Terragen rendering colormap

[Doomweaver]

I have been told that to render the color map, I need to position the camera at the centre of the map (XY) and the height Z needs to be so that it just reaches the edge of the render. But this doesn't work... what do I do?

[zwzsg]

You move as much as you can upward and zoom in as much as you to compensate. So as to be as close as possible to a view from infinitely high, without any perspective effect. Or just use another program to create the texture map.

[Doomweaver]

Thanks, now what format do I export my heightmap to? 8 bit raw? And what dimensions should my colormap be in relation to the heightmap?
And how do I use mapconv?

[Storm]

You can find all info [ here ].

[SavageBT]

Erm, to get a perfect terragen rendering go t camera properties and tick the 'orthographic' box, set camera position to the centre and some height, and target to centre and below the camera, doesnt matter how high. i.e. for a 256x256 set camera position to x=128, y=128, z=1;
and set target position to x=128, y=128, z=0.
Make sure that next to camera orientation 'bank' is set to 0.
Also set the sun angle to 90 degrees. I think terragen calls it 'sun altitude'.

[Doomweaver]

I still need help with the heightmap - if I use bmp, how do I get the bmp to be a 16-bit heightmap? I can print screen in terragen, but then I don't have photoshop.
And my terragen isn't registered, so how do I create a proper colormap?

[SavageBT]

Yeah unregistered Terragen was a problem for me too... 960x960, urgh. You could try overlaying a high res detail texture over that, I believe spring has a couple that tile in the bitmaps folder...

No photoshop/etc is going to be a problem however you do your map.

I'm a little confused on your first question:

I still need help with the heightmap - if I use bmp, how do I get the bmp to be a 16-bit heightmap?

Are you trying to get terragen to export its heightmap, and convert from the .raw, or do you have a .bmp you can't get into terragen?

I can print screen in terragen

You shouldn't have to do a screen capture in terragen - the heightmap has an export or 'save as' or somesuch right next to it, and the window in which the nice (as much as 960^2 can be ) rendering appears has a save button in the top left.

[[K.B.] Napalm Cobra]

Legality is overrated.

[Doomweaver]

"Legality is overrated."
I agree but I am not going to post that. Okay, now that that problem has been answered how do I get a black and white bmp heightmap OUT of terragen?

[SavageBT]

Then use photoshop/etc to open the .raw and save it as a .bmp... 8 bit greyscale has been working fine for me so far.

[Doomweaver]

Is 8-bit all I need? Seems a bit limited...

[Neuralize]

Raw 16-bits Intel Byte Order

[Doomweaver]

Well I don't have photoshop, so what can I open the raw file in to convert it to bmp?

[Neuralize]

Read everything carefully.. or die.

Wait, is this some horrid trick to get me to help you make hideous maps. You better not make any hideous maps sonny. Or.. die.

Then again, I'm being far too cursory and assume you know more than I've told you for any of this to be of help to you. You can use .raw or .bmp ( Bmp requires 180 rotation + mirror) with mapconv, however, it does have to be size 1025x1025 or uh, yeah you should know that by now, read more threads I'm going to bed. Rawr.

[Doomweaver]

Neuralize thank you i love you not but anyway thanks.

[Doomweaver]

Okay so I did that thing with the .bat file but its not working. I wrote this:

@mapconv --help
@pause
@echo:
@echo:
@mapconv -l -c 0.8 -x 256 -n 0 -o "Map1Yay.sm2" -m MMap1.bmp -a HMap1.bmp -i -t CMap1.bmp
@pause:

mapconv and the three files are all in the same folder.
However the map is 512x512... would this require me to change some paramaters? Also the metal map is a copy of the heightmap just for now. Would this cause problems?

it says 'mapconv' is not recognized as a command.

[SavageBT]

mapconv -l -c 0.5 -x 300 -n -50 -o mapname.sm2 -m metalmap.bmp -a heightmal.bmp -t texture.bmp

Only this line, no @.
Then copy .smd and .sm2 files into your maps folder.

Doomweaver:

Is 8-bit all I need? Seems a bit limited...

256 distinct levels not enough for you?
With the lowpass filter '-l' you dont need heaps of detail, in fact it will probably look less detailed than you original heightmap.

Neuralize:

Bmp requires 180 rotation + mirror

I cannot comment on the raws but the bmps i've use (8bit not 16?) need a vertical flip but NO ROTATION.

For the 50th time on this forum the height map dimentions should be 1/8 + 1 pixel the dimentions of the texture map. Don't rotate the texture map or metal map. Metalmap dimentions work fine as the same dimentions as the heightmap.


Yeah, anyone got a 'legal' terragen?

[Storm]

And instead of the vertical flip, just issue a -i order.

[Doomweaver]

Tried your advice, got rid of the @, didn't help.
It says the same error:

'mapconv' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
press any key to continue...

So I press a key and it says its trying to find mapconv in C:\>
Which is clearly where it isn't...

[SavageBT]

And instead of the vertical flip, just issue a -i order.

Forgot about that, thanks.

Doom, try putting the full pathnames in, i.e.
c:\games\taspring\maptools\mapconv.exe ...etc... c:\games\taspring\maptools\texture.bmp ...etc...

Dunno what mapconv will do with the full paths, so if it has a spit try it with the path full for mapconv, but not the files.