Environmental Terrain

Studio's Terrain Editor lets you generate and sculpt detailed and realistic terrain environments such as mountains, bodies of water, grass-covered hills, or a flat desert. Terrain is made up of grids of voxels which are 4×4×4 stud regions in the 3D world with a set material.

Using the Terrain Editor, you can easily generate and edit terrain either at a voxel or region level with the option of importing a heightmap and colormap. For more precise, dynamic, or procedural terrain editing, you can also script terrain creation.

Terrain Materials

The following default materials are available for terrain, and you can also apply custom materials. Materials affect both the shape and appearance of terrain in the world; for example, animated grass renders only on the Grass material and the Water material ripples and shimmers with a subtle motion.

Water Appearance

By default, terrain water ripples, oscillates, and shimmers with a subtle motion.

To customize the color and motion of water:

1. Select the Terrain object under Workspace in the Explorer window.

   

2. Customize the appearance of water through the following properties in the Properties window:

   Property	Description
   WaterColor	Adjusts the overall hue of all terrain water in the experience.
   WaterReflectance	Adjusts how much water surfaces reflect the sky and surrounding objects from a value of 1 (high) to 0 (none).
   WaterTransparency	Adjusts how transparent water is from a value of 1 (clear) to 0 (opaque).
   WaterWaveSize	Adjusts the size of waves from a value of 1 (large) to 0 (none).
   WaterWaveSpeed	Adjusts the speed of waves from a value of 100 (turbulent) to 0 (still).

Animated Grass

While most materials are static, you can add animated blades of grass to the Grass terrain material. By default, grass sways gently in a simulated wind, and you can adjust the direction/strength of its animation through global wind.

To add animated grass to the Grass material:

1. Select the Terrain object under Workspace in the Explorer window.

   

2. Toggle on the Decoration property in the Properties window.

   

3. Adjust the grass length by entering a value between 0.1 and 1 for the GrassLength property.

   

4. If desired, adjust the direction and strength of its animation through global wind.

Custom Terrain Colors

Each terrain material is assigned a default color, but you can customize any material's color to better fit your experience.

To customize any material color other than water:

1. Select the Terrain object under Workspace in the Explorer window.

   

2. Expand MaterialColors in the Properties window. All materials display with their RGB code.

   

3. For any given material, either input a new RGB code or click the color box to open the colors popup.

Generating Terrain

Using the following tools and methods, you can generate large areas of terrain procedurally with the Generate tool or scripting, or automatically based on a heightmap and optional colormap.

Generate Tool

The Generate tool allows you to procedurally generate terrain in seconds. This is useful if you want to create a large map and then fine-tune terrain details.

1. Navigate to the Create tab of the Terrain Editor and select the Generate tool.

   

2. In the 3D viewport, move/resize the selection region in which to generate terrain. Alternatively, expand the tool's Selection Settings and enter values into the X/Y/Z inputs to set a specific size and position.

3. In the tool's Biome Settings section, choose the following biomes to include in the new terrain:

   • Arctic
   • Dunes
   • Canyons

   • Lavascape
   • Water
   • Mountains

   • Hills
   • Plains
   • Marsh

4. Adjust any other desired settings as documented here.

5. Click the Generate button.

Heightmaps and Colormaps

A heightmap is a 2D representation of a 3D terrain map, as viewed directly from above. Brighter areas of a heightmap result in higher terrain, like mountains, while darker areas result in lower regions, like valleys.

An optional colormap, along with a heightmap, converts colors to terrain materials using a color key.

1 pixel in a heightmap represents 4 studs in Studio, and Studio supports a maximum of 4096×4096 pixels in either .jpg or .png format.

To import a heightmap and optional colormap:

1. Navigate to the Create tab of the Terrain Editor and select the Import tool.

   

2. In the tool's Map Settings section, click the import button and choose the image you want to import as a heightmap.

3. In the tool's Material Settings section, select a terrain material or, alternatively, upload a colormap.

   MaterialColormap

   To apply one consistent material across all of the generated terrain, select the Material tab and pick a terrain material.

4. In the 3D viewport, move/resize the selection region in which to generate terrain. Alternatively, enter values into the Select tool fields to set a more specific position and size.

   Minimum and maximum terrain heights depend on the darkest and lightest areas of the heightmap image in relation to the Y size (height) of the selection region. For instance, if you choose a height of 128, pure black areas are 64 studs below the center position and pure white areas are 64 studs above the center position.

