CS Heightmap Problems Need help!

Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:12 am

So I was following this tutorial on the wiki - http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/WorldBuilding_101 and I got my map all pieced out into 16 cubes all named with the proper coordinates and file type and put it into my Heightfield folder which is in Oblivion/Data. All of that went smoothly, then when I make a new world space in the CS, and go to the Heightmap editor, the textures look real crappy and pixelated, and here is the link to a screenshot of that - http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j370/Nirkana/TESCS%20errors/?action=view¤t=WTFHeightField.jpg If anyone can help me out here I would really appreciate it.
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josie treuberg
 
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Post » Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:50 pm

Looks like there is a lot of noise in your heightmap. This happens when people try to cram too much elevation data into too small an area. For example, the four quads visible in the heightmap editor only represent a http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Oblivion_Units. If your heightmap is intended to represent a large area (like a continent) the values will be 'squeezed' into too small an area and you'll end up with noise. For example: in your heightmap, you may want to have a mountain with an elevation of 5000 feet that gradually slopes down to a flat plane. In the real world, this would consume many miles of real surface area. You might be able to squeeze a reasonable mountain into 16 quads in the heightmap editor, but it's completely impractical to try to squeeze a whole mountain range into it. This is why many maps suffer from having too many steep, unclimbable slopes.
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Alyce Argabright
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:37 am

So seeing as though my maps are generated with Fractal World Explorer, what do you think is the best path here?
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GRAEME
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:37 am

Well, honestly, I gave up on using fractal terrain. I found that it was actually easier and less frustrating to paint the height data by hand in the heightmap editor and I had more control over my terrain when I did. If you use the zoom and a low brush setting you can literally raise and lower land with almost as much accuracy in there as you can using the landscape editor in the render window. If you use fractal terrain you're probably going to spend as much time fixing errors as you would painting it all yourself.

Still, if you want to go the fractal route, you can try tweaking the data in your raw file using http://projectmanager.f2s.com/morrowind/TESAnnwyn.html. I managed to get a more or less acceptable landmass using the settings I mentioned here -> http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Talk:WorldBuilding_101#TESAnnwyn. You might also want to try running a couple of erosion passes on your heightmap as is and see how it looks. How does it look, btw, in the render window?
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Jade Payton
 
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Post » Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:14 am

Ok man thanks i'll check this out and if it doesnt work out too well i'll start getting used to building heightmaps by hand xD. Hopefully this stuff will be easier in the Creation Kit.
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Farrah Barry
 
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