How to Add terrain in Roblox Studio

10 min

Terrain tools allow you to create realistic landscapes like mountains, rivers, and canyons. This article explains the tools used for creating terrain.

Opening the Terrain Tools

The terrain tools can be opened from the Home tab or View tab.

The editor window is divided into Create, Region, and Edit sections, each outlined in detail below.

Create Tab

Generate

The Generate tool is used to create random landscapes. You can use this to quickly start a new landscape and then modify it based on your individual vision.

Import

The Import tool lets you import heightmaps and colormaps. This feature is outlined further in the /articles/importing terrain data|Importing Terrain Data article.

Clear

The Clear tool completely clears all terrain from the place.

Region Tab

Tools in the Region tab speed up terrain creation by letting you work with large areas.

Manipulating Regions

To select and manipulate a region:

1. Click the Select tool.
2. Click and drag to create a region bounding box (maximum of 512 studs along any axis).
3. Manipulate the region with the Move, Resize, and Rotate tools. These tools are very similar to how they're used with parts, except that movement can only be done in increments of 4 studs and rotation in 90° increments.

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You can also copy and paste full selected regions — just click Copy and then Paste to create a new region.

Filling and Deleting

You can even fill or delete entire regions with a material:

When you select a region, you also select all the “air” inside that region. When editing regions — moving, resizing, etc. — the Merge Empty option affects the outcome.

The Add and Subtract tools are useful for building the majority of your environment, before you start fine-tuning details. These tools contain various attributes:

Attribute	Description
Brush Shape	The shape of the brush; either a sphere, cube, or cylinder.
Base Size / Height	The size of the brush, ranging from 1 to 64. To set a Height that's different from the base size, click the small "lock" icon and select/enter a new value. Brush at largest size Brush at smallest size
Pivot Position	The vertical anchor point of the brush in relation to existing terrain (bottom, center, or top).
Snap to Grid	Whether or not the brush stays aligned to the terrain grid.
Ignore Water	Whether or not to ignore water when adding or subtracting non-water terrain. For example, you can toggle this on to avoid removal of water when using the Subtract tool.
Auto Material	When using the Add tool, blends new terrain with surrounding terrain.
Material	The appearance of new terrain when using the Add tool, for example ice, sand, water, or grass. Note that you can customize the color of these terrain materials.

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When using the Add or Subtract tool, you’ll see a grid appear at your mouse. All terrain is created on this grid. As you click and drag your mouse to edit terrain, notice that the terrain is affected by the angle of the grid. Tilting and rotating the camera will change the grid angle.

The Grow tool slowly fills in areas with terrain which is useful for adding hills or smoothing out gaps.

Erode

The Erode tool slowly removes terrain. This is useful for creating caves, canyons, rivers, and lakes.

Smooth

The Smooth tool smoothes out terrain in the selected area. This is useful for making jagged terrain more natural and getting rid of sharp corners.

Flatten

The Flatten tool lets you create completely flat terrain, ideal for areas where you may want to place buildings or roads. In addition to various attributes outlined above, this tool includes two important options:

Attribute	Description
Flatten Mode	Erode to Flat — Given a plane to flatten on, only terrain above the plane is removed. Grow to Flat — Given a plane to flatten on, only terrain below the plane is filled in. Flatten All — Given a desired plane to flatten on, a perfectly flat surface is generated (terrain above the plane is removed and terrain below the plane is filled in).
Fixed Plane	When toggled on, locks the flatten plane to a specific Y position as defined by Plane Position. The plane's position can either be manually entered or selected with the "eyedropper" tool next to the value input field.

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The Paint tool changes the terrain’s current material, for example grass, rock, or water. This is useful for adding variations like dirt and rock patches in a grass field.

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The Sea Level tool lets you create a consistent water level across any region. To use it, enter a X/Y/Z position and size, then click Create to flood the region with water or Evaporate to remove water.

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Alternatively to setting a strict X/Y/Z size for the sea level region, you can drag the handle "globes" around the region box to resize it.

The Replace tool lets you replace one terrain material with another, either within a large box region or by using the terrain brush.

Customizing Terrain

Terrain can be further customized by adjusting material colors or enabling decorations. These options are controlled through the Terrain object within Workspace.

Material Colors

Each terrain material like rock, ice, or grass has a default color, but you can customize these if desired. For example, if you’re building an arctic world or a volcanic wasteland, terrain colors may be adjusted to fit the theme.

1. In the Properties window, expand the Appearance → MaterialColors branch.

1. Enter or select a new RGB value for any material and the terrain will update dynamically.

Water Properties

Water color and other water effects are controlled through separate properties in the Appearance section:

Note that some water properties may only be apparent while playing. To preview all properties while editing, set Rendering → Edit Quality Level to the highest level in Studio's settings.

All terrain of the Grass material can be decorated with animated blades of grass by toggling on Decoration.

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