feanix 1 Posted February 8, 2015 I'm trying to import a heightmap into Terrain Builder but whenever I import it the sea level in Terrain Builder appears to be at the lowest possible elevation position and I get pretty terrible bands across my elevation. Does anyone know where I'm going wrong? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/870465/AdjustedHeightmap.bmp Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jakerod 254 Posted February 8, 2015 Where are you getting your heightmap from? What format are you importing it as? (xyz, asc, png, etc.) What are the lowest and highest elevations on it? ArmA uses 0 for the sea level so if you have anything below that it will be covered in water. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
feanix 1 Posted February 8, 2015 Where are you getting your heightmap from?What format are you importing it as? (xyz, asc, png, etc.) What are the lowest and highest elevations on it? ArmA uses 0 for the sea level so if you have anything below that it will be covered in water. I was using BMP. Using XYZ has given me a much better result. It's useful to know that 0 is sea level by default. How do I have underwater elevation, though? Do I need to lower the terrain in Terrain Builder after I reimport it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jakerod 254 Posted February 10, 2015 Try using .asc instead of .xyz it will load much quicker. As for the underwater part, it depends on what program you use before you bring it into TB. I wouldn't recommend using TB to do it as it would take forever. I use L3DT. If you tell us about your heightmap process we might be able to help you figure something out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
feanix 1 Posted February 10, 2015 Try using .asc instead of .xyz it will load much quicker. As for the underwater part, it depends on what program you use before you bring it into TB. I wouldn't recommend using TB to do it as it would take forever. I use L3DT. If you tell us about your heightmap process we might be able to help you figure something out. I'm currently using World Machine and then I import the r16 from World Machine into L3DT so I can export xyz since World Machine cannot export in that. If there's a way to sort the water with L3DT then it could definitely work for me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
feanix 1 Posted February 10, 2015 Okay, so I figured out I could change the height range of my heightmap to a negative number in L3DT so that 0 was the correct waterlevel. That's worked. In summary: Expect problems if you use bitmaps for heightmap information, there just aren't enough colours and you can't have negative values. Use data formats like XYZ or ASC. Convert using L3DT if you need to. You need to lower your terrain so everything underwater is negative to get the correct water level. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bushlurker 46 Posted February 10, 2015 Expect problems if you use bitmaps for heightmap information, there just aren't enough colours and you can't have negative values. Usually, 16 bit greyscales are used for raster heightmaps (old Visitor 3-style .png, or GeoTiff, for example), which usually gives adequate shade variation for all but the most complex and wide-range heightmaps... There's also various 32 bit formats too... The main issue with a standard greyscale raster like .png or .bmp is that the actual Minimum and Maximum values aren't "embedded" within the file and have to be referenced seperately... The old Visitor 3, for example, used .png and it required an associated ".pbl" file which contained the max/min info. L3DT understands that, and if you import a heightmap in greyscale .png format, for example, you'll get a popup panel asking you to enter the minimum and maximum elevation values before you can proceed with the import. "Grid" formats, on the other hand, like .bt, .hfz, .xyz, .asc, etc are basically like a big spreadsheet full of elevation values - some of which can easily be negative to represent underwater elevations. Generally, grid formats are less hassle, and Arc ASCII (.asc) is usually the weapon of choice... I'm currently using World Machine "Old" versions of World Machine were limited to "0 meters" as the "lowest point", so - yes - they had to be physically lowered to "raise" the sea to the correct level, however, the newer versions of WM allow for "underwater" and negative values... B Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jimbop 25 Posted December 29, 2015 seems like every program out there has to be bounced around before it can be imported into terrain builder. I was hoping world builder could export straight into TB...tried using .png and .tiff but they just give me massive spikes! is there a compatible export from WM to TB? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
