Masks

Masks, alongside patterns, are commonly used in WorldEdit commands. Unlike patterns, masks determine which blocks will be affected by commands, brushes, and so on.

Aside from commands that take a mask as a parameter (such as //replace [mask] <pattern>), you can also apply masks to individual brushes by using the /mask command while holding the brush, or you can apply a mask to all your WorldEdit actions globally with //gmask.

Note

Masks applied through different means will stack with each other. If you set your global mask with //gmask dirt, and then set a brush mask with /mask stone, that brush will not be able to modify any blocks at all! This is because the combined mask will only match blocks which are both stone and dirt!

Tip

You can clear your global mask by using //gmask again without arguments.

Combining Masks

To get a mask which matches the intersection of multiple masks, use a space to separate them. The intersection will match when all of the given masks match.

Available Masks

Block Mask

The simplest of masks, the block mask matches one or more blocks or block states. Just like the single block pattern, you can specify either a block type alone, or a block type with any number of states specified. Unlike the pattern, masks will not use default values for unspecified block states - they will “fuzzy” match any value of the unspecified state(s).

To match more than one block, separate each with a comma.

Mask Negation

The ! symbol can be used to negate everything that comes after it. That is, it matches anything not matched by a different mask. Any other mask can follow this.

Existing Block Mask

The mask #existing will match any blocks that aren’t air. Note that this isn’t the same as !air, since the game actually has multiple types or air that it uses in some cases.

Solid Block Mask

The mask #solid will match any blocks that are considered “solid”. That is - blocks that restrict entities (such as players) from moving through them.

Offset Mask

Using > (overlay) or < (underlay) preceding another mask will match blocks that are above or below the other mask, respectively.

Region Masks

While it doesn’t make sense for commands like replace, setting a region mask can be very useful for using brushes inside a limited area. For example, if you want to brush some dirt around the base of your wall, you can select the wall, and then negate a region mask so that the dirt doesn’t affect the wall (but still affects the ground around it).

The first type of region mask is #region (aliases: #sel, #selection), which will make a copy of your region at the time you run the command and use that as the mask.

The second type of region mask is #dregion (d for dynamic, also #dsel, #dselection) which will always stay updated with your current selection.

Block Category Mask

Block categories, or tags can also be used as masks. A category mask will match any block that is in that category. Just like the pattern, the syntax is ##<tag>.

Random Noise Mask

The noise mask can create random noise. Specifying %<percent> will match the given percentage of blocks. Unlike the weighted patterns, %50 is actually 50% of blocks.

Block State Mask

Like the block mask, this mask matches block states. Unlike the block mask, you don’t need to specify a block type. This means you can match any block that has a property in a given value.

The state mask has two modes, lenient and strict. In lenient mode (^[state=value,...], it will match any block that has the given block states equal the given value, or any block that does not even have those properties. In strict mode (^=[state=value,...]), it will only match blocks that have the block states equal to that value.

Expression Mask

This mask can evaluate a mathematical expression upon each block. The mask starts with = and then must have an expression which can use the variables x, y, and z. The mask will match if the expression returns a positive value.

Biome Mask

The biome mask matches blocks with the given biome. Its syntax is $<biome id>. The biome ID must be the namespaced id, with minecraft: being optional for vanilla biomes, and mod ids being required for mod-added biomes.

Surface Mask

The surface mask matches blocks that are exposed to air on at least one face. This means it’ll match only the surface of an object, nothing fully occluded by other blocks.

The mask is #surface (alias #exposed).