Example – the Heightmap layer stack

We can make use of the Heightmap layer stack to composite different effects, adding Fractal Mountains to one layer, hand painting a river basin in another. For Volcano Island we can add the signature volcano to a separate layer and keep it separate.

To illustrate how these layers interact here's a quick exercise:

1. Start with an empty project and a single zone. Make a total of three Heightmap layers in the layer stack.

2. Assign the selected zone to each of the three layers by right-clicking on each layer and choosing Assign to selection.

   

Rename the layers by right-clicking and choosing Edit label. Name each layer something like the following:

• Base (will contain our empty heightmap)

• Fractal (contains procedural content)

• Brush (hand-painted elements)

Now make sure that only the top layer Brush is "armed" for drawing because we're going to use a Heightmap Brush to paint directly onto the zone. If we had all three with red-dot arm icons then our brush would write to...