Terrain

The Terrain table queries the island's ground (the heightmap terrain, not buildings or props) and lets you push the vegetation around. Use it to find the ground under a point without a physics raycast, for example to place objects or spawn points on the ground, and for cosmetic effects such as grass and trees bending away from a blast.

Available on: Client

Everything here is local to the calling client: nothing is sent to the server or to other players.

Functions

Terrain.GetInfo(position)

Asks the game's terrain map about the ground at position. Only the terrain itself is considered: roads, buildings, rocks placed as objects, vehicles and water are ignored. To hit everything that has collision, use Physics.Raycast instead.

When the game finds no terrain for the position, hasHit is false.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
position	vec3	World position to query, in meters. Only its horizontal position (x, z) matters for finding the ground column.

Returns a new table with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
hasHit	boolean	true when the game found terrain for this position. When false the other fields are not meaningful.
hitPos	vec3	The point on the terrain surface the game found for position.
normal	vec3	The terrain's surface normal at hitPos (a unit vector pointing away from the ground; vec3(0, 1, 0) on flat ground).
height	number	The terrain height the game reports for this position, in meters.

Example

-- put a marker sphere on the ground in front of the local player
Event.Add("OnRender", function()
	local player = World.LocalPlayer()
	if not player then return end

	local info = Terrain.GetInfo(player:GetPosition() + vec3(0, 0, 5))

	if info.hasHit then
		Render.DrawSphere(info.hitPos, 0.5, vec4(0, 1, 0, 0.6), false)

		-- how steep is the ground there, in degrees
		local slope = math.deg(math.acos(info.normal.y))
		print(string.format("ground at %.1f m, slope %.0f deg", info.hitPos.y, slope))
	end
end)

Terrain.SpawnVegetationShockwave(position, startWidth, endWidth, startHeight, endHeight, duration, intensity, falloff)

Starts a shockwave in the game's vegetation interaction system: grass, bushes and trees around position bend away from it, the same way they react to the game's own explosions. It is purely visual: it applies no force to objects, deals no damage and makes no sound. Combine it with FX.Spawn or a ForcePulse for a full explosion.

The wave grows from its start size to its end size over duration. The arguments are handed to the game unchanged and their exact units are not documented: the sizes are most likely meters and the duration seconds, so start from the values in the example and tune by eye. All eight arguments are required.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
position	vec3	Center of the shockwave, in world coordinates.
startWidth	number	Width (radius) of the wave when it starts.
endWidth	number	Width (radius) of the wave when it ends.
startHeight	number	Height of the wave when it starts.
endHeight	number	Height of the wave when it ends.
duration	number	How long the wave takes to go from its start size to its end size.
intensity	number	How strongly the vegetation is pushed.
falloff	number	How quickly the push weakens away from the wave front.

Returns nothing.

Example

-- press G to blow the grass away around the point the player aims at
Event.Add("OnKeyDown", function(key)
	if key ~= Key.G then return end

	local player = World.LocalPlayer():AsPlayer()
	local target = player:GetAimPosition()

	if target then
		Terrain.SpawnVegetationShockwave(target, 1, 25, 2, 6, 1.5, 1, 1)
	end
end)