Settings

beginner concepts

Inspector Settings

Select the Hexasphere GameObject to view all settings in the Inspector. This page documents every configurable parameter organized by section.

Adding a Hexasphere

To add a hexasphere to your scene, select GameObject > 3D Object > Hexasphere from the top menu.

Grid Settings

This section controls the fundamental grid structure and visual appearance.

Parameter	Description
Style	Visual rendering mode: Wireframe, Shaded, or Shaded Wireframe. When Extruded is enabled, wireframe styles use an optimized shader that culls hidden lines.
Divisions	Number of icosahedron subdivisions. Higher values generate more tiles. The hexasphere derives from a basic icosahedron and this parameter controls iterations.
Smart Edges	Only available when wireframe is visible. Hides edges between adjacent tiles that share the same material, creating clean visual regions.
Inverted Mode	Renders the hexasphere inward so the camera views from inside the sphere.
Rotation Shift	Applies an internal rotation to the generated vertices without changing the transform rotation. Useful for repositioning the pentagonal tiles.
VR Enabled	Activates raycasting compatible with Virtual Reality headsets.

Extrusion Settings

Extrusion gives tiles 3D height, creating elevated or depressed terrain on the sphere surface.

Parameter	Description
Extruded	Enables tile extrusion. Activates custom geometry shaders and alternate interaction logic for 3D tile views. Per-tile extrusion amount (0–1) is set via scripting.
Multiplier	Global height multiplier. The final tile height = extrusion amount × this multiplier. Adjust to quickly scale all tile heights.
Gradient Intensity	Controls the intensity of the color gradient on the sides of extruded tiles.
Raycast 3D	Improves tile highlighting accuracy when extrusion is enabled. Extruded tiles exceed the sphere radius, so this option uses 3D raycasting for precise selection.

Appearance Settings

Parameter	Description
Wireframe Color	Color of the grid lines when using wireframe styles.
Default Tile Color	Default material color for tiles unless overridden via scripting.
Tile Tint Color	Global tint applied to all tiles regardless of their individual colors. Applies universally, unlike Default Tile Color which only affects non-colored tiles.
Use Lighting	Controls whether the hexasphere casts shadows and responds to directional lights.
Tile Texture Size	Size of the internal texture array used when assigning textures to individual tiles.
Tile Texture Stretch	When enabled, UV coordinates stretch the texture to the enclosing rectangle. When disabled, UVs match the hexagon vertices as if enclosed in a circle. Disable if you see texture distortion.

Interaction Settings

This section controls user interaction with the hexasphere.

Parameter	Description
Enable Highlight	Activates tile highlighting when moving the cursor or pointer over the grid.
Highlight Color	Color used for the tile highlight effect.
Highlight Speed	Speed of the highlight fade animation.
Enable Rotation	Allows the user to rotate the hexasphere by mouse drag or touch.
Enable Zoom	Allows the user to zoom in/out using mouse wheel or pinch gestures. Min/max values determine the world-space distance to the sphere surface.
Zoom Damping	Deceleration speed when the mouse wheel is released. 0 = instant stop; values near 1 = gradual deceleration.

PathFinding Settings

Configuration for the built-in A* pathfinding engine.

Parameter	Description
Estimation Method	Distance heuristic for A: Spherical Distance* (angle between nodes), Euclidean (linear distance), or Euclidean Non SQR (faster, skips square root).
Search Limit	Maximum number of tiles to explore in a path search.
Use Extrusion	When enabled, tile height (0–1) multiplied by Extrusion Weight is added to the crossing cost of that tile.

Grid Editor

The Grid Editor lets you customize individual tiles directly in the Scene View, with no code involved. It is available in Edit Mode when the Hexasphere GameObject is selected and Enable Editor is checked (on by default).

Click a tile in the Scene View to select it and edit its properties in the Inspector. Hold Control to add more tiles to the selection, or hold Shift and move the cursor over the sphere to select or paint tiles continuously.

Option	Description
Enable Editor	Enables tile editing in the Scene View.
Selected Cell	Index of the tile (or tiles) currently selected.
String Tag	Free-form text attached to the tile. Available when a single tile is selected. Read it at runtime with GetTileTag or find tiles by tag with GetTileWithTag.
Integer Tag	Numeric id attached to the tile, useful for territory, biome or ownership data.
Color	Tint applied to the selected tiles.
Texture	Index of the texture applied to the selected tiles, taken from the Textures list below. 0 means no texture.
Set / Clear	Applies or removes the color and texture on every selected tile. Shortcuts: Shift + S to set, Shift + C to clear on the tile under the cursor.
Textures	List of textures available for painting. Assign a Texture2D to a slot and press its T button to enter paint mode: from then on, clicking tiles in the Scene View paints them with that texture.
Reset Tiles	Restores all tiles to their default color, texture and tags.
Export Config	Adds a Hexasphere Config component to the GameObject storing the current per-tile colors, textures and tags. Enabling that component (or calling its LoadConfiguration method) restores the layout, so a hand-edited grid can be saved with the scene and reloaded at runtime.

Tile settings can also be created or modified from code at any time. See Scripting Support for the full API, including SetTileColor, SetTileTexture, SetTileTag, SetTileExtrudeAmount and the configuration import/export methods.

Next Steps

For programmatic control over all these settings and more, see the Scripting Support page. For VR-specific configuration, see Virtual Reality Options.

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