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Terrain Graph

The Terrain Graph is the core of Metaplanets Creator: a visual, graph-based workflow for defining terrain, biomes, and planetary features — similar to Unreal's Blueprints, but for planets.

How it works

  • Nodes are generation stages — noise fields, height shaping, biome masks, surface detail, and more.
  • Connections flow the planet's parameters from one stage to the next.
  • Real time — tweak values and watch the planet update live in the editor.

Building a terrain graph

A minimal rocky-planet graph, step by step.

1. Create the generator asset

Create a Terrain Height Generator asset from the Content Browser (Metaplanets → Terrain Height Generator). It lives alongside your level.

Create → Metaplanets → Terrain Height Generator

The generator asset in the Content Browser

2. Add a noise source

Open the asset. The editor shows the graph canvas, a live Preview, and a compile log. Add an FBM noise node and an Output node.

FBM noise and Output nodes in the Terrain Graph

3. Wire it up and compile

Connect the noise's Out to the Output node's Value, then Compile. The heightmap preview updates with live min / mean / max stats.

FBM noise wired to Output with the heightmap preview

4. Place the planet actor

Place a Metaplanet Actor in your level, then point its Generation settings at your generator asset and pick a Terrain Mode and Planet Kind.

Placing a Metaplanet Actor into the level

Generation settings on the Metaplanet Actor

Create and assign a material to your planet to add visual detail:

Selecting the planet material in the Content Browser

5. Tune the surface

Raise the noise Amplitude for stronger relief, and wire bump and normal maps into the planet's surface material for detail.

Increasing the FBM Amplitude

Wiring bump and normal maps into the surface material

6. Add a biome mask

Normalize the height into a 0–1 biome mask (Add → Divide → Saturate) and drive a Biome Output channel — this is what the foliage system scatters against.

Normalizing height into a biome mask

7. Baked noise

Metaplanets can bake noise into textures. Here the same noise shown raw (quad) versus wrapped and lit on the planet:

Baked noise: raw texture vs on the planet

What you can build

From stylized low-poly worlds to cinematic-quality planets, the same graph workflow scales to your vision. Each release expands the library of terrain generation techniques.

Tips

  • Build in layers: base height first, then detail, then biomes.
  • Watch the min / mean / max in the preview while tuning amplitude.
  • Keep biome masks 0–1 and saturated so downstream scattering stays stable.