6.Scene

Another new feature in World Creator is the ability to create lively and realistic looking sceneries by adding 2D objects such as grass and flower blades, 3D objects such as trees, bushes, rocks, and more, or even set up an ocean or using real dynamic atmosphere calculations to create a real-looking sky with moving clouds and a day-night cycle.

All the required settings can be found inside the Scene tab:

The Scene section further subdivides into:

▪ Objects

▪ Details

▪ Enviro

▪ Render

Objects

World Creator allows you to import your own custom assets, such as textures, 3D models, and a lot more. Through our website, you may download the World Creator Asset Library that contains tons of royalty free assets that we created for you together with our partners. You may not re-sale them, but you may include them into your own productions for free. More and more free assets will be added over time so make sure to check the library from time to time.

Creating Object Layers

To apply an object, you first must create a layer by clicking on Add Layer. You can add as many layers as you want – there are no restrictions in number. Remove All, removes all layers.

Layers can be enabled, disabled, re-arranged, and, removed.

Each layer has a Name, an Area and a list of Objects. Naming a layer might be of interest if you plan a large and complex terrain. An area is used to specify a specific region using a blend map (mask) which is used to apply the objects of this layer

Adding Objects

Click on Add inside the selected layer, to open the Mesh Library:

To add a mesh, you either press Add or Add & Close. Add will just add the selected mesh to the specified layer without closing the Mesh Library. That way, you can keep on adding more and more meshes. Add & Close will add the selected mesh to the specified layer and close the Mesh Library

Each object can be enabled or disabled. With Duplicate, you can create a full copy of the currently selected object. Remove will delete the selected object and Remove All removes all objects from the layers’ object list. With Change, you can quickly change the object.

Object Properties

Each added object has its own specific properties which are used by World Creators’ object placement technique:

The image above lists all available settings for a single object. Some of those will appear on request only (e.g. Subset specific setting if Show Subsets is checked).

Tagging

With Tag, you can tag your object (e.g. give it an ID). It does not have any impact on object placement but might be of interest when importing World Creator projects into another application.

Subsets

Each mesh inside World Creator has a maximum of three LOD’s (Level of Detail). Each LOD may have several subsets (e.g. a tree might have a bark, leaves, and more). Within this section you can adjust the coloring for each subset using a color gradient. World Creator will then colorize the subset instances of the applied object randomly using the specified gradient. With that, you can create many different color variations of the object on your terrain (e.g. a forest where each tree has a different color).

Additionally, you can choose whether the selected subset drops shadows (you might disable shadows due performance issues).

Height Offset

The Height Offset places the object at the specified value along the Y-axis (height). Sometimes you may want to stomp an object into the ground.

Size Locked, Width Range, and Height Range

The Size Locked option causes the relationship between Width Range and Height Range to remain the same. These two ranges of values define the width and height of an object, i.e., every object that is placed will be scaled differently inside the defined value ranges.

Rotation X, Y, and Z

Rotation X, Rotation Y, and Rotation Z cause the object to be oriented randomly between the defined value ranges. This prevents identical object orientation.

Scale Blend

With Scale Blend you can adjust the scale of an object along the distribution edges. Imagine a forest – the outer trees are typically smaller in size than the inner trees. Scale Blend let’s you control the scaling behavior.

Color Grading

Within this section you can adjust the coloring for the selected object. World Creator will then colorize the instances of the applied object randomly using the specified gradient. With that, you can create many different color variations of the object on your terrain (e.g. a forest where each tree has a different color).

Align to Terrain

Align to Terrain aligns the object to the terrain surface.

Cast Shadows

Indicates whether this object shall cast shadows or not.

The object distribution properties define at what specific locations an object is placed. If an area is used, these properties only affect those locations that are covered by the blend map (mask) of the area. Else, the entire terrain is affected.

Most features will get only visible if you activate them, such as Cavity, Noise Select, Height Select (which further unfolds the Height Noise feature) and more.

In World Creator, objects may be placed either procedural or manual:

Mode

Lets you choose whether to place objects procedural or manual. If Procedural is chosen, you can use the procedural distribution settings (see left image above) to distribute the object procedural on the terrain. If Manual is chosen, you can simply place the object by clicking on the terrain. Additionally, you can also translate, rotate and scale it afterwards.

If you placed thousands of objects procedurally, and then switch over to manual placement, you will be able to manual adjust each object on the terrain as well. However, switching back from manual to procedural, all your manual placed objects will be lost.

If you would like to start without procedural placement at all, just reduce the Probability down to 0 before switching to manual mode.

Use Texture

It is possible to use already placed textures to simplify the distribution. For example, it makes sense to place certain objects only on grass textures. Simply check the Use Texture option and select a texture of your choice and the distribution will be applied.

Cavity

The Cavity is used to apply an object either along the peaks (convexity) or along the carves (concavity). You can choose between Convex and Concave to list additional properties.

Steps indicates, how many pixels are considered for the whole calculation. With Step Size, you can set the distance at which to start the calculations. Strength indicates the strength at which the operation affects object placement.

Follow Sun Direction

Follow Sun Direction will let you to place objects on your terrain depending on the sun light direction. With Invert, the object is only placed on the shadowed parts of the terrain. Additionally, you can use the Smoothness to further adjust the blending between non-shadowed parts and shadowed parts.

Noise Select

The Noise Select is used to randomly apply an object across the terrain surface, simulating a more natural look and feel.

With the above displayed values, you can adjust the noise distribution to your needs. We suggest enabling the real-time mode to quickly see all changes made.

Height Select, Smoothness, Noise and Relative to Ocean

With Height Select you can specify the height range, in which the object is applied to. Use the Height Smoothness value to smoothly blend the height range. To prevent the height range value from forming a noticeable and visually unappealing border, you also have the option of assigning a Height Noise.

With Relative to Ocean checked, the Height Range value becomes a relative value depending on the currently set ocean level (which can be set in Scene / Ocean). That means, that each time you change the ocean level, the height range will automatically adapt its value.

Slope Select

With Slope Select you can specify the angle range (Slope Range in degrees) in which the object is applied to. The angle transitions can also be stretched and blended with the Slope Smoothness value.

Angle Select

With Angle Select you can specify the angle (Angle in degrees) used to place the object.

Seed, Probability, Probability Blend and Object Distance

Seed lets you control the random value generation. Changing that value will result in different object locations. The Probability is the frequency expressed as a percentage value. The higher the value, the higher the frequency of objects being placed. Directly related to it is the Object Distance. The lower the value, the closer the objects will be placed relative to each other.