Creating and editing Terrains

To add a Terrain GameObject to your Scene, select GameObject > 3D Object > Terrain from the menu. This also adds a corresponding Terrain Asset to the Project view. When you do this, the landscape is initially a large, flat plane. The Terrain’s Inspector window provides a number of tools to create detailed landscape features.

The four-icon toolbar provides options to sculpt and paint your Terrain, add trees and details such as grass, flowers, and rocks, and change general settings for the selected Terrain. For more information about each of these icons, see Terrain tools, Trees, Grass and other details, and Terrain Settings.

Select the paintbrush icon to access painting tools, which allow you to modify the Terrain. Use the cursor to sculpt the height of the Terrain, or paint texture onto the Terrain in various ways. Your cursor takes the shape of the selected brush; choose from several built-in shapes, or define your own brush using a texture. You can also change the size and opacity (the strength of the applied effect) of the brush. Then, click or drag on the Terrain to create different shapes and textures.

Similar to how you paint with a brush on the Terrain, you can add textures, trees, and details like grass. You can also create additional connected Terrain tiles, change the height of an entire tile, and even write custom brushes with complex effects.

Terrain keyboard shortcuts

The Terrain Inspector has the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Press F1 to select Paint Terrain.
• Press F2 to select Paint Trees.
• Press F3 to select Paint Details.
• Press F4 to select Terrain Settings.
• Use the comma (,) and period (.) keys to cycle through the available brushes.
• Use Shift-comma (<) and Shift-dot (>) to cycle through the available objects for trees, textures, and details.

Additionally, the standard F keystroke works slightly differently for Terrain. Normally, it frames the selection around the whole GameObject when you place the cursor over the Scene view. However, Terrains are typically very large, so when you press the F key, the Scene view focuses on the area where you position the cursor. This provides a very quick and intuitive way to jump to the Terrain area you want to edit. If you press F while the cursor is not over a Terrain tile, it reverts to the standard framing behavior.

Additional resources

• Scripting Reference for custom Terrain tools

• 2019–01–29 Page amended with editorial review

• New layout and functionality added in 2018.3