Hi, well lately ive found some free time, and started my interest in mapping. I always found starcraft maps awesome in design, specialy the plateaus and ramps.

What i wanted to do, was imitate these kind of starcraft maps, but add something of my own.

In terms of heighmaps im going in fine, but still looking for a better software, what software do you find best for heighmap making.

Currently im working with l3dt and earthsculptor, ive got a developer version of earthsculptor so it allows me to do some cool stuff, with some custom textures i had:

UPDATE below


Messing around.


What about terragen or Carrara?.

It depends on what work flow is best for you. There is no 1 tool that is the best.

Ok thx.

Ive also found having a fixed camera angle while playing would improve how the maps look by a lot.

camera angle and area the camera can occupy, yes it can do a lot. some spring games do use a fixed camera...

for everything else...map edges discussion

For making heightmaps, imo World Machine 2 is hands down the best tool.
There is a catch though: you have to actually read the manual for it, which is not too long and full of pictures.

I like carrara for textures because I am lazy. It produces reasonably good results quickly (nothing as good as smoth's stuff) and can be further mixed again with world machine for desired effect.

Also very good for texturing is the world in conflict editor - it is fast, versatile and excellent looking, as well as being easy to learn.

i see thanks ill take a look

and as part of my christmastravenganza I released the source files..

The texture macros I put together took about 2 years of experimentation and tweaks/optimizations.

anyway, feel free to reap the benifits of my work. Any of my map sources are pd unless borrowed (ie the okiriver base heightfield or one of the metal textures)

Welcome to mapping!

Would be so cool if you ported the season 3 or season 5 maps:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/2943356
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/410310 ... _2011#blog

Would be awesome, ill try posting updates of what im tryng to do.









still prety dam far

I have no idea how to make map textures but relevant to interessant!
Since some time I have been searching such maps for my mod and have found maybe 3-4 maps that roughly fit this style. (I think I have looked at ~any map which is mirroed somewhere, even many that can not be downloaded)
For "plateaus, cliffs, ramps" style maps, not only starcraft is worth looking at but also some C&C maps, esp Red Alert 2.
Some random ones from google, if you want inspiration
http://sniperxpx.com/mapdb/images/Shrapnel_Mountain.jpg
http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/5/ ... ninesm.jpg
(very large images are very large)
http://sniperxpx.com/mapdb/browse.php?page=1
There are also some 3 player maps, which for starcraft are not really popular.

What tool are you using on those screenshots?

Thx knorke ill take a look.

Well im taking screenies within the editor itself, so im not using a special tool to screenshot.

Just the regular dev version of earthsculptor screenshot utility.

tweeked a bit


Got to change the ramps as well.

Btw beherit that fog thing you made on seths ravine?, mind if i take a look?