What does it mean to combine tile and a height map systems? Well, most of the world in Titan Quest is shaped using the height map. Inside of our editor we’ve included a number of different tools to make manipulating the height map a fast and easy process. There are tools to push and pull the terrain, flatten it out, smooth areas that are rough, and roughen areas that are smooth.

When the height map is incapable of creating a feature that a level designer requires, they can select from a palette of artist-created “tiles” which are placed on top of the height map. When a tile is placed, the editor automatically removes the portion of the height map underneath the tile and seamlessly stitches the geometry of the height map into the edge of the tile. The editor also deforms the surrounding height map so that there’s a gentle transition in elevation. In the end result you cannot tell where the height map ends and the tile mesh begins.