Are procedural terrains suppose to change every time the terrain editor is opened?

If you change the size or orientation of the terrain in the main scene then it will recalculate the next time you go in the terrain editor. Normally it is just the scale that is changed but it can be a real pain sometimes. You just need to adjust the scale setting to compensate. It shouldn't do this every time you open the terrain editor though, only if you have changed the size or rotation of the terrain in the main view.

It is hard to understand why, but when I hit zero edge and then paint on it and close the editor and reopen the editor the terrain changes shape. I didn't change position, size, or rotation of the terrain, so why? Is this a bug? It feels like one and slowed down a project of mine considerably. Should it be reported? Why have an editor if it can't be controlled?

Ok i just tried the same thing. Starting with a blank scene i created one standard procedural terrain, then went in the editor and clicked zero edges and dug a big trench in the terrain. I could then enter and exit the terrain editor and it did NOT change the terrain each time at all. So it seems that possibly there is a bug with your version Vue as i could not reproduce the problem. I can say definitely you should not be having the terrain change each time you enter the editor if you have not made any deliberate changes. I can only suggest getting the latest update, i use Vue 5 Esprit and it is relatively stable and free of this bug. If you have Vue 5 Infinite maybe you should ask at E-on about this bug because it may have not been picked up yet? This would be an annoying problem and i can understand your frustration. Sorry i can't help you any more than to say that it shouldn't happen! -Jeff

Thanks for helping that is very nice of you. It doesn't always happen on every try, so I am at a lost. Thanks again. I am learning to work with this unpredictability.

I think i know what you mean, sometimes i make what i would consider to be a insignificant change and vue decides to totally recalculate the terrain changing its shape completely. A few times this has happened when i have already placed trees and other objects on the terrain. Then the terrain shape is changed and everything must be repositioned and there is no way to get back the original terrain! Some things i know do set it off so i am able to work around them and make sure i do any adjustments before i know it will be a problem. Things to watch out for are changing the mapping type of the texture on the procedural terrain. Example if you change the texture from Object Parametric mapping to World Standard mapping it will effect the terrain. Also if you load a new texture that has a change of mapping type from what is currently on the terrain. Any changes to the terrain settings like changing the quality, or like i said before scaling it or rotating the terrain in the main editor will all make it recalculate. So when you know some of these things you can work around and change all these settings before you start placing other objects relative to the terrain. Best of luck, procedural terrains are so much more realistic and flexible in use that they are worth the painful issues. I have used them in nearly all my images and i don't think i would ever use standard mapped terrains again! Regards -Jeff

Thanks for the tips.

I think answering yes to vue when asking if nodes should be added to keep the terrain shape is the right answer, but if your material is mixed and already have answered yes and the question is asked again while you are working on the sub material of the mix material, you should answer no to keep the integrity of the terrain, since the nodes are already correct.