UE5 Landscape size calculator: recommended sizes, scale and Z scale
Enter your world size in kilometres or metres, or your heightmap resolution, and get Epic's recommended Landscape size with its section size, sections per component, component count, vertices and the X, Y and Z scale to type into Unreal's import panel. Free, no account needed, and nothing leaves your browser.
Plain arithmetic in this browser tab: nothing you type is sent anywhere, and no account is needed.
Epic's recommended sizes for a 2 x 2 km world
| Overall size | Section size | Sections | Components | Vertices | X / Y scale | Vertex spacing | Choose |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8,129 x 8,129 | 127x127 | 2x2 | 32 x 32 = 1,024 | 66,080,641 | 24.606 | 0.25 m | |
| 4,033 x 4,033 | 63x63 | 2x2 | 32 x 32 = 1,024 | 16,265,089 | 49.603 | 0.5 m | |
| 2,017 x 2,017Closest to 1 m | 63x63 | 2x2 | 16 x 16 = 256 | 4,068,289 | 99.206 | 0.99 m | |
| 1,009 x 1,009 | 63x63 | 2x2 | 8 x 8 = 64 | 1,018,081 | 198.413 | 1.98 m | |
| 505 x 505 | 63x63 | 2x2 | 4 x 4 = 16 | 255,025 | 396.825 | 3.97 m | |
| 253 x 253 | 63x63 | 2x2 | 2 x 2 = 4 | 64,009 | 793.651 | 7.94 m | |
| 127 x 127 | 63x63 | 2x2 | 1 x 1 = 1 | 16,129 | 1,587.302 | 15.87 m |
Type these into Unreal (Landscape Mode, New, Import from File)
- Section Size
- 63x63 Quads
- Sections Per Component
- 2x2 Sections
- Number of Components
- 16 x 16
- 256 components, 1,024 sections
- Overall Resolution
- 2,017 x 2,017
- 4,068,289 vertices
- Scale X
- 99.206
- 2,000 m wide
- Scale Y
- 99.206
- 2,000 m deep
- Scale Z
- 97.656
- black to white spans 500 m (Z 100 spans 512 m)
- Location Z
- 0
- mid grey at 0; use 25,000 (cm) to put black at 0
Scale is in centimetres per quad (100 = 1 m).
Need the terrain itself? WorldWeaver builds a sculptable Landscape pack (PNG16 heightmaps with exact import values)
Describe the terrain in a short brief and WorldWeaver generates it. The Unreal World Pack holds a 16-bit PNG heightmap at a valid Landscape size and a README with the section setup and the X, Y and Z scale for that world, so the import needs no math. A world costs 6 credits, and a new account starts with 50 free credits.
Epic's recommended Landscape sizes
The sizes Epic lists as giving the most area for the fewest components. Each section is a power of two vertices on a side, so its quads are one fewer.
| Overall size (vertices) | Quads per section | Sections per component | Component size | Total components |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8129 x 8129 | 127 | 4 (2x2) | 254x254 | 1,024 (32x32) |
| 4033 x 4033 | 63 | 4 (2x2) | 126x126 | 1,024 (32x32) |
| 2017 x 2017 | 63 | 4 (2x2) | 126x126 | 256 (16x16) |
| 1009 x 1009 | 63 | 4 (2x2) | 126x126 | 64 (8x8) |
| 1009 x 1009 | 63 | 1 | 63x63 | 256 (16x16) |
| 505 x 505 | 63 | 4 (2x2) | 126x126 | 16 (4x4) |
| 505 x 505 | 63 | 1 | 63x63 | 64 (8x8) |
| 253 x 253 | 63 | 4 (2x2) | 126x126 | 4 (2x2) |
| 253 x 253 | 63 | 1 | 63x63 | 16 (4x4) |
| 127 x 127 | 63 | 4 (2x2) | 126x126 | 1 |
| 127 x 127 | 63 | 1 | 63x63 | 4 (2x2) |
Source: Epic Games, Landscape Technical Guide, Unreal Engine 5.8 documentation, read on November 2, 2026. Read Epic's Landscape Technical Guide
The rules behind the numbers
- Units: 1 unit is 1 cm in Unreal, so 100 units make a metre. X and Y scale 100 put the vertices 1 m apart, and the Landscape is (vertices minus 1) x scale centimetres wide.
- Height: a Landscape stores heights from -256 to 255.992 units at Z scale 1. At Z scale 100, the default, the full 16-bit range spans 512 m. For another range, Z scale = height in metres x 100 / 512: 1,000 m gives 195.313.
- Sections: a section is a power of two vertices on a side, at most 256, so 7x7, 15x15, 31x31, 63x63, 127x127 or 255x255 quads. A component holds 1 section or 2x2 sections.
- Overall size: components x quads per component + 1 on each axis, because a Landscape always has one more row of vertices than of quads. Any other size does not map one pixel to one vertex.
- Components: each one costs render-thread time and each section is a draw call, so Epic recommends at most 1,024 components for the largest Landscapes. Epic's recommended sizes are 127 x 127, 253 x 253, 505 x 505, 1,009 x 1,009, 2,017 x 2,017, 4,033 x 4,033 and 8,129 x 8,129.
Checked against WorldWeaver's export
- Sizes agree: WorldWeaver's heightmap export offers 505, 1009 and 2017 samples on the long side, all rows of Epic's table with 63x63 quad sections, 2x2 per component. A rectangular world gets 126n+1 on the short side, at most 32 components, which is Epic's 4,033 x 4,033 row.
- Scale agrees: its README gives X and Y scale = metres x 100 / (resolution minus 1) and Z scale = height / 512 x 100, with Location Z at 0. Those are the formulas this calculator uses.
- Where they differ: the export uses that one section setup, while Epic allows every section size above and lists 8,129 x 8,129 with 127x127 quad sections. This calculator follows Epic.
Questions
What are the recommended Landscape sizes in Unreal Engine 5?
Epic's Landscape Technical Guide lists 127 x 127, 253 x 253, 505 x 505, 1,009 x 1,009, 2,017 x 2,017, 4,033 x 4,033 and 8,129 x 8,129 vertices. They use 63x63 quad sections (127x127 for the largest), 1 or 2x2 sections per component, and up to 1,024 components. The calculator shows each one with its scale for your world.
How big is a UE5 Landscape in kilometres?
At X and Y scale 100 the vertices are 1 m apart, so a Landscape is its size in vertices minus 1, in metres: 8,129 vertices make 8.128 km. For a larger world, raise the X and Y scale, which spreads the same vertices further apart.
How do I calculate the Z scale for a heightmap?
Convert the height range to centimetres and divide by 512: Z scale = height in metres x 100 / 512. At the default Z scale of 100, black to white spans 512 m. A heightmap whose black to white is 1,000 m needs Z scale 195.313.
Why is a 1,024 or 2,048 heightmap not a valid size?
A Landscape has one more vertex than it has quads on each side, and its quads come in whole components, so powers of two do not fit well: 1,024 fits only as 33 x 33 components of 31x31 quads, 1,089 components, over Epic's 1,024, and 2,048 fits no section size at all. Use a size from the table, or resample the heightmap to the nearest valid size in the free heightmap viewer.
Where does the Landscape sit in height?
Mid grey (the value 32,768) sits at the Landscape's Location Z; black is half the height range below it and white half above. To put the lowest point at 0, raise Location Z by half the range: the calculator shows the value in centimetres.
Does anything I type leave my browser?
No. The calculator is arithmetic on this page and needs no account. If you accepted analytics, it counts which mode you used and the size it suggested, nothing else.