5. Click the Generate button.

Scripting

You can script terrain generation using the Terrain class. For example, to create terrain with grass material that fills a volume, you can use methods such as FillBall(), FillBlock(), FillCylinder(), FillRegion(), or FillWedge().

Fill Block Volume
workspace.Terrain:FillBlock(CFrame.new(0, 0, 0), Vector3.new(4, 4, 4), Enum.Material.Grass)

Large-Scale Editing

The terrain editor's Edit tab contains tools for large-scale editing through region selection, transform, fill, replace, or setting sea level.

Selecting Regions

The Select tool is the universal tool for selecting rectangular regions of terrain.

Select a region by clicking and dragging in the 3D viewport, reposition it with the move draggers, and edit its size with the scale handles. Alternatively, enter values into the tool's X/Y/Z inputs to set a specific position and size.

Studio also supports the following keyboard and mouse shortcuts, assuming the Select tool is active and nothing is selected in the Explorer hierarchy.

Transforming Regions

The Transform tool lets you manipulate entire selected regions to a new position, size, or orientation.

To transform a region:

1. Select a region and then activate the Transform tool. Note that the tool will be automatically activated if you paste or duplicate terrain.

   

2. In the 3D viewport, transform the region with the move draggers, rotate rings, and scale handles. Alternatively, enter values into the tool's X/Y/Z inputs to set a specific position, size, and rotation.

   

   Holding Shift while dragging any scale handle scales the region proportionally across all other axes, and holding Ctrl or ⌘ while dragging scales the region equally in both the positive and negative direction along that axis.

   Holding Shift while dragging any rotate ring toggles between rotation snapping or free‑form rotation.

   By default, this tool uses Live Edit mode to constantly update terrain as you transform it. To view only a wireframe preview of the terrain as you transform it, disable live edit mode and then, while transforming, press Enter/Return or click the Apply button to apply the changes.

Filling and Replacing

The Fill tool lets you fill an entire selected region with a specific material, or replace all material within the region with another material.

To fill or replace terrain:

1. Select a region and then activate the Fill tool.

   

2. In the tool's Material Settings section:

   • To fill the region with a specific material, select Fill and choose the desired material.
   • To replace all terrain of one material with another material, select Replace, then choose a source material and target material.

3. Click the Apply button or press Enter/Return.

   

Setting Sea Level

The Sea Level tool lets you create a consistent water level or remove all water within a region.

1. Activate the Sea Level tool.

   

2. Select the intended region by clicking and dragging the move draggers and scale handles in the 3D viewport. Alternatively, enter values into the tool's X/Y/Z inputs to set a specific position and size.

3. Click the Evaporate button to remove water inside the selected region, or click the Create button to fill the selected region with water.

Detailed Editing

The terrain editor's Edit tab also contains tools for precision editing using a "brush" tool to draw, sculpt, smooth, flatten, or paint.

Each tool lets you choose from a sphere, box, or cylinder brush shape and a base size between 1–64 studs.

For tools which use the brush, Studio supports the following keyboard and mouse shortcuts.

Drawing

The Draw tool adds or subtracts terrain using the brush. This tool functions in a dual mode where holding down Ctrl or ⌘ toggles on "subtract" mode instead of the default "add" mode. Additionally, holding down Shift temporarily activates the Smooth tool.

Sculpting

The Sculpt tool adds or subtracts terrain using the brush. Unlike the Draw tool, this tool includes a strength slider to allow for more gentle manipulation of terrain.

Similar to the Draw tool, the Sculpt tool functions in a dual mode where holding down Ctrl or ⌘ toggles on "subtract" mode instead of the default "add" mode. Additionally, holding down Shift temporarily activates the Smooth tool.

Smoothing

The Smooth tool smoothes out abrupt edges in terrain using the brush. This tool can be used in standalone mode, or you can toggle it on by holding Shift while using the Draw or Sculpt tools.

Flattening

The Flatten tool flattens terrain to a consistent level across a visualized plane. By default, the tool lowers terrain above the plane and raises terrain below to the plane, but you can opt to selectively lower or raise through the tool's Flatten Mode option.

Painting

The Paint tool, using the brush, paints a terrain material over an existing material or replaces one material with another material.