Spline Tool to shape Landscapes

We can use Splines, a tool we will explore further in Blueprints workshops to shape the landscape. This can be useful when carving riverways, building roads that level terrain and otherwise creating paths through the landscape.

To do this we need to be in the Landscape mode and on the Manage tool.

Select the Splines tool and whilst holding Ctrl-click on the landscape to add your first Spline point, Keep doing this to create a path that you will want to deform the landscape around. A top tip is to ensure first and last Spline points go off the edges of the map if building rivers or roads that go beyond the world limits.

These splines will be shown in green and MAY be too wide initially, we can fix this via the details panel and Select all Connected spline Points when clicking on one of the spline points. Reducing its Half Width value with make the spline path thinner.

Clicking CTRL will add new spline points along the Spline path. We can move, Rotate and scale these spline points like any other asset. We can modify the position, scale and rotation of each spline point individually.

With all Splines selected on the Landscape tools panel under Splines Tool Settings you will see a Deform Landscape to Splines option Clicking all Splines will deform the landscape either raising or lowering it depending on where each spline is on the landscape terrain.

We can also assign static meshes to follow a spline this can be useful for creating paths, roads and rivers.

We will delve into water physics and creation processes in the future as it can be tricky to master.

The Water Plugin Edit > Plugins does have a River Spline example that can affect the landscape/terrain however it is experimental, impacts performance and can be tricky to get right. We will explore this in a dedicated section on water and Unreal within Simulations.