Viewport and Navigation

The 3D viewport displays your terrain in three dimensions. Three different rendering modes are available:

• High-Quality Render Mode

• Textured Render Mode

• Shape Design Mode

By default, World Creator uses its High Quality Render Mode when running. The program utilizes a high-quality, real-time ray-tracing algorithm to render a photorealistic version of the terrain. This rendering mode is expected to perform well on a computer using a powerful graphics processing unit (GPU), for example, the 1080 Ti and above, or an equivalent AMD GPU.

Additionally, you have the option to use the Textured Render Mode. It allows you to work on your textured terrain while disabling advanced rendering features and light computation to provide a more responsive workflow.

The Shape Design Mode, while not as realistic or sophisticated as the High Quality or Textured Render Modes, is much faster and allows the user to concentrate on designing the terrain without the need for a powerful GPU. To further customise your experience, you can load your own custom matcaps or choose from the available matcaps that ship with World Creator. See Options/Graphics for more information.

By opening the Scene node in the Tree-View, you can access all available World Creator's renderer settings, which can be customized as needed (detailed in a later topic on this). For the moment, it is recommended to keep the default settings unchanged, as they should suffice.

The 3D viewport displays two notable HUD elements:

• Directional Compass

• Altitude Meter

The Altitude Meter is situated to the left of the viewport. The Altitude Meter displays the altitude of the viewer (i.e. the camera which is used to view the scenery) and the min/max height of the whole terrain.

Next, we will examine the camera controls, as well as additional shortcuts that allow for quick access to useful functions inside World Creator.

To move the camera, use the following keys:

• W, A, S, D

  to move forward, left, backward, right

• Q, E

  to move downwards or upwards

You can move the camera faster by holding down the left SHIFT key.

Moving the mouse and pressing the right mouse button allows you to change the vantage point. You can also use the mouse to move quickly across the terrain. To move quickly, click the middle mouse button while targeting a location on the terrain and move the mouse. Use the mouse wheel to zoom into the terrain. To rotate the camera around a specific spot, press the right mouse button together with the left ALT key on your keyboard and move the mouse.

For a detailed list of all key bindings, refer to this article.