The Terrain Editor is pending major changes. This article will only cover the basics for the time being.
The Terrain Editor is used to create and modify Terrain object of the current level. With the various Brushes it is possible to create valleys, mountains and so on. This tool also packs the Terrain Painter which is used to assign terrain’s textures and materials, changing the look and feel of a given surface (e.g. asphalt, dirt, gravel, mud, etc.).
Basics
Below the main toolbar is displayed the terrain editor toolbar:
Section
- Heightmap Import / Export
Description
Use this to import a grayscale heightmap image as a terrain, or to export the current terrain as a grayscale heightmap image
Description
Shape of the brush, either round or square
Description
The edit mode of the brush (raise, lower, smooth, etc.)
Description
Paint the terrain surface with different textures & materials
Description
Settings that affects the brush dynamics
Terrain Editing & Sculpting
The Sculpt Modes allows to edit the terrain heightmap in real-time. Once a mode is selected, simply click on the terrain to sculpt the terrain accordingly. The red circle indicates your brush size.
Basic Sculpt Modes
Description
Pushes the terrain upward
Description
Pushes the terrain downward
Description
Smooths the terrain
Description
Creates a smooth slope
Description
Paints random noise, useful for uneven surfaces
Description
Flattens the terrain
Description
Sets the terrain to the height set in the toolbar
Use the
Height Picker tool in the toolbar (
) to easily get the height of the terrain at a given point. The value is automatically inserted in the
Height property of the brush. Use this together with the
Set Height sculpt mode to flatten a terrain in a more controlled way.
Advanced Sculpt Modes
These modes offers unique functionality that can be helpful in certain situations:
Sculpt Mode
Clear Terrain
Description
Erases terrain and leaves a hole which vehicles can drive through. Useful to create tunnels
Sculpt Mode
Restore Terrain
Description
Restores erased terrain
Sculpt Mode
Average Height
Description
Smooths the terrain by averaging all the points in the brush area
Sculpt Mode
Align with Mesh (Up)
Description
Terrain height will be aligned to any mesh above it
Sculpt Mode
Align with Mesh (Down)
Description
Terrain height will be aligned to any mesh below it
Sculpt Mode
Subtract Mesh
Description
Subtract the shape of the mesh from the terrain
Align with Mesh can be used to conform the terrain to any mesh shape. Use this if you need to create very specific and precise shapes with the terrain (e.g. ramps, holes, etc). The mesh must have its collision mode set correctly to be detected by the brush.
Terrain Painter & Ground models
This brush mode is used to paint the terrain surfaces with different textures and materials.
The Terrain Painter window will display all the available Materials that are available in the current level. Once a material is selected, click on the terrain to paint it in real time.
Double-click a material to access the Terrain Material Editor, from where to edit the existing materials and create new ones.
Terrain Material Editor window
Ground models
The name of each material is not casual, but matches a ground model. This determines the surface’s physics (e.g. asphalt, beach sand, ice, etc.)
The full list of available ground models can be found in: BeamNG.drive\gameengine.zip\art\groundmodels.json
The groundmodels.json
file defines the physics of all the surfaces in the game.
Do not modify this file for any reason!
To assign a specific ground model to a terrain material, simply name the latter with either the main Name or one of the Aliases of the ground model
Example
In the above example, ASPHALT_WET
is the main name of the ground model, while asphalt_wet2
and asphalt_wet3
are aliases. If the terrain material is named with any of them, surfaces painted with it will have the ASPHALT_WET
surface’s physics.
You can use aliases to create more variants of your materials, using the same ground models, but with different textures.