Documentation

Learn how to use TreCorsa's track editor

Terrain

Terrain Editing

TreCorsa offers multiple ways to shape your track's terrain - from quick brush painting to importing real-world height data.

Track Regeneration

TreCorsa automatically regenerates track geometry when you make changes. By default, this happens immediately after each change. You can enable manual regeneration mode in Settings → Track Regeneration Settings to defer regeneration until you click "Re-generate".

Manual mode is useful for:

  • Very large tracks or roads (regeneration can be slow)
  • Making many rapid terrain brush strokes or road edits
  • Improving performance during intensive editing sessions

In manual mode, roads appear immediately as you draw, but terrain regeneration is deferred. A popup will notify you when regeneration is needed.

Terrain Brush

The Terrain Brush is the easiest way to modify terrain. After activating the tool:

  • Left click + drag - Paint terrain changes
  • Mode buttons - Choose between Raise, Lower, Smooth, or Flatten
  • Settings panel - Adjust brush radius, strength, and hardness

The brush settings let you control how aggressively you modify the terrain. Use Smooth mode to blend changes naturally.

Resolution Brush

The Resolution Brush allows you to locally increase terrain mesh density in specific areas. This is useful for adding more detail to important sections of your track without increasing the overall terrain resolution (which would impact performance).

Resolution Brush Controls

After activating the Resolution Brush tool:

  • Left click + drag - Paint higher resolution areas on the terrain
  • Mode buttons - Choose between Increase (add detail) or Decrease (restore base resolution)
  • Clear button - Remove all resolution brush modifications and restore base resolution everywhere

Resolution Brush Settings

When the Resolution Brush is active, you can adjust:

  • Mode - Increase (adds higher resolution) or Decrease (restores base resolution)
  • Brush Radius - Size of the brush area (10-200 meters)
  • Brush Strength - How quickly the brush reaches the target subdivision level (0.1-1.0)
  • Brush Hardness - Edge softness of the brush (0 = soft falloff, 1 = hard edge)
  • Subdivision Level - Target resolution level (1 = 2x resolution, 2 = 4x resolution)

How It Works

The Resolution Brush paints on a resolution mask that tells the terrain system where to subdivide the mesh more. Base terrain uses level 0, while painted areas can use level 1 (2x resolution) or level 2 (4x resolution). This allows you to add fine detail to specific areas like corners, elevation changes, or important track sections without the performance cost of increasing resolution across the entire track.

After painting with the Resolution Brush, the terrain will regenerate to apply the changes. This may take a moment depending on the size of the affected area.

After shaping your terrain, you can add texture detail using the Texture Paint tool to paint different terrain textures like grass, sand, and rock.

Satellite Tracing & Terrain Import

One of TreCorsa's most powerful features is the ability to import real-world locations:

  1. Click the "Trace Satellite" button
  2. Search for a location or navigate the map
  3. Use the "Import View to 3D" button to import:
    • Satellite Texture - The aerial imagery as terrain texture
    • Height Data - Real elevation data from the location

After importing, you can trace your roads directly from the satellite image, and the terrain will automatically match the real-world elevation!

Satellite Imagery Providers

TreCorsa supports multiple satellite imagery providers. It's recommended to switch between providers to see which one provides the best image quality for your location. Mapbox is often higher resolution and may provide clearer imagery, especially in urban areas.

Heightmap Data Sources

Different heightmap sources are optimized for different regions and use cases:

  • USA: Use the USGS 10m resolution dataset for the best coverage and accuracy in the United States.
  • Europe: The GPXZ map provides excellent coverage up to 1 meter resolution in some areasfor European locations.
  • General Use: Copernicus is probably the best overall choice for most locations worldwide, though it can show height for buildings which may not be desired for some use cases.
  • Building-Free Option: ALOS 3D does not include building heights, making it ideal when you want terrain elevation without structures.

Syncing terrain resolution with heightmap resolution

Heightmap resolution is NOT automatically synced with terrain resolution. For example, if you use GPX and import an area that has 5 meters resolution heightmap, you could then set the terrain resolution to 5 after satellite import. This is not required—you can set the resolution to whatever value you want—but if you want as much terrain height detail as possible, you should set it to match the heightmap resolution.