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gamemanual:landscaping

Landscaping

The landscaping tools are a collection of tools in the three tabs TERRAIN TOOLS, PAINT TOOLS and ASSETS.

Terrain Tools

The terrain tools are able to modify the surface of the map permanently. It is possible to raise, lower and flatten the terrain in various ways.

The terrain tools ignore anything that potentially collides with the modified terrain. In other words, they will not modify parts of the terrain that are occupied by buildings, streets and tracks. The position of trees and rocks is automatically adjusted.


common terrain tool parameters

The tools have several parameters:

  • Brush size is the size of the area of effect. It can be adjusted with the slider in the settings window or by using the , and . keys.
  • Strength is the intensity of the effect on the area. It can be adjusted with the slider in the settings window or by using the O and P keys.
  • Rotation is the rotation of the used brush form. It can be adjusted with the slider in the settings window or by using the N and M keys.
  • Brush is the form of the brush to use. This is either a circle with blended edges, a circle with sharp edges or a square.

The default keys listed above can be changed on the KEYBOARD tab in the settings.

The five tools are:


The Smooth Tool can be used to reduce irregularities like sharp edges or small elevations in the surface. Steep slopes become less steep, small hills are flattened and smaller holes are filled up.


The Flatten Tool can be used to level the surface. The height of the position where the tool is started is used as reference. This can be used to make 100% flat surfaces, e.g. for constructing buildings.


The Raise Tool can be used to raise the surface to create mountains. For filling holes, the flatten and smoothing tools are probably the better choice.


The Lower Tool can be used to lower the surface to create holes and canyons. For flattening mountains, the flatten and smoothing tools are probably the better choice.


The Heightmap Texture Tool can be used to add some irregularities and details to the surface. In addition to the parameters mentioned above it allows selecting a small heightmap template that is used as a mask for the brush. It is recommended to not use the full intensity while applying this tool, otherwise the landscape will become very rough.

Paint Tools


initial textures

threshold = 1, paint steep side = NO
threshold = 1, paint steep side = YES
threshold = 1, paint steep side = NO

The builtin paint tools are a new feature of Transport Fever 2. They allow painting directly on the terrain with a lot of different materials. As terrain painting has no influence on gameplay, it is free of charge even if not in sandbox mode.

Beside the parameters already mentioned in the terrain tools section, they have two additional parameters:

  • With Slope Threshold, a limit for the terrain slope can be selected. Only hillsides that are not steeper than the threshold are painted. This can be used to protect rocks from being painted on for example.
  • With Paint steep side the effect of the threshold is inverted so that only areas steeper than the threshold are affected. This can be used to paint only over rocks for example.

The pictures on the right side show a four step example using these two parameters:

  1. The initial terrain textures
  2. Added alpine grass texture with Slope Threshold = 1.0 and Paint steep side = no to only paint over the greener grass
  3. Added some different rocks with Slope Threshold = 1.0 and Paint steep side = yes to only paint over the rocks
  4. Added some snow texture with Slope Threshold = 1.0 and Paint steep side = no to only paint over the areas where snow does not slide down.

Furthermore it is possible to hold SHIFT to force the overpainting of ground textures that are applied by infrastructure like streets or buildings. Areas can be reset to default textures by using the eraser tool.

Some of the 30 available textures provide grass or other plants resulting in a more vivid vegetation.

Assets (Decorations)

Assets originally are a cosmetic feature that is used to decorate the game world. In general, assets can be placed freely at any empty spot in the game world without influencing the gameplay or game mechanics. Assets that do not require a removal confirmation can be removed with the eraser tool.

Transport Fever 2 itself offers three categories of assets: Trees, Rocks and Miscellaneous. Trees and rocks can be placed as singular trees or in brush mode analogue to the paint tools described above. In singular placing mode, some parameters can be adjusted:

  • Rotation around the Z-Axis can be changed by using the N and M keys or by pressing SHIFT while holding left mouse button and moving the cursor sideways.
  • Height can be adjusted with the , and . keys.
  • Tilting around the X-Axis can be achieved by using the O and P keys.
  • Tilting around the Y-Axis can be done with the [ and ] keys.

The controls above use finer steps when holding SHIFT.

Some assets snap along tracks and roads. To disable the snapping, hold C while placing them.

There is a mixed brush tool for trees as well as one for rocks available where the different types of trees or rocks can be individually (de-)activated.

Like many of the other features of Transport Fever 2, there are plenty of additional assets available in the Steam Workshop and on other websites. Many of the assets there can ignore collisions or snap to tracks, too. See mod usage section for further details on how to use mods.


gamemanual/landscaping.txt · Last modified: 2023/12/04 18:38 by marlon