Changiing terrain vertex elevations

[Ghastly]

(From Terrain Editor Help)

To change the elevation of just one vertex, Left Click on the terrain to highlight a vertex, then Right Click to set the elevation.  The elevation at that vertex will increase by the value showing in the Set Alt edit box.  

{Snip}

Terrain elevation can also be set in smaller increments, based on the value in the Inc Alt edit box.  Select a single vertex or an area of vertices, then Shift Right Click to raise the terrain.  Use Ctrl Right Click to incrementally decrease the elevation of the selected vertex or vertices.
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For me, Right Click adjusts pitch and heading in the Terrain Editing Window, and CTRL right Click moves the terrain in the window.  

1) Is the documentation outdated so that this is no longer correct, or is something else interfering?

2) Even better yet, is is there anyway to grab and drag a vertex to set it's alt, rather than having to set it via the dialog boxes?   Doing so is very tedious ... heightmaps help, but it's hard to get a heightmap perfect before you import it.

3) Alternately, is there a tool that you guys can recommend to manually manipulate the heightmap that's less tedious?
 
!

[Avaro]

Are you asking how to set elv? I use make bitmaps and import them..

[Easyscor]

Originally posted by Ghastly
 

1) Is the documentation outdated so that this is no longer correct, or is something else interfering?
It's out of date.

2) Even better yet, is is there anyway to grab and drag a vertex to set it's alt, rather than having to set it via the dialog boxes?   Doing so is very tedious ... heightmaps help, but it's hard to get a heightmap perfect before you import it.
No.

3) Alternately, is there a tool that you guys can recommend to manually manipulate the heightmap that's less tedious?
 Most use a bitmap and a graphics program.

!

[Solar10]

How do you use a bit map?

[Denholm]

Generate a grayscale bitmap, here's an example of one:

[Easyscor]

Originally posted by Solar10
How do you use a bit map?

The TE will import a 256 level grayscale bitmap. It must be 1024 x 1024 pixels, white (or the lightest gray) is the high point and jet black is 0 elevation. The TE will ask what the highest elevation should be when you import it.

Build the bitmap
Import bitmap and review/tweak
Export bitmap and make gross changes
Import the bitmap for fine tuning
Rinse and repeat

Tilesetter and mapbmp are useful utilities for setting tile types and building a nicer clipboard map.

[Ghastly]

Thx guys.  I'm using heightmaps as well but was hoping that I could speed up the "tweak" and most especially the "fine tune" portions of the iterative part of the process as mentioned here:

Import bitmap and review/tweak
Export bitmap and make gross changes
Import the bitmap for fine tuning

At least for me, what looks good on the graphic is at times not at all what I intended once I import it - perhaps with more experience I'll get better at getting it close without so much monkeying about with it.

[Solar10]

Sweet.  Got it working last night.  All I have to do now is to create a good grayscale BMP which should not be too difficult.  

I also used MachNix's tilesetter to then populate the map with tiles.  Worked a charm.   MachNix.

[OOZ662]

Yeesh Denholm, just hijack my bitmap.

That actually isn't a very good example, as that's the 512x512 version. If you took that and copy/pasted it into the center of a black square that's 1024x1024,  then it would be in the correct format.

Also, it seems that if you take a bitmap exported by the TE and use it with TileSetter, it messes up. You have to convert it to greyscale first, for some reason.

[Denholm]

Originally posted by OOZ662
Yeesh Denholm, just hijack my bitmap. ...

Notice I was using your old one? That way I was not showing something currently being used in terrain building. Please excuse me if I forgot to mention the creator.