Missing Output Policy

A biome graph does not have to output everything. A flower patch may only output population. A cave biome may only output holes. A shaping biome may output height but nothing else.

The Missing Output policy tells Vista what to do when a tile has no biome that produces data for a given category.

Select the Vista Manager, then open Tile Settings to find it.

Missing Output policy in the Vista Manager Tile Settings.

There are three groups: Geometry, Textures, and Population. Each can be set to Keep or Clear.

Keep leaves the existing terrain data alone. Use this when something outside Vista owns that data. For example, if another tool handles terrain geometry and Vista is used only for texturing and population, set Geometry to Keep so Vista does not overwrite the existing terrain shape.

Clear resets the category to a blank state when no biome produces data for it. Use this when Vista owns that channel and leftover data from a previous generation should not remain.

Warning

These policies only apply when no biome outputs data for that category at all. If even one biome in the scene outputs a height map, Vista treats geometry as active and blends it normally, regardless of the Keep setting. A common mistake when using Vista for texturing only is accidentally leaving a Height Output node in one of the biome graphs. That biome will write height data and overwrite the existing terrain shape even though Geometry is set to Keep. Make sure none of your biome graphs output data for a channel you want to leave alone.