Teragon packs a lot of information onto the screen, and at first glance it’s hard to know “where to look.” But once you learn what each part does, you won’t get lost. This article breaks down the tabs and the command buttons along the bottom. When you’re stuck, you can also bring up the in-app tour with F12.
What the Tabs Do
All of the tabs across the top can be undocked (detached). Double-click the spot labeled (Double Click Dock/Undock) to turn it into a separate window that you can arrange side by side or move to another monitor. This is handy when you want to tweak settings while watching the preview.
| Tab | Role | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| BASIC (F1) | Turns the “frequently adjusted settings” of the default presets into easy switches | Your first stop. Adjusting River/Erosion/number of towns/size |
| EXPERT (F2) | The heart of the Command Queue. All the fine-grained control | Adding individual commands, reordering them, fine-tuning values |
| 2D PREVIEW (F3) | A top-down map preview | Checking terrain, towns, and POI placement |
| 3D PREVIEW (F4) | A 3D preview (v0.49.0 and up) | Checking the relief of mountains and valleys in 3D |
| TESTING (F5) | Commands for testing | Verifying behavior |
| HELP CENTER (F6) | A collection of tutorial videos, official/community documentation, and links to Discord | When you’re stuck |
| CONSOLE (F7) | Detailed execution logs | When investigating the cause of errors or warnings |
There are two key points.
- The previews do not update automatically. The 2D view only updates when the
Update Previewcommand runs, and the 3D view only whenUpdate Preview 3Druns. - Error details only appear in the Console. The saved log file only records “the commands that were run,” so to track down a cause you look at the Console (you can change the font size with
Ctrl＋mouse wheel).
A Handy 2D Preview Feature: POI Search
Using POI Display at the top left of the 2D preview, you can search for a POI by name and the matching POI will blink on the map, making it easy to find (from v0.50.9 onward the search is case-insensitive). You can search on part of a name, and it also shows the coordinates, rotation, size, and a preview image.
If a POI’s preview image is blank white, the POI path within the preset may not be resolving correctly.
The Command Buttons Along the Bottom (Key to Building Interactively)
The buttons at the bottom of the screen are the mechanism for pausing generation partway through and building while you check. Master these and you can avoid regenerating from scratch, saving time.
- Run … Start generation.
- Interrupt … “Automatically stop once the currently running command finishes.” When you notice a mistake, you can stop without waiting until the next stopping point.
- Continue … Resume from the stopping point.
- Repeat … Redo the command at the stopping point (since the Seed is the same, some commands won’t change).
- Skip … Skip the command at the stopping point.
- Stop … End generation completely (can only be pressed at a stopping point).
A typical usage is: “Use Interrupt to stop right after terrain generation → check it in the 2D/3D preview → if you don’t like it, fix the values and redo from that point.” This interactive loop is the fundamental way Teragon works.
Options (Customizing Appearance and Controls)
Under Tools → Options you can adjust the layout, color scheme, 3D preview behavior, and more. The defaults are fine to start with. You only need to touch this if the colors or fonts are hard to read.
Once you understand the tabs and buttons, all that’s left is “which setting of which command to adjust.” Next, let’s move on to “How Teragon Works (Presets and the Command Queue)” and the “World You Want → Where to Adjust It: Reverse-Lookup Recipe Collection.”