Overview
It is important to comprehend how World Creator manages Terrain Size and Detail to effectively handle sizing and detail when using World Creator terrains in other applications like Unity, Unreal, Blender, Cinema4D and others.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Terrain Size
The size of the terrain in World Creator is measured in meters. For example, a terrain size of 1024 by 1024 indicates that it is 1024 metres wide and 1024 metres long.
Generally, terrains have sizes that are power-of-two, such as 512 by 512, 1024 by 1024, 2048 by 2048, 4096 by 4096, and so on. However, the good news is that the terrain system in World Creator also allows terrain sizes that are not power-of-two, such as 463 by 271 or 3674 by 2839. Therefore, you can use any value for the width and length of your terrain. However, it is important to note that certain applications may require a terrain size that is a power of two to function correctly (please refer to the application's documentation).
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Left: 1024 meters by 1024 meters - Right: 4096 meters by 4096 meters
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Two non-power-of-two terrains with different width and length values
Precision
Precision is another important parameter in World Creator that greatly influences terrain detail. Imagine a terrain covering an area of roughly 1024 meters by 1024 meters. This equates to a total of 1,048,576 pixels (1024 multiplied by 1024). Each pixel represents a 1-meter by 1-meter square. This already provides a decent level of detail, but what if a higher level of detail was desired, mapping 0.5 meters squared for each pixel?
For this scenario, World Creator allows you to modify the precision. The default precision setting is 1 meter, however, you can increase it to more precise values, for example, 1/2 meter, 1/4 meter, 1/8 meter, etc. By doing so, World Creator can generate a more detailed terrain without altering the terrain size. As a result, it maps the terrain area visible in the viewport to a more detailed depiction.
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Left: 1 meter precision - Right: 1/8 meter precision
Please note that higher precision leads to more pixels in general. A 1024 by 1024 terrain with 1/2 precision creates a heightmap that is one-fourth the size of a 1024 by 1024 terrain with 1m precision. It is important to be aware of this because higher detail results in a more significant performance impact on your GPU and larger exported maps.
Seed
In addition to the terrain size and detail precision, there is a seed value utilized to generate the initial terrain shape with random elevation values. The initial terrain shape remains constant for a given seed number. A new initial terrain shape is created by changing the seed.
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Left: Seed set to 0 - Right: Seed set to 1
Next: Understanding World Creator Terrains