Unreal Engine Landscape Layers: A Guide to Creating and Painting Materials

What you’ll learn in this guide

This guide walks through setting up a Landscape material with layers in Unreal Engine and painting those layers onto terrain. In the Material Editor, you can define layer names and blend types in a Landscape Layer Blend node, then assign Layer Info assets to paintable layers. The final section explains how the Paint tools affect layer weights, how to check common issues, and where this workflow can be useful in architectural visualization.

The basic approach is to organize different surfaces as separate layers in a single Landscape material. You can create layers for surfaces such as grass, rock, and soil; the material graph uses the weights set during painting to calculate the final appearance of the surfaces.

Requirements and preparation

The required software is Unreal Engine. Epic Games’ documentation does not specify a particular Unreal Engine version, account requirement, or hardware requirement. Accordingly, this guide does not assume any version-specific menu or option; the steps follow the workflows described in the Landscape Materials and Landscape Paint Mode documentation.

Before you begin, choose a Landscape material and the layers you’ll use on the terrain. Connecting texture samples to layers is a common option, but the documentation does not make textures mandatory. If you don’t want to use textures, you can use a constant RGB input in the Landscape Layer Blend node. You can also connect a more complex material network to a layer input.

Plan your layer names in advance and give each one a unique, descriptive name. The names in the Material Editor must match those shown in the Landscape’s Target Layers list. If the Landscape does not have a Target Layer with the same name as a layer the material is looking for, that layer’s weight is treated as zero.

You must assign a Layer Info asset to each paintable layer. This asset stores the layer’s weightmap data and other information. Weight-Blended Layer (normal) and Non Weight-Blended Layer options behave differently: the former works with other weight-blended layers, while the latter is independent of them.

Step-by-step: Create a Landscape material

1. Add a Landscape Layer Blend node. Create a Landscape Layer Blend node in the Material Editor. In the Layers section of the Details panel, use the plus icon to add layers. Set each layer’s Layer Name to a unique, descriptive value. The names in the material graph must match the layers you’ll use when painting.

2. Choose a blend type. LB Weight Blend combines weight-blended layers and does not depend on their order in the list. LB Alpha Blend applies an overlay on top of weight- or height-blended layers; the order matters. For example, a snow layer can cover rock and grass; when the snow layer is removed, the surfaces underneath become visible again.

   LB Height Blend adds transition detail to the Weight Blend approach using a height map. In Epic Games’ example, this helps soil show through gaps in the rock along the boundary between rock and soil. If you want a height-based transition, set the relevant layer’s Blend Type accordingly.

3. Create the layer inputs. If you’re using texture samples, connect Texture Sample nodes to the appropriate layer inputs. For layers using Height Blend, the texture sample’s alpha output can be connected to the Landscape Layer Blend node’s Height input. You can use a constant RGB value or a more extensive material network instead of a texture. In a simple example, connect the Landscape Layer Blend output to the material’s Base Color input.

4. Assign Layer Info assets. The material’s layers appear in the Target Layers section of the Landscape Mode panel. For the layer you want to paint, click the plus icon next to it, select Weight-Blended Layer (normal) or Non Weight-Blended Layer, and choose where to save the new Layer Info asset. Each Landscape layer must use a different Layer Info asset. If you want to use an existing asset from another Landscape, the layer names must match.

5. Select a layer and work on the terrain. Select the layer you want to edit from the Target Layers list. The brush and tool settings determine how the selected layer is affected. The Paint tool increases or decreases the layer’s weight. You can preview different weights using the Preview Weight values on the Landscape Layer Blend nodes in the material graph.

Painting tools and weight behavior

The Paint tools change layer weights on the Landscape. For Weight-Blended layers, increasing one layer’s weight also decreases the weights of other Weight-Blended layers. When a layer is fully painted, the other layers may have no weight left. This means you may not get the expected result when trying to reduce a layer that has become fully dominant. In this situation, the documentation recommends painting the layer you want to replace it with additively.

Non Weight-Blended layers are independent; painting them does not change the weights of other layers. This can be useful for adding a layer on top of base surfaces rather than replacing them. The source gives snow as an example of a Non Weight-Blended layer added independently of grass, mud, or rock layers.

Tool controls are also part of the workflow. The left mouse button applies the selected tool’s effect; Ctrl+Shift+left mouse button applies the inverse. Ctrl+Z undoes the last brush stroke, while Ctrl+Y repeats the last undone action. Smooth averages layer weights, Flatten sets the selected layer’s weight to the Tool Strength value, and Noise adds noise to the layer weight. The options and results for these tools may vary depending on the selected settings.

Common issues and next steps

If a layer won’t paint or doesn’t look as expected, first check that the Layer Name in the material graph matches the name in the Target Layers list. Then make sure a Layer Info asset has been assigned to that layer. If a layer has been removed from the material but still has painted data on the Landscape, it may appear in the list as an orphaned layer. Epic Games recommends painting the areas where this layer is used with another layer before deleting it. The painted data is preserved until the orphaned layer is deleted.

If painting one surface changes others, check whether the relevant Layer Info asset is Weight-Blended. With this type, layer weights affect one another; Non Weight-Blended layers behave independently. Review the blend type as well: LB Alpha Blend applies layers in order, while LB Weight Blend blends weights without depending on layer order. LB Height Blend adds height-based transition detail to the latter approach.

If layer transitions don’t look as expected, check the Blend Type settings on the node and the Height inputs for layers using Height Blend. Keeping layer names unique and descriptive makes it easier to track where each surface is used. After adding a new layer, review the material preview, then paint a small area of the terrain to verify the behavior.

For architectural visualization and landscape presentations, this workflow can be useful for teams that want to manage surfaces such as grass, rock, and soil with layers on their terrain. Painting lets you control how surfaces are distributed across the terrain and can make visual adjustments easier in scenes that show different ground types together. The result depends on matching layer names, assigning the right Layer Info assets, and choosing the appropriate blend types. The documentation does not provide specific information about hardware, costs, or version compatibility; these should be checked separately against the setup and licensing terms in use.

Sources and license

This tutorial is adapted from Epic Games’ “Landscape Materials” and “Landscape Paint Mode” documentation. Both sources are offered under a permissive license; the content has been reorganized in Turkish.