Table of Contents

Layering Strategy

A good multi biome setup is easier to manage when each biome has one clear purpose. This page describes common biome archetypes and their recommended starting blend settings.

None of this is required. Vista does not enforce any of these patterns. They are here to give you a starting point when you are not sure which blend modes to pick. Feel free to mix and match, or ignore them entirely once you are comfortable with how the blend options work.

Base Biome

The first biome in the stack. It gives the terrain its first complete result and sets the baseline that all later biomes modify.

It usually outputs:

  • the main terrain shape
  • the main terrain textures
  • the default grass, trees, or objects

Recommended starting point:

Because the base biome writes to blank canvases, many blend modes produce the same result at this stage. Replace, Raise, and Keep Higher on an empty height map all give the same output. For simplicity, leave everything at Replace and focus on getting the right result in the graph itself.

Keep the base biome simple. Later biomes can modify it, add details on top of it, or take ownership of smaller areas.

Replacement Biome

Used when an area is meant to become a distinctly different kind of place.

Examples: oasis, forest patch, desert region, snow region, rocky mountain, wetland.

Recommended starting point:

The biome takes full ownership of its area. The soft edge comes from the falloff anchors or a Biome Mask Graph.

Additive Height Biome

Used when the biome changes the landform without completely replacing what the base terrain produced.

Examples: burial mound, raised ridge, sand dunes, embankment. Lower gives the opposite effect: trench, river bed, basin, crater.

Recommended starting point:

  • Height Map: Raise (or Lower for sunken features)
  • Textures: Replace, if the raised or lowered area needs a different surface
  • Population: Replace or Coexist, depending on whether existing grass and trees should remain

Overlay Biome

Used when the goal is only to add something on top of an existing terrain without changing its shape or surface.

Examples: flower patch, rock cluster, mushrooms, debris, ruins, cave entrance props.

Recommended starting point:

  • Height Map: the biome graph should not include a Height Output node
  • Textures: no texture output nodes needed, unless the overlay also changes the ground material under the placed objects. A rock cluster that adds a dirt or gravel patch under the rocks, for example, should use Replace for Textures.
  • Population: Coexist

Coexist is the key setting for overlay biomes. It adds new content without removing what earlier biomes placed.

Hole Biome

Used when a biome cuts an opening into the terrain.

Examples: cave entrance, tunnel opening, cutout area.

Recommended starting point:

  • Hole Map: Max, when multiple hole biomes need to preserve each other's openings
  • Population: Coexist, when entrance props are added without clearing the surrounding vegetation

Height Filling Biome

Used when the terrain height itself decides where textures or objects appear, rather than the full anchor area.

Examples: sand only where dunes rise above the base ground, snow only on peaks that win over the base terrain, dry soil only inside a lowered basin.

Recommended starting point:

See Texture blending and Population blending for how Height Win behaves and its dependency on the Height Map setting.