Overview
Grass in Age of Empires IV can be added to a map to create a variety of landscapes, from snow-tufted tundra and swampy reeds, to flowery fields and dense forest underbrush, there are nearly countless possibilities.
This guide covers what grass tools are available in the Age of Empires IV Content Editor and how to create effects with them.
Adding Grass to a Map
The primary way of adding grass to a map is by using the Grass Painter, which allows you to paint grass onto the terrain. You can also customize the painter's palette with a number of additional grasses.
You can also add grass through the use of a Splat, which allows you to add grass to a specially prepared splat entity.
The sections below detail the steps required to use both these grass creation methods.
Opening the Grass Painter
You can access the grass tool by going to the Tool Bar and selecting the Grass icon.
Alternatively, you can also go to the Scenario Tree and click on the Grass Icon.
Once you select the Grass Tool using either of these methods, the Properties Panel will then switch to show the Grass Painter, including a variety of brush options and the controls for both Left Mouse Button and Right Mouse Button brushes.
Hide/Display Grass
You can access the option to toggle hiding or displaying grass by navigating to:
Main Menu > Scenario > Display Grass
This can be useful if you are sculpting the ground beneath a patch of grass and want to see the changes you are making more clearly.
Grass Painter Properties
When you select the Grass tool, the Properties panel will change to reflect several aspects that control how the grass brush behaves.
Editor
- Locked: Locks out all interaction with grass objects so they cannot be added, deleted, or changed.
- Visible: Functionality not supported in the current version of the Content Editor.
Grass
- Blend Threshold: Value between 0 and 1. The distance from the ground to the top of the grass where it blends with the terrain. Lower values result in more distinct grass stocks, and higher values result in more blended grass stocks. Examples given below.
Blend Threshold of 0.4
Blend threshold of 00
- Clipping Distance: Distance at which grass no longer renders. This setting is locked in the Content Editor and will always return to 200.
Misc
- CellSize: The size of the map's cells. This is always set to 1.
- Height: The current height of the map, in cells.
- Width: The current width of the mao, in cells.
Adding Grass with the Painter
The list of grass types in the Scenario Tree shows which grasses are available in your grass painter palette.
Normally only the grass types common to your map's biome are listed here, but you can add any additional grass types you want from the master grass library by creating a blank Grass object and keying it to a new grass type.
When a new grass type is added to this list, it will also be added to your palette in the painter tool.
To add a new grass type to your palette, perform the following steps:
- In the Scenario Tree, Right-Click on Grass and choose + Add...
- A new empty Grass object will be added in your Scenario Tree. Left-Click on this object to access its Properties panel.
- In the Properties panel for your new grass type, press the
icon in the Blueprint interface. The master library of grasses will appear.
- From the master library, Select the Grass type you wish to add to your map and press Open.
- The new grass type you added in the Scenario Tree will then change to match your selection.
- Your new grass type will now also appear in your grass painter palette.
Painting Grass using the Palette
To access the grass painter palette, select the Grass entity in the Scenario Tree.
This will open the Painter tool containing all grass objects currently added to your map.
This tool contains two independent brushes, one keyed to your Left Mouse Button and the other keyed to your Right Mouse Button.
Selecting the Grass type for a brush will key that brush to that grass type, allowing you to paint that type of grass onto the map.
Each brush has a collection of settings that control the behavior of the brush. These settings are detailed below.
Grass Painter Brush Settings
Each grass painter brush has five modes, located at the top-left of the brush interface.
These modes consist of:
- Brush
- Feathered Tip Height Brush
- Textured Tip Height Brush
- Eraser
- Sample
Each mode has a variety of unique settings that control the behavior of the brush.
Brush
The Brush is the main default brush tool for painting grass. It contains settings surrounding controlling the behavior of painted grass.
Brush
These settings allow you to control the behavior of the brush.
- Grass: Allows you to select the grass keyed to the brush.
- Height: This functionality is not supported in the current version of the Content Editor.
- Shape: Sets the shape of the brush to either a circle or a square.
- Size: Sets the size of the brush anywhere between 1 to 128 meters.
- State: Only the Normal setting is functional. Setting to Crushed or Burn places placeholder grass assets.
Lock
- Lock Grass: This functionality is not supported in the current version of the Content Editor.
- Lock Height: This functionality is not supported in the current version of the Content Editor.
- Lock State: This functionality is not supported in the current version of the Content Editor.
Slope
These two sliders control the maximum and minimum slope that the grass can be painted on, measured in degrees.
The grass selected can only be painted on elevations between these values. For example, choosing 0 to 55 would prevent grass from being painted on slopes or cliffs greater than 55°.
Limiting the slope to 40° prevents grass from being painted on cliffsides.
Feather Tipped Height Brush
The feather tipped height brush allows you to edit the height of grass that's already been painted.
Brush
Feather: (0-1) Adjusts the soft fall off for the brush.
Gusto: Sets the aggressiveness of the roughen effect.
Mode: Sets the main mode of the brush, including the following menu options:
- Additive: Raises the grass height.
- Subtractive: Lowers the grass height.
- Flatten: Averages the grass heights under the brush.
- Roughen: Adds noise to the grass area.
- Smoothen: Similar blur, this will soften various heights under the brush.
Shape: Sets the shape of the brush to either a circle or a square.
Size: Sets the size of the brush anywhere between 1 to 128 meters.
Strength: Sets the speed and power (0-100) at which grass is edited.
Texture Tipped Height Brush
The brush that allows you to choose a pattern to use as a template to paint grass height.
Brush
Gusto: Sets the aggressiveness of the roughen effect.
Mode: Sets the main mode of the brush, including the following menu options:
- Additive: Raises the grass height.
- Subtractive: Lowers the grass height.
- Flatten: Averages the grass heights under the brush.
- Roughen: Adds noise to the grass area.
- Smoothen: Similar blur, this will soften various heights under the brush.
Strength: Sets the speed and power (0-100) at which grass is edited.
Strength: Sets the speed and power (0-100) at which grass is edited.
Texture
Invert: Inverts the texture.
Mirror X: Mirrors the texture along the X axis.
Mirror Y: Mirrors the texture along the Y axis.
Scale: Controls the size of the texture.
Texture: Allows you to choose the texture to use to set the brush. You can upload any image you wish, although images such as rough blobs or noise textures work best.
Eraser
Erases grass from the terrain.
This is often useful to set as your secondary grass brush, so you can quickly remove grass you have placed.
Shape: Sets the shape of the eraser to either a circle or a square.
Size: Sets the size of the eraser anywhere between 1 to 128 meters.
Sampler
The sampler sets the grass to whatever grass type is selected.
This is useful to create of a grass type you already have by matching it.
The sampler works in every other brush mode listed above.
Adding Grass To Splats
An alternative to painting grass is using Splats to spawn or remove grass.
You can find splats in the Object Browser by navigating to: Art > Scenarios > Textures > Splats
To use a spat to spawn grass, perform the following steps:
- Place the splat onto the terrain by Left-Clicking it and dragging it onto the render view.
- Select the splat, then go to splat's Properties panel and press the button in the Grass field. The Master Grass Library will open.
- Use the Master Grass Library to select the type of grass you wish to add to the splat and press Open.
- The grass you selected will now appear on the splat.
Removing Grass on Splines
When a spline is set down on the terrain to create a road or similar pattern, any grass on the terrain will normally show through it.
To prevent this, you can set any spline to remove any grass on top of it. This can be useful when creating roads that you do not want grass to cover.
To remove grass on top of a spline, go to the spline's Properties panel and check the Remove Grass box.
