Command Line Basics for Teams

The command line is how you turn a "personal" terrain file into a repeatable team asset.

It enables:

• consistent builds across machines,
• quick automation (nightly builds, CI, farm rendering),
• reproducible variations (variables + seed).

Gaea provides two command line entry points:

• Gaea.exe (UI-side CLI tasks)
• Gaea.Swarm.exe (Build Swarm automation)

Use "Copy Command Line" First

In the UI, use Build → Copy Command Line to get the exact command for the current file, with fully qualified paths and variable defaults.

That gives your team a known-good baseline command to version and reuse.

Gaea.exe Basics

Gaea.exe is mainly for tasks like activation/deactivation and diagnostics.

Common flags include:

• -Path <file.terrain>
• -Activate <key or license file>
• -Deactivate
• -CPUOnly
• -SafeMode
• -Verbose

Gaea.Swarm.exe Basics (Build Automation)

Gaea.Swarm.exe is what you use to build terrains headlessly.

Minimum viable build:

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain"

Build a specific profile

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain" --profile "Final_8K"

Build a specific region

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain" --profile "Final_8K" --region "Volcano_Closeup"

Ignore baked cache (clean build)

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain" --ignorecache

Set a seed (repeatable variation)

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain" --seed 1337

Working with Variables and Expressions

See Variables and Expressions on how to enable variable driven properties that can be manipulated through the command line.

Set variables (great for team presets)

Single variable:

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain" -v ErosionStrength:0.63

Multiple variables:

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain" -v ErosionStrength:0.63 -v Snowline:0.42

Variables from file:

Gaea.Swarm --Filename "D:\Project\Terrain_Final.terrain" --vars "D:\Project\vars_final.json"

Team Tips That Actually Matter

1. Use Build Profiles to standardize output sets (Shape, Detail, Final).
2. Store variable presets in version control (vars_final.json, vars_game.json).
3. Use --seed to make "random" variation repeatable.
4. Prefer Build Swarm for heavy builds - UI resources can compete with Swarm.

For full details on accepted command line arguments and CLI methodology see Command Line Automation