Smooth My Terrain Fast

[gingerlikeme 6]

hi,

 

i am making a terrain and in game it is 6km by 13km. the problem i have is that i want the smooth it all so there is no jagged edges.

 

is the only way to do this in buldozer? for people that have big maps such as aussie how did you smooth it all?

 

 

Any ideas welcome.

 

thanks Harry

[niunzin 11]

On your TB:

1. Terrain > Edit Terrain
2. Select a region on your map
3. In Properties > Actions choose Smooth
4. Set a Scale
5. Click "OK" and done.

[gingerlikeme 6]

ok, does this actually smooth the whole map? If so how could i be so blind! will try this later. what scale should i use?

 

Thanks Harry

[Richie 330]

or load it in L3DT and you can smooth some areas more than others, do what you want really, awesome program.

For maps larger than 20k though the free version won't load terrains that big, it's worth paying for though

[bludski 4421]

or load it in L3DT and you can smooth some areas more than others, do what you want really, awesome program.

For maps larger than 20k though the free version won't load terrains that big, it's worth paying for though

 

Richie does it let you open terrain geometry already generated and modified in TB?

[hoverguy 177]

I'm not Richie but yeah it does.

[Richie 330]

I'm not hoverguy but what he said is correct :)

 

*Edit*

Make sure to make a backup before.

[J0K3R 5 93]

Just export the terrain from TB, then import it to L3DT

[RoF 241]

Richie does it let you open terrain geometry already generated and modified in TB?

 

Yes, but you have to export from TB first (file>export>terrain) then open that in L3DT. Then re import it into TB and rebuild.

[bludski 4421]

Yes, but you have to export from TB first (file>export>terrain) then open that in L3DT. Then re import it into TB and rebuild.

My terrain is too big to use with the free version and I can't buy it just yet. Do you or anyone know if it is possible to export it or convert to some 3d format a generic 3d program can open?

[dragonsyr 21]

download the pro version of l3dt. it gives you 30 days to try. you can do anything in 30 days.

[RoF 241]

download the pro version of l3dt. it gives you 30 days to try. you can do anything in 30 days.

 

it's 90 days! I was gutted when mine ran out, as I forget all about the limit lol

[ceeeb 147]

If you can export the height map as an image file, load it in any image editor and use the blur tool or filter, then re-import.

[spookygnu 563]

If you can export the height map as an image file, load it in any image editor and use the blur tool or filter, then re-import.

 

That can work but unless you know what shade of grey you want to smooth  you find it would be a bit fiddly trying to get it exactly how you want it. 

If you use L3Dt you can smooth your whole map one of two ways. 

 

first being, the use of the smooth brush tool can help greatly as you can smooth out exactly where you want and to what size of brush and strength. When you select smooth, you can double click it to get a strength on the brush. The default I think is set at 50, lower this to around 10-20 or whatever you like. then on the terrain in 3d mode, just edit it once and if it is wrong, crtl-z and you can undo the work you tried. then try a different value. keep doing this until you are satisfied with the smooth strength you want. This can be time consuming but you can go up to a max size of 200 and smooth out your whole terrain in about 30 minutes, depending on how good your pc is at rendering the terrain in 3d.

 

Second way a little different. This can take just as long but also be quite quick too depending on the values you set. 

In your project, you have various map images: design/heightfield/watermap/attributes/light etc etc. Go to heightfield map and make sure that is what you are looking at. Then across the very top you have menu tabs. Go to Operations/heightfield/Smooth gradient or smooth curvature. These two options let you smooth the whole map in one go without the need for a brush in 3d mode. What you set as the values will determine how rough or smooth your island will be. I have messed about with this a few times and I think the best way is to use lower values the default is set at 75 for slope/threshold. once you think you have a decent value, press ok in the value's window and then L3dt will generate a new heightfield with the whole terrain smoothed out for you. The time it takes on this all depends on the values you set and the size of your island.  Both ways are very effective but both ways have cons too as in they can be time consuming but the result outweighs the work once you get it right.

 

Mess about with a self generated test map in L3dt. It doesn't have to be too big, just try a 1024x1024 a cell 10 and see what happens. Most importantly, like someone mentioned earlier, back up you work before you alter it in L3dt.  

[g50st 1]

export it into l3dt

[spookygnu 563]

export it into l3dt

 

And that tells him what?