Apply Object Transform

By default True-Terrain handles everything relative to the position of the terrain so that when you move the terrain object around it, for the most part, stays the same (basing locations on the position of other objects not included). Enabling Apply Object Transform will handle all positions in world space, ie landmarks and details are stationary in the world and the terrain grid "reveals" them.

Mainly used for lining up multiple terrain meshes.

Grid Settings

Create your Terrain using the Create Terrain button

Resolution Type: Fixed

This is best used if you need to stick to a required polygon count. For example, if you have to build a terrain with no more than 1,048,576 polygons, then you would set your X/Y to 1024. Now, no matter the size of the terrain, it will always be 1,048,576

To set the grid resolution, Fixed Grid requires the user to input a specific vertex count. The default value is 256, resulting in 256x256 vertices along the X and Y coordinates of the mesh. This generates either 65,536 vertices or 65,025 faces.

Vertex count remains constant regardless of the mesh size, be it 1km or 1m, and not dependent on scale.

Vertices

The number of vertices in the X and Y axes

Size

How large the terrain grid should be in the scene.

Resolution Type: Density

This is best used if you need to have a specific polygon count within a set dimensions. For example, if you require each m² to have 4 faces, then you would set the density to 2. This ensure that for every meter on the X/Y, you would have 2 faces per axis. 2 along the Y, 2 along the Y totalling 4 faces per m² This scales with the size of the terrain, so regardless of the size, you will always have a fixed amount of detail.

When utilizing the Density feature, the size of the object affects its functionality. By default, the value is 0.10 since the default size is 1km. This signifies that the mesh's resolution is one-tenth of the size, resulting in 10,000 vertices. If you increase the resolution to 1 with a size of 1000m, you will have 1 million vertices (1000x1000(x,y)). It is IMPORTANT to bear this in mind as this can result in significantly more computer resources being used with larger meshes.

Resolution

The amount of vertices per Blender unit in the X and Y axes.

WARNING: We do not advise surpassing a resolution of 0.1. See below for examples of why.

Size Split

Have a non-square terrain shape and see options for splitting

Size

How large the terrain grid should be in the scene. Enable Size Split to have a different size in the X axis than the Y axis.

Resolution Type: Adaptive Subdivision

This is best used if you wish to have a higher detail area within the camera view, and lower detail outside. This is more performant then setting the whole mesh to a set a resolution BUT, it will drop the quality of off-screen topology . This can be visible in reflections or shadows.

Camera Culling

Base Resolution

This is the size in meters of each tile before any subdivisions. No face will be ever larger than this value in the X/Y axis.

Viewport/Render Dicing Rates

Level of subdivision in the viewport or render. 1 roughly means for each pixel there is 1 vertex based upon the active camera's resolution.

Outside Dicing Rate

Same as Viewport/Render only it's for what isn't seen of the mesh in the camera. The outside subdivision will never go beyond the most dense part of the mesh inside in the camera's view as visualized by turning pink in the example image above.

Detail Iterations

The number of levels of subdivision there are from the bottom of the camera view to the top to divide up the terrain. Basically, split the camera view up into sections same as the number of Detail Iterations, bottom to top. A distance is found for each section and that distance is then used to determine the subdivision from the dicing rate settings. By necessity this is calculated when the terrain is flat and so the division may not be as accurate as in the example image above.

Camera Culling Padding

Vary the border amount to include more or less of the mesh as subdivided that around the camera's view

Extend Towards Camera

Vary the padding amount only towards the camera. Necessary evil due to calculating the grid before displacing.

Distance

Base Resolution

The base of each face of the grid before subdivisions.

Detail Iterations

The number of levels of subdivision there are from Distance to edge of Falloff.

Distance

How far away from the camera fully subdivided faces should be.

Falloff

How far out to go until reaching the minimum subdivsion level (ie Base Resolution).

Max Subdivision

The most a section can be subdivied within the "Distance"

Viewport Amount

Change this slider in order to reduce the amount of vertices in just the viewport. Rendering will use the full resolution set in the UI. This means that at render it might take longer than usual as it's needing to recalculate the terrain at the new higher resolution. This also may negatively impact any simulations that have been baked out (erosion) and it will rearrange any scatter systems.

Lock Viewport Amount

Change the viewport amount manually. By default this is set to the Limit Terrain Resolution in the prefs.

Examples of Memory usage on high density meshes

Default

Density Value and Scale

RAM/Memory Usage

Scene Stats

Resolution

Density Value and Scale

‍

RAM/Memory Usage

Scene Stats

Resolution and Size

Density Value and Scale

RAM/Memory Usage

Scene Stats

Height Settings

Multiplier

Increase the distance from the lowest point on the terrain to the highest.

Use Height Range

Instead of just multiplying the heights, remap the lowest point and highest points on the terrain so that the distance between them is always the same.

Range

The constant distance from the lowest point of the terrain to the highest point. Only available when Use Height Range is enabled.

Offset

Offset the heights of the entire terrain by a specific amount.

Height Anchoring Menu

Choose from where the terrain is at a height of 0, ie sea level. Height adjustments will be made so that the chosen area is always at sea level.

None

No anchoring. Sea level is dependent upon all other settings

Lowest

All vertices are moved in such a way that the lowest point is always at sea level. Increasing heights will always stretch the entire terrain higher above sea level.

Middle (Default)

All vertices are moved in such a way so that the average height is at sea level. Increasing heights will stretch the terrain away from sea level. Those above will move farther above and those below will continue to move deeper.

Highest

All vertices are moved in such a way that the highest point is always at sea level. Increasing heights will always stretch the entire terrain deeper below the sea level.

Diorama

Add walls and a bottom if desired to your terrain to render out the dirt and other stuff below the surface.

Offset

How far down the walls of the terrain should extend.

Rim Material

The material to use on the diorama. By default we give you a basic diorama shader.

You will need to go into the shader section in order to change its settings, or add it to your object in the materials section and then you can change its settings in the material tab.

Use Bottom

Enclose the terrain fully by adding a bottom cap along with the walls.

Not done by default as it will effectively double the number of faces you have in your scene.

Outputted Attributes

Diarama Walls_terrain_tvfx

A boolean attribute that has the walls (and bottom if enabled) as True or 1.0 if using in shader.

Terrain UVs_terrain_tvfx

The UVs of the terrain laid out as you would from above or a normal plane unwrapped.