TerraNova

Offline design studio for Hytale World Generation V2. Visual node editor, live terrain preview, and validated JSON export — no server required.

Releases | Discord

Features

Node-Based Editor — Drag-and-drop all 200+ V2 types with category-colored nodes. Auto-layout via dagre, minimap navigation, node search, copy/paste, snap-to-grid, layout presets, and full undo/redo with descriptive history labels. SVG export for sharing node graphs.

Live Preview — Real-time 2D heatmaps with contour lines, cross-sections, and position overlays. 3D voxel heightfield preview with SSAO post-processing. Five colormaps (Blue-Red, Grayscale, Terrain, Viridis, Red-Black) with configurable bounds. Vertical split preview layout.

Comparison View — Side-by-side before/after preview for iterating on terrain changes. See exactly what your edits do without leaving the editor.

Biome Editor — Edit Terrain, Material, Pattern, Position, and Prop sections within a single biome file. Per-section undo history, noise range editor for biome boundaries, and a rich dashboard with material layer overview and prop summary. Atmosphere tab with sun angle, fog controls, tint providers, and weather resolution. Material autocomplete, one-click validation fixes, and biome browser search.

Weather Editor — Visual editor for weather files with preview, track summaries, cloud breakdowns, and collapsible preview drawers. Simple Controls and In-Depth Controls split for different levels of detail. Issue logging with suggested fixes.

Environment Editor — Edit environment files with forecast tools, parent-environment inference, weather forecast management, and environment delimiter validation.

Instance Editor — Edit instance files with WorldStructure discovery. Create new instances as folders with instance.bson inside.

Curve Editor — Interactive canvas with draggable control points for Manual curves. Read-only computed previews for all built-in types (SquareBump, InverseLerp, etc.). Snap-to-grid, interpolation modes, presets, and mini curve previews in node bodies.

Material Layers — Visual stack editor for material providers with layer ordering and full V2 SpaceAndDepth specification support. All layers preserved on import and export regardless of entry count.

JSON View Mode — CodeMirror-based JSON editor for all file types. Edit raw JSON directly and save changes back to the graph representation.

Template System — 5 bundled templates (Void, Forest Hills, Eldritch Spirelands, Shattered Archipelago, Tropical Pirate Islands) plus snippet templates for common node patterns. Create and share your own.

Schema Validation — Real-time diagnostics on type errors, missing fields, and invalid ranges. Error, warning, and info badges appear directly on nodes. Legacy node detection with suggested replacements.

Hytale Asset Sync — Sync assets from your Hytale installation with progress tracking, cancellation support, and staleness detection. Browse and reference assets directly from the editor.

Bridge Integration — Connect to a running Hytale server and push exported asset packs directly. Design offline, deploy in one click.

Full V2 Coverage — 68+ density types, 14+ material providers, 19 curves, plus patterns, positions, props, scanners, vectors, environments, assignments, tints, block masks, and world structures. Includes MultiMix, Queue, Offset, Framework nodes, and other recent V2 additions.

Session Restore and Instant Save — Session state persists across page reloads. Instant save (Ctrl+Shift+I) with debounce and status bar indicator.

Offline-First — No server, no internet, no telemetry. Under 15MB install. All data stays on your machine.

Quick Start

Download the latest release from Releases
Open TerraNova, pick a template or start from scratch
Design your worldgen using the node editor and live preview
Export and drop the JSON files in your server's mods/ folder

macOS: App Won't Open / "Unverified Developer"

TerraNova is not yet signed with an Apple Developer certificate. macOS may block the app on first launch. Use one of these methods:

Method 1 — Right-click Open (recommended)

Right-click (or Control-click) TerraNova in Applications
Select "Open" from the context menu
Click "Open" in the dialog that appears

Method 2 — Terminal command

xattr -cr /Applications/TerraNova.app

Then launch normally.

