Vertex 3D Terrain: Planet, Floating Island & Spline Creator

Sculpt true 3D terrain, planetoids, floating islands, caves & tunnels. Paint & blend biomes, add 3D scatter, draw spline paths, generate optimized LODs & change biomes at runtime, all in Unity.

Pipeline & Target Platforms

• Render Pipeline: Universal Render Pipeline (URP).
• Shared Material Architecture: Terrain tiles reuse the same material and texture resources rather than requiring separate materials per tile.
• Rendering Performance: Terrain tiles share material and texture resources for efficient SRP Batcher use, while 3D Scatter uses GPU instancing, spatial batching and camera/distance culling.
• Target Platforms: Designed for PC, Console, Mobile and Standalone VR, with final performance depending on terrain density, texture resolution and enabled rendering features.
• Opaque Terrain Materials: Uses opaque biome textures to keep terrain rendering efficient and avoid the added cost of alpha clipping.
• Anti Tiling: Procedural anti-tiling helps reduce visible repeating texture patterns across large terrain surfaces.

Terrain Atlas Architecture

• Global World Texture Set: A complete multi-tile terrain setup can share a single global Texture2DArray and MicroAtlas across the world.
• Shared Texture Resources: Terrain texture data is reused across tiles instead of being duplicated for every terrain chunk.
• Packed Texture Pipeline: Supports Base Color, Normal, Metallic, Roughness, Ambient Occlusion, Emission and Height data.
• 200+ Biomes: Large biome libraries can be created while continuing to share the same underlying texture resources. Includes 13 biomes to test with.
• Lightweight Biome Variants: Duplicate biomes can reuse existing texture data while changing colour, metallic response, roughness, ambient occlusion, emission and other material properties.
• ~2 KB Per Duplicate Biome: A biome variant that reuses existing texture data adds roughly 2 KB of additional MicroAtlas data rather than requiring another full texture set.
• Efficient Texture Sampling: Texture sampling remains largely independent of the total number of biomes in the library, helping large biome collections remain practical.

Terrain Painting, Biome Painting & Live Modification

• Terrain Painter / Biome Painter: Paint and blend up to 3 biome layers per terrain face using the Scene View painting tools.
• Up to 3 Painted Biomes Per Face: Each terrain face can blend up to three painted biome layers simultaneously for detailed surface transitions.
• 4 Live Biome Modifier Slots: Four independent live terrain modifier layers can each target up to 3 existing biomes, allowing one effect such as snow to cover multiple painted terrain surfaces.
• Live Effects Layered On Top: Live modifiers operate separately from the three painted biome layers. For example, a surface blending grass, mud and rock can still receive snow coverage through a live modifier.
• Multi-Biome Modification: A single modifier can affect several related surfaces at once, for example, applying the same snow layer across grass, mud and rocky ground.
• 3D Biome Scatter: Biome-aware placement supports built-in and custom meshes, weighted variants, LODs and live biome response.
• Slope / Angle Filtering: Each live modifier includes an angle threshold, allowing effects such as snow to favour flatter ground while excluding steep cliffs and slopes.
• Dynamic Biome Strength: Painted biome contributions can be adjusted at runtime to reveal or suppress underlying surfaces, allowing effects such as rivers gradually drying to expose the ground below.
• Biome Dusting: Dusting data defines where live biome modification is allowed, giving precise control over which parts of the terrain can receive effects such as snow or other replacement surfaces.
• Partial to Full Coverage: Live modifiers can range from subtle surface coverage through to complete visual replacement of their targeted biomes.
• Biome Flow: Selected biomes can animate continuously or oscillate to simulate flowing water, lava, magical surfaces or stylized moving vegetation.
• Pulsing Emission: Optional emissive animation can be used for lava, magical terrain, energy surfaces and other glowing materials.
• Biome Slot Synchronization: Biome IDs and blend weights are harmonized across terrain geometry to maintain consistent blending between neighbouring vertices and terrain tiles.

Vertex-PBR, Vertex Color & Textureless Terrain

• Textureless Terrain: Create lightweight or stylized terrain without conventional surface textures.
• Vertex Color Terrain: Base Color, Metallic, Roughness, Ambient Occlusion and Emission can be stored directly in terrain mesh data.
• Low Poly Terrain: The textureless workflow is well suited to low poly and stylized environments while using the same terrain sculpting tools.
• PBR Terrain Materials: Shared PBR terrain materials can be reused across individual terrain tiles.

