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

Switching render modes is effortless. Simply click on the corresponding icon in the toolbar.

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.

High Textured Mode

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.

High Quality Render Mode

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.

Shape Design Mode

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.

The viewer is facing northeast at an altitude of around 600 meters above the zero point

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.

Opens this online documentation	F1
Toggle the UI	F3
Open Save As dialog	F5
Saves the current project	F7
Takes a screenshot (including UI)	F11
Takes a screenshot (without UI)	F12
Navigates the camera (forward, left, backward, right, down, up)	W, A, S, D, Q, E
Navigates the camera with increased speed (forward, left, backward, right, down, up)	LEFT CTRL + W, A, S, D, Q, E
Focus terrain	F
Saves the camera position to a specified slot (0 to 9, 10 slots in total)	LEFT CTRL + 0 to 9
Restores camera position based on the specified slot	0 to 9
Places the mannequin on the terrain (mouse location on terrain)	M
Look around using the mouse	RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON
Rotates the camera view around the current camera location on the terrain surface	LEFT ALT + RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON
Rotates the camera view around the center of the terrain	LEFT ALT + MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON
Zoom in / out	MOUSE SCROLL WHEEL
Starts automatic camera rotation	ALT-1

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