Drawing regions

A region is an area at a single height. Use them for towers, balconies, raised platforms, pits, ponds, courtyards — anywhere the elevation should be constant across the shape.

All three shape tools (polygon, rectangle, circle) commit to the same underlying region data; the only difference is how you draw them. You can mix them freely on a single scene.

Switching between shapes

In the Polygon tab, you’ll see a small toggle row labelled Shape with three options:

Option	Gesture
Polygon	Click each vertex; commit on the first vertex / Enter / double-click.
Rect	Click and drag from one corner to the opposite corner.
Circle	Click and drag from the centre outward to set the radius.

The + Draw button below picks up whichever shape is selected.

Drawing a polygon

1. In the Polygon tab, leave Shape on Polygon (the default).
2. Set the defaults you want — Height, Falloff, Blend (see Defaults below).
3. Click + Draw polygon. The cursor turns into the polygon-drawing reticle.
4. Click on the canvas to place each vertex. A blue outline + tinted fill previews the shape as you go.
5. To commit, click the first vertex (within ~16 px), press Enter, or double-click.
6. To undo the last vertex, right-click.
7. To cancel without committing, press Esc.

The new region is selected automatically — its edit form appears in the panel so you can tweak height/falloff/blend live.

Drawing a rectangle

1. Set Shape to Rect.
2. Click + Draw rectangle.
3. Click and drag from one corner to the opposite corner.
4. Release to commit.

Camera panning is paused during the drag so it doesn’t fight you. Right-click or Esc to cancel.

Drawing a circle

1. Set Shape to Circle.
2. Click + Draw circle.
3. Click at the centre, drag outward to set the radius. The preview shows the centre crosshair and the live circle.
4. Release to commit.

Behind the scenes, circles are stored as 32-segment polygons. With any Falloff > 0 the segmentation isn’t visible.

Defaults

Everything in the New region defaults panel applies to the next region you draw. Existing regions don’t change.

Control	Range	What it does
Height	−1 to +1	Where the region sits relative to ground. +0.5 is “above the table”; −0.5 is “set into the ground”. 0 has no parallax effect.
Falloff	0 to 120 px	How feathered the region’s edge is. 0 = a hard cliff. 30 = a gentle slope-shouldered hill. The blur is in world pixels, so it scales with the map’s resolution.
Blend	max / replace / add	How this region combines with overlapping regions. See Blend modes below.

Tip

A negative height region with a soft falloff is the cleanest way to draw water or a pit. Try height: -0.5, falloff: 30. Add a few painted brush strokes to break up the edge for a more natural shoreline.

Editing a region

Click any region on the canvas to select it. The panel switches to the region’s edit form:

• Height slider — drags live; the parallax effect updates as you move.
• Falloff (px) — soft-edge blur; 0 is a sharp cliff.
• Blend dropdown — see below.
• Deselect drops the selection without changing the region.
• Delete removes it.

You can also click a region’s row in the Regions list at the bottom of the tab. The list shows h=… (height value), Npts (vertex count), and the blend if it isn’t max.

Blend modes

When two regions overlap, the Blend mode decides which one wins.

Mode	What happens at overlaps
max (default)	The higher-h region wins. Use this 95% of the time — a balcony at 0.8 sitting on top of a courtyard at 0.3 just shows the balcony.
replace	The region drawn last unconditionally overwrites whatever’s beneath. Useful for “carve a depression into a plateau” — set the carve to replace and a negative height.
add	The region’s height is added to whatever’s beneath, capped at 1. Useful for layering small bumps on top of a base elevation. Positive heights only — for depressions use max or replace.

The rasterizer draws add first, then max-blend regions sorted by height ascending (so the highest is drawn last and wins overlaps), then replace regions in priority order.

Mass cleanup

To clear every region and ramp on the scene, expand the Diagnostics section at the bottom of the panel and click Clear all regions / ramps. This doesn’t touch the brush layer.

Tips

• Start subtle. Most authors over-author the first time — a height of 1 with no falloff makes everything look like cardboard cutouts. 0.4–0.6 with 20 px falloff is the sweet spot for “this looks photographic.”
• Polygon for organic shapes, rectangle for buildings, circle for towers / wells. They’re not different features — just hand-friendly variants.
• The 3D preview is your friend. When something doesn’t read right in 2D, open it (Visualise → Open 3D preview) and rotate; you’ll see immediately if a slope is wrong or a region is sticking up where you didn’t expect.

Related

• Ramps — linear gradients between two heights, for stairs and slopes.
• Brush — freehand paint that lets you carve depressions into existing regions or raise mounds.
• Parallax & preview — global controls and the 3D inspection modal.