Cleaning up Heightmaps

[Syphorus 1]

I don't know if this is the correct place to post this, but I have been playing around with Eitr's Map Generator pretty much nonstop for a while, and have been experimenting with editing the heightmap files.

 

Two of the major issues with directly editing the heightmaps is that a lot of imaging software doesn't seem to export a proper 16bit Greyscale and that when you begin painting, you lose a LOT of definition.

 

Both fixes I've found using the latest dev channel of Gimp! Which you can find here! (Windows nightly builds) or here for the Linux version.

Importing a heightmap with the latest developer version of Gimp will keep the image in the proper bitrate.

 

The other part, where it comes to actually making changes to your map come in the form of the Healing Tool (looks like band-aids in a X shape). Which allows you to take texture information from elsewhere on the image, and paint it over where you're working, which in turn, helps keep the land resolution looking very natural!

 

Building Mountains? Use the Paint tool to create the basic size of the mountain, then select the Healing Tool and Clrl-Click on another mountain that already exists on the map, which will mark where you want the texture information to be borrowed from. Then, paint!

 

Hopefully this will help us all on the road to making beautiful maps!

 

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

[Aum 771]

i have this problem in photoshop painting or using the mixer brush i end up with what seems like 8 bit info, hopefully this technique will help, thanks!

[Jukken 230]

I use Scape 3D editor. Free and supports 16bit png. Workes fine I think.

[Lichbane 51]

I also suggest using World Machine.  The free version is fine as you don't need the tiling feature of the paid version. 

 

At its simplest, all you really need is a node to load in the heightmap, another to do erosion and another to export the result.  If you like,  you can get more adventurous with coastal erosion,  terracing, and creating splatmaps for creating dry riverbeds. 

 

The results are REALLY worth it. 

Edited February 25, 2016 by Lichbane

[Ricowan 199]

Am I missing something?  The free version of World Machine can only save 513x513 heightmaps, right?

[Lichbane 51]

You should be able to do up to 16k,  I think.  (I've actually got the pro version, so I can't really check.).

 

EDIT: Damn!  You're right.  I just checked the website.  Apologies.  You'd have to get the standard version.

 

Edited February 25, 2016 by Lichbane

[Mordraug 2,542]

Then again.... once you get the hang of Scape it's bliss.

 

http://postimg.org/image/5abjm839j/   I keep coming back to that map, handcrafting its spawn point now.  Inde sized.

 

The secret is to smooth out the map generator's initial heightmap then small tweak at will as you get familiarized with the brushes. (use the GPU brushes).

 

Try different keys, they change the size of brushes, also brush strength matters.  When you bring that modified heightmap back into the map generator be sure to put in the max height you used during the generation.

[Saicotic 116]

On 2/25/2016 at 9:40 AM, Jukken said:

I use Scape 3D editor. Free and supports 16bit png. Workes fine I think.

Thanks for this!, 

 

I loved making the maps but they are choppy as hell in the map generator and I can not seem to get them the way I want using just it. But with Scape, I was able to create several that look nice and very smooth transitions

[CountZero 58]

Sorry to resurrect such an old post but does anyone know how to use scape? I'v got the basic map i want but I cant figure out how to adjust the pencil size. I want to do some fine detail and I can only edit large chunks at a time :(