Terrain Sculpting, Mesh Sculpting & Geometry Engine

• 3D Terrain Sculptor: Mesh-based terrain editing allows true 3D terrain sculpting above, below and around the surface, including cliffs, overhangs, caves and vertical terrain.
• Adaptive Dynamic Topology (DynTopo): Automatically subdivides stretched mesh terrain during sculpting so additional geometry is created where detail is required.
• Seam-Safe Smoothing: Spatial vertex clustering keeps matching and split vertices synchronized to help prevent cracks across hard edges, caves, overhangs and tile boundaries.
• Volume-Preserving Relaxation: Cotangent-based mesh relaxation can redistribute dense or uneven geometry while helping preserve the overall surface form.
• Direct Face Editing: Terrain faces can be selected, flattened, subdivided, extruded, deleted and repaired directly inside Unity.
• Procedural Face-Based Forms: Generate terrain-connected pillars, boulders and arches from masked terrain regions.
• Hole Filling & Retriangulation: Open terrain geometry can be filled and rebuilt directly within the terrain editing workflow.

LOD Creation, Mesh Optimization & Decimation

• Automatic LOD Generator: Create LOD0, LOD1 and LOD2 terrain meshes for Level of Detail rendering.
• Mesh Decimation: Planar decimation and mesh optimization reduce unnecessary geometry across flat and coplanar terrain.
• Seam-Preserving LODs: Terrain borders remain protected during LOD generation to keep neighbouring terrain chunks aligned.
• Silhouette Preservation: Mesh optimization preserves important terrain contours and visible edges.
• Biome-Aware Optimization: Important biome boundaries can be retained while unnecessary interior geometry is reduced.

Spline, Road & Path Tools

• Spline Tool: Catmull-Rom spline paths use arc-length-aware sampling for smooth editable routes.
• Road & Path Creation: Use spline tools as a road tool, path tool or trail creator across terrain and arbitrary mesh surfaces.
• Terrain Corridors: Flatten, carve, trench and reshape terrain for roads, trails, riverbeds and pathways.
• Spline Biome Painting: Automatically paint and blend terrain surfaces along roads, trails and other spline paths.
• Tunnel Paths: Use the same spline system for controlled underground tunnel generation.

Multi Tile, Tiled Terrain & Terrain Chunks

• Multi Tile / Tiled Terrain: Sculpting and terrain painting can operate across connected terrain tiles.
• Terrain Chunks: Large environments can be constructed from multiple connected terrain chunks while remaining editable as one continuous world.
• Seamless Terrain Borders: Shared tile borders synchronize positions, normals, tangents and biome data to maintain seamless terrain connections.
• Reserved Seam Topology: Terrain seams remain topology-stable so neighbouring and future terrain tiles retain compatible connection points.
• Cross Tile Editing: Supported sculpting, smoothing, terrain painting and generation tools can work across connected tiles.

Planetoid, Planet & Floating Island Generation

• Planetoid Generator: Create editable planetoids, spherical terrain and small planet terrain directly inside Unity.
• Spherical Terrain Sculpting: Generated spherical worlds use the same terrain sculpting and biome painting workflow as standard terrain.
• Floating Island Generator: Generate editable floating islands and floating terrain with configurable upper surfaces and underside profiles.
• Multiple Island Profiles: Create rounded, pointed, stepped and tapered floating landforms before continuing with normal mesh sculpting.

Cave & Tunnel Creation

• Cave Creation: Sculpt cave systems, underground terrain, chambers and subterranean environments directly into the terrain mesh.
• Tunnel Generator: Create freeform tunnels or controlled underground tunnel paths using the spline tools.
• Tunnel Entrances & Exits: Tunnels can break through terrain surfaces to create real mesh openings, entrances and exits.
• Cave Editing Tools: Continue sculpting, smoothing and editing cave walls, floors and ceilings after excavation.

Runtime Terrain Data & Surface Detection

• Runtime Surface Detection: Raycasts can identify the biome or ground surface beneath a hit point using baked terrain data.
• Ground Detection: Gameplay systems can identify terrain surface types for footsteps, particles, decals, environmental effects and other logic.
• Read/Write Not Required: Runtime terrain queries do not require production terrain meshes to remain CPU-readable.
• Runtime Terrain Changes: Runtime code can modify biome strengths and live material effects without rebuilding terrain geometry.

Editor & Package Integration

• Full Source Included: C# editor and runtime source, shaders and supporting systems are included.
• Vertex Terrain also includes a Japanese language option: Which translates all buttons and tooltips into Japanese.
• Native Unity Undo / Redo: Terrain editing integrates with Unity's Undo system.
• Stylus Support: Pressure-sensitive input is supported for compatible sculpting and painting workflows.
• Scene View Tools: Includes a Scene View HUD, active biome information, configurable hotkeys and an integrated cave worklight.
• Self-Contained Package: No third-party asset dependencies are required.

