IMPROVED GRADIENT CONTROL

Ability to create a gradient based on user specified colours, similar to Adobe Photoshop. Currently, the user can select colours from images and screens, as well as from a wide range of presets.

Filter Change Maps

We will add a new distribution where the user can select a filter's change map. This map provides information about the changes made by a filter. For example, the Crater filter creates craters that can be used for quick masking purposes.

MASK DISTRIBUTIONS

Masks get distributions just like filters and materials. This allows a user to create a mask layer using terrain specific distributions. This provides additional masking possibilities, especially when exporting specific terrain features.

MASKS FOR NEW HYDRAULIC SEDIMENT FILTER

With World Creator 2024.1 we have added a new but very powerful filter, the Hydraulic Sediment Filter. It combines erosion and sediment in a single filter with many adjustment possibilities. To make it even more powerful, we will be adding mask distributions specifically for this new filter.

3D OBJECT IMPORT

Import custom 3D models such as trees, bushes, rocks and more and place them procedurally or manually on the terrain to create amazing and beautiful 3D scenes and renders in real time. We will only support GLTF2 as it is the most advanced model format that meets all the necessary requirements and because of its stability.

SNOW SIMULATION

We are planning to add support for real snow simulation within World Creator. Currently you can mimic snow by using a sand simulation layer and adjusting the simulation parameters accordingly. However, real snow behaves slightly differently and will be added in future updates.

MESH LAYER

The idea is to import 3D meshes that can be used as 2D stamps for the terrain heightmap. For example, you could import larger rocks or cliffs and stamp them directly onto the terrain so that they become part of the heightmap itself.

IMPROVED TERRAIN EDITOR

We will be improving the current terrain editor with more editing features and better shortcuts. The current editing capabilities are already excellent, but we want to make it even better and more accessible. Improvement is key.

AI SUPPORT AGENT

Since early 2023, we have been training our own AI network with tons of information to create a 24/7 support agent for you, providing instant quality answers across the World Creator universe. This agent will evolve into a full AI terrain wizard in the next step.

STREET AND ROAD NETWORK

Creating rivers is an essential feature for terrain generators, and World Creator will be the first terrain generator to include a road network feature, allowing you to create complex road networks of any kind.

RIVERS

World Creator allows you to create any type of river - procedurally or by design. You can either let World Creator generate the river for you, based on the terrain you see in the viewport, and then modify it by hand, or you can create your own river by placing springs and flow points.

Two rivers created with the River System

HDRI MAPS

Due to user demand, we have added support for HDRI maps in World Creator, allowing you to create custom skyboxes along with additional lighting information, giving you the ability to create even more advanced renderings from within World Creator.

A custom HDRI map imported for more realistic lighting

POLYGON SHAPE

The polygon shape design tool allows you to create any type of polygon shape and use it to design your terrain. For example, you might want to create a lake in the mountains, a mountain range or a giant hole in the terrain. You have many design and customisation options with this tool to enhance your terrains.

A polygon used to modify the terrain

.NET 8 POWERED

As has been the case for many releases, the .NET 8 team is putting a lot of development effort into improving the performance of the .NET Runtime. After all, fast performance means one thing above all else: low power consumption and high scalability. We have migrated World Creator from .NET 7 to .NET 8 to take advantage of all the improvements.

A 15% performance boost due to migrating to .NET 8

ANY SIZE

Other terrain generators only support square sizes (e.g. 512 by 512, 1024 by 1024). They are also limited to a maximum size and resolution of around 4096 or 8192 pixels. World Creator has no such limitations. You can create square or non-square terrains with a maximum size and resolution of 128,000 by 128,000 pixels in total, and still work in real time.

Non-Squared Terrain with size of 2048 by 895 meters

ANY DETAIL

In World Creator, the detail of a terrain is set by a precision parameter. The default setting is 1 metre, but you can increase the precision down to centimetres, regardless of the size of your terrain. This gives you the ability to create ultra-detailed terrains in unprecedented quality, while still working in real time.

Detail Level of 1 centimetre on a 262,144 by 114,560 sized Terrain

REAL-WORLD STREAMING

Register with MapTiler and connect to their real world data service through World Creator to import the locations of your choice. With World Creator, using real world data for your productions is no longer a challenge (you must register with MapTiler to use the service).

West cost of the USA streaming real-world data from MapTiler

BIOMES

Biomes were first introduced in World Creator 2022 and have changed the way terrains and landscapes are created. World Creator lets you create biomes that automatically adapt to each other, allowing you to create real and huge landscapes in no time. They give you maximum flexibility and are 100% reusable and mixable between projects.

Biome painting on a 16k by 16k Terrain

TERRAIN FILTERS

In World Creator, filters transform the basic terrain shape into a specific terrain, such as arid, cratered, terraced and more. Filters are also used to apply erosion, sediments and simulations. World Creator has many such filters that you can combine, mask, paint, group and more. The possibilities are endless, offering endless combinations and total creative freedom.

FILTER PAINTING

Sometimes you just want to draw certain features on a terrain without using any procedural techniques. In World Creator, you can do this simply by using brushes, just as you would in Photoshop, with a non-destructive workflow. Create terraces, lakes, sand dunes and more, all at your fingertips.

Drawing the Inflate filter on the terrain using brushes

TERRAIN MATERIALS

World Creator allows you to colour your terrain using different types of materials such as simple colours, textures, Adobe Substances, gradients and satellite maps. They can be combined, organised into groups and also categorised into biomes, giving you all the creative freedom you ever needed and wanted.

