Glossary
Definitions of World Generator's terms.
Adjacency graph
The record of which provinces share a border. Rebuilt on demand and exported as adjacencies.csv. Painting provinces by hand invalidates it until you press Apply new province.
Base noise cache
The raw noise field, stored separately from the final heightmap so painted influence can be reapplied over a regenerated world.
Biome
An ecological classification — grassland, desert, deep ocean. Sixteen exist, each with a colour, a density modifier, a height offset and a set of strata it is allowed to occupy.
Biome layer
An imported image that paints one biome. Layers form an ordered stack; those above paint over those below.
Chaos
The irregularity of province boundaries. At 0 the result approaches a clean Voronoi tessellation; raising it makes borders look drawn rather than computed.
Domain warping
Displacing noise coordinates before sampling. Turns rounded blobs into continents with inlets, peninsulas and fjords. Set in Terrain → Shaping → Warped coastlines.
Falloff
The softness of a brush stroke's edge. 0 gives a hard edge. Also adjustable with Alt + scroll.
FBm
Fractional Brownian motion — the default fractal mode. Sums octaves of noise at decreasing amplitude, giving rolling, natural terrain.
Gain
How much each successive octave contributes. Lower gives smoother terrain.
Hypsometric curve
A redistribution of elevation that makes plains dominate and high peaks rare, as in real terrain. Sea depth is left alone. Enabled under the name Realistic elevation spread.
Influence map
Where hand sculpting is stored. Kept separate from the noise, which is why regenerating terrain does not erase what you painted.
Lacunarity
How much finer each octave is than the last. 2.0 is the classical value — each octave has twice the frequency of the one before.
Level
One tier of the territory hierarchy. Built on provinces or on another level. Each level exports to its own CSV, named after it.
Mask
An image that drives part of the world instead of the noise. Two kinds: stratum overrides, which replace an elevation band's shape, and biome layers, which paint biomes.
Micro-province
A province below a size threshold, usually a sliver along a coastline. Removed by Provinces → Cleanup.
Octave
One layer of noise. More octaves means more detail and more generation time.
Projection
How the 2D map relates to a sphere. Planar (none), Equirectangular (latitude/longitude), or Mercator (conformal cylindrical).
Province
The smallest unit of the map. Generated in two independent populations, land and sea. Everything in the hierarchy is built on them.
Ridged
A fractal mode that inverts and sharpens each octave, producing ridgelines and mountain chains rather than hills.
Seed
The number that determines a world. The same seed with the same settings always produces the same map, on any machine.
Stencil
An imported image used as a reference to trace, or as a source for flood-filling terrain. Distinct from a mask: a stencil is what you work from, a mask is what the generator works with.
Stratum
One of the nine elevation bands, from Abyssal to High peaks. Sea level sits between Coastal waters and Low plains.
Stratum slope
An export setting controlling how sharp the boundary between elevation bands is in the heightmap. 0 keeps hard terraces; raising it bevels them.
Territory
A group of provinces, or a group of smaller territories, within one hierarchy level.
.wgen
The document format. A single binary file holding a world's complete state — settings, terrain, painted influence, provinces, hierarchy, masks and stencil. Currently version 24.