Viewport, Appearance, and Layout Settings

Choose a viewport preset

Open Editor settings in the header. Choose Performance for the lightest rendering, Balanced for ordinary editing, or Quality for the richest preview. A preset changes several terrain, texture, model, dense-mesh, lighting, and atmosphere choices together.

Start with Balanced. Switch to Performance when navigation stutters or the browser approaches its graphics-memory limit. Switch to Quality for close inspection or screenshots after the editing workflow is stable. These presets change the preview, not export detail.

Smooth camera movement

In Editor settings, turn on Smooth camera movement to reduce work while you pan, turn, zoom, or play a preview orbit. It starts off, so you can compare the same camera movement with the switch off and on.

The viewport stays at full resolution while moving and keeps the terrain and imagery detail from your last resting position. When you stop, nearby detail catches up. If you cross a large distance, you may briefly see the broader terrain overview before nearby detail loads.

This choice is saved in this browser, independently of viewport presets. It does not change your project data or export quality. Turn it off to use the usual detail loading behavior. The viewport resolution stays the same with either setting.

Set the HQ tile window

HQ tile window controls how many native-resolution terrain tiles stay sharp around the camera. Choose 1 × 1, 3 × 3, 5 × 5, 7 × 7, 9 × 9, or Full. Full keeps native-resolution terrain sharp across the whole map instead of moving a smaller window with the camera.

The 9 × 9 and Full choices can use substantially more graphics memory and take longer to finish loading. Use them for screenshots or recorded passes on capable hardware, wait for the terrain to sharpen before starting a Preview orbit, and reduce the setting if navigation lags or the tab becomes unstable.

Play a preview orbit

Preview orbit circles the camera around the centre of the map from wherever it currently stands, which is useful for reviewing a finished area or recording a turntable pass. Select Preview orbit in View Options or press I by default to start or stop a pass, and open its settings flyout for the controls below. Position the camera first: it has to be away from the map centre, and its current height and distance become the orbit.

Choose Play to start. The camera turns to face the map centre at once, waits for the Start delay, and then circles. Direction chooses CCW (counter-clockwise, the default) or CW (clockwise). Rotations sets how many full turns to make, from 1 to 12 (default 1). Seconds per rotation sets the pace, from 2 to 120 seconds (default 20). Start delay, from None to 10 seconds (default 3), gives you time to begin a screen recording. Starting a pass leaves First person. The final frame matches the first. Choose Stop, press I again, or move the camera to end the pass early. The button stays lit only while a pass runs, and a pass never restarts by itself when the Editor opens.

Hold terrain detail during the pass is on by default. It stops high-resolution terrain tiles loading and unloading mid-rotation, which is what otherwise makes the ground flicker as the camera comes around. Turn it off when you would rather each part of the map sharpen as the camera reaches it.

Fine-tune View Options settings

Point at a View Options button to show its settings in the tool settings window, titled for example Grid settings. Grid, Vectors, Textures, Meshes, Dense Meshes, Preview orbit, and Highlight have settings; the other buttons have none. Each button and its settings are described in the next section.

Texture quality and Texture window balance ground-texture sharpness against graphics memory. Model draw distance and Distributed model limit control how far away and how many ordinary models are shown. Dense model draw distance and Dense model limit do the same for grass, flowers, and other dense foliage. Lower distances and limits when a collection-heavy scene becomes slow. Choosing Performance, Balanced, or Quality in Editor settings changes Vector window and all of these values together.

These are visibility limits only. A model that is outside the current draw distance is not deleted and can still export.

What every View Options button does

Click a View Options button, or press its key, to turn it on or off; a short notice confirms the change. The defaults below are for a new browser. Point at a button to show its settings; pin the settings window when it should stay open, or turn on autohide to let it fade when the pointer moves away. These choices are saved in this browser only. They do not change the project, the export, or what teammates see.

