Water, roads and coasts

This page covers the water and road tools of the Landscape mode. Draw rivers by hand, or click a spring and let a river flow automatically along low ground. Roads are flattened along a curve, with bridges over valleys and water. The coast and island tool creates sea and islands at once.

How to open

1. Press T to enter Landscape mode.
2. Choose a tool from the Mode list in the Terrain · water section of the Tools panel on the left.

Mode item	What it does
Water fill	Fills the connected empty cells below, starting from the clicked empty cell up to the water level.
River	Digs a river along the path of the points you place.
Waterfall	Creates water falling from a cliff edge and a pool at the bottom.
Auto river	Runs a river from the clicked spring along low ground. Collect several springs to merge tributaries.
Lake	Fills a depression up to just below its overflow height.
Road flattening	Cuts and fills an N-block-wide road along a curve. Places bridges over water and deep valleys.
Coast · islands	Fills water up to sea level and creates N islands.

Quick start

Building a river network with Auto river

1. Choose Mode › Auto river.
2. Ctrl+click spring spots on the mountains. Click several places.
3. The panel shows “N springs collected”.
4. Press Enter (or Create rivers from collected springs).
5. Rivers start from the highest springs and join when they reach another river.

If one spring is enough, just click. A single river branch is created right there. Shift+click previews only the path without creating the river (block count, end, height change).

Placing a road

1. Choose Mode › Road flattening.
2. Click the ground to place two or more points. Drag a point to move it.
3. See the summary (length, cut, fill, number of bridges, max slope) with Precompute.
4. Press Enter (or Create).

Rivers · tributaries

River (drawn by hand)

Click the ground to place path points and press Enter. The water surface only goes down toward the downstream end. Flowing water is placed on slopes. When Build levees is on, levees are built where the ground outside the river is lower than the water surface.

Auto river

From the clicked column, digs a river along lower ground to water, the region edge or a pit, and fills it with water.

• Flat ground is crossed by the shortest route.
• Small ridges up to Max ridge height to cross are dug through.
• Banks are covered with sand and gravel.
• If it ends in a pit, a hint suggests filling it with Lake.
• When Inside selection only is on, the river ends at the edge of the selection.

Joining tributaries

Springs collected with Ctrl+click become rivers one by one, from highest to lowest. When one reaches a river made earlier, it joins there.

• Width after joining = √(sum of incoming widths²). It does not exceed Max width after joining.
• Each join deepens the river by Depth + per join.
• When Match join water level is on, the water surface at the end of the tributary is matched to the receiving river’s surface.
• If the tributary’s surface is higher by Join waterfall drop or more, a waterfall is created at the junction.
• The branch with the most water is the Main stem; the rest are Tributary 1, Tributary 2… in order of water volume. Rivers with a different mouth are River 2…. The status bar shows the main stem length.

Lake · water fill · waterfall

Tool	How to use
Lake	Click a depression. It goes down to the lowest point, then fills water up to the lowest rim − 1. When Auto water level is off, it fills up to Manual surface y.
Water fill	Click an empty cell. Fills only the connected empty cells below, up to the clicked height + Surface raise.
Waterfall	Click the empty cell just outside a cliff edge. That cell is the top source; water falls to the ground below and a pool forms at the bottom.

If there is a leak (a low rim or a hole in the bottom), nothing is filled and a message tells you. Lower the water level or plug the hole and try again.

If you choose Lava in the Fluid field, Water fill, River, Waterfall, Auto river and Lake do the same with lava.

Road flattening · bridges

Creates an N-block-wide road along a curve.

• The slope is kept within the Slope 1/N limit: it rises 1 block per N blocks traveled.
• Half-block height differences are joined with slabs, and one-block rises with stairs.
• Both sides are finished with dirt embankments (cut slopes) or retaining walls (stone walls). With Sides set to Auto (wall if high), retaining walls are used where the height difference is Wall from height diff or more.
• Where the fill height is Bridge: fill height ≥ or more, or over water, the section is not filled and becomes a bridge section.
• Bridge decks and railings are placed automatically, with railing connections matched.
• Choose a row in the Bridge sections list to move the camera to that bridge.

Choose the Material from Dirt path, Gravel path or Stone path.

Coast · islands

1. Choose Mode › Coast · islands.
2. Set the sea level, island count, island size and beach ratio.
3. Click the ground in the viewport. It is created in a square of Click radius around the clicked point.
4. Or select a region and press Create in selection. Preview shows only the island positions first.

After the land work, the water, seagrass and coral work follows. The coastline is split into beaches and cliffs according to Beach ratio. The region’s edges blend into the original terrain over Edge blend width.

If the area outside the region is lower than the water surface or empty, sea water flows out in game. Edge leaks set to Build levee (default) fills the edge columns with sandstone up to the water surface. The area outside the region is not touched. Warn only leaves the water as is and reports the number and coordinates of leaking columns in the status bar.

Options

River · Auto river · tributaries

Option	Range	Default	Description
Fluid	Water · Lava	Water	Fluid to fill with.
Width	1 – 64 (Auto river 1 – 32)	5	River width.
Depth	1 – 16	3	River depth.
Build levees	On/Off	On	Builds levees on low ground outside the river.
Max levee height	1 – 32	8	Maximum levee height for River (drawn by hand).
Max length	16 – 4096	600	Auto river: river length limit (blocks).
Max ridge height to cross	0 – 16	3	Auto river: ridge height to dig through.
Inside selection only	On/Off	Off	Auto river: runs only inside the selection.
Max width after joining	1 – 64	16	Width limit after tributaries join.
Depth + per join	0 – 4	1	Depth added at each join.
Max depth	1 – 24	6	Depth limit of joined rivers.
Match join water level	On/Off	On	Matches the tributary’s end surface to the receiving river’s surface.
Join waterfall drop	0 – 32	2	Places a waterfall at the junction if the difference is this height or more. 0 = no waterfall.

