Overview

While Biomes already provide a nice way to create a basic shape for your terrain through their Base Shape/Global Noise settings, Shape Layers provide a much more sophisticated and powerful set of features to lay out your terrain exactly as you need it for your project. 


Most of the Shape Layers are designed to give your terrain a basic structure for e.g. mountains, oceans, hills or valleys, using tools such as sculpting, stamp and procedural layers, path and polygon shapes and rivers. This means that, by default, they tend to work on the lower levels of World Creators level step system, so that the filters have as many levels as possible to work on (although you can of course adjust this).


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Different Shape Layers

World Creator offers a range of different Shape Layer types to help you create the terrain you want, with more Shape Layers coming in the future. The following Shape Layers are currently available in World Creator:


Sculpt Layers

Sculpt Layers allow you to create a base shape for your terrain using brush and deformation tools. For a full breakdown of all the functionality the brush layer offers please visit the Sculpt Layer documentation.


sculpted shapesculpted shape blended onto the terrain


Stamp Layers

If you already have a height map that you want to use in your terrain, Stamp Layers are the way to go. They provide an easy and intuitive way to position and blend your existing data into your terrain, while integrating nicely into World Creators' otherwise procedural workflows.


positioning a stamp layerapplied stamp layer


Procedural Layers

This Shape Layer type currently offers procedural patterns such as cliffs, craters, volcanoes or islands, each with its own set of parameters to customise the geological feature to your liking.


procedural crater procedural islands


MapTiler Layers

MapTiler Layers provide direct integration of high quality real world elevation data into World Creator. Simply add the layer, follow the login steps described in the MapTiler article (only needs to be done once), find a real world location to add to your terrain and let World Creators filters enhance your result.


MapTiler world viewMapTiler mountain with World Creator filters on top


Path Layers

Path Layers allow you to modify your terrain at a lower level to create mountains and valleys, or use its features to create smaller details such as roads.


valley using pathspaths used to create a mountain road


Polygon Layers

Polygon Layers allow you to create a custom shape by placing individual vertices. You can then control the height and slope of the inside and outside of the shape to create larger features in your terrain.


flat polygon areapolygon mountain


Model Layers

Model Layers allow you to import your own custom 3d geometry into World Creator and add it to your terrain. 

model layer
model layer with multiple instances


River Layers

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.


rivers on the base terrainterrain with rivers

 Next: Using and working with Filters