Common Mistakes

Height Win falls back to Replace

Textures or Population is set to Height Win, but textures or objects bleed across the full anchor area instead of being constrained to where the height won.

Cause: Height Win requires Height Map to be set to Keep Higher or Keep Lower. If Height Map is set to anything else, Vista has no height comparison result to work with and Texture and Population fall back to Replace.

Fix: Set Height Map to Keep Higher or Keep Lower before using Height Win on Textures or Population.

Textures or objects bleed across the full anchor area

A biome is meant to place sand, snow, or objects only on a specific terrain feature, but the textures or population spread across the whole anchor area.

Cause: Replace mode on Textures or Population applies across the full anchor area, not just where the height feature sits.

Fix: If the biome uses Keep Higher or Keep Lower on Height Map, switch Textures and Population to Height Win. See Texture blending and Population blending.

An overlay biome wipes out surrounding vegetation

A biome is meant to add flowers, rocks, or props on top of existing terrain, but the surrounding grass and trees disappear inside its anchor area.

Cause: Population is set to Replace. It clears all earlier population inside the anchor area, even if the biome outputs nothing of its own.

Fix: Set Population to Coexist. This adds the biome's population without removing what earlier biomes placed. See Population blending.

Coexist produces too much density

Two or more Coexist biomes overlap and the combined grass, trees, or objects are too dense.

Cause: Coexist is additive. Density from all overlapping biomes stacks.

Fix: Reduce the density output in the graph of one or more of the biomes, or reduce the density in the Template asset directly. Do not change the blend mode. Either change requires a regenerate to take effect.

Height overshoot produces shelves or spikes

The terrain has unexpected shelves, abrupt ridges, or spike-like shapes near a biome boundary.

Cause: The biome's height output is too large. Any blend mode can overshoot when the incoming height values are very high.

Fix: Enable Use Transform on the biome's Height Map blend option. Then either lower the biome's Y scale in the scene to reduce the overall height output, or reduce the height range in the graph with a Remap node or by lowering the Height Output scale. See Geometry blending.

Missing Output policy Keep does not work

Missing Geometry is set to Keep, but Vista still changes the terrain shape.

Cause: The Missing Output policy only activates when no biome in the scene outputs that data at all. As long as at least one biome graph has a Height Output node, Vista considers geometry active and blends it normally. The Keep setting never gets a chance to apply.

Fix: Check every biome graph and remove Height Output nodes that were added by accident. Once no biome outputs height, the Keep policy takes effect. See Missing output policy.

The biome transition looks too geometric

The blend mode and biome placement are correct, but the edge of the biome looks hard, mechanical, or stamped on.

Cause: The raw biome mask follows the anchor polygon closely. No post-processing has been applied.

Fix: Assign a Biome Mask Graph to the biome to soften and break up the mask before blending. See Better transition.

Erosion trenches end unnaturally at the biome edge

The biome transition is soft, but erosion grooves or trenches cut across the boundary and stop abruptly, making the edge look artificial.

Cause: The terrain graph runs erosion across the entire tile without knowing where the biome boundary is. The biome mask controls blending between biomes, but does not automatically affect what happens inside the graph.

Fix: Add a Biome Mask Input node to the terrain graph and use it to fade the erosion near the edge. See Advanced transition.