Brushes

Brushes are special instruments that allow you to scult and modify terrain. Brushes are available in the Tool Shelf panel when a terrain object is selected:

There are three main types of brushes:

• Sculp — change the height of the terrain.
• Paint — change the texture of the terrain.
• Extrusions — create and modify plots of mud, wet sand and so on. When moving through these types of terrain, vehicles leave deep marks as if there was a deep pool of mud/sand.

To use a brush:

1. Set up the parameters of the brush.
2. Hold Left Button and draw over the terrain in Viewport.

Common brush parameters:

• Radius — the size of the brush.
• Strength/Strength factor — how visible will be an impact of the single stroke.
  
• Falloff — how smooth will be the transition from the border of the new terrain to the center:
  
• Allow repeated use — enable holding LMB to repeatedly apply the same brush in one spot.
• Use Auto Fade — enable automatic fading of the brush strength at the ends of a stroke:
  

Sculp

Use sculp brushes to modify the geometry of the terrain: make it higher/lower, create slopes, plateaus or cavities:

Brush	Description
Grab	Raise/lower the terrain.
Line	Create smooth transitions between two points, for example, between the top and the foot of the hill. To use the brush: Select Set start point in the Mode parameter. Click on the top of the hill. Select Set finish point in the Mode parameter. Click on the foot of the hill. Select Draw using two points in the Mode parameter. Draw a line between any two points of the top and the foot of the hill. The slope is determined by the angle between two previously selected points.
Flatten	Make a flat plot of terrain. The height of the terrain is determined by the height of the place where the brush has been activated.
Relative flatten	Same as flatten, but any static geometry can be a reference point.
Sculp	Raise/lower the terrain by a set amount (Strength).
Smooth	Soften the transition between two points.

Paint

Use paint brushes to change the texture of the terrain.

Brush	Description
Paint	Change the material of the terrain. The brush changes the relative strength of the selected material in the terrrain texture. (Examples of the terrain textures. On the top is a mixed texture of rock, sand and grass.) Tip Hold Ctrl to invert the strength of the brush. Use this to erase the selected material.
Colorize	Change the tint of the terrain.
Holes	Remove the plots of the terrain. Use this brush to create tunnels or to crop the terrain. To restore the terrain, select Restore opacity option in the brush settings.
Wetness	Make the terrain visually wet.

Grass/Masks

Use the Grass/Masks brush to add various GPU distributions to different types of terrain.

Some GPU distributions are associated with a special type of terrain: for example, there is always GPU grass on the grass terrain. These distributions are listed in Outliner in the disributions_summer_set > gpu_on_material group.

However, there is a number of GPU distributions that can be added anywhere:

To add a GPU distribution to terrain:

1. In Outliner, select a distribution in the disributions_summer_set > gpu_grass group. In Inspector, copy the name of the mask associated with this distribution from the Terrain Mask Texture Name property:
   

2. In Outliner, select the terrain object. In Tool Shelf, open the Grass/Masks tab.
   

3. Create a new mask: click the mask icon next to the Mask Texture Name property.
   

   Enter the name of the mask copied in the first step, leave other parameters as is and click OK:

4. Use the Density brush to increase the density of the distribution and the Scale brush to increase the size of the elements of the distribution.

   Tip

   Enable Texture visualization to better see how the brush affects the terrain.
   

   

Extrusion

Use extrusion brushes to create layers of sand, modify terrain so that people and trucks could sink into the mud and leave deep marks.

Brush	Description
MudComplex	Leave a trace revealing the bottom layer of the terrain material.
Extrusion	Create an area of the terrain that can be deformed by walking/riding over it. (An example of a truck leaving a deep mark in the ground.) When drawing, enable Extrusion depth to visualize the depth of the extrusion:
SandComplex	Make a pile of sand:

Visualize tool

The terrain Tool Shelf has a special visualization tool:

• Texture — visualize the area covered with a brush. Can be used for brushes that do not leave a highly visible trace: Wetness, Extrusion, Grass/Masks.
  Vizualization of the extrusion brush:
  
• Texel Info — show information about the point of the terrain. The type of information depends on the type of brush selected.
  
  • WCS — World Coordinate System — world coordinates of the point.
  • LCS — Local Coordinate System — coordinates of the point relative to the terrain.
  • TXL — texture coordinates of the point.
  • BLK — the index of the chunck of the terrain (see also How are the user changes stored?).
• Extrusion Depth — visualize the depth of the extrusions.