Legacy Background Terrain

For Farming Simulator 25, Maps4FS now automatically generates ready-to-use i3d files! See the new automated Background Terrain guide instead.
Use this guide only if:
You prefer manual control over the process
You need custom quality settings not available in automation

How to create a background terrain

📹 Check out the video version of this tutorial.

To create a background terrain for your Farming Simulator map, you need to open the *.obj files containing the terrain data, apply the generated satellite images as textures, and export the results to the *.i3d format.

ℹ️ This tutorial assumes that you have already generated your map with satellite images.

Let's get straight to work:

Download and install Blender.
Download and install the Blender Exporter Plugins from the official Giants Software website.
Activate the Blender Exporter Plugins in Blender.
Now you can import the *.obj file. Go to File → Import → Wavefront (.obj) and select your *.obj file.

Select the imported object, right-click on it, and click Set Origin → Origin to Geometry.

Click on the arrow icon or press the N key.

In the Item tab, change the Location [2] to 0, 0, 0 and the Rotation [3] to 0, 0, 0. Set the Dimensions [4] of the background terrain in meters. This is calculated as map size + 2048 × 2. For example, if your map size is 4096×4096, the terrain size should be 8192×8192.

Switch to the View tab and change the End value to 100000 or similar. This ensures the terrain remains visible and doesn't partially disappear.

Now we need to add a Modifier to the terrain. Click on the Modifiers tab, then click Add Modifier.

In the dropdown menu, select the Decimate modifier.

Now adjust the Ratio value. This determines how much the terrain will be simplified. Lower values create more simplified terrain. Depending on your terrain, a good starting point is around 0.05 or lower. Remember, this is background terrain that's barely visible in-game, so quality doesn't matter much. More simplified terrain consumes fewer resources.

Select the object, right-click on it, and select Shade Smooth. This will automatically smooth the terrain. Note that it may not work perfectly, so you might need to undo (Ctrl + Z), adjust the Decimate modifier value, and try again. Remember: it's background terrain, so it doesn't need to be perfect.

The object should now look more terrain-like with Shade Smooth applied.

It's time to add a material to the terrain. Click on the Material Properties tab, then click the New button.

Go to the Surface section, click on the Base Color CIRCLE (not the color itself), and select the Image Texture. Provide the path to the satellite image you want to use as a texture.

Go to the Emission section, click on the Color THE COLOR ITSELF (not the circle), and select completely black. Otherwise, you won't be able to see the material in Giants Editor.

Open the UV Editing tab, and in the right viewport change the view to Top by pressing 7 on the numpad or holding the Z key and selecting Top.

Ensure the texture has correct orientation relative to the terrain. If not, rotate the texture image before proceeding. After confirming the texture is correctly oriented, switch to the right viewport and select everything by pressing A. Everything on the right side should be selected (orange). Press the U key and select one of the Unwrap options. The recommended option is Project from View (bounds), which projects the texture from your current view. Note: this should be done in Top view, otherwise the texture may be projected incorrectly.

Return to the Layout tab, press and hold Z, and select Material Preview. You should see the terrain with the texture applied. You can now adjust the object scale in the Transform tab. Note that you can also do this later in Giants Editor.

Cutting Out the Map Center

The generator can now remove the center from the mesh automatically. Ensure that Background Settings → Remove center is enabled.

Exporting the Object

It's time to export our object as an *.i3d file. Open the side panel by pressing N and select the GIANTS I3D Exporter tab. If you can't see it, you either didn't install the Blender Exporter Plugins (step 2) or didn't activate them (step 3).

Ensure the object is selected [1], specify the output file path [3], and click the Export selected button [4]. You can also use Export all, but make sure you don't have other objects in the scene (Blender adds a camera, light source, and cube by default).

How to Import Background Terrain into Giants Editor

At this point, you should have *.i3d files with your background terrain. Now let's import them into Giants Editor.

ℹ️ This tutorial assumes you have already generated your map, downloaded satellite images, and created background terrain as described in the previous steps.

Here's what you need to do:

Download and install Giants Editor from the official website: https://gdn.giants-software.com/downloads.php.
Open your main map file (usually map/map.i3d).
Click the File menu and select Import..., then choose your *.i3d file with the background terrain.

If you can't see the texture on the terrain after import, you need to add it manually. Open the Material Editing panel (if not visible, click Window menu and select Material Editing) and ensure you've selected the correct object in the Scenegraph panel. Find the Albedo map and click the ... button to select the terrain texture.

The new window will appear, click on the ... button and select the texture for the terrain.

If you haven't converted the textures to .dds format, you'll see a warning message asking Convert now?. Click Yes to convert the texture to .dds format.

You should now be able to see the texture on the terrain.
If you used the method to cut out the map center from the previous tutorial, you only need to adjust the Translate Y and Scale Y values, which will differ for each terrain.

ℹ️ These examples were added later, so they contain different untextured terrain - don't be alarmed!