NEXT UPCOMING FEATURES
The next updates to World Creator will include the features listed below.
NEW NOISE TYPES
We are adding new noise filters and noise distributions to give you more flexibility in designing and colouring your terrain. We are also extending the current noise types with additional variations.
COLORED FAST RENDER MODE
We're so excited to announce that the current Fast Render Mode will be extended and improved with coloring abilities! This is going to make a world of difference for those using low-end GPUs, improving their design workflow.
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.
NEW FEATURES RECENTLY ADDED
Check out some of the new features we have added to the latest version of World Creator.
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.
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.
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.
.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.
FULL FEATURE LIST
World Creator has a huge list of features. We have summarised the most important features for you.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Talus
Ridge
Border
Peaks
Crater
Distort
Heightmap
Canyon
Rocky Cliffs
Sand
Swirl
Inflate
Terrace
Wind
Rugged
Smooth Ridges
Rocky Wide
Rocky Hard
Rocky Sharp
Rocky Plateaus
Mud
Fill Soft
Fill Hard
Denoise
Deflate
Balloon
Thin Flows
Ridged Flows
Soft Flows
Thin Flows Rocky
Wide Flows
Wide Soft Flows
Wide Flows Streams
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.
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.
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).
Cavity
Real-Time Flows
Brush Splatting
Curvature
Slope
Height
Mask Painting
Perlin Noise
Roughness
Satellite Image
Sun Direction
Worley Noise
Dots
Angle
Angle Blur
Fast Flow
Simple Flow
Blur
Contrast
Distort
Edge
Voronoi
Smooth Step
Denoise
Clamp
Invert
Mask Import
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ROYALTY FREE MATERIALS INCLUDED
World Creator comes with more than 138 royalty-free materials (textures and Adobe Substances) that you can use in your own projects immediately after purchase.
Below we have listed some (but not all 138) materials:
There are so many more smaller features that make up the whole application, but it is impossible to list and explain them all.
Please check out the documentation and tutorial videos, as well as all the videos listed on this website, to get an idea of what World Creator can do for you.
We also suggest you to join us on Discord, with more than 13,000 friendly and helpful users.
There you can follow the latest news, daily renders, live talks and live shows, as well as get in direct contact with us, the developers.