REFERENCE

Interface map

Every panel, rail, HUD, dock and modal in Dayside, what each is for, where its controls are documented, and one complete shortcut table.

A lookup for the interface. Each entry says what the surface is for and points at the page that documents its controls in depth. The shortcut table at the end is the complete set.

Three screens#

Dayside has one window and three screens. The project decides which one you land on.

ScreenWhen you see itWhat it is for
Worlds pickerOn launch, and via the back buttonOpening, searching, sorting and deleting projects.
Globe workspaceOpening a project whose workflow is a whole worldCutting regions off the sphere and folding finished work back in.
Section editorOpening a flat map, or opening a region from the globePainting, generating, rendering and exporting one section.

The setup wizard is a route (#/setup) rather than a screen: it layers over whatever is behind it and makes the app behind it inert.

Worlds picker#

The front door. Documented in Your first world.

The worlds picker
The worlds picker.
ElementWhat it is for
Search fieldCase-insensitive substring match on the world name.
New worldOpens the setup wizard. See Setting up a world.
About & creditsVersion, licences, bundled data credits, diagnostics and data removal.
SortCycles Sort: Recent, Sort: Name, Sort: Size. Recent uses local recency, Size uses pixel area descending.
World cardThumbnail, status badge (QUEUED, ACQUIRING · N%, READY, NOT READY), name, last opened, pixel size, and a delete button.
"Open a project" cardOpens an existing project folder in place, through the Windows folder picker. Dayside works in that folder and makes no private copy.
Workspace takeoverReplaces the whole grid when there are no cards. Two variants: ENGINE OFFLINE with a Retry connection button, and NO WORLDS YET with Import a world and New world. While offline the picker retries every 5 s.

Globe workspace#

The whole-world screen. Documented in Working on a globe.

The globe workspace
The globe workspace.

Top bar#

ElementWhat it is for
WorldsBack to the picker.
World crumbGlobe icon and the world name.
Jobs rollupAppears only when something is running or has failed, for example 1 RUNNING · 1 FAILED. Clicking scrolls the job dock into view.
Scale chipGround resolution and circumference. Prefixed with a tilde until the server publishes a scale. Opens the scale explainer.
Export globeOpens the globe export modal. Disabled until an active mosaic exists.

Stage and tools#

Globe tools is a three-way exclusive toolbar: Rotate orbits the sphere, Box drags a longitude and latitude box, Lasso draws a freehand polygon. The Globe and Flat toggle sits in the actions row beside About & credits and Enhance world.

The stage itself takes focus and handles G, F and Escape. The globe canvas and the flat surface each have their own key set; both are in the shortcut table.

Canvas overlays#

ElementWhat it is for
Status chipGlobe up to date, Globe out of date, or Updating globe…
Stale bannerNames what changed and offers Re-compose globe.
TerminatorA daylight edge bound to progress while a world pass runs. The lit region is the rendered region.
Scale barGround distance across a pixel span, rounded to 1, 2 or 5 times a power of ten.
Zoom controlsZoom in, Zoom out, Reset view.
Flat insetOpens the flat world view.
Compare toggleShow original against Showing original.

Side panel#

GroupWhat it is for
RegionsThe focus-area list, each card showing status, size, a four-dot pipeline glance and a delete button. New region starts a draw. The size quoted is the selection you drew, before the feather is added.
Globe tilesThe machine-planned tile grid, with an On globe checkbox for the ring overlay and an edited-tile count. Hidden when there are no tiles.
Guide overlayThe same control the section editor mounts. One guide selection is shared between the sphere and the paint stage. See Painting terrain.

The pipeline glance on a region card is always in this order: Rough terrain, Terrain detail, Analytic colour, Learned enhance.

Job dock#

Bottom left, one card per long-running globe job: Rebuild globe, Re-compose globe, Colour globe, Enhance world terrain, Create region. Cards persist through Queued, Running, Done and Failed, so a modal you closed can never read as success.

