How to delete terrain

I was just playing around with the “Generate terrain” tool. And I wanted to make a desert. So I chose “Dunes”. That’s what I got, but I also got all this crap underneath, a huge layer of bedrock and all sorts of junk. I just want the dunes.

Fair enough, I can delete the bottom half. But the issue is that I cannot manage to select the whole area underneath, it looks like there is a max amount of terrain you can select (as far as I know). But that seems a little weird, since I literally have to excavate piece for piece. Like so:

Image of the excess stone:

Basically my question is: how do I either generate it without all of the bedrock, OR how do I delete big parts of terrain by selecting it?

Thanks!

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Delete Big Amounts of Terrain

So, if you want to delete a big part, I actually use a part and the command bar.

Insert a block and resize it to the size you want and position it to where you want to delete.

(name the part “TerrainDelete” or something else if you know what you’re doing)

Insert this command:

workspace.Terrain:FillBlock(workspace.TerrainDelete.CFrame,workspace.TerrainDelete.Size,Enum.Material.Air)

or this if you have multiple TerrainDelete blocks:

for k,n in pairs(workspace:GetDescendants()) do
	if n:IsA("BasePart") and n.Name == "TerrainDelete" then
		workspace.Terrain:FillBlock(n.CFrame,n.Size,Enum.Material.Air)
	end
end

The command bar is found at the bottom of Studio.

I use this method because it’s easier to delete using Studio parts than dragging the area to where you want.

You can also use this method with other shapes if you know what you’re doing.

“Generate Without Bedrock”

When generating, take off some of the options, and make sure you don’t have Caves checked, that is the most annoying thing in the generation.

To remove bedrock, use the replace option in the Terrain Editor and replace the material with Air.

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@Aeventy’s method is complex and tedious. Why not just use the built-in terrain editor?

Use Search & Replace, located within the editor itself (Under “Edit”), to select the terrain you want to remove. Then, replace all the terrain with air. So much more simpler.

I imagine you’re currently using the Region tool- that tool is not useful as the area it can select is tiny (512 x 512 x 512). Search & Replace however can go up to 16384 x 16384 x 16384, which is the maximum terrain can be generated at.

Regarding the method mentioned above:

Parts, at maximum size, can go to 2048 x 2048- this means you will have to use many, many parts and is really inefficient. The Search & Replace tool, however, is far larger- saving you both effort and time.

Caves do not affect the existence of the Bedrock layer.

I hope this helps you!

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to delete terrain is by using the terrain editor and in the create tab, click clear terrain and click yes in the confirm thing if you want to delete it. but it will delete all terrains in game

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The OP specifically wants only a portion of the terrain deleted- not the all of the terrain.

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What’s the harm in just leaving the bedrock underneath it? You might need it later on. If you use Streaming Enabled lag shouldn’t be an issue.

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That’s a bad practice. Always delete terrain players won’t see.

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There’s a option in the Terrain tab to delete terrain.

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That’s unpractical most of the time. If for example you make a mountain, while it is possible, it’s very tedious to go and delete everything inside of the mountain. The only time when I’d recommend this is if your working with flat terrain.

If the game itself is not humongous terrain should have little impact on lag, so deleting hidden terrain may be more work than is needed.

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The problem poster has is there’s a large area to delete and region tool + delete tool is too small for the amount he has to delete.

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I actually know a friend who made a massive mountainous terrain map without all the terrain under removed, and when a told them to delete all the terrain under, performance was a lot better.

It’s worth it.

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Obviously if your making a massive mountain range it would make a difference, but most games use mesh terrain when creating mountains because of the lag. Although some do (Everest), they likely use streaming enabled to manage lag. Streaming is more efficient than going and deleting everything under the mountain but if the developer has the time and patience it’s a valid method for lag reduction.

OH IK HOW, use replace tool. Change your target material to air, and change everything else you have to designated material then press replace.

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That would work. Though depending on what material makes up the base it might mess it up a bit but your idea 100% would work.

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Well, you can go to the terrain editor and hit clear terrain.

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Erode terrain by the erode button. Or use part to terrain plugin.

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