Tips for Building Beautiful Terrain

Hello! I’m Sawyer, but I go by Soybeen on Roblox. Today I was asked to demonstrate how I create the terrain in my games. To me, the atmosphere of a game is just as important as the assets or the code. Terrain is a big part of the atmosphere. It gives your game a face, so best make it pretty!

Screenshot of terrain from Booga Booga

I’ve been making games on Roblox for about 9 years. Along the way, I learned some techniques that help me to create exciting, realistic terrain. I hope that you can use these tips to enrich your own worlds! Let’s get started…

Add Realism Using Layers

Layering is the process of adding visual depth to terrain by using multiple materials to create your landscape, just like with painting! Adding a layer of grass over a mountain, or a layer of dirt between a sandy beach and the mainland grass, will definitely make your terrain look more realistic and interesting.

Grass is being painted on a plain rock mountain to add depth

View Terrain from a Player’s Perspective

While building, go back and forth between a top camera view and a player view. You can move your camera (like below) so it’ll show you what a player might see. This helps you make sure everything you build will look natural to a player. You will have a greater opportunity to catch anomalies in your terrain that may not be visible from far away.

A player’s perspective of a flat, boring island

Create Islands with the Paint Tool

While you may want to use the Grow/Add tools to sculpt features like islands, you may get graphical issues that look off to the player. These include areas of terrain that are lower than the current water level like seen in the comparison below. By using the Paint tool to create islands, you get a smoother result with no graphical issues. Make sure the Ignore Water setting is unchecked when doing this.

Using the Grow Tool, you get jagged lines and graphical issues.

Using the Paint Tool, you get a more consistent, smooth shoreline

Use a Variety of Brush Sizes

The biggest brush sizes are for the biggest features, like oceans, mountains, islands, etc. You should use these big brushes first to get a rough idea of your terrain. After you’re happy with the broad shape, use the small brushes to add fine details that break up your terrain and add definition. Players will explore everything, so make sure your terrain is interesting even under a microscope!

The island is painted onto the water with the big brush first

Then I switch to the small brush to improve the shoreline

Use Contours for a more natural look

As you build terrain, you should look for natural contours. These are specific lines that define the shape of something. Rather than placing details like waterfalls or grass in random parts of a mountain, look for natural contours as places where you can put additional details.

The black line shows a natural countour going down the shape of the mountain. This would be a great place for a waterfall.

Adding a waterfall along the mountain’s contour makes it feel more natural than placing it in a random place.

Adding assets, and matching colors

Don’t forget that once your terrain is done, you still have to add other assets! These can be things like bushes, trees, animals, debris, and other natural objects. It’s important to match the colors of your assets to the color of your terrain. You can see the exact colors of your terrain materials by opening the MaterialColors property of the Terrain object.

This shows the RGB values for each material color. Adjust yours and use the values in your matching assets.

Green leaves match the grass, and wooden structures match the brown wood of the trees.

If you want to learn more, here is a video where I elaborate on these tips and other techniques.