The purpose of QuArK's Terrain Generator is to allow the user to actually create and edit their terrain at any time during the map creation process. But with far more control over variation of terrain size, scale, placement and usage to create unique surfaces as well as the ability to pull the terrain to existing map items.

It is based on the solid brush (polyhedron) format that is now used in QuArK for any other structure type. However, unlike most terrain editor surfaces, which are based on units of squares that are converted to triangles during the map file export process for importing to QuArK, our terrain surface will start at that triangular unit stage.

Also, because the Terrain Generator was created around QuArK, it can use many of the other existing features and functions that already existed. The most vital one being QuArK's Texture Browser which will support applying, changing and scaling of the terrain texture as it is being created or edited.

Another very unique feature of QuArK's Terrain Generator is its ability to work with not only the 'up faces' of the terrain surface, but the 'down faces' and both simultaneously as well !!! You can read more about these functions on the 'Menus and Toolbar-icons' page.

There are four fundamental steps in using QuArK's Terrain Generator. They are Selection, Setup, Shaping, and Texture.

More detail about these steps, additional features and functions are given on their individual Infobase pages.
But for now we just want to go over a general highlight of its operation.

First, a 'Terrain Shape Builder' needs to be selected from the Terrain Toolbar. There are three patterns to chose from. Here we have chosen the second button from your left, which is the 2X pattern. This will drop a default sized Shape Builder into the editor's view and even though it shows the triangular grid pattern, it is really a single poly at this point. Before it can actually be used to create a terrain there are some basic settings that can be made and the Shape Builder must be Dissociated to create the individual triangular polys that you will be working with.

The next step is to size or pull the 'Terrain Shape Builder' to cover the area that is desired. This is done by clicking on one of its side handles and moving it to where you want while holding down the LMB. This can be done to any or all of its sides. The same goes for its thickness or height by pulling its top and bottom, or down face, handles. A word a caution here! Because additional triangular polys are going to be created and their default unit setting is small (32 units per square section) at this time, too large of an area will dramatically slow down your computer. In fact, it can seem to even lock it up! But this is really not the case. If you elect to continue with a large area of small unit size polys, your computer will free up once it has completed calculating and drawing the polys in all of the editors views.

However, there is a built in warning that will appear when you cross this poly count threshold which will allow you to cancel the process and either reduce the area size or increase the unit setting for the grid and thus continue to cover the desired area. This is done by changing the wedgeunits to a larger setting using any amount you wish, so long as the game you are mapping for will support that size setting. The other two settings, sameheight and detailmesh are covered in detail on the 'Terrain Shape Builder' page. Once this process of resizing and making the setting changes has been completed, you are then ready to Dissociate, or brake apart, the 'Terrain Shape Builder'. To do this, simply LMB click on the 'Terrain Shape Builder' icon in the Tree-view of the editor, then RMB click, to cause its popup menu to appear, and select Dissociate Duplicator images. This function will create the individual triangular polys of the terrain grid and place them into a single folder for that particular Terrain Maker 2X session. As you create other terrain sections, going through the same process, they too will be placed into their individual folders to keep them separate and well organized to work with later as your creation becomes more involved and detailed. The reasoning for this process will become more clear as it is covered further on the 'Terrain Shape Builder' page. You are now ready to start creating the terrain through the use of the Shaping process.

To start the actual shaping process you need to click on the Basic Selector button of the Terrain modes tool bar, which is the last button on your right. Then in the Top View of the editor hold down your LMB and drag across the desired faces, area, you wish to start creating the terrain shape from. As you are dragging you will see a red rectangular box that will indicate the area you are selecting. Once the area is surrounded, let go of your mouse button and all of those up faces will turn red, indicating what has been selected for movement or pulling.

Once a selection has been made like this, you can then activate the Selector Dialog Input button just to the left of the Basic Selector button. This will bring up this particular selector's dialog input box. This Basic Selector Dialog box is only used by the Basic Selector button. As future selectors are added, they too can have their own dialog box that will relate to their particular features. This and other detail about the Selector Dialog Input function and the Basic Selector are covered on the 'Menus and Toolbar-icons' page.

Although it is not really necessary to use at this point to create your first terrain pull, I wanted to get you familiar with what needs to be done to activate it, its location and general features of its use, which is to change the way the terrain will be created as a pull is taking place. The dialog box can be dragged to any location by placing your mouse cursor over its blue title bar, holding down the LMB and moving it. It can also be resized like any other window and it will remain open and on top of the editor for your use until you click on the X button to close it. The first time you use the dialog box it will have default values already set in it that are also the default settings for that particular Terrain Selector. Once these settings are changed they are stored and saved to keep them the same until you change them again in another session of QuArK.

With that covered, you are now ready to drag and shape your terrain. The dialog box can remain open or closed during this process. It is best to use the editors Side or Front View to do the actual dragging of the terrain. Although both, the dragging and selection process, can be done in any of the 2D or 3D views. However, you will notice, if you do your dragging in the 3D views, that it will be much slower and jerky in appearance.

Place your mouse cursor over the center blue movement handle and holding down the LMB slowly move your cursor towards the top of the editor view. You should now see your terrain taking shape as you move your mouse further. If the size and amount of terrain you are moving is not too large, you will also see the changes in all of the other views, including the 3D views, as well. If not, briefly pausing, without releasing the LMB, will allow the editor to catch up for the redrawing of all of the views. This is the process that QuArK has to go through and why, sometimes, you may not see movement in the other views while you are dragging.

One other item about dragging. If the 3D view should become distorted during a drag, you can usually clear this up by pressing your Tab key a couple of times. This is the Default Hot Key to cause all of the views to be redrawn. This can also be done while you are dragging if need be.

Control of your mouse movement is the key here! Because of the way that QuArK processes terrain movement, the mouse curser will not remain on the center handle, but will tend to drift above or below it, depending on which direction you are dragging. This is normal. There is also a delay in movement reaction by the editor, for the same reasons, which can sometimes cause a run away effect to the terrain you are dragging. If this should happen, simply stop moving your mouse and release the LMB without canceling your terrain selection. Then click on the center handle again and slowly start your movement in the opposite direction. This will stop the run away movement all together and reset the handle co-ordinances to react properly once again.

If you are unable to use the stop and restart method because things have just gone too far already, then use the Edit menu Undo / Redo... function which will usually take you back to a safe point from which you can start from again. For these reasons I highly recommend that you save your work and/or make a backup copy as you reach critical stages in your map editing process.

Now that you have created your terrain surface, it is time to do some texturing to it. The texture that it starts with is the default texture that is set in QuArK's Configuration Settings. You could, just as easily selected your texture prior to creating the terrain all together. Sometimes this may be desirable as a base and other times it may be better to apply it last or even during the creation process. Here, we will apply it now that the terrain 'Shaping' has been completed.

To start with, select the desired area or, as here, the entire terrain surface. You can use the Terrain Selector that you have been using thus far, but only the faces that are movable will receive texturing. If you wish to texture the entire polys then you must use one of QuArK's Standard Selectors.

Then open QuArK's Texture Browser, select your texture as you would for any other poly and basically your terrain is complete!

For other suggestions about 'Texture' see the individual page on that subject as well as the other items covered on this page.

In addition, there are many more features that QuArK's Terrain Generator has to offer and have not been covered here.