Metalmap problems alligning

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

I have been experimenting with making spring maps, my map works great, but my 257x257 metalmap file is miss-alligned, it alligns perfectly with the height map which is exactly the same size, what am I doing wrong?!

[nitrus]

With Green Isles - my Heightmap and Metal map were the same size (1025x1025) the main texture was 8192x8192. And it all seemed to line up ok.

What sizes are your other bitmaps (Height and Tex)?

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

2048x2048 for the main texture file, height map was 257x257, the metalmap is the same.

This map is just a test map really, hence the small size.

[Torrasque]

Metal map must be 2^n and not 2^n+1 no?
(i've made a map and it work good like that)

[nitrus]

Metal map must be 2^n and not 2^n+1 no?
(i've made a map and it work good like that)

Yeah - I reckon you're right. Mine are probably misaligned too - but maybe because the scale is bigger (1025 rather than 257) the slight discrepancy isn't as noticable.

GrOuNd_ZeRo: got any pictures showing the problem? we may be able to work out what's gone wrong if we see the prob.

[mufdvr222]

I think I am having the same problem, the heightmap is clearly misaligned I wonder if the heightmaps should be scaled larger than they currently are.

Looking closely at the image its as though the heightmap needs to be moved upwards, its not just the lava/river but look at the foot of the hills,, blaah,,,, looks bloody horrible.

[[K.B.] Napalm Cobra]

What the hell, where did that map come from?

[zwzsg]

From TA 1.0. It's called Laval & Two Hills. It's odd, you had very well aligned heightmap and texture on your previous map, mufdvr222. Why can't you replicate the same for that map?

For map exported from Annihilator, I don't know the exact formula, so just move it a bit, look at it in Spring, remove a bit, etc...

[mufdvr222]

I will play around with it in photoshop it should be fairly simple to fix, Lava Highground just had a better heightmap I guess it came down to the individuals who made the cavedog ota maps.

I actually didn`t realise this thread was about metal map problems mine is obviously height map related..

Done.
It appears a lot of the original maps will have this problem but the fix takes about 30 seconds

Will have it ready soon, the metal map is not done yet.

[nitrus]

Looks great - are you using the original textures from OTA or have you found some decent hires replacements?

[mufdvr222]

I use TAE for the terrain, because it renders the features, I remove all but the metal patches then export a .pcx of the map.
The heightmap is exported with Annihilator and I apply either a moir'e filter or some blurr to the heightmap, depends on how lumpy the heightmap is to begin with, but its all basically ota.

[SavageBT]

Shiny :)

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Not a serious attempt, I will probably not publish it, this was just a test map for my self to master the process.

I used the lightning effects from Sunset Ridge (since I really liked it) and this is the result, the moutains are a bit too high since I used a brightness setting to make the almost black surface area on the heightmap to a more acceptable grey height, but the side effect was moutains on Viagra! :D

I will make a serious attempt tonight, it will be twice the size and it'll have a desert theme going on similar to this map.

AND BTW< I fixed the metal map allignment, I didn't realize that Terragen inverts .raw files so I had to invert the metal map and it was looking fine.

[[K.B.] Napalm Cobra]

Bmp works aswell as raw.

[GrOuNd_ZeRo]

Yeah, converted it to BMP, but when I exported it as raw it was inverted :)

[zwzsg]

Modifiy the values of -x , --maxheight and -n , --minheight in the mapconv commandline if your mountains are too high.

[Frog]

mufdvr222, how exactly do you fix the alignment in 30 seconds ?
Because I tried to convert Sherwood forest, but I had the impression that because the back of the hills are shorter that the front (on the map image) there is no way to get it properly aligned with the heightmap . On the other hand I haven´t tried very hard yet, but I thought maybe you can save me the effort of trial and error .
Oh, and shouldn├é┬┤t "-l" or "--lowpass" in mapconv work pretty much the same as blurring or Moir├â┬® effect ? That├é┬┤s how I was doing it, and it might be less work .

[SavageBT]

GrOuNd_ZeRo:

but the side effect was moutains on Viagra! :D

Open it in photoshop, grab the 'contrast' bar and drag it WAY left..

Looks awesome btw.

[zwzsg]

GrOuNd_ZeRo:
Open it in photoshop, grab the 'contrast' bar and drag it WAY left.

No! If you use that way, you could potentially lost precision of the heightmap. Just put a lower maxheight value when compiling.

And yes Frog, since TA viewpoint isn't vertical, north side of hills are shorter than south side of hills, and there's no easy fix for this. Just try to avoid glaringly mismatched texture/heightmap. Or keep only the heighmap from the original and use a flat texture on it, relying on the Spring engine to shade it.

That's why porting a TA map to Spring with an awful quality is done in a few minutes, porting a TA maps to Spring with an acceptable quality takes way much longer, and doing a perfect port is impossible.

[mufdvr222]

mufdvr222, how exactly do you fix the alignment in 30 seconds ?
Because I tried to convert Sherwood forest, but I had the impression that because the back of the hills are shorter that the front (on the map image) there is no way to get it properly aligned with the heightmap . On the other hand I haven´t tried very hard yet, but I thought maybe you can save me the effort of trial and error .
Oh, and shouldn├é┬┤t "-l" or "--lowpass" in mapconv work pretty much the same as blurring or Moir├â┬® effect ? That├é┬┤s how I was doing it, and it might be less work .

I view the map in spring as I would in ta ie from the same perspective and allign the heightmap according to that perspective, that part takes the 30 seconds in photoshop with the clone stamp.
Then I view the map from the opposite end, in spring and fix the terrain graphics to match the the heightmap, specifically talking about cliff faces here, so in two steps you get the heightmap alligned with one side of a hill, then fix the map graphics for the other side, see image and compare to above posts..