Difference between revisions of "Heightmap Editing"

Heightmap Editing allows you to generate a height map for the landscape in the world. Rather than hand editing landscape which is time consuming, this tool allows you to paint the heights onto a texture and generate the terrain based on what you've painted in.

:*'''Import''' This option allows you to use 1024x1024 16-bit RAW format images as a starting template for heightmap painting. These should be located in your "Oblivion\Data\HeightField" directory and named according to [http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Image:Overviewgrid.jpg this grid] (ex: Oblivion\Data\HeightField\0_0.raw). The files should also have been saved with these Raw Option settings: Header: 0, Non-interleaved Order, Count: 1, Depth: 16 Bits, Byte Order: IBM PC.

:*'''Export''' This option allows you to export heightmap sections in 1024x1024 16-bit RAW format images. The files are created to the main Oblivion folder ("C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion" with default installation) and named "Q1.raw" through "Q4.raw". These files can be opened in Photoshop with these Raw Option settings: Count: 1, Depth: 16 Bits, Byte Order: IBM PC.  (Paint Shop Pro does not seem capable of handling 16bpp .raw files.)

:*'''Base Offset''' Use the slider and/or the number field to set a clamp value, in [[exterior cells|units]], for which the noise pattern is started from. The higher the value, the higher the elevation for which the noise pattern will generate. Affects only automated noise generation. Range: 1-32000

*'''Editing Window''' This window displays the currently loaded heightmap section and allows for the various editing brushes to alter the pixels of 4 1024x1024 16-bit grayscale heightmap images. To navigate the window, press and hold the middle mouse button to pan around and scroll the mouse wheel up or down to zoom in and out, respectively. Note that the current cell coordinate and the XYZ positions, in [[exterior cells|units]], of the pixel directly below the center of the current brush/cursor are displayed below the editing window.

*'''Preview Window''' This window offers a 3D visualization for the currently selected heightmap section. To bring up the preview window, press the camera icon on the Heightmap Editor toolbar. To navigate around the preview window, press and hold the left mouse button while dragging to spin the landscape mesh inside the viewport. Press and hold the middle mouse button to zoom the view in and out. Press and hold the right mouse button to pan the landscape mesh laterally around the window. To quickly update or refresh the preview window after a heightmap change, press the Spacebar, or press the '''Refresh''' button. Holding down the Ctrl key while moving the mouse will adjust the point of origin for the preview window lightsource. Holding down the Left or Right Shift key while moving the mouse will update the position of the magenta scale reference character. This simple 3D box is a rough representation of a person, or 128 [[exterior cells|units]] of vertical height. The 3 radial buttons at the top of the preview will switch the viewport display between '''Solid''', '''Wireframe''' and '''Points''' modes. The preview window can be resized and moved if desired. Note that the preview window will reflect the current selection within the loaded heightmap section. For a finer granularity (more accurate) preview mesh, try selecting a smaller section in the heightmap edit window with the marquee or lasso tools to preview. In order for the preview mesh to reflect this change, the preview window must be closed and re-opened so that the mesh can be redrawn to the new size.

*'''Color Masking''' The color masking window allows the grayscale heightmap to be shaded in color, to better