Terrain height & snow
Two terrain knobs in Settings shape the vertical drama of your world: Terrain height x stretches relief upward, and Snow decides where the white goes. Both are independent of your tree settings, and both apply on the next regenerate.
Vertical exaggeration
The Terrain height x setting multiplies terrain height only — not the map footprint. At a given map size, a higher multiplier makes mountains taller without changing how much ground you cover. 1.0 is true scale; 2–3 gives a dramatic, game-y look. Meld auto-compresses the result to fit the available build height, so you never overflow the world ceiling.
Why you need it: at small ratios (for example 1:20) real relief gets crushed. Romania's roughly 2,280 m vertical range becomes only about 114 blocks at true scale, so even the Carpathians look flat. Dialing the multiplier up restores the sense of altitude. The default is 1.0 — you choose how much to exaggerate.
Worked example: Romania at 1:20
Here is how the multiplier plays out for Romania at a 1:20 ratio, with the terrain floor sitting at roughly -56. "Blocks" is the total vertical span; the peak figure is the approximate top of the tallest terrain.
| Terrain height x | Vertical span | Approx. peak | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| x1 | 114 blocks | +58 | True scale — mountains look flat |
| x2 | 228 blocks | +172 | Clear relief |
| x2.5 | 285 blocks | +229 | Recommended |
| x3 | 342 blocks | +286 | Tight against the ceiling |
| x4+ | — | — | Needs disable height limit for headroom |
Beyond about x3 the terrain pushes against the standard build height, so for x4 and up turn on disable height limit to give the peaks room to grow.
Snow modes
The Snow dropdown has four modes that decide where snow lands:
- Off — no snow anywhere.
- Realistic — uses the real climatic snow line for the world's latitude. On lower mountains this often means no snow at all, because they never reach the line.
- Peaks — puts snow on the top N% of the world's height range. The tallest terrain always gets a cap regardless of latitude, so you are guaranteed snow on the high points.
- Manual — snow above a Y height you pick. Full control, no climate involved.
In Peaks mode you also set a percent (default around 6) that controls how far down the snowline reaches from the summit.
Peaks: choosing the percent
The percent is measured against the world's full height range, so the same value gives a thicker cap on taller terrain. For a world that spans the full height:
| Top % | Result |
|---|---|
| 5% | Thin frosting on the very tips |
| 12–15% | A clean snow cap — recommended |
| 25% | Heavy snow / much lower snowline |
Snow and exaggeration pair well: because the percent is relative to the height range, taller mountains from a higher Terrain height x turn the same percent into a thicker, more convincing cap.
How to use
- Open Settings.
- Set Terrain height x to your multiplier (start at
2.5for dramatic relief; enable disable height limit forx4+). - Pick a mode from the Snow dropdown, then set its percent (Peaks) or Y height (Manual).
- Regenerate to apply.
Both settings are independent of your tree settings, so you can tune relief and snow without touching vegetation.