importing terrain heightmaps from photoshop?

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

im about to start on a map thats going to require some terrain (yay :rolleyes: )

i'd use some large texture-blended staticmeshes for the terrain, but 1) i cant figure out how to get them imported from LW to UED properly with the vertex colors -and- 2) even if i could, they dont work with dynamic lights from rockets and such, and the map will be fairly dark so it would look crappy...

i want the map to be PERFECTLY symmetrical... so i want to take the heightmap into photoshop, mirror it correctly, clean the seam, and reimport it to the editor

how would i do this?

i know ive tried before, but have never got it done right

help would be appreciated...

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

bumpx0r

id really like to know if this is possible :bulb:

[legacy-Doctor7]

You can't do it in Photoshop because, although it will open a 16-bit greyscale, it will convert it to 8-bit as soon as you make any changes.

However, not surprisingly, you're not the first to want to do this and somebody did create a tool for simple manipulation of 16-bit heightmaps. I can't remember the author but the tool is called G16Ed or G16Edit, you should be able to find a reference to it if you search this and the User Maps & Mods forums.

[legacy-doogle]

I managed to import a photo I'd made into grayscale in PSP7 into UEd3 as a terrain heightmap, just saved it as an 8bit bmp file, imported it and then I'd already added a terrain and it had a heightmap created for it so I just went into the terraininfo properties and changed the heightmap image source to point to the photo I'd imported, sure the editor crashed if I tried to alter the heightmap afterwards but I could paint grass, rock etc onto it ok and stuff :)

[legacy-Falc0n]

Yep: G16ed can edit UED3 G16 heightmaps:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/martingbell/ut2003/

You can import 8-bit ones from any paint app, but once you've changed them in UED they're G16 format and can't be edited in PSP or Paintshop etc.

I wrote G16ed for the exact reason you want it Will - kind of expanded from there on ;)

[Wowbagger]

Thread Ressurection!!


I have imported a heightmap from PS7 into UED and it work alright, BUT!, i cant edit the terrain in UED?

Anyone know what the problem can be?

Edit: Never mind, i had to convert it to 16bit :o

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

how do you do that?

itd be nice to be able to edit in PS7

[Wowbagger]

Originally posted by willhaven
how do you do that?

itd be nice to be able to edit in PS7

You Right-Click in the Heightmap Info area and click "Convert to 16bit"

http://www.unrealops.com/img/tutorials/terrain/Terrain7.jpg
Image from Angel Mappers Terrain Tutorial (http://www.unrealops.com/tutorials-terrain1.htm)

[legacy-Devo_N]

I have a bunch of great heightmap terrains, and Ive done the conversions but

<such a noob>

I don't know how to even call them up from unrealed? I don't know whre to put em or what to name em or how to access them at all!

For that matter, I pretty much don't understand how to do this with ANY external files (skins etc). is there a tutorial or something somewhere? Been workin my way through some tutorials but I never see this info.

thanks in advance!

Devo

[legacy-Corion]

Once you have the terrain info created ... (If you don't know how, check out http://angelmapper.com/tutorials/terrain1.htm)

Go to the texture browser and do a FILE >> IMPORT...

Locate the texture you want and save it to:

Package: "myLevel" (IMPORTANT!)
Group: "Terrain" (not so important)
Name: Whatever you want

Then select your terrain info actor. Select the newly imported texture. Go to TerrainInfo >> TerrainMap in the properties for your Terrain info and select use.

[legacy-DaJMasta]

can't you just use the mirrior brush thing in the terrain editor in unrealed, I don't have PS, but all my efforts trying to make G16s work with anything but unreal took way too long, and didnt come out that great....

But I kno for a fact that theres a funtion somewhere in the terrain editor that will mirrior all terrain edits on 1 or 2 axes (2 or 4 paint points)

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

holy megabump