Vertex 3D Terrain is a terrain creation, sculpting & biome painting tool for Unity. Build fully 3D landscapes with caves, overhangs, floating islands & small planetary worlds, then add roads, grass, vegetation & surface effects in one editor workflow.

Sculpt cliffs you can walk beneath, dig tunnels through mountains & paint environments that change during gameplay, all beyond the limits of a traditional heightmap.

KEY FEATURES

• Terrain Sculpting & Smoothing: Sculpt, smooth, flatten & grab 3D mesh terrain to shape landscapes, cliffs & overhangs.
• Caves & Underground Tunnels: Dig cave systems, chambers, entrances & tunnel networks by hand or with spline paths.
• Planet & Floating Island Creation: Generate sculptable planetoids, small spherical worlds & floating islands with editable undersides.
• Biome Painting & Terrain Blending: Paint & blend terrain biomes with brushes, gradients, height, slope, noise & dusting.
• Grass, Vegetation & Rock Scatter: Populate painted biomes with 12 scatter presets or your own custom meshes.
• Scatter Wind, LODs & GPU Instancing: Add animated vegetation with visibility culling & levels of detail for larger populations.
• Dynamic Biomes & Seasonal Changes: Build up snow, reveal dry riverbeds & change vegetation coverage or colour during gameplay.
• Roads, Paths & Bridges: Draw editable splines for roads, trails, bridges, stairs, trenches, riverbeds & tunnels.
• Adaptive Mesh Detail: Automatically add geometry where sculpting needs it without increasing detail across the entire terrain.
• Face Selection & Mesh Editing: Subdivide, extrude, flatten, create boulders, pillars & arches, delete faces & repair holes.
• Paint & Sculpt Masks: Restrict terrain editing to selected areas while protecting surrounding surfaces.
• Textured & Vertex Color Terrain: Choose texture based materials or textureless terrain for stylized environments.
• 200+ Biome Support: Build large terrain material libraries with shared textures for memory efficient biome variations.
• Water Flow & Lava Effects: Animate flowing biome surfaces & pulsing emission for rivers, lava & magical ground.
• Surface Detail & Anti Tiling: Add perceived surface depth & reduce visible texture repetition across landscapes.
• Terrain Tiles, LODs & Optimization: Edit connected tiles, generate terrain LODs & simplify unnecessary mesh geometry.
• Runtime Surface Detection: Use raycast biome data for footsteps, particles, decals & gameplay reactions.
• Editor Controls & Languages: Undo / Redo, stylus pressure, customisable shortcuts & English, Japanese or Korean interfaces.

TERRAIN SCULPTING, SMOOTHING & SHAPING

Vertex 3D Terrain edits real 3D meshes, so your landscape can form vertical cliffs, overhangs, rock faces, arches & cavities. Sculpt and smooth terrain directly in the Scene View, flatten areas for level design, or use the Grab Tool to pull out rock horns, hanging formations & distinctive silhouettes.

Automatic mesh detail adds extra geometry where sculpting stretches the surface, helping curved & heavily sculpted areas retain detail.

Smoothing keeps matching & split vertices together to help prevent cracks across hard edges, caves, overhangs & neighbouring terrain tiles.

Biome painting stays attached while you reshape the mesh, so you can keep refining your landscape without repainting the whole area.

CAVES, CHAMBERS & UNDERGROUND TUNNELS

Create cave systems, tunnel networks, chambers, entrances & exits using terrain brushes or editable spline routes.

Tunnels can break through the surface to form real openings in the terrain mesh. Continue sculpting, smoothing & painting these entrances as part of the surrounding landscape.

An optional cave worklight helps you see while editing dark enclosed spaces.

PLANETS, PLANETOIDS & FLOATING ISLANDS

Generate small spherical worlds for miniature planets, asteroid environments & exploration levels. Sculpt & paint each planetoid using the same tools as standard terrain.

Create floating islands with configurable tops & undersides. Build flat plateaus, rocky formations, pointed fantasy islands, stepped shapes or rounded landmasses, then refine their shape directly in the Scene View.

FACE SELECTION, MESH EDITING & MASKS

Grow or shrink selections, flatten surfaces, paint biome data, subdivide faces, extrude terrain, generate pillars, boulders & arches, delete faces or fill open holes.

