Tutorials

By Tim Wesoly, developer of Qubicle Constructor
What you need: Qubicle Constructor v1.0.13.0+ Master or Education Edition

Setting up the landscape generator

To open the landscape generator select Create > Lanscape from the menu or click on the corresponding speed button.

The lanscape generator form arranged in three columns each showing you 2D top down previews of the process. To preview your landscape after you have made any changes click on the preview button on the right column.

You start on the left by setting the size of the landscape and the maximum height. The algorithm used to create the landscape works like this: at first it creates a random grayscale image by using a special noise function called perlin noise. This image is telling the algorithm how high a certain part of the landscape is. The brighter a pixel the higher the terrain gets at that point. So by setting the max height you tell the algorithm how high a voxel will be if the image is pure white at that pixel. Use the randomize button to create new random grayscale images.

With the next column labeled Lightmap you can adjust the light direction by editing the light vector. The image on top of the column shows the shadows that are cast. If you click into an input field to highlight it, you can use the up and down arrows to change the values in 0.1 steps. The min and max values for the vector fields are -1 and 1. After calculating the shadows the image is blurred to make the shadows’ edges softer. You can adjust the amount of blur with the corresponding input field.

With the final column labeled ‘Output’ you can change the height grading of the terrain via the Color menu. You can select one of the presets “Black and White”, “Desert”, “Grassland”, “Mountain”, “Tropical” or just the current foreground color. Or you can define your own grading explained in the next section. If you don’t want any shadows on your landscape uncheck “Use Lightmap”.

Custom height gradings

The height grading is done with a simple bitmap that contains a gradient. The bitmaps used for it are stored in the “terrain” folder of the Qubicle Constructor installation path. To add your own grading, simply duplicate one of the files, rename it and edit it in an image editor. Don’t change the size or filetype of the image otherwise it won’t work. If you re-open the landscape editor now, your custom map is added to the color menu.