Hello there, I’m Cenosity, and Roblox Smooth Terrain Designer. I’m going to go through some of the fundamentals in the process of learning how to efficiently, and effectively use the smooth terrain resources available to you guys built into Roblox Studio. This is going to be a series built out with some educational resources including images, and videos. This will be a work in progress, and in development throughout each part, so please bare with me as I get to it all!
Many of you guys are learning the ropes behind one of the most powerful tools on the Roblox platform, being smooth terrain. Whether it be for a personal project, a showcase, learning to create and form environmental habitats, or laying out the foundation for a brand new city, Roblox smooth terrain is useful for many different development purposes. I am mainly a City-Terrain designer, therefore my experience comes from that background. This tutorial will be used to reflect off of those looking to better use smooth terrain for a multiple of purposes.
Finding the Terrain Editor
The Roblox Terrain Editor is located on the HOME page when you first launch studio. In the top bar of your screen, located almost in the center, is the green mountain icon that is highlighted for you in green. Click on this to open your terrain editor.
Create Tab
The first tab you’ll see is the Create tab. This tab gives you access to a lot of unique tools! You’re able to generate terrain, Import heightmaps, convert from part to smooth terrain, and clear all of the terrain out.
Generate The generate feature, I will not be going over, as I am teaching you all how to effectively place and perfect your terrain by hand! This feature is mainly used for large flat lands, with minimal to no detail!
Import The import tab is where you can upload heightmaps, and convert them into Roblox terrain. I will not be going over this feature, as it contradicts the importance of creating your land masses by hand.
Convert The convert tool is the Roblox Studio edition of part to terrain. This feature is used a lot when flattening out very odd angles, that normally the roblox studio terrain tools wouldn’t allow you to. For example, if you have a road in the shape of a hill, you can duplicate the road, place the parts underneath it, and use the Convert button to perfectly get the shape around the road you’re looking for.
Clear The clear button will remove any and all existing terrain in your Studio. There is a confirm button so that you do not accidently press this. Be mindful when in the Create tab, as the Clear button is one that you don’t want to use, especially if you have a lot of terrain to load back in when you undo!
Region Tab
The second tab you’ll see is the Region tab. This tab is home to tools used for moving around terrain that is already placed, to another location. This can be used for copying exact placements of terrain, deleting certain sections of your terrain, and filling in terrain. I do not use this tab at all, as all of these features can be done quicker, and much more effectively by hand, with the Convert feature, as well as with the Edit tab.
Edit Tab
The third, and last tab in your Terrain Editor is the Edit tab. It is home to all of the most useful tools, that are beneficial to your terrain work! You will be in this tab for most of your designing, and this is the home to the tools used most often.
Add the Add tool provides you with the ability to place terrain with either a Sphere, Cube, or Cylinder.