Making your own Terrains from scratch.

Actually making the terrain is probably the most important area of map making there is. Many a fine map falls flat on its face because the map maker messed up his map at this stage. Getting things wrong now, means you have to scrap your work and start again later. So it is important to get it right before you start placing objects on a map.

Now this part of the guide was writen the month the first Mechwarrior 4 editor was due for release and people who have read this guide still make the mistake of moving on to mission building before their terrain is finished so im going indicate how vitally important it is to get your terrain right before moving on to mission building.

IT IS VITAL: Read above, Dont skip it.

It is worth while to stick with the first good map idea you have and perfect it, do not even think about the mission until your terrain looks good, your detail map looks good and you believe you fully understand this stage. You will learn very quickly whats right and whats wrong this way. If you move on to new map your basically starting again and have learnt nothing. Most problems can be fixed, the act of fixing a problem teaches you to avoid that mistake in the future. So do not start a new map, fix the current.

Before we start you will need to know a little about image sizes. Below is a chart telling you what size height map needs to be and what size terrain texture and detail the map creator will accept for that height map.

Height map sizes	Terrain texture sizes	Detail texture sizes	Finished map size (Roughly)
512x512 24bit .tga	1024x1024 24bit .tga	256x256 32bit .Tga	6meg
768x768 24bit .tga	1536x1536 24bit .tga	256x256 32bit .Tga	12meg
1024x1024 24bit .tga	2048x2048 24bit .tga	256x256 32bit .Tga	18meg

EG a 1024x1024 height map will need a 2048x2048 terrain texture but all height maps using the same 256x256 detail texture.

You must save off your images in those sizes and make sure all Terrain and Height map sizes are correct so the map creator will use them. 32 Bit Detail textures are just normal tga files with an Alpha channel. Read your favourite paint programs help files for more information on Alpha channels and how to use them. If you are like me, you will know the map size you wish to create before you make the textures. This means you can render the textures to exactly the right size. For now though make sure your height map is made to the same size as the terrain texture. This will help you as you read through this tutorial. We will save off all the images at the correct sizes at the end of this section.

Tip: Ever wonder how Devs managed to get so much detail on to their maps ?

Well here is a tip that will help you improve your maps detail. Render your terrain in Bryce or Terragen at twice the size you need then open it in Photoshop or Paintshop and create a new blank image that is exactly the same size with a dpi of at least 144. Then select your terrain texture and copy and paste it into the new blank image. Resizing the image to the correct size after you have done so. This should help keep the 144 dots per inch on your terrains which translates to twice as much detail on your finished maps.

Step 1: Making the height map.

Height maps can be created in several ways, you can render an altitude map in Bryce or Terragen or you can make it by hand. I find no height map is ever complete unless both of these options are used but a great deal depends on the type of map you`re creating. After all, a city map probably would not need natural terrain so why use Bryce to make the height map for a city map. Programs like Paint Shop Pro or Photo Shop make excellent tools for creation of Height maps.

The process of creating a good height map for me normally starts in a paint package, then I import that image in to Bryce or Terragen as a Height map and merge the terrain that I created in Bruce with the Height map I created in Photo shop. This process takes some time to do and is the very foundation of a good map and typically the area most map makers fail to do correctly. No let me correct my self, typically the area most map makers do not even bother with in the first place.

Big mistake and you can how much of mistake it is when their maps look like thousands of other maps and never get used.

Height map: The settings to use to make them.

For height map images, Black is the bottom and White is Top of all hills, valleys and other items. If you want to use water on your map then you must make the river or lake bed pure black. Later when you get to the map creator, it will ask you for the height of the water. Black is always 0.

Typical rendering settings for Bryce or Terragen would be from the Top view with the map centered. I use the zoom selection feature in Bryce to make sure I only have the part I want and not all the excess terrain along the edges. This allows me to render my images at the resolution I require. Zoom selection becomes available in Bryce once you have quickly rendered the map for the first time and then drag a box over the area you are interested in.

Make sure Altitude is selected as the desired render option from the software you are using. We do not want to make a grassy plain render at this stage, we simply want a black and white Height map and Altitude renderings will allow us to make them.

Bryce does support the importing and exporting of height maps from one of its subscreens, you can edit your height map from this sub screen and the resulting exported image is sometimes all you need. However lining the height map up with the terrain texture later can be problem which is why I render the height map and the terrain texture using exactly the same settings and then resize them in my favourite paint package.

Height Map: Editing your Height map to suit your map idea.

Once you have your Height map rendered off, save it and return to paint shop or whatever program you prefer to use. We need to make sure we have no black pits for mechs to fall in to that cannot be climbed out of. These typically appear as black dots and their presence on a map is often listed as a feature when in fact it`s the map maker saying, I cannot be bothered to fix the height map because I would have to start all over again. So make sure you remove all pits you do not want and always allow mechs room to climb out of the ones you do want.

