Heights maps! How do you make them?!

[Blackeme99]

I think i made a topic like this but i think it got deleted or something i can't remember but i need to ask a question!

How do people make height maps! Because i have no idea!

[SteampunkWolfdog]

There are lots of tutorials on here that show you how to make height maps, including this one. There are plenty more in this section of the forum too in case some of them make you think "Whaaat? o.0".

But in short, you need a program like Gimp or Photoshop. You make a new canvas that is 512x512 in size, and you have to set the mode to greyscale. Then you basically colour it in varying shades of grey. Black areas will be areas where the land is at a low level and will probably be filled with water. Lighter areas and white areas will be at a higher level, white being the highest and will probably make up most of your hills or mountains. Then when you've finished, you save it as "MapNameTerrain.png" in the Terrains folder. If you've done all that correctly, it should work in your map maker.

If you're having problems, check this thread out. It's a good list of common problems and solutions to them.

Happy mapping

[Blackeme99]

There are lots of tutorials on here that show you how to make height maps, including this one. There are plenty more in this section of the forum too in case some of them make you think "Whaaat? o.0".

But in short, you need a program like Gimp or Photoshop. You make a new canvas that is 512x512 in size, and you have to set the mode to greyscale. Then you basically colour it in varying shades of grey. Black areas will be areas where the land is at a low level and will probably be filled with water. Lighter areas and white areas will be at a higher level, white being the highest and will probably make up most of your hills or mountains. Then when you've finished, you save it as "MapNameTerrain.png" in the Terrains folder. If you've done all that correctly, it should work in your map maker.

If you're having problems, check this thread out. It's a good list of common problems and solutions to them.

Happy mapping

Umm how do you greyscale in paint tool sai

[FlewToTheCity]

Ah, Greyscale is just the dark colors form White to Black my butterfly.
It's a lot simple if you have Gimp or Photoshop.
Gimp is free and a lot more easy to use ten Photoshop but, Photoshop is a lot more professional.

[Tokoa]

Here a a video that shows you how to make them in both Photoshop and Gimp.
(Video credit: redlinelies)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTO8tyhSQPU

[SteampunkWolfdog]

[Blackeme99]

Well i don't want gimp because almost everything i download comes with a virus and malwerebytes won't work anymore so no thanks

[SteampunkWolfdog]

Well i don't want gimp because almost everything i download comes with a virus and malwerebytes won't work anymore so no thanks

I promise you Gimp won't give you a virus or anything bad like that. I've downloaded and many other people have too and they haven't reported any viruses.
If you download things from the right place they mostly won't have any viruses, malware etc. http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

But if you really don't want to I can understand; I had a virus on my laptop once and...well, let's just say it didn't go down well with the father...

Did you say you were doing this on Paint?
Well, I don't use it very often, but I think you click on the drop down menu, where it gives you options like 'New' and 'Save'. Go to 'Properties', and a new window should come up. Under a heading 'Colors' there should be two options: 'Black and white' and 'Color'. Select the 'Black and white' option. Ta da! your image should be greyscale.

[Raphilion]

Silvaze, I understand how you feel about viruses and stuff.. I used to get em all the time cause I didn't know how to pick em out. But I promise you won't get a virus from Gimp.

I used gimp to create my first awesome map Canyon
Basically you gotta imagine how you want your map to look like and you gotta think in 3D. Then you just lay it down in 2D using a program like GIMP. Greyscale is just different shades of black.

For your height map; Pure black is the deepest part of your map and pure white is the highest part of your map. You should always start on the max, either color your entire 512 by 512 canvas in black then start going up by shading out your landscape with lighter and lighter shades of black until you reach the "Top", Or the other way round if you doing a deep canyon map.. but depends where you also want you sea-level to be, start from sea level if its somewhere in the middle then carve out the deep canyons/rivers and shape out the high mountains etc.

But also have a look at tutorials which should give a lot more info than I just did.. It would also explain anything you didn't understand.

PM if you want any help with height maps or map making XD
Good luck

[Blackeme99]

Well i don't want gimp because almost everything i download comes with a virus and malwerebytes won't work anymore so no thanks

I promise you Gimp won't give you a virus or anything bad like that. I've downloaded and many other people have too and they haven't reported any viruses.
If you download things from the right place they mostly won't have any viruses, malware etc. http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

But if you really don't want to I can understand; I had a virus on my laptop once and...well, let's just say it didn't go down well with the father...

Did you say you were doing this on Paint?
Well, I don't use it very often, but I think you click on the drop down menu, where it gives you options like 'New' and 'Save'. Go to 'Properties', and a new window should come up. Under a heading 'Colors' there should be two options: 'Black and white' and 'Color'. Select the 'Black and white' option. Ta da! your image should be greyscale.

I knew about greyscale in paint but i'm talking about Paint tool SAI