Combining different materials to color the terrain

PROCEDURAL MASKING

In World Creator, procedural masks are created using a combination of distributions and effects. A distribution allows you to procedurally select specific terrain features such as height, slope, river, void and more. An effect allows you to modify the distribution to create even more variations, such as blur, invert, contrast and more. The resulting masks can then be used by filters, materials and more to design and customise the terrain as required.

The masks below can be used to apply filters and materials along the highlighted (red) values. It is important to note that the World Creators distribution masks are independent of terrain size and will always map to the exact level of detail you have selected (e.g. maximum detail).

MATERIAL PAINTING

Sometimes you just want to draw materials on a terrain without using any procedural techniques. In World Creator, you can do this simply by using brushes, just as you would in Adobe Substance Designer, with a non-destructive workflow. Draw colours, textures, Adobe Substance materials and gradients wherever you want.

Drawing materials on the terrain using brushes

COLORED STAMPING

World Creator allows you to import custom elevation and colour maps as stamps to create and extend your existing terrains. You can import DEM data or terrains from other applications and assemble a new landscape within World Creator in real time.

The rivers sample terrain imported as a colored stamp

FLUID SIMULATION

World Creator allows you to run physically based fluid simulations to apply water masses to the terrain. These simulations create internal masks that can be used by filters and materials for further processing.

Water simulation used to create lakes, rivers and seas

SAND SIMULATION

In addition to fluid simulations, World Creator also allows you to perform physically based sand simulations to apply sand mass to the terrain. These simulations create internal masks that can be used by filters and materials for further processing.

A rocky terrain filled up with sand

REALISTIC SEDIMENTS

World Creator's sediment system has also become a true masterpiece over the past few years. Not only is it GPU-powered and therefore real-time, but it's also ultra-realistic and highly customisable for every possible scenario.

A fully 8k terrain with sediments applied in real-time

REALISTIC EROSIONS

World Creator's erosion system has become a true masterpiece over the past few years. Not only is it GPU-powered and therefore real-time, but it's also ultra-realistic and highly customisable for every possible scenario.

A fully 8k eroded terrain in real-time

PROCEDURAL STAMPING

As an addition to the Terrain Stamping feature, we have added procedural stamps such as volcanoes, islands, fissures and more, saving you a lot of time creating these specific terrain features. Think of it as a terrain generator within World Creator.

A procedural created volcano using Procedural Stamps

PATH TOOL

World Creator lets you create simple rivers, roads, mountain ranges, canyons and more with our unique vector-based and distance-field-based path tools, giving you even more creative freedom.

A mountain range created with the Path Tool

BRUSH BASED SCULPTING

World Creator allows you to easily create a terrain from scratch, as well as customising existing terrains with built-in sculpting tools. One of these is Brushed Based Sculpting, which behaves exactly like a painting tool like Photoshop, but for terrains. You select a brush or import a custom brush, adjust the brush settings and start to raise, lower, align and flatten the terrain at any point.

A smiley painted on the terrain using standard brush tools

GRID BASED SCULPTING

One of the more diverse sculpting tools is Grid Based Sculpting, which is perfect for very quick creations and adjustments. You select cells in a grid using a brush, and then you can modify those cells and their neighbours. It gives you less control over small parts of the terrain, but offers many more new possibilities, such as copying, rotating, tilting, scaling, raising, lowering, aligning and more.

A smiley painted on the terrain using the new grid based sculpting system

CLOUDS AND MIST

World Creator extends its rendering capabilities with 3D volumetric clouds, along with atmospheric scatter, fog and mist, to improve your renderings immensely, all in real time.

A mountain view above clouds

WATER

Another scene element we added quite early after release was water rendering. At the moment it is mainly used for rendering oceans and seas, but could also be used for simple rivers and lakes.

A lake nearby a mountain range

COLOR ADJUSTMENTS

Adjust the final render using sliders for brightness, saturation, contrast and more. In a later version, we will add LUTs and more colour adjustments.

MULTI-CAMERA SYSTEM

With World Creator 2023, we have added the ability to import cameras from FBX files to reassemble scenes created in other applications. It is also possible to export them to FBX for re-use in other applications.

INCREMENTAL SAVING

Projects can optionally be saved incrementally, which means that time-stamped saves of a project you are working on are created, allowing you to follow the history of the project. This means you can be sure that you will never lose a particular terrain setting that you may have liked after making a few more changes.

MULTILINGUAL SUPPORT

World Creator supports over 10 languages by default - English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish and many more. We are constantly improving the translation and adding new languages as the application develops.

INTUITIVE USER INTERFACE

World Creator's user interface is intuitive, easy to use, fully customisable, with an amazing and modern look. We use an Adobe Photoshop-like system where things are organised in layers instead of nodes, making things extremely easy to use.

PRESETS FOR EVERYTHING

Presets can be created for biomes, filters, materials, brushes and even full export settings, making everything reusable and shareable for future projects. We have included many amazing presets that will save you a lot of time experimenting with World Creator.

BRIDGE EXPORT

World Creator's Bridge Export allows you to export a terrain from World Creator to other applications with a single click. Currently we support Unity, Unreal, Blender, Cinema4D and Houdini. More to come.

GENERAL EXPORT

World Creator supports export to OBJ, FBX, GLTF, TIFF, PNG, RAW (16 or 32-bit) and EXR (32-bit) among many other formats for the broadest industry coverage. You can load your World Creator assets into any serious 3D DCC application or game engine.