Terrain effects
A terrain effect turns one of your drawn polygon shapes into a living surface — animated lava, flowing water, a glowing rune circle, a sci-fi force field. Each preset comes with a custom-built shader, particle emission, and an optional matching light.
This page covers how to apply one. For a full preview of every preset see the preset catalog.
Prerequisites
Section titled “Prerequisites”You need a polygon or lasso shape with at least three points on your scene. Other shape types (line, arrow, rectangle, circle, freehand, text) can’t host a terrain effect. Convert with the Polygon mode in the Draw Tool if you have a different shape.
Applying an effect
Section titled “Applying an effect”- Open the Draw Tool (the pencil icon on the canvas toolbar).
- Click your polygon on the canvas to select it, or open the Shapes tab in the Draw Tool panel and click the polygon’s row.
- A panel appears underneath the row labelled Terrain.
- Pick a preset from the dropdown. The effect appears on the canvas immediately.
To remove an effect, set the preset back to None.
Tuning the look
Section titled “Tuning the look”When a preset is selected, the panel reveals a stack of sliders. Most behave the same across every preset:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Intensity | Overall strength. 1.0 = full effect, 0.2 = ghostly hint, 0 = invisible. |
| Speed | Animation rate. 0 freezes the surface; 3 makes it boil. |
| Scale | Pattern density. Lower = bigger features (one big swirl); higher = more cells per polygon (busy detail). |
| Tint | Optional colour override. Mixes with the preset’s palette so a green lava or red water is one click away. The reset link clears the override. |
| Edge softness | How feathered the polygon’s edge is, in pixels. 0 gives a hard cut; 60 fades far past the polygon outline like a misty boundary. The light’s edge is feathered to match. |
| Direction | (Some presets only.) The flow direction in degrees. 0° = right, 90° = down, 180° = left, 270° = up. Drag while watching the surface to dial in a river current, a dune wind, or a circuit-board pulse axis. |
| Animate light | Whether the preset’s tinted dynamic light should spawn. Some presets (lava, ethereal pool, holy ground, force field, etc.) default to ON because the glow is part of the look. Toggle off if you want the surface alone. |
When the direction slider appears
Section titled “When the direction slider appears”Direction is meaningful for surfaces with a clear flow axis. It shows on:
- Lava, Water, Blood, Mud, Acid — fluids drift downstream
- Sand, Snow — wind-driven ripples form across the chosen axis
- Toxic Waste — counter-flow churn aligns to the axis
- Force Field, Cyber Circuit, Holographic Grid — energy pulses travel along the chosen axis
- Liquid Metal — chrome swirl orients to the flow
Hidden on radial / chaotic surfaces — Ice, Marsh, Ethereal Pool, Holy Ground, Cursed Ground, Rune Circle, Crystal Field, Star Field, Plasma Storm.
Sharing terrain with players
Section titled “Sharing terrain with players”Terrain effects ride on the polygon shape itself. If your polygon is shared (the chain icon in the Shapes tab), other players see the effect at the same time. If the polygon is private to you, only you see it — useful for sketching out where lava will appear before you reveal it.
How many can I run at once?
Section titled “How many can I run at once?”Up to 16 active terrain regions per scene. Above that, additional regions are silently ignored. In practice 16 is more than you’ll usually need on one map — but if you’re stress-testing, the engine logs a warning the first time you cross the cap.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Preset catalog — what every preset looks like and when to use it
- Lights — basics — terrain effects that include a managed light flow into the same lighting pipeline as your scene lights
- Drawing tools — placing the polygon shapes that host terrain effects