You should also place a very thin Black border around your map once you have finished editing your height map. This border will make the edge of the map lower than the rest of the map and there for avoid rogue polygons. Map boundaries can be used to hide this sudden drop in the map editor later and nobody but other experienced map makers will be any the wiser. A side effect of this method is that water always starts at the lowest point on the map and pure black is the lowest post so your rivers painted into your height maps must be black too.

Tip: Making a good Ramp

This would be good point to mention gradients. This is an option most paint packages have yet it is also the one thing the map creator does badly. Smooth gradients tend to make steep but rough slopes if you use the default settings. Remember we are working in Black and White and black is the bottom of the map and white is the top. Gradients can be used to make very good ramps but you really need to practice this, your first attempt will probably look pretty bad. Trust me on this. Spend some time just making ramps before you get too heavily into making the terrain textures. You can use the colour picker to select the colour for the top and bottom of the ramp so it is always correct for the height you`re placing it at. The gradient feature will then fill in all shades of grey in between those colours making a smooth ramp.

One more thing to remember about ramps, the map creator will make a complete mess of any ramp that doesn`t look like a` motorway off' ramp. In short, ramps must always be wide, thin ramps just end up looking like a ridge. You can use the Heightmaps Alpha channel to paint the ramps on the green channel to tell the map creator to make more effort with the ramps when generating the terrain. I found though that the Map creator still makes a hash of it though their is a small improvement.

Layers and paint packages as an aid to creating your terrain..

Most paint packages use layers, if you`re not familiar with the use of layers I would strongly suggest you look them up in your paint programs help file. They are used by almost everybody for all sorts of things and always come in handy, whether you`re making a map or painting a logo.

If you remember, black is the bottom of the map, using this Height map I created for Orion Arena you can see I used several layers to create it. Starting with black and working my way up to light grey. The results have gained the map some very positive comments from those players that have seen it. If you look hard, at the North, South, East and West light grey areas you will notice 4 ramps leading in to the arena. These were made using the above method and placed over the top of the layers that made the arena. You see, most paint packages allow you to move layers up and down, therefore allowing you to hide some layers. For instance, placing a hollow circle over a square would make the square look round. A handy thing to know when you`re making maps like this.

Step 2: Creating your Terrain texture.

We are now ready to make the terrain texture that most people will see. If you are hand painting your terrain I would suggest you paste the height map into your terrain as a layer and make it semi transparent so you can see the changes in height. For now though we will assume you`re using a program like Bryce or Terragen.

First thing to do is import your Edited Height map back in Bryce or Terragen. Once you have the Terrains height map loaded you can start choosing textures. At this point I'd like you to think about custom skies. Or the sky you will be using. Try and set the program to use a similar sky before you render your maps terrain. Shadows are a great way of adding character to a map so make some nice long shadows too.

Tip: Rendering your Terrain only once is Boring.

You have to admit, if I left my Orion Arena map with just this texture on it, the mini map and the map players are walking on would be very dull indeed. The trouble is, most map makers do leave it at that and wonder why people fall asleep whilst playing on their map. Even some Mechstorm guys do this. So having made my point, lets render a few more terrains using the Top down view and the same height map. We will not be changing anything but the texture. The sky stays the same too.

 

 

 

Orion Arena actually used 7 different terrains, but i will make my point using only 3 of my renders. As you can see, each terrain looks different and shows off my height map so differently. The first example hides most of the detail yet the one to the left shows most of it.

 

 

So lets choose several textures that you can patch together later to create your terrain texture. Make sure they are all suitable for the map you're making. If you have a beach on your map, make sure you render the map off with a sandy look at least once. If that beach is next to a field. render off some grass. If that field has a hill or mountian. render off a mountain texture too. Remember, don't change any of the settings except the texture. We want all these map renders to be done from exactly the same height.

Editing your new Terrain images.

The first thing we want to do is make sure all the images are the correct size and line up with each other. Load up your height map. Resize it to the size your terrain will have to be. If you want a 2x2 map or 1024x1024, make sure your height map is resized to 1024x1024 for this stage.

Now load each of your new terrains in to the paint program you're using. Select all, then paste them as a new layer over the height map. You will end up with several new layers. Now move the height map layer to the top of the layer list by dragging it there. Make it transparent enough to see the layer below it. Then line up the layer below it with the height map so the details on both pics match exactly. Do this for all layers. You can hide the layers you have lined up to make the one below easier to get at.

Once all the layers are perfectly lined up with the height map, you can make them all visible again and use the selection tool to draw a box around the map so only your textures remain inside the box. Any borders will be removed once you hit the Crop menu option and all layers will be the same size.

