map idea

[Speed55]

i posted this in the main forum.  It's a real simple idea right now, but envision it to have a little something for everyone. Maybe one of you professionals would like to build it?

[Denholm]

Why don't you? My tutorials get you up and on your feet, their most highly recommended by people who have used them.

[Speed55]

Does your tutorial explain how to make an image into a terrain. I can't even get past that part?  
I do have alot of time on my hands right now, and would be willing to do something for the community.

[Denholm]

Yes it does, although lots of people on XP operating systems have been having trouble applying them to their terrains.

EDIT: I'm sorry, I thought you meant a clipboard map. No it doesn't, the TE doesn't have that feature, you need an external program for that, I think its called mapmaker or something. Ask NHawk, he knows.

[NHawk]

Originally posted by Speed55
Does your tutorial explain how to make an image into a terrain. I can't even get past that part?  
I do have alot of time on my hands right now, and would be willing to do something for the community.

You would need to create an elevation BMP for the terrain.

The way I would do it to get the shape you want is to create a full 256x256 terrain. Then I'd use your shape as a mask and punch it out of the terrain. Then I'd smooth the coastlines if needed.

The exact methods are too hard for me to explain. I could probably do it in five minutes, but if I tried to explain my way it would probably be a book.

Probably the easiest way is to take the BMP you have and convert it to a grayscale BMP. Make water true black (RGB 0,0,0). Make your land masses 1 above black (RGB 1,1,1). Then import that into the TE (Edit: The BMP to be imported must be a 1024 x 1024 bmp. The center 512 x 512 area will give you a 256 x 256 mile map. /edit). Then start making your terrain features.

A variation is to do the above, but make your terrain features (RGB 0,0,0 to RBG 255,255,255) in an editor before you import it.