Streamlined Interface

Easier-to-understand icons and placement are not the only advantages to WorldBuilder 4’s new interface. Interfaces are now, in fact, a mesh that can be loaded, saved, and switched. WorldBuilder 4 ships with three interfaces and more can be designed.

• Redesignable and editable floating toolbars
• Integration of Flash
• New preview render mode
• Show/hide all objects in a given area to isolate parts of scene
• New viewport paradigm and controls: viewport library button, easy double-click min/max and close, enable/disable, hide/show grid, viewport duplicate, also a new viewport shadow view
• New true pan and zoom for perspective
• New FOV (Field of View) tool
• Easy to unselect objects
• One-step movement, scaling, and rotation of objects
• Render dialog saves with scene file, including rendering preference

Grayscale Editor

WorldBuilder 4’s new grayscale editor allows users to very easily create new elevation maps and import, save, modify, and load new maps. Almost any elevation map can be easily converted by the grayscale editor into a WB height map from a traditional elevation map to overhead photos. The grayscale editor is a new window that allows you to literally paint an elevation map in grayscale.

• Includes basic features such as move, zoom, load and save, undo and redo
• Works with layers and schemes for maximum power and control, comes with a preset landscape list
• Powerful layer controls including merging, filters, create/delete/duplicate
• Brush controls for thickness and hardness – save and load brush preferences
• Updates in real time

Materials Editor

With the Materials Editor, users have unprecedented power over adding, previewing, modifying and altering object materials. WorldBuilder 4 efficiently allows users to preview new materials with different render options.

• Build new material libraries by adding, duplicating and modifying, and deleting materials
• Create new materials sets and select them through the new dropdown list
• Use the materials preview window and geometry dropdown list with selectable background, and backlight/scene lighting to preview materials efficiently
• Includes auto-refresh and undo features
• New material parameters window puts all of the characteristics in one convenient place. Use open/save material state to save your status.
• Updates in real time

Verdant Plants

You can now import plants from Digital Element’s new Verdant plant format. Verdant plants are algorithmically generated and can be varied automatically. You can create an entire forest from a single tree or an entire lawn from a single blade of grass. WorldBuilder still makes vegetation and rock placement easy, giving users a comprehensive control.

• New plant libraries in WorldBuilder and more available soon, including Oregon Plants, Arizona Plants, and Japanese Plants
• Support for wind animation, variation, and random placement

Additional New Features

Improved Shadows WorldBuilder 4 has better quality shadows and an easier interface

• Higher detailed shadow algorithms – better quality
• Improved performance during render for shadows
• Users can now add shadow views to a viewport

Better Lights Now, in WorldBuilder 4, it is easier to manipulate lights and new types of lights have been added.

• Interface of Light Source has been changed - you can change the light's type (parallel, spot or point) on the fly
• Independent and object-target parallel and spot lights have been added

New Cloud Features Cumulonimbus-type clouds can be animated in areas and a new wind for this type of cloud has been created.