Landscape

Landscape is the mode for changing terrain height with brushes. Besides height brushes, the same panel creates curves (castle walls, roads, ditches), caves and overhang cliffs. Water, roads and coasts are covered in Water, roads and coasts, and planting trees and grass in Foliage.

How to open

Method	Description
`T`	Switches to Landscape mode.
Main toolbar	Press the Landscape button in the mode row.
Details panel	Selecting a Landscape actor shows a Go to Landscape mode button.

When you enter the mode, the Terrain · water section appears in the Tools panel on the left. Choose what to do from the Mode list at the top.

Mode item	What it does	Page
Height brush	Raise · lower · smooth · flatten · ramp · noise · paint material · erosion · carve the ground	This page
Curve	Castle walls · roads · ditches · bridges · fences along a curve through points	This page
Cave · Overhang cliff	Underground tunnels · cliff eaves	This page
Water fill · River · Waterfall · Road flattening · Auto river · Lake · Coast · islands	Water and roads	Water, roads and coasts
Scatter	Trees · grass · flowers · rocks	Foliage

Quick start

Press T to enter Landscape mode.
Make sure Mode is Height brush.
Choose Raise in the Brush row.
Hover over the ground in the viewport. The height change is shown as a ghost.
Drag while holding the left button. The ground rises.
Releasing ends one stroke. One stroke is one undo step (Ctrl+Z).

Ghost colors: green = raised, red = lowered, white = unchanged. The ghost and the actual result use the same calculation, so they never differ.

Shift+drag carves and Ctrl+drag smooths. Only that stroke changes, regardless of the brush currently selected. However, in the Ramp and Paint material tools, the modifier keys do not switch to carve or smooth.

Height brush tools

Tool	What it does	Options used
Raise	Raises the ground with each drag.	Radius · Strength · Falloff · Height per stroke
Lower	Lowers the ground with each drag.	Radius · Strength · Falloff · Height per stroke
Smooth	Smooths bumpy areas to match neighboring heights.	Radius · Strength · Falloff
Flatten	Levels the circle to one height.	To start height · Target height
Ramp	Connects two points (A · B) with a straight slope.	Points A · B, A-B at once
Noise	Adds natural undulation.	Pattern scale · Strength (blocks) · Seed
Paint material	Keeps the height and paints only the surface blocks with one layer from the material rules.	Paint layer
Erosion	Collapses steep areas or lets rainwater cut gullies. The amount of soil stays the same.	Erosion type · Iterations (per stroke) · Collapse angle°
Carve	Cuts the ground down. Carve never raises the ground.	Type · Depth · Trench width · Trench depth · Side slope°

With the Ramp tool, Shift+click sets point A and Ctrl+click sets point B. Each point’s height is the height of the ground you clicked. Then drag to paint or press A-B at once. The width of A-B at once is the brush diameter.

There are four carve Type values.

Type	What it does
Lower	Lowers by Height per stroke with each drag. Uses the current radius and falloff.
Dig (target depth)	Lowers only down to the pressed height − Depth. The bottom is flat.
Dig along path	Digs a ditch or trench along the dragged path. Side 90° = vertical walls (trench); 45° = 1 block deeper per 1 block inward (ditch).
Cut cliff	Lowers the circle at once to the pressed height − Depth. The edge becomes a vertical wall.

View direction (side faces)

Since 0.9.9: You can paint while looking at the side faces of cliffs and overhangs.

When you press a block’s side face with Raise, Lower or the carve Lower, painting is based on that face instead of the height seen from above.

Raise builds surface blocks outward from the face (toward the camera).
Lower and carve dig into the face.
The brush circle stands vertically on the face, with outward and inward arrows.
Radius, strength, falloff and height per stroke use the height brush values as they are.
Pressing a top face works as a height brush, as before.

Turn this behavior off with the View direction (side faces) field. It is on by default.

Floors under a ceiling

Since 0.9.11: When you click a floor under a floating slab or overhang, that floor is used as the reference.

Previously the height brush and ghost always used the topmost ground of the column. So when there was a ceiling, the ghost floated on top of it. Now the clicked layer is used as the reference. Ordinary terrain with nothing above works as before.

Auto material · material rules

When Auto material is on (default on), the surface blocks of columns whose height changed are repainted according to the material rules. When off, the original dirt and stone layers stay as they are.

