Does anyone have any references to tutorials on how to do custom heightmaps in Empyrion? What software can we use? What are the rules or guidelines when creating heightmaps in Empyrion? Thanks.
There isn't any easy way to import custom heightmaps at the moment. I'm working on it. As soon as I come up with a reliable workflow I'll share it in one of the Planets and Playfield threads.
In the interim can you provide any raw or usable information or topics that cover details related to HM and the way EG locates / loads / parses them? The ability to hand craft extremely detailed terrains via HM for custom play is really compelling. I've created and used HM over the years many times for many things and it can be a lot of fun. I'd like to come up to speed as much as possible so I can "get to the fun parts" as soon as possible once you (or anyonee else) does finally provide a path for getting them into the game.
You're in luck. I finally sorted out the import late last night. I'm going to write up a tut later today. In the meantime, here's the digest version: 1. Create a grayscale heightmap from your terrain. EGS maps must be 8192 x 4096 pixels, a .tiff or .png is best. Finished filesize should be around 60MB. If it's much smaller than that you've lost information. 2. Convert to IBM RAW format. PS CS5 can do it, save as Adobe RAW and select IBM RAW. Some image freeware may also be able to convert. The Camera RAW formats I tried did not work. 3. Drop your new heightmap into a folder. In this case I created a scenario folder with subfolders for the terrain playfield. Add a playfield.yaml. You can generate the playfield with the Empyrion Playfield Designer. 4. Edit sectors.yaml, etc. to call your new terrain. There are some threads here that explain editing the .yamls. To Dos: Sort out splatmaps. My thanks to Hummel, jmcburn, Kassonade, Needleship, and Christianholmes for their insights and contributions to Planets and Playfields. It would have been a lot harder without them.
That is so awesome man. You shed light onto information I couldn't find anywhere. A little question though, Can you explain the differences between the RAW files and what's the purpose of terrain.ecf? Thanks!
The map.raw is the only map you need to provide. The game creates the others at runtime. What they do is something we're still figuring out. I believe that the lo_maps may have something to do with visibility. The map_n is likely the nighttime version. Terrain.ecf works in conjunction with the splatmap to distribute features like vegetation. Kassonade has already sussed out some of it so look for his posts for the best info.
Too bad I can't afford photoshop, so raw is out of the question for me. Will make it hard to update this repository...
GIMP is free and there's an addon called UFRAW that handles RAW format. There are also freeware file converters that will convert to RAW.
UFRAW no longer appears to be an add-on for GIMP, and seems to just be a standalone program that will open RAW images and allows you to modify and save them as PNG's and stuff. Not helpful. Is there a link to one of these freeware options?