Tip: Resizing and saving your textures.

It's a good idea to copy the Height map layer at this point and paste it in to a new image. Then save it off over the old one. This will make sure your Height map always matches your terrain.

So you now have a number of textures all rendered off in your rendering program, all exactly the right size and all on different layers of the same image. I think it would be wise to save the image off now as a paintshop or Photoshop file in case your system crashes. Do that now.

Now, remember your height map layer. We will be it again now. Choose one texture you like for the base terrain and move that layer all the way to the bottom of the layer list. We won't be editing this layer at all. Now choose a layer that remains and hide all the others except your base terrain, your height map and the layer you're about to work with. Move this layer to the top of the list and make it slightly transparent so you can see the layer below. The layer below should be your height map. The height map needs to be 100% visible now. Select the layer at the top of the list and choose the custom select tool from your paint package. This is the tool that lets you draw any shape and the program will select everything inside that shape you have just drawn.

I will assume the first texture is a mountain. Draw around the mountain using the custom selection tool. Select copy from the menu and paste as a new layer. Then move this layer to the bottom of the layer list so it's out of the way. Next lets edit a beach texture (yours may be grass or anything). using the same method. Draw around the beach areas and select them. Copy and paste these as a new layer. do the same for all textures. Now lets hide all the terrain textures except the base terrain and your newly pasted items. Move all the items up to the top of the list. Your base terrain should now have a mountain and a beach on it. Here is what my Orion Arena looked like after I had finished doing that.

As you can see, it looks a lot better than the images you saw above. I am sure you agree it was worth the extra effort. You may also notice I added some logo's, numbers and start points to the map itself. These are just the icing on the cake. I would advise you save off the terrain you just created in your paint packages own file format so you can load it back in later if you need to edit it some more. The layers will still be intact if you do this.

 

 

 

Step 3: Creating the detail texture for your map.

You may have noticed that the map creator really spoils all your hard work on the terrain texture. This is why its important to make the detail texture as interesting as possible. What we are about to do is make up for the map creators faults by producing a very good detail texture. Detail textures are 256x256 and contain an Alpha channel. You can use the same method to create them as you did the for the terrain in Step 2 above. Only this time you will need an alpha channel too.

Tip: Increasing the DPI of the image before you start also helps great deal. Photoshop allows you to do this when you first create your blank 256x256 image.

I use plasma cloud effects for my alpha channels. Just keep generating the clouds until you get one which suits your map. Remember black, grey and white allow different levels of detail from your terrain texture below to show through your Detail texture. This will give a very nice effect of you get it right. Here are the detail texture and alpha channel images for Orion Arena.

Both of these are usually on the same picture but I have split them to allow you to see what both of these look like. The black areas on the alpha channel to the right allow the terrain to completely show through. the grey areas to produce a mixed image of the image to the left and the terrain texture above. White just shows the detail texture on the left.

Those green leafs you see are bigger than most mechs in the game, a slight scale problem I had. So you could make them very small and leave room to add a lot more detail to your detail texture and thus do a better job here than I did.

 

Step 4: Saving off the Tga's files.

Using the chart at the top of this tutorial, save off your detail texture as a 256x256 32bit tga. Call it mymap-detail.tga so you wont confuse it with the other textures. Next, save off your Terrain file using the chart above as a guide, resizing it if need be. Now resize your height map to the the size mentioned on the chart that corresponds to your terrain texture size. Height maps are always half the size of the terrain texture. Just make sure the terrain texture is in one of the sizes mentioned above.

Further information.

Do not try and make maps bigger than 2024x2024. Those that have tried have reported crashes and all kinds of other problems. Also, as you leave this section to move on to the actual creation of the map for the first time remember, you will probably have to return to this section several times before the maps terrain is ready. If you cannot be bothered to re-render your terrain to fix problems then you really should not be making maps for Mechwarrior 4. Maps are not easy to make and getting them accepted by the players is made harder when map makers release half finished maps as final versions.

This is made even worse when feedback forces them to update the final release several times. If I had my way, Id shoot map makers that do this, so be thankful I dont get my way on this point. Remember to read the Mechstorm testing chapter at the end of this tutorial, it will explain how to spot the problems before making the mission for the terrain you have just created. So for now, consider having your terrain texted before you put a mission on it. You do this by placing start points on the map and saving it as a mission. Do not even bother placing any buildings as you may have to return to Bryce to fix a bug you missed. The good thing about this is, that when your terrain is found to be bug free, you can release it. Even without the mission. It will never have to be updated again and its the easiest thing to check for bugs too. So again, allowing bugs to creep in at this stage can be seen as laziness on the part of the map maker. Although bot movements are another matter entirely.