A running card shows stage and percent, a failed card shows the reason plus a Try this: fix, and a finished card shows its duration. Cards offer Cancel, a retry (Retry, or Refresh for a region creation) and a dismiss. Every card carries a scope and subject tag so a button and its job card always agree.

Footers#

The panel footer states READY n/N and the next export size, and holds Re-compose globe (enabled only when the globe is stale) and Export globe. The globe footer is one mono line: status, region count and scale.

Section editor#

Top bar#

The section editor after a render: canvas left, controls right
The section editor after a render: canvas left, controls right.
ElementWhat it is forDocumented in
Render / DrawThe mode switch. Draw is the paint surface, Render is the frame and its controls.Painting terrain
OutputFinal heightmap and colour export resolution: Native, 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K, 32K. Remembered per world and section.Exporting
World / WorldsBack to the globe workspace, or to the picker on a flat project.
CompareA and B wipe between the previous frame and the current one.Rendering the satellite image
Enhance section colourThe learned luminance-detail pass over the analytic colour.Rendering the satellite image
GenerateRe-synthesizes the heightmap through the terrain model.Enhancing terrain, Terrain and generation reference
DeterraceMelts a contour map's risers into ramps inside their authored bands.Terrain and generation reference
ImportBrings a heightmap back from Gaea, Wilbur or World Machine.Exporting
ExportOpens the export modal, which queues a full-resolution acquisition.Exporting
AcquisitionsOpens the acquisitions drawer. Pulses while an export is in flight.Exporting
AcquireStarts a colour render.Rendering the satellite image

Most of these disable each other: nothing in the row is available while a render, a generate, an enhance or a paint commit is in flight.

Left rail#

Fifty-six pixels wide, top to bottom.

ButtonWhat it does
InspectPointer tool.
Pan (drag canvas)Hand tool. Space is the temporary override from anywhere.
FitFits the frame to the viewport.
Height brush (Draw mode)Switches to Draw mode on the height layer.
Biome layerSwitches to Draw mode on the biome layer.
Paint historyToggles the history panel. Disabled outside Draw mode, where its tooltip says as much.
About & creditsPinned to the bottom.

Every rail button except About & credits is disabled while a paint commit is running.

Canvas#

Pan by dragging, zoom from 0.6 to 3.0 in steps of 0.25, and a Zoom in / Zoom out / Fit cluster bottom right. The compare divider is clamped between 4 % and 96 %.

The canvas states the render's phase on itself rather than in a panel: ACQUIRING · N% with a pass and resolution readout, QUEUED with a queue position and Prioritise / Cancel, PREVIEW STALE · N CHANGED with Re-render, a failed pass with a retry, NO ACQUISITION YET, or an ACQUIRED chip. In Draw mode it instead reports LOADING HEIGHTFIELD…, CANNOT PAINT, or the coastline preview's state.

Heads-up display#

Mounted only in Draw mode with the Draw tool. There is no equivalent readout in Render mode.

ReadoutWhat it shows
Height under cursorThe signed elevation under the pointer, a range bar, and the section's minimum and maximum. Height layer only.
Brush / Stamp / LandmassThe live cursor label: ground diameter and mode for the brush, ground span and heading for a placement, plus mirror, jitter and land or remove flags.

Controls behind these readouts are in Painting terrain and Terrain and generation reference.

Control panel#

Three hundred and forty-four pixels wide, on the right, headed Controls. Acquire and Compare A/B are pinned to its foot in both modes.

In Draw mode it holds the paint stack:

GroupDocumented in
Paint history, Apply changes, the Height / Biome layer switchPainting terrain
Height brush: sea level, brush mode tiles, size, strength, falloff, the set-height modes and the level paletteTerrain and generation reference
Landform, Landmass, Refine a region bandsTerrain and generation reference
Biome brush and the Köppen pickerPainting terrain
Guide overlayPainting terrain

In Render mode it holds the look stack, all of it documented in Colour and climate reference:

GroupDefault stateWhat it covers
Biome palettesopenPer-biome gradient preference lists, or Automatic Earth mix.
Biome blendingopenTransition width, flow widening, wet bias, patchiness, patch size.
RiversopenThe rivers switch, density and width, plus the Lakes and Water colour sub-groups.
SeacollapsedShallow tinting, deep cutoff, deep colour, coast blend, and an Advanced block of per-biome tints and seabed visibility.
Snow & icecollapsedSnow line, coverage, warmth, and snow shedding under Advanced.
Global lookcollapsedRelief, relief shading, texture detail, seed.

