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mapping:creatingterrainheightmaps [2009-07-04 13:39] 127.0.0.1 external edit |
mapping:creatingterrainheightmaps [2013-01-07 12:07] |
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| - | ====== Creating Height-Maps for your Terrains ====== | ||
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| - | The shapes of the terrains that you can create with [[mapping:cawe:editingtools:newterrain]] are defined by //height-maps//. A height-map is usually a square gray-scale image whose black pixels represent the lowest heights (0%) and whose fully white pixels describe the highest heights (100%). The gray values between them represent intermediate height values -- the brighter a pixel, the higher is the resulting terrain at that spot. | ||
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| - | CaWE and Cafu support height-maps in all the image file formats that are also supported for textures (''jpg'', ''png'', ''tga'' and ''bmp''), as well as Terragen (''ter'') and portable graymap (''pgm'') files. | ||
| - | The image file formats usually have a precision of 8 BPP (bits-per-pixel), while the ''ter'' and ''pgm'' formats have a much higher precision of 16 BPP, and are therefore the preferred choice for height-maps. | ||
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| - | Height-maps must also meet the additional requirement of having side lengths of (2<sup>n</sup>+1) * (2<sup>n</sup>+1) pixels, where n is an integer between 1 and 15. Examples of typical height-map dimensions are 129*129, 257*257, 513*513 and 1025*1025. | ||
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| - | ===== Programs for Creating and Editing Height-Maps ===== | ||
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| - | Creating and editing high-quality height-maps can be a complicated and demanding process that typically requires the assistance of specialized software. | ||
| - | I've intensively tested many software packages for this purpose, many of which just don't meet the requirements. | ||
| - | Typical problems include limited or broken importers and exporters (e.g. only to and from proprietary file formats), limits in the supported high-map dimensions (e.g. only 2<sup>n</sup> * 2<sup>n</sup>, not 2<sup>n</sup>+1 * 2<sup>n</sup>+1), usability, stability (e.g. frequent crashes) and the inability to switch off the "relative height editing mode", which seemingly allows users to dig deeper than 0% or raise terrain higher than 100% by adjusting the relative height of all //other// terrain. | ||
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| - | The following lists mentions several programs that I consider useful or relevant for creating and editing height-maps. None of them is perfect or can do everything that is needed all in one program, so you might be also interested in reading the [ FIXME Link to tutorial about how the TechDemo terrain was made. ] tutorial. | ||
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| - | ==== CaWE ==== | ||
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| - | The obvious and best choice for editing the height-maps of terrain entities is CaWE. | ||
| - | Unfortunately, CaWE has live height-map editing not yet implemented. | ||
| - | This will be done in one of its future releases. | ||
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| - | Once that feature is implemented, it will be possible to edit and modify height-maps directly in the 3D view of CaWE, in a "live" manner that naturally and immediately shows the interactions with other elements of the map, as for example brush-based buildings and walls, other entities, etc. | ||
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| - | Note that although CaWE would be the ideal place for height-map //editing and modification//, it is not necessarily the best place for height-map //creation//. Although that would be and will be possible, too, other programs below that are specialized on height-map creation may do a much better job in creating the initial height-map, especially if very large, natural-looking shapes are desired. | ||
| - | In such cases, you would use another program to create the initial height-map, then add it to your map in "rough" form using [[mapping:cawe:editingtools:newterrain]], and then continue to edit the fine details in CaWE, for example the alignment with buildings, other brushes, etc. You may want to have a look at the [ FIXME Link to tutorial about how the TechDemo terrain was made. ] tutorial in this regard. | ||
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| - | ==== Paint Programs (Photo-Shop, Paint-Shop, Gimp, ...) ==== | ||
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| - | If nothing else works, regular paint programs may be used to create and edit height-maps. | ||
| - | Such programs normally don't have a 3D preview of the gray-scale image interpreted as a height-map, so their usefulness is limited to simple cases. | ||
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| - | ==== World-Machine ==== | ||
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| - | This program has become my favourite for height-map //creation//, see the manufacturers website at http://www.world-machine.com/ for more details. I also used it to create the height-map for the Cafu TechDemo with it. While it does not allow to "paint-edit" very fine details in a height-map, it is very good at composing logically structured terrains in a repeatable manner. The features of all logical devices that are used to build a height-map can be edited independent of each other, allowing for very flexible, reproducible results. | ||
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| - | ==== Leveller ==== | ||
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| - | While this program might serve as an intermediate solution until CaWE has it's own editing implemented, I was a bit disappointed by its cumbersome use. | ||
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| - | ==== Terragen ==== | ||
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| - | This is //the// software for terrain rendering, but due to it's "relative height editing mode" I'd not recommend it for height-map creation or editing. Terragen //is// very good though at generating a base (ground) texture from a height-map! See FIXME | ||
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| - | ==== Other Programs ==== | ||
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| - | If you have experience with other programs, please add them here. | ||
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| - | There are several other good programs, but I don't use them often. Maybe one of them has released a new version in the meanwhile that addresses some of the problems of older versions, so it might be worthwhile to have a look at them! For example, for basic terrain creation, programs like TerraBrush, Terraformer 1.8b or TerraMaker already do a good job. | ||
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| - | ===== Summary ===== | ||
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| - | Use any of the above mentioned programs for creating the initial height-map. Future versions of CaWE will allow you to further edit these maps conveniently in the editor. If you must fine-tune them before that, patience and creativity is required, although the above programs will help with that, too. | ||
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| - | Once your height-map is complete enough for use, you'll also want to have a base texture for it that represents the color of the ground and is used in the material definition with which your terrain is rendered. | ||
| - | While the texturing of the terrain might be possible in future versions directly in CaWE, too, I currently just import my height-maps into Terragen for this purpose, make sure the dimensions (lateral size and altitudes) are correct, setup the Terragen materials, set the sun appropriately (full-bright and no shadows) and turn off all atmospheric effects, set an orthogonal camera view and then use the Terragen rendering result as the base texture. | ||
mapping/creatingterrainheightmaps.txt ยท Last modified: 2013-01-07 12:07 (external edit)