This chapter will discuss the sculpting tools (see Screenshot 21).They consist of, from left to right, the "Select and Move" tool, the "Lock Angle" tool, the "Height Brush", the "Mound Brush", the "Dig Brush", and "Smooth Height Brush".

The "Select and Move" tool is your basic cursor, or picking tool for the editor. This tool is used to select objects, other tools, textures and so and so forth.

The "Lock Angle" tool is a very nifty tool for those of us that have jittery fingers. When selected this tool will lock the angle of the selected sculpting tool, height, mound and dig, to the angle you first start to drag it toward. This will allow you to raise or lower the terrain in a relatively straight line, depending on whether the angle is a cardinal, or subcardinal direction. The cardinal directions will raise and lower in a very smooth line while the subcardinal directions will have a zigzag type of shape as they pass over the separate tiles. This can be smoothed using the smoothing tool. Remember to turn this tool off before attempting any freehand work

Next in line is the "Height Brush" Screenshot 22. After selecting this tool a menu will appear with the parameters that avail themselves to you. You may adjust the brush diameter by using the slider or by directly typing in the desired number of tile widths to be used. The "Brush Feather Width" is denoted in a translucent green and can also be adjusted using the above methods. The feather feature allows for the ground to be raised or lowered with an increasing grade angle. The smaller the feather number the steeper the hill, until it becomes impassable, or cliff material. The larger the number the less severe the angle is to the finished height. The "Brush Height" param sets the altitude that you desire. Note that an entry of 16 will result in a 10 foot height. 32 would be a 20 foot height. The max height is 255, or 159 feet. The min height is 0.

The next 2 tools are the "Mound" tool and the "Dig" tool Screenshot 23. These tools are used for raising and lowering the terrain gradually. The altitude will increase or decrease by the parameter in the Brush Height box with every tic of the mouse. By passing, or scrubbing the terrain and holding the left button on your mouse down the height will raise or lower in a nonlinear fashion. This is how mountains can be formed. By passing the brush across the terrain surface you can effectively raise or lower the ground in a random fashion depending on your style of mouse scrolling. The parameters are the same as in the previously discussed Height tool and work the same way with the exception of the height parameter, which is an absolute for the height tool, where the mound and dig tools will continue to raise or lower until the maximums are met.

The last tool we will discuss in this chapter is the "Smoothing" tool Screenshot 24. As the name reveals, this tool will smooth the terrain for you. The Feather Brush option box contains 3 parameters also. The brush width, the filter radius, and the feather rate. The tool is used by washing or scrubbing the brush over rough terrain that you need to have smoothed. It will smooth out impassable terrain as well as uneven terrain. The brush size is denoted by the blue outline. The filter rate determines how fast the brush will work. A little bit goes a long way with this parameter. The higher the rate the faster the smoothing action. The feather rate determines the amount of smoothing that happens. The higher the rate the more smoothing will occur. Be careful though, as too much will effectively flatten the map. The smoothing tool will raise some terrain while lowering other, it seeks the average height and tries to attain that.

This concludes Chapter 2...

Chapter 3 - Texture Painting »