Devlog · June 20, 2026

Terrain Heightfield and River Readability

Focused the terrain pass on readable height, water, and river shapes so low passes have clearer ground detail.

Changes

• Guarded natural terrain orientation so ridges and slopes keep a believable direction instead of flipping visual cues during low passes.
• Smoothed terrain relief shading so hills read as landform rather than noisy color bands at combat altitude.
• Added a visual terrain height scale so the software renderer can exaggerate ground shape just enough to make elevation readable.
• Kept terrain heightfield rendering closer to the authored scale so the arena remains recognizable while visual relief is tuned.
• Cleaned up terrain water edges so rivers and shorelines sit against the ground without muddy bleed-through.
• Rendered rivers as continuous ribbons so waterways hold together across the terrain instead of breaking into disconnected fragments.