The default rules use the first match from the top. If none matches, the Grass layer is used.

Rule	Condition	Layers (surface / below)
Steep = stone	Slope > 45°	Stone / stone
High = snow	Height ≥ 120	Snow block / 2 blocks of dirt
Shore = sand (off by default)	Height ≤ 63	Sand / 3 blocks of sandstone
(matches no rule)	—	Grass block / 3 blocks of dirt

When Steep sides only is on (default on), the slope rule applies only to exposed side faces. Top faces follow the flat-ground rules (grass, snow, sand). Stepped slopes end up with grass on top and stone on the sides.

Share rules as JSON files (np-terrain-rules) with Load… and Save… in the Material rules section. Saving never overwrites a file of the same name; it writes a new name such as _v2.

Whole selection · heightmap

When there is a selection, apply at once with the Whole selection buttons. These are large operations, so the status bar shows progress and you can cancel with Esc.

Button	What it does
Flatten	Levels to Target height.
Smooth	Smooths the whole region.
Noise	Adds undulation using the noise options.
Material rules	Keeps the height and only repaints with the material rules.
Erosion	Erodes Region iterations times.

The Heightmap section imports and exports 16-bit grayscale PNGs.

Import…: If there is a selection, stretches the image to its size. If not, applies it at its own size starting from (0, 0).
Export…: Writes the heights of the selection to a PNG.
Importing an exported file restores the heights exactly.

Curve

Mode › Curve builds a cross-section along a curve through points. Stair orientation, fence connections and turning slopes into steps are automatic.

Click the ground to place points. Drag a point to move it.
In Cross-section, choose one of Castle wall · Path · Ditch · canal · Bridge · Fence · railing · Custom.
Adjust the fields shown for each cross-section (thickness, height, width, blocks, etc.).
Press Enter or Create.

Option	Description
Curve	Catmull-Rom (through points) or Bézier (smooth)
Follow terrain	When on, follows the ground height. Off is the default for the bridge cross-section, so it connects the two end heights in a straight line.
Flip horizontally	The outside of a castle wall is to the left of the direction of travel. When on, the right is the outside.
Cross-section grid	Draws a custom cross-section in a character grid. Set a block for each character in Legend and press Apply legend. Use Save… and Load… for cross-sections.
Show block outlines	Previews the outlines of the blocks that will change in the viewport.
Precompute	Shows only a summary of the result without building.

Cave · overhang cliff

Mode › Cave has two Method values.

Method	How to use
Path cave (place points, Enter)	Click a cliff face or top face to place points, then `Enter` (or Carve). 1 point = one chamber. The first point keeps the clicked height, so the entrance is open.
Dig brush (drag)	Hold and drag to dig out a ball shape where you hit. Hitting the bottom of the dug hole again goes deeper. One stroke = one undo step.

Create caves in selection in the Cave network in selection section creates a network of interlinked tunnels and chambers in the selection. Cave walls stay as the original stone and dirt. When Carve water/lava too is off (default), cells next to liquids are left so water does not leak.

Mode › Overhang cliff creates a ledge that juts out like eaves along the cliff edge within the circle when you click near a cliff. The top is grass and the rest is stone. Use Whole selection to apply it to an entire region.

Walkability check

The walkability check is a separate mode that colors the cells reachable on foot from a start point and finds problem cells. Open it with Walkability check in the mode row of the main toolbar.

Press Check from spawn. If there are several player spawn markers, it starts from all of them.
If there is no spawn marker, press From click and click the ground in the viewport.
Review the result summary and the Problem list. Choose an item in the list to go to that cell.
After editing the world, press Redo (re-run the check).

It finds trap holes, unclimbable ledges, damaging drops, dead ends and unreachable islands. The Marker links section shows whether NPC, quest and warp markers are reachable from spawn.

Option	Default	Description
Check radius	128	Half-width (blocks) of the square around the start point.
Safe fall height	3	Falling from higher than this counts as taking damage.
Mark cliffs	4	Marks damaging drops of this height or more as problems.
Max trap pit	4	If the inescapable area is this many cells or fewer, it is a Trap hole; above that, it is a one-way zone.
Jump gap	3	Maximum same-level gap (blocks) crossed with a sprint jump. 4 is for skilled players.
Swimming · Ladders · vines · Open doors	On	Treats these as ways to pass.
Open iron doors	Off	Treats iron doors as openable and passable.
Diagonal movement · Jump across gaps · Sprint jump	On	Includes or excludes these movement methods.