Banks (Auto river · Lake)

Option	Range	Default	Description
Sand/gravel banks	On/Off	On	Changes the surface ground along the water to sand and gravel.
Bank width	0 – 8	2	Changes this far inland from the water.
Sand % (rest gravel)	0 – 100	70	Sand ratio.

Lake · water fill · waterfall

Option	Range	Default	Description
Auto water level	On/Off	On	Fills up to just below the overflow height.
Lower from auto	0 – 32	0	Fills this much lower than the auto water level.
Manual surface y	−64 – 319	62	Water level used when Auto water level is off. If higher than the rim it would leak, so nothing is filled.
Max area (columns)	256 – 1,048,576	65,536	Lake area limit.
Surface raise	−32 – 64	0	Water fill: blocks added to the clicked height.
Limit (blocks)	1,000 – 20,000,000	2,000,000	Water fill: if exceeded, nothing is filled.
Inside selection only	On/Off	Off	Water fill: fills only inside the selection.
Width	1 – 8	2	Waterfall width.
Pool radius · Pool depth	0 – 16 · 1 – 8	3 · 2	Size of the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.

Road flattening

Option	Range	Default	Description
Material	Dirt path · Gravel path · Stone path	Dirt path	Surface block of the road.
Width	1 – 32	5	Road width (blocks).
Slope 1/N (N)	1 – 32	4	Rises at most 1 block per N blocks traveled.
Follow ground (avg blocks)	0 – 32	4	Averages this many blocks ahead and behind to smooth the height.
Sides	Auto (wall if high) · Embankment only · Retaining wall only	Auto	Finish on both sides of the road.
Wall from height diff	1 – 32	3	In Auto, retaining walls are used from this height difference.
Retaining wall block	Block id	minecraft:stone_bricks	Retaining wall block.
Embankment slope (run/1 block)	0.5 – 4	1	Horizontal blocks per 1 block of descent for dirt embankments.
Embankment max distance	0 – 32	10	Maximum distance an embankment extends from the road edge.
Clear above	0 – 16	4	Clears this much space above the road.
Slabs for half steps	On/Off	On	Joins half-block height differences with slabs.
Stairs on one-block rises	On/Off	On	Places stairs on one-block rises.
Bridge: fill height ≥	2 – 64	6	If the fill height is this or more, it becomes a bridge section.
Bridge over water	On/Off	On	Makes sections over water into bridges.
Bridge deck/railing	On/Off	On	When off, bridge sections are only marked.
Seed	0 – 99999	1	Seed for the road material pattern.

Coast · islands

Option	Range	Default	Description
Click radius	16 – 1024	96	Half-width of the square around the clicked point.
Sea level	−60 – 300	62	Water surface height.
Sea depth	2 – 64	14	Depth to the deepest sea floor.
Island count	0 – 64	3	Number of islands to create. Fewer are made if there is no room.
Island radius min · max	4 – 512	20 · 44	Island size range.
Island height (above water)	2 – 128	20	Height of the island tops.
Beach ratio	0 – 1	0.6	Share of the coastline that is beach. The rest is cliff.
Beach width	1 – 32	6	Beach width.
Cliff height	2 – 64	7	Height of cliff coasts.
Coastline roughness	0 – 1	0.35	How jagged the coastline is.
With existing terrain	Replace (edges blend only) · Keep original if higher · Mix (ratio)	Replace	How to combine with the original terrain.
Mix ratio (new terrain)	0 – 1	0.5	Share of the new terrain in Mix (ratio).
Edge blend width	0 – 128	16	Width over which the region’s edges blend into the original terrain.
Edge leaks	Build levee (default) · Warn only · Don’t check	Build levee	Handling of places where water leaks out of the region.
Seagrass · Seagrass density	On/Off · 0 – 1	On · 0.3	Seagrass on the sea floor.
Coral · Coral density	On/Off · 0 – 1	Off · 0.06	Coral on the deep floor.
Split land/water actors	On/Off	On	Splits land and water into two operations and two actors. When off, it is one operation.
Seed	0 – 99999	1	Seed for island positions and coastline pattern.

Shortcuts

Key	Action
Click	River · road: add point / Auto river: create one branch / Lake · Water fill · Waterfall · Coast · islands: create at that spot
Ctrl+click	Auto river: collect spring / road: insert point
Shift+click	Auto river: preview path only / road: delete point
Drag a point	Road: move point
Enter	Create river · road / Auto river: create rivers from collected springs
Backspace	Road · collected springs: delete the last point
Esc	Clear river and road points and collected springs (when there are points)
[ · ] (or - · =)	River · Auto river · road: width −1 · +1
Ctrl+Z	Undo the last operation (twice for Coast · islands — water → land)

Tips / cautions

• Water operations (Water fill, River, Waterfall, Auto river, Lake) go into the Outliner as the Water actor.
• Coast · islands is two operations by default: land → water. Press Ctrl+Z twice to undo. If you cancel the land operation with Esc, the water is not filled.
• The editor does not simulate how water flows. It only sets the water block states; the server recalculates the actual flow.
• Large region operations show progress in the status bar. Cancel with Esc to return to the original state.
• For a warm-sea look, combine this with biome painting in Light and biomes.
• The same settings and the same seed give the same result.

Related pages

• Landscape
• Foliage
• Light and biomes
• Selection and region editing