Difference between revisions of "Heightmap editor"

The problem I've found with trying to do heightmaps with fractal programs is that you cannot really decide what you want that area to look like, and instead have to keep generating, adjusting settings, and such in hope that you'll eventually come across something good... Then you have to go through all the loops needed to import that map for each quad. The purpose of this article is to hopefuly provide some sort of alternative for those who know what they want their worldspace to look like.

A few things before we get started.

The heightmap editor tends to be one of the most resource demanding aspects of the CS, so may not be something which everyone can use due to their hardware limitations. Generally, you need atleast 2gb of RAM to make the heightmap editor work, and may need 3gb if using Vista. Most causes of crashes from the heightmap editor occur due to the high RAM requirements needed to make it function.

With the exception of adding new quads, or generating LOD meshes, the Heightmap editor should only be used in the initial stages of any project. This is due not only to the mesh errors that occur at the corners of each quad upon saving, but also due to RAM requirements; smaller files have a less impact. Changes to a worldspace after things have been placed in that world should be done using the landscape editor.

The initial settings for brush strengths and color settings are just plain useless. For most projects, I would suggest using the color settings I have shown here;

As long as you are working within the blue to brown to white range, you should be fine with heights. If you start going into pink, your worldspace may have mountains that are too tall, if you go into the black, most of that terrain will be hidden by the eventual LOD meshes.  

Before opening up the Heightmap editor, it is suggested that you have defined your worldspace in the CS, and saved as a .esp. Opening the heightmap editor before saving can cause some crash issues.

The key to using the heightmap editor is using many small changes to get things how you want instead of trying to do it all at once. The intensity/amplitude for any brush should never be above 100 (other than the Soften Tool which needs to be in the 1000+ range to do anything) since the brush works rather quickly. Falloff can be useful for adjusting how steep of a change you want based on the center of the radius to its edge. Smoothing and flatening can be rather useful in certain situations.

Frequency works with the noise brush, lower frequency means greater distance between features, higher frequency means a shorter distance between features. A setting of 100-200 will make for a very rugged terrain, a setting of around 40 will make for terrain that is bumpy, without being too much. Using various brush size, intensity, amplitude, frequency, falloff settings along with additive/subtractive, and various seeds can make this tool rather useful in areas that you want a bit of variation, like coastlines, hills, or with very slight settings, can help avoid having those perfectly flat plains. Using subtractive can also make for some interesting canyon formations.

You can do quite alot with the heightmap editor, you just need to be willing to take the time to learn how to use it. All of my worldspace work has been either in the heightmap editor or the landscape editor, both have given me the kinds of results I've wanted.