Map making tool like Minceraft's Worldpainter

[darkhog 3]

Video of Worldpainter in action in case someone doesn't know what it is

So I think such tool would be very useful for making maps that have specific landmasses with specific ore and other resources distribution. So, for example, if I want to recreate world of The Witcher 3 in Wurm, I can do it (just an example, have no intention of actually doing so)

 

IMO this tool should have at least following features:

 

- "Sculpting" terrain by utilizing grayscale brushes, separate views for rock and dirt layers

- Painting tile types/biomes (like painting sand, dirt, grass, rock, etc.)

- Painting ore deposits.

- Painting trees on the map

 

Things that would be cool to have, but aren't necessary:

 

- 3D map rendering, like e.g. in Deedplanner (would be 100% fine with 2D topdown one)

- painting mob spawn areas (if possible)

 

Things that IMO shouldn't be part of this:

 

- Building buildings, putting structures such as fences, etc. This would make tool far too complex to use and these things are easy enough to put together in the game using GM powers.

[yarnevk 257]

AK_ already made an image importer.  Just use your favorite paint/photo program.  Someone already posted a GIMP palette to use with it.   No need to add special features like 3D map view because there already is also a map creators  view mod that goes beyond the map dumps WurmAPI has.   You can  also use any terrain editor that has image output if you want to do 3D brushing - for example Unity's terrain editor can save a RAW grayscale which any paint/photo can convert to the .PNG AK_ uses.  Unlike Minecraft which has 3D voxel maps, Wurm maps are simply 2D images.

Edited October 22, 2015 by yarnevk

[darkhog 3]

Have you looked at this video I've linked to? You got live preview there and also it is simply easier to use than using program that was made for image manipulation/drawing with some "magic" RGB values (how do I place sand tile here? How do I put vegetation?).

 

Also Unity's terrain system sucks, aside of simple "blurred circle" brush there are little to no other ones that makes quality terrain.

[yarnevk 257]

You load the paint palette into GIMP that someone already made that uses Wurms coloring and use the color palette entry for sand.  it really is that simple.  Layer your map underneath if you want to trace outlines.

 

I did a deed planner that way in GIMP years ago because it was actually easier to use than the deed planners at the time, and I was doing flood fill and color erase long before any Wurm deed generator added the features.  You do biome painting the exact same way.  

 

Height map painting you do grayscale and use your various tools like smudge or lighten or darken since gray level direclty translates to height.  GIMP even has a cloud generator which is using the exact same algorithms as terrain generators - just colored blue and white rather than gray.  You just need to paint in the required ocean to outline an island, which is the mid-grey value, ocean depths are dark gray, islands are light gray.  Use a hard lighten brush to make a cliff or an air brush to make a smooth hill.

 

There are already painted biome maps in the map section of the forum so others have already figured out how to do it.

 

Unity was just an example,  the majority of terrain editors out there support image output so use one you like if you don't like that.    Many of them also support biome painting or generation that can be color remapped to your targeted game engine. They range from free to professional workflow tools.

 

You want to paint terrain rather than generate it and I have pointed out the tools you can use to do that, you can sit around and wait for a full fledged Wurm terrain painter when everyone else is focused on writing terrain generators instead, or you can use tools that are already available.

Edited October 22, 2015 by yarnevk

[darkhog 3]

Except Wurm height values are signed 16bit integers. RGB channels are 8-bit. Which means that with method you're proposing (herpaderp, let's make map in MSPaint!) you can at the most get either maps with 0..255 values or -127..127. Or I guess, you can interpolate it to bigger values, but that'd just look awful.

[yarnevk 257]

You might want to tell others who have already done it and are using 16b paint grayscale programs that work just fine, because apparently you do not want to actually be helped.  And even if you do not like paint brushes you can use 3D terrain brushes in any terrain program that outputs 16b grayscale which is most of them.    And 8b RGB is what you use for palette painting biomes.  But feel free not to use them and sit and wait for a tool nobody is writing because they are either already painting or writing their own terrain generator.

Edited October 23, 2015 by yarnevk

[darkhog 3]

Then add support for it to existing tool like WGenerator?

 

So what you're proposing is following:

1. Open terrain editor, most of which such as World machine costing big $$$.

2. Paint terrain.

3. Export to the heightmap

4. Open GIMP

5. Paint biomes

6. Export it

7. Open wurm importer

Runtime Error 202

 

where what I'm proposing is:

1. Open Wurm-specific editor

2. Paint map

3. Paint biomes

4. Export it via Wurm API

5. Put in server folder

6. Play.

 

And don't worry, if you lack skill to make such tool, someone will.

[yarnevk 257]

There is already support for image loading, AK_ did the first loader now others have branched it into bubba maps generator

 

There is no need to own a commercial terrain generator, plenty of free ones and there are public surveys that have real world information, as well as many other games worlds that have modded maps. And if you truly need to create your own you can use GIMP brushes to paint in grayscale,

 

If you truly cannot be bothered to load a grayscale into a paint program and color over it then you can never be helped, because even with a dedicated Wurm generator that operation will be the same workflow.  The wurm image importers use the WurmAPI so you are just being pedantic claiming it will error out compared to WurmAPI,

 

People have already done the worklflow  and you are depriving yourself of the ability to do it is your problem, not someone elses problem to write this code.  What you want to do is already possible so stop saying you are not able to do it.  Someone already has posted Tamriel with biomes that they created with just such a process.  So either bother them to learn how they did it, or set here and wait until someone ports their free generator with biome editing to WurmAPI or using the handoff images you could have created with other means.

Edited October 24, 2015 by yarnevk

[darkhog 3]

This seems to solve my problem: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/133033-worldpainter-to-wurm-unlimited-converter

 

As long as it'll be developed further and make it to worldpainter proper, I deem this thread solved. @Modteam: I'd like you to close it as this is finished and any further posts here would be just spam.