the terrain.

To rotate the camera around a specific spot, press the right mouse button together with the left ALT key on your keyboard and move the mouse.

You can adjust camera controls further in the Tree-View's Options node by selecting the Controls sub-node.

At present, only sensitivity sliders are available. However, starting from 2023, you will be able to remap the entire input to your liking.

If you lose focus on your terrain, or if you are unable to locate it due to other reasons, press F key to return to the default terrain focus position.

Below is a list of all available keys and their corresponding functionalities:

Next: Keybindings and Shortcuts