Stop a running check with Stop or Esc. Pressing Esc while choosing a start point cancels the choice. The result overlay is cleared automatically when you open a new world. You can also run the check with the console command walkcheck [radius] or walkcheck <x> <y> <z> [radius].

Options

These are the options of the height brush section.

Option	Range	Default	Description
Auto material	On/Off	On	Repaints the surface blocks of changed columns according to the material rules.
Radius	1 – 128	8	Brush circle radius (blocks).
Strength	0 – 1	0.5	Fraction changed per dab.
Max distance	0 – 1024	160	Areas farther than this from the camera are not painted. Prevents painting unexpected distant spots when grazing the horizon.
Max drag jump	0 – 512	48	Maximum distance the brush can skip in one drag.
Falloff	Constant · Straight · Smooth · Round · Sharp	Smooth	How the effect weakens toward the circle’s edge.
Height per stroke	0.25 – 16	2	For Raise and Lower, blocks changed per dab at strength 1 (at the center).
View direction (side faces)	On/Off	On	Since 0.9.9. Pressing a side face paints in the face direction.
To start height	On/Off	On	Flatten: uses the height where the stroke started as the target.
Target height	−64 – 320	64	Flatten: levels to this height when To start height is off.
Pattern scale	1 – 256	8	Noise: size of one undulation.
Strength (blocks)	0.5 – 64	3	Noise: undulation height.
Seed	0 – 99999	1	Noise: the same seed gives the same pattern.
Erosion type	Thermal (collapse) · Hydraulic (rain)	Thermal	Thermal = steep areas collapse into slopes. Hydraulic = rainwater cuts gullies and deposits below.
Iterations (per stroke)	1 – 64	6	Erosion: iterations per dab.
Collapse angle°	5 – 85	40	Thermal erosion: anything steeper than this collapses.
Region iterations	1 – 500	30	Iteration count of Whole selection › Erosion.
Carve type	Lower · Dig (target depth) · Dig along path · Cut cliff	Lower	Method used by `Shift`+drag and the Carve tool.
Depth	1 – 256	4	Dig · Cut cliff: digs this far below the start height.
Trench width	1 – 64	3	Dig along path: bottom width.
Trench depth	1 – 64	3	Dig along path: depth.
Side slope°	10 – 90	60	Dig along path: 90 = vertical walls; lower is gentler.
Depth follows terrain	On/Off	On	Dig along path: when off, makes a flat-bottomed channel.
Paint layer	Layer name from the rules	Stone	Paint material: layer to paint.
Steep sides only	On/Off	On	Applies the slope rule only to side faces.
File height range	On/Off	On	Heightmap import: uses the height range written in the file.
Black = height · White = height	−64 – 320	0 · 128	Heightmap import: heights that black and white mean when the file range is not used.
Auto range	On/Off	On	Heightmap export: stretches the region’s lowest to highest to the full gray range.

Shortcuts

Key	Action
`T`	Landscape mode
Drag	Paint with the current brush
`Shift`+drag	Carve (according to the carve Type)
`Ctrl`+drag	Smooth
`Shift`+click · `Ctrl`+click	Ramp tool: point A · point B
`[` · `]` (or `-` · `=`)	Size of the current mode −1 · +1. Height brush = radius, cave = thickness, overhang cliff = circle radius. `Shift` = larger step
`Enter`	Create curve · path cave
`Backspace`	Delete the last point of a curve or path cave
`Esc`	Clear all curve or cave points / cancel a large operation
Curve: `Ctrl`+click · `Shift`+click	Insert point · delete point
`Ctrl`+`Z`	Undo the last stroke or operation

Tips / cautions

The height brush changes only the topmost ground, column by column. Make caves and eaves with Cave, Overhang cliff or view direction (side faces).
Until a stroke ends, the mouse does not hit cells changed by that stroke. Dragging over ground you just raised does not make the brush keep jumping upward.
The same settings and the same seed always give the same result.
Height brush, cave and Whole selection operations go into the Outliner as the Landscape actor, and curves as Spline_N actors. You can view and hide them per actor.
Save rules you use often and Load… them in other maps.