Every slider commits on release, and every commit marks the preview stale. Groups whose inputs are inert say so: the flow widening, green banks, river strength and every lake control grey out when Rivers is off.

One mono strip: world name, EXTENT w x h km, an engine pill and the zoom level. The engine pill reads QUEUED · POSITION n, ACQUIRING N%, PREVIEW STALE, PASS FAILED or ENGINE IDLE. The extent quoted is your own selection, before the raster padding.

Global chrome#

Status strip#

Mounted above every screen, so a warning is never editor-only. Three rows, worst first:

  1. Engine offline, with a message, a fix and a dismiss. Suppressed on the picker when the workspace takeover already owns that state.
  2. Notice, one line per engine or API warning, each dismissible.
  3. Reconnecting to the engine…, shown only after the socket has been down for more than one retry cycle, with a world open, and no offline row showing.

Edit-proxy banner#

Sits under the top bar when a section is being edited through a working-resolution proxy. It states the working resolution, the native size and the count of edits not yet baked, and offers Bake to native and Discard. On resume it instead offers Edit at 4K and Change…

The bake is always an explicit button. It never fires on its own. See Enhancing terrain.

Modals#

ModalOpened byWhat it is forDocumented in
Setup wizardNew world, or the #/setup routeCreating a world: shape, map, sea and terrain, build.Setting up a world
World loadingClicking a world cardHydrating a project, with a caption sequence and a Cancel.Your first world
World type forkA card whose workflow was inferred and is world-eligibleChoosing a flat map or a whole world once, before the editor opens.Setting up a world
Remove / erase worldThe card's delete iconTwo stages: remove from the list, then permanently delete files. Only app-managed worlds reach stage two.Your first world
Failed openA world that errored on openThe message, a fix and a Retry.
Export, new acquisitionTop-bar ExportDestination, layer set, output folder, and a queued full-resolution export.Exporting
Generate terrainTop-bar GenerateModel, precision, output resolution, SNR, seed, rainfall and coastline options.Enhancing terrain, Terrain and generation reference
DeterraceTop-bar DeterraceDetected elevation levels (one number each), the section's max height, radius and iterations.Terrain and generation reference
Import processed heightmapTop-bar ImportRound-tripping a file from Gaea, Wilbur or World Machine back onto the section.Exporting
Enhance section colourTop-bar Enhance section colourThe learned luminance pass, its detail strength, and the base-model download.Rendering the satellite image
Edit at a working resolution?Opening a large section, or the banner's Change…Picking a proxy resolution. The choice is remembered per section, so it never asks twice.Enhancing terrain
Enhance worldGlobe workspace Enhance worldThe whole-world terrain pass and the globe colour pass, which can be chained.Working on a globe
Export globeExport globe, in the top bar or the panel footerSource, resolution, layers, destination and output folder for the whole globe.Exporting
Region drawerClicking a region card or a globe tileThe four-stage pipeline, the next step, and Open in editor.Working on a globe
Region composerCompleting a box or lasso selectionNaming the region and, under Advanced controls, its output long side and overlap policy.Terrain and generation reference
Delete region / Cancel creationThe region delete icon, or cancelling a run past 90 %Confirmation. The cancel confirmation only appears near publication.Working on a globe
Scale explainerThe top-bar scale chipCircumference, planet radius, ground resolution and model cell.Working on a globe
About & creditsAny About & credits or help buttonVersions, licences, bundled data provenance, the diagnostics bundle and data removal.Install and first launch
Restart setupThe wizard's Restart setupConfirming that the draft is discarded.Setting up a world

The acquisitions drawer is not a modal. It slides in from the top-bar inbox button, is mounted in both the editor and the globe workspace, and lists every export with its status, its files and its Gaea handoff numbers.