Method 3 — System Settings

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security
Scroll to the Security section — you'll see a message about TerraNova being blocked
Click "Open Anyway"

These steps are only needed once. Subsequent launches will work normally.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+Z` / `Ctrl+Y`	Undo / Redo
`Ctrl+S`	Save
`Ctrl+Shift+I`	Instant save
`Ctrl+F`	Search nodes
`Ctrl+A`	Select all
`Delete`	Delete selected
`Ctrl+D`	Duplicate selected
`Ctrl+L`	Auto-layout graph
`Space` (drag)	Pan canvas
`Scroll`	Zoom

All shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl+N`	New file
`Ctrl+O`	Open file
`Ctrl+Shift+S`	Save as
`Ctrl+E`	Export JSON
`Ctrl+B`	Toggle sidebar
`Ctrl+P`	Toggle preview
`Ctrl+G`	Toggle grid
`Ctrl+M`	Toggle minimap
`Escape`	Deselect / close dialog

Technology Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Tauri 2
Frontend	React 19 + TypeScript
Node Editor	@xyflow/react (React Flow)
3D Preview	React Three Fiber + Three.js
State	Zustand
Styling	Tailwind CSS
Build	Vite with code-split chunks
Backend	Rust
Noise	fastnoise-lite

Performance

O(1) Node Rendering — React.memo with hoisted handle arrays, so only changed nodes re-render (not all 200)
Instant Undo/Redo — History snapshots restored by reference, under 1ms even at 200 nodes
Lazy 3D Loading — Three.js + post-processing (~1.1 MB) loaded on demand, keeping initial load at ~580 KB
Bounded Memory — History caps (50 global / 30 per-section) and LRU file cache eviction (10 files)
Chunk Splitting — Vite splits Three.js, ReactFlow, and dagre into separate chunks for parallel loading

TerraNova uses Tauri instead of Electron — baseline memory is ~80-120 MB (system WebView) vs ~300-500 MB (bundled Chromium).

System Requirements

Minimum

Basic editing: up to ~50 nodes, 2D heatmap preview, 1-2 files open

Component	Spec
CPU	Dual-core, 2.0 GHz (Intel i3 8th gen / Ryzen 3 3200G / Apple M1)
RAM	4 GB
GPU	Integrated with WebGL 2.0 (Intel UHD 620 / AMD Vega 3)
Storage	200 MB free
Display	1280x720
OS	Windows 10 21H2+ / macOS 11+ / Ubuntu 22.04+

Development

Prerequisites & setup

Requirements:Node.js 20+, pnpm 9+, Rust 1.77+

# Install frontend dependencies
pnpm install
# Launch in development mode (opens app window with hot reload)
pnpm tauri dev

Build

# Build production bundle
pnpm tauri build
# Output: src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

Project structure

TerraNova/
├── src/ # React frontend (TypeScript)
│ ├── components/ # UI components (editor, preview, layout, home)
│ ├── nodes/ # React Flow node components per V2 category
│ │ ├── density/ # 68 density function node types
│ │ ├── material/ # 14 material provider node types
│ │ ├── curves/ # 19 curve node types
│ │ └── shared/ # BaseNode, handle registry, layout
│ ├── schema/ # TypeScript type definitions for V2 assets
│ ├── stores/ # Zustand state stores
│ ├── hooks/ # Custom React hooks
│ └── utils/ # Graph conversion, layout, colormaps
├── src-tauri/ # Tauri + Rust backend
│ └── src/
│ ├── commands/ # Tauri command handlers
│ ├── schema/ # Rust V2 schema types (serde)
│ ├── noise/ # Density function evaluator
│ └── io/ # Asset pack I/O and template system
├── templates/ # Bundled world generation templates
└── public/ # Static assets

Links

Releases — Downloads
Discord — Support & community
Issues — Bug reports & features
HyperSystems-Development — Organization

License

LGPL-2.1

Built with AI

TerraNova is developed with assistance from AI tooling. We believe in being upfront about how this project is built — read the full breakdown in our AI Transparency & Usage Disclaimer.

Part of the HyperSystems suite: HyperPerms | HyperHomes | HyperFactions | TerraNova