• Grid (G, on by default) draws grid lines on the terrain. Use it to line up fields, roads, and buildings, or to judge distances; turn it off for a clean view or screenshots. Grid settings: Snap to grid (off by default) places new Draw nodes, and nodes you move or insert with Select, on the nearest grid crossing. It can be changed only while Grid is on. Hiding Grid pauses grid snapping, and showing Grid again resumes it. Grid size sets the spacing from 1 to 100 m (default 1 m) and is also the snap spacing. Line thickness sets how heavy the lines look, from 0.5x to 4x (default 1.0x).
• Snap (T, on by default) helps you join map features without gaps. When you place a node with Draw, or drag a node with Select, close to an existing node or line, the node lands exactly on it. In Draw, a green ring shows where the click will place the node. If you drop a dragged node on another line, that line gets a node at the same spot, so the two lines are joined; for example, connect a new road to an existing road. Turn Snap off to place nodes freely, such as two lines that must stay close but separate. Snap to grid in Grid settings works separately and takes priority while it is on, so nearby features do not pull nodes off the grid.
• Preserve Connections (R, on by default) keeps joined features together. Where features share a node, for example where two roads or streams meet, dragging that node with Select also moves the matching node of every other feature at the same spot. Transform follows the same rule: when you move, rotate or resize a shape, or a group of shapes, a road whose end sits on it keeps that end attached, and the rest of the road stays where it is. Turn it off to move only what you grabbed, for example to pull apart two roads that should not meet or to move a building away from a road. Press Escape before you release the mouse to cancel a drag; everything returns to where it was.
• Vectors (V, on by default) draws the points, lines, and area outlines of your map data, such as roads, rivers, fields, and forests. Turn it off to judge terrain, textures, and models without lines on top; the features are only hidden, not removed. Vectors settings: Line style chooses Improved (default) for thicker, easier-to-read lines or Usual for thin lines. Terrain visibility chooses Show through terrain (default), which keeps lines visible behind hills, or Terrain occludes, which hides the parts behind the ground. Vector window sets how many terrain tiles around the camera show vectors, from 1 x 1 to 15 x 15 tiles, or Full for the whole map.
• Textures (C, on by default) shows the ground textures from your vector mapping: the base ground texture and the textures assigned to areas and widened lines. They appear when the Editor opens; you do not need to edit a feature first. Turn Textures off to see the terrain without them. Imagery and editable raster layers are shown or hidden in Layers, not with Textures. Textures settings: Texture quality sets how sharp ground and road-surface textures are, from 128 px to 1024 px. Texture window sets how many terrain tiles around the camera show textures, from 1 x 1 to 15 x 15 tiles, or Full. Higher values look sharper but use more graphics memory.
• Meshes (H, on by default) shows 3D models: buildings, trees and other placed objects, road constructor meshes such as bridges, water surfaces, and railway models. Turn it off to see the terrain and map data underneath, or to keep navigation smooth on a slower computer. Meshes settings: Model draw distance, from 64 to 4,096 m and 256 m by default, hides models farther from the camera; it also limits how far electricity wires from Connections are drawn. Distributed model limit, from 25 to 150,000 models, caps how many models from object distributions, such as forest trees, are shown. These limits do not delete models or change the export.
• Dense Meshes (N, on by default) shows the many small upright plants, such as grass and flowers, that a painted foliage layer places on the ground. Turn it off when dense foliage makes navigation slow or hides the ground you are editing. Dense Meshes settings: Dense model draw distance, from 8 to 256 m, sets how far from the camera plants appear. Dense model limit, from 50 to 100,000 models, caps how many are shown. The limits affect the preview, not the saved foliage or the export.
• Connections (O, on by default) draws the wires between electricity poles placed along power lines. Use it to check where the power network runs between poles. Turn it off for a cleaner view; the poles themselves belong to Meshes. Wires farther away than Model draw distance in Meshes settings are not drawn. Connections has no settings.
• Bounds (B, on by default) draws the project’s boundary outlines on the terrain, such as the playable area and the background area that the game uses. Use it to check what the map covers and where its edges are. You select a boundary outline to edit it, so keep Bounds on while editing one; turn it off for a clean view. Layers controls which boundaries are shown.
• Preview orbit (I) plays a smooth camera pass around the centre of the map, for reviewing a finished area or recording a showcase video. It is a play button, not a switch: it stays lit only while the pass runs. Preview orbit settings hold Play or Stop, Direction, Rotations, Seconds per rotation, Start delay, and Hold terrain detail; Play a preview orbit explains each one.
• Viewport focus (L, off by default) hides every docked window, including Toolbox and View Options, so the map fills the Editor below the header. Use it to see more of the map, or for clean screenshots and recordings. To bring the windows back as they were, choose Exit viewport focus in the top-right corner of the viewport or press L again.
• First person (P, off by default) puts the camera 2 m above the ground, like a person standing on the map. W, A, S, and D walk across the ground and the camera follows the terrain; Left Shift walks a little faster. Use it to check roads, buildings, and slopes from a player’s point of view. Press P again to leave it. Q or E, Top-Down, a Top, Left, or Right choice in the View wheel, a Preview orbit, or Move camera in Highlight settings also leaves First person.
• Top-Down (F, off by default) turns the camera to look straight down from where it is now. Use it for precise tracing and editing of roads, field edges, and other shapes, without perspective getting in the way. It leaves First person, but it does not lock the camera; you can move and turn it as usual. The button stays lit after use. Press F again to clear it without moving the camera, then once more to look straight down again.
• Highlight (J, on by default) marks a single selected vector feature with a tall, see-through yellow column and a marker on the Minimap, so you can find it from far away. Nothing is marked when several features or none are selected. Turn Highlight off when the column gets in the way of close work. Highlight settings: Move camera (off by default) moves the camera to frame each newly selected feature, keeping your current heading. Leave it off to keep your current view when you select something.

Set interface and environment appearance

Open Appearance in the header. Under Interface, choose Auto, Light, or Dark. Auto follows the system theme. This preference belongs to your browser and does not change collaborators’ layouts.

Under Environment, choose Solid, Gradient, or Atmosphere for Sky style and turn Shadows off or on. Pick a lighting preset such as Clear sky, Soft daylight, Golden hour, Sunset, or Hazy, or adjust the controls until the preset becomes Custom. With Shadows on, trees from object distributions, such as forest trees, cast shadows only within about 160 m of the camera; farther trees are drawn without a shadow, so large forests stay smooth.

Time of day changes sun elevation, Sun direction rotates the light, Haze softens distant contrast, Distance fog limits far visibility, and Exposure changes overall brightness. Use Reset environment to restore the standard preview.

Layout and local preferences

Use Layout -> Compact view for a dense interface. Use Unlock Layout and Edit Layout to rearrange windows, then Manage Layouts to save the result or make it your default. Reset to default fixes a workspace that became difficult to use. Editor Overview covers arranging windows in detail.

Tool settings, hotkeys, panel state, environment, and many display choices are local to the browser. Project layers, geometry, terrain edits, modifiers, assignments, bounds, and placements are shared project data. History and Saving explains the difference in detail.