Save selected faces as an editing mask to limit paint & sculpt brushes to a chosen area. Refine part of your terrain while protecting surrounding surfaces, then pause or clear the mask when you want unrestricted editing again.

BIOME PAINTING, TERRAIN PAINTING & BLENDING

Paint & blend grass, dirt, rock, sand, snow, water, lava & your own custom terrain biomes.

Use brush painting & an eyedropper for direct control. Draw interactive gradients, distribute surfaces by height & slope, or add noise & procedural breakup to make transitions less uniform.

Painted biome coverage also drives the grass, vegetation & rocks scattered above it.

GRASS, VEGETATION & PROCEDURAL SCATTER

Populate environments with grass, flowers, rocks, mushrooms & your own custom meshes.

Choose from 12 built in scatter presets or configure custom mesh variants. Control target biomes, density, slope, scale, offset & alignment to place details where they suit the terrain. Weighted variants help you mix different meshes within the same scatter setup.

Built in presets support colour variation, shading, metallic, smoothness, emission & animated wind. Custom mesh wind requires a compatible shader, with instructions included for setting it up in Shader Graph.

GPU instancing, visibility culling & LODs help manage larger scatter populations.

Scatter can respond to live biome changes, allowing vegetation to thin, disappear or change colour as snow, seasons or corruption spread across the terrain.

DYNAMIC BIOMES, SNOW & SEASONAL CHANGES

Change terrain appearance during gameplay by adjusting biome strengths.

Fade water coverage to reveal the sand beneath a river, build snow over grass & rock, or spread corruption across an environment. Use live biome changes for drying riverbeds, wetness, flooding, seasonal transitions & damaged ground.

The Dusting Brush marks where one biome is allowed to replace another. Prepare selected parts of grass, rock or soil for snow, then increase coverage from none to complete replacement.

Runtime biome changes control surface appearance & coverage. Terrain sculpting & mesh editing take place in the Unity Editor.

WATER FLOW, LAVA & EMISSION EFFECTS

Animate biome surfaces for running water, lava, streams, magical ground & stylized moving grass.

Control biome flow that moves continuously or travels back & forth. Add pulsing emission for glowing lava, energy surfaces & animated material effects.

ROADS, PATHS, BRIDGES & SPLINES

Draw smooth, editable spline paths across terrain & other mesh surfaces.

Create roads, trails, bridges, stairs, trenches, riverbeds & underground tunnels. Shape, flatten, paint & blend the terrain along a path, with control over width, height, rotation & falloff.

Select faces for precise placement or allow them to be created automatically.

TERRAIN TEXTURES, MATERIALS & BIOME LIBRARIES

Build textured terrain with libraries of 200+ biomes.

Terrain Atlas supports colour, normal, metallic, smoothness, ambient occlusion, emission & height information. Create related biome variations by reusing texture data while changing colour & surface settings.

Build material variations without duplicating a full texture set for each biome.

Surface detail adds perceived depth without increasing terrain geometry. Anti tiling helps break up visible texture repetition across large landscapes while preserving close surface detail.

VERTEX COLOR & TEXTURELESS TERRAIN

Store terrain appearance directly in the mesh. Drive colour, metallic, smoothness, ambient occlusion & emission without surface textures for stylized environments, with separate biome libraries for textured & textureless workflows.

CONNECTED TERRAIN TILES & LARGE LANDSCAPES

Build larger environments from multiple terrain tiles & edit across them as one continuous landscape.

Neighbouring terrain pieces keep shared borders aligned during sculpting, shading & biome painting.

TERRAIN LODS, MESH SIMPLIFICATION & OPTIMIZATION

Generate terrain chunks & automatic LOD groups for distance rendering.

Create lower detail terrain meshes while preserving important border geometry so neighbouring pieces remain connected. Simplify flat areas & remove unnecessary geometry while retaining important terrain shapes & biome boundaries.

RUNTIME SURFACE DATA & RAYCAST DETECTION

Bake biome information into lightweight runtime data, then detect the surface beneath a raycast to choose footstep sounds, spawn dust or snow particles, place decals & trigger environmental reactions.

Surface detection works without keeping the terrain mesh readable by the CPU. An included runtime demo demonstrates biome detection with flow settings & biome replacement.

UNITY EDITOR WORKFLOW & LANGUAGE OPTIONS

Create, sculpt, paint & refine terrain with native Unity Undo / Redo, graphics tablet & stylus pressure support, Scene View brush controls & customisable keyboard shortcuts.

Choose English, Japanese or Korean editor interfaces. Save terrain to prefabs & create standalone material copies when an environment needs its own settings.

Documentation Can Be Found Here