Landscape painting

Landscape painting is a way to define or control how the surface should look. What is important to know is that the painting tool does not paint a specific color. When the paint tool goes over a surface, it will increase or decrease a single numerical value in the corner of each triangle ranging from 0 to 1. This value can then be used by a shader to decide what color to use based on that value. The shader can, for example, mix the colors from two different texture samples based on if this painted vertex value is 0, 1, or something in between.

See Painted materialsfor how to create a custom shader that can utilise vertex painted values.

You can also use predetermined materials such as landscape basic or landscape composite for landscape painting.

Landscape basic material

Landscape Basic is a material type designed for applying solid colors to landscapes, ideal for low-poly, toon-shaded, or blockout workflows. It supports up to 8 customizable color channels, allowing you to define clean, stylized surfaces with minimal visual complexity.

1. In the asset browser, select → Add New → select Material. Enter the material name → select Create.

1. In the materials editor, for Type, pick landscape basic.

2. Under the Properties category, you will be able to pick the solid colors you wish to assign. Please make sure to click Save at the bottom of the materials' edit window.

3. Click on the landscape in the scene. In the landscape editor under the Materials category, please choose the material you just created.

1. Now you are ready to start painting! Please scroll down to the "Start painting" section to continue.

Landscape composite material

A landscape composite material is a shader material that blends several different textures together across a terrain. It lets you mix things like grass, rock, dirt, and sand in one unified material, instead of assigning a separate material per patch of ground.

1. Drag and drop the texture files (PNG) you wish to use into the asset browser in the engine.

2. In the asset browser, select → Add New → select Material. Enter the material name → select Create.

3. In the materials editor, for Type, select landscape composite.

4. Under the Properties → find Layers → click + button to add a layer (highlighted yellow in picture below) → select the texture files you wish to use. Please make sure to click Save at the bottom of the materials editor window.

1. Click on the landscape in the scene → in the landscape editor window, find the Materials category → select the material you just created.

2. Now you are ready to start painting. Please see below for painting instructions.

Start painting

When the landscape is selected, you can start landscape painting by clicking P on your keyboard. The default material used on landscapes will show a blue color. This color is just used to help visualise where you are painting.

Layers

Multiple values can be stored per vertex in order to be able to mix different ground attributes or to layer different ground materials on top of each other. You can switch which layer you want to paint on using the keyboard shortcuts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 up to 8

Falloff

The paint tool has a smooth fall off which means that it will affect the painted layer value of vertices closed to the middle of the affected area than vertices further from the tool.

Erase paint

Paint values can be decreased or completely erased by holding down Shift on your keyboard as you paint.

Paint radius

The size, or radius, of your paint tool can be changed by holding down F on your keyboard and moving your mouse left or right to decrease or increase the size.