TO CONFIRMWorldRebuildPanel is implemented and shipped but is not mounted by the current globe workspace, so no navigation reaches it. Its Rebuild globe job still appears in the job dock. Confirm whether it should be listed here as a reachable surface or removed from the build.

Words the interface uses consistently#

Action verbs are fixed. Acquire and Re-render start a section render; Render section colour produces the analytic base; Enhance section colour is the per-section learned pass; Generate terrain is section diffusion; Enhance world terrain and Colour globe are the two whole-world passes; Re-compose globe and Update globe fold edits back in; Bake to native replays proxy edits onto the master.

Every action header and job card also carries a scope and subject tag, formatted WHOLE WORLD · TERRAIN or SECTION · AI, so you can always tell what a running job will touch.

Keyboard shortcuts#

Every shortcut in the app. All of the Draw-mode keys are suppressed when focus is in a text field, a text area, a select or a contenteditable element.

KeyContextAction
Space (hold)Draw modeTemporary pan override. The cursor becomes a grab hand and the brush ring hides. Yields to a focused button, link, checkbox, switch, tab, radio, menu item or option when the pointer is off the canvas. Released on key up, or when the window loses focus or is hidden.
[ / ]Draw mode, height layer, a stamp or landmass selectedShrink or grow the placement.
Left / Right arrowDraw mode, height layer, a stamp or landmass selectedRotate the placement 1 degree.
Shift + Left / Right arrowDraw mode, height layer, a stamp or landmass selectedRotate the placement 15 degrees.
[ / ]Draw mode, height layer, any absolute height modeStep the target height down or up through the saved level palette. Does nothing in Relative mode.
Ctrl/Cmd + ZDraw modeUndo the last stroke.
Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + ZDraw modeRedo.
Alt + clickSection canvas, height layerEyedropper: sample the height under the cursor into Target height, snapped to levels when Snap to levels is on.
Ctrl/Cmd + scrollSection canvas, a placement picker openStep to the next or previous landform or coastline shape. Falls through to zoom everywhere else, so trackpad pinch still zooms.
GGlobe stage focusedGlobe view.
FGlobe stage focusedFlat view.
EscapeGlobe stageClear the draft selection and return to the Rotate tool.
Arrow keysGlobe canvasRotate 5 degrees.
Shift + arrow keysGlobe canvasRotate 15 degrees.
+ or =Globe canvasZoom in by 0.10, up to 2.0.
-Globe canvasZoom out by 0.10, down to 0.65.
0Globe canvasReset yaw, pitch and zoom.
Arrow keysFlat view, Rotate toolPan 12 px.
Arrow keysFlat view, a selection toolMove the cursor 1 degree.
Shift + arrow keysFlat view, a selection toolMove the cursor 5 degrees.
SpaceFlat view, a selection toolAnchor the first corner. Announces "First corner anchored".
EnterFlat view, a selection tool with an anchorComplete the selection.
EscapeFlat view, a selection toolCancel the selection.
+ or =Flat viewZoom in by 0.25, up to 4.0.
-Flat viewZoom out by 0.25, down to 0.75.
0Flat viewReset zoom and pan.
EscapeRegion composerCancel the selection and return to the Rotate tool.
EscapeSetup wizardCloses the restart dialog if it is open, otherwise leaves the wizard route without destroying the draft.
EscapeAbout & creditsClose.
EscapeEnhance section colourClose, but only while nothing is running.
EscapeWorld rebuild panelClose.
TabSetup wizard, About & credits, Enhance section colourTrapped inside the dialog.

The export, generate, deterrace and import modals have no Escape handler. Close them with their own close button. Deterrace additionally refuses both the close button and a backdrop click while a run is in flight.