World Creator - Documentation and Support

In World Creator, a terrain consists of biomes. Per the official definition, a biome is an area classified based on the species living in the location. The temperature range, soil type, and the amounts of light and water are unique characteristics of a particular place that determine niches for specific species, enabling scientists to define the biome.

To apply this definition to World Creator, it is crucial to keep things as realistic, yet simple as possible. Climate changes are highly complex and require a considerable amount of time to simulate several hundred years to achieve real-world scenarios. Nonetheless, such a workflow would be excessively intricate and challenging to manage using a computer application. World Creator does things somewhat differently as we must consider that, in most situations, users simply want to create a biome instead of fully computing it automatically based on a large number of parameters that must be comprehensively simulated.

In World Creator, a biome comprises a set of filters (that adjust and shape the terrain), a range of materials (that tint the terrain), and an array of objects (that are positioned on the terrain - although objects are not currently included in this article).

Here you have two biomes with a set of filters and materials

In addition, World Creator provides a set of design tools that can be used to paint biomes directly onto the terrain using Biome Layers. A biome layer simply indicates the area of a particular biome as a mask. As shown in the image below, the red area (sketched by hand) instructs World Creator where to apply the Oasis biome (with its filters and materials). You can add as many biome layers as you require. The order of the biome layers in the list specifies which layer is above the other (like in Adobe Photoshop).

The Oasis biomes drawn by hand

Biomes can be reused within World Creator. Stored and shared, individuals can build captivating biomes in World Creator. These biomes can be mixed, blended, and reused in any project. The immense power of biomes enables the swift creation of intricate worlds. More about Biomes can be read in this article.

Filters are commonly applied to customize the terrain in a particular manner. Examples of filters that can be used are Erosion, applying a depletion effect on the terrain, and Sediment, which applies additional material onto the terrain. Filters can be combined and adjusted to produce a particular appearance or type of terrain. More about Filters can be read here.

Same terrain, different filters (left to right: Erosion, Sediment, the mix of three filters)

Materials are applied to add color to the terrain. World Creator provides four different material types that can be used and combined which are further explained in this article.

• Color
• Texture
• Gradient
• Adobe Substance Material

You can apply a substance along specific terrain features like height, slope, angle, flow, and more, using what World Creator calls Distributions. You can combine these distributions to create realistic terrains with amazing details.

Various Distributions (left to right: Flow, Slope, Cavity)

Distributions can also be used as filters and objects.  For instance, you can apply a terrace filter to a designated slope range to create non-uniform landscapes.

The other important aspect is the capability to add Effects to Distributions to further customize and refine them. For instance, you may blur a distribution to create a more seamless blend or invert it entirely.

The Cavity Distribution but with different effects (left to right: Blur, Invert, Distortion)

Now let's return to the Biomes as there is more information to disclose and illustrate. Internally, every biome has its own noise generator. A noise generator is an algorithm that yields a particular type of noise map to be used as input for additional generators. By selecting an individual biome, you will notice that each biome has its own settings:

For now, please examine the Base Shape Settings. In this section, you will see a drop-down menu called Base Shape Type. This option allows you to select the base type of terrain you wish to begin with. The default selection is Classic, but many more types are listed, and additional ones will be added over time.

The Classic option uses the World Creator classic noise generator, which you may already be familiar with from World Creator 1 and World Creator 2. This style creates a default noise map that can be easily used for many types of terrains. In some cases, you may prefer to start directly with a style without sculpting or designing it, especially when Classic has been chosen. To illustrate, you could begin with a Canyon-style landscape accompanied by standard Canyon-style parameters that you can modify to your liking.

A Canyon style biome with different parameter settings and filters

Similarly, the Base Shape Styles could be employed to fashion an initial terrain shape. For instance, you might utilize the Canyon style to produce mountain ranges employing filters like Erosion and Ridge. In reality, there are no limits, and the basic Shape Styles are intended to streamline your workflow.

Before proceeding to the next topic, it is advisable to acquaint yourself with additional tools available in World Creator that can be leveraged to create stunning terrains. Although not covered in-depth here, being aware of these tools and their purpose is recommended.

The Shape Layers are a collection of tools that allow you to sculpt, design and modify terrains. There's full documentation and an overview of each layer in this article, but in brief, these tools include:

• Sculpt Layer (article)
  Allows you to create or modify a terrain by sculpting, whether you start from nothing or use an existing and procedurally generated one. You can mix and match by using traditional design methods along with procedural ones without any issues. You can also tailor a generated terrain to meet your specific requirements.

• Stamp Layer (article)
  Enables you to place existing elevation or color maps onto the terrain as stamps. Think of it as assembling or modifying terrain using the terrain stamps. For instance, you can import a custom volcano and position it onto your terrain within World Creator, along with its corresponding color map if required.

• Procedural Layer (article)
  It is somewhat similar to Biome Base Shape Styles because each procedural layer has its own generator. For instance, there is an option named Volcano which can be utilized to create a volcano complete with conventional parameters like Crater Radius, Crater Depth, and so on.

• MapTiler Layer (article)
  It allows you to import real world data directly from MapTiler. Just like Google Maps or Bing Maps, MapTiler is a worldwide map service provider. World Creator has a direct connection to their service, allowing you to stream real world earth data directly into World Creator. This includes elevation and colour maps. However, you will need a MapTiler account to enable this functionality within World Creator. More details on this will be covered later.

• Path Layer (article)
  Enables you to create a vector path for the easy creation of simple rivers, paths, roads, mountain ranges, cliffs, canyons, and more. It is entirely vector-based and straightforward to use.

• Polygon Layer (article)
  Allows you to create a polygon by placing individual vertices. The resulting shape can then be modified with an inner and outer fall and can be used to create plains, mountains or lakes.

• Model Layer (article)
  Allows you to import your own custom 3d geometry into World Creator and add it to your terrain.
  

• Rivers Layer (article)
  

  River Layers allow you to add rivers and valleys to your terrain. They offer many different river types with full customisation to create your ideal river network.

  
  

Shape Layers are movable, scalable, and rotatable. The elements can adapt to your transformations, filters, and materials applied. Blending effects can also be applied for seamless integration with the underlying terrain and with each other.

Here you have four Shape Layers added on a single Terrain

Mask layers enable you to create masks that you can use for filters, materials, or later objects. Masks are typically utilized to describe an area that has been impacted by something. For example, in the image below, a mask is combined with a terrace filter to create terraces at a particular position on the terrain.

A mask is used to create a terraced mountain at a specific location without affecting the entire terrain

Excellent! This concise overview of how World Creator handles terrains and the accompanying tools will help you comprehend the entire concept, along with subsequent articles. Do not worry, as we will provide increasingly comprehensive explanations throughout this documentation.

Next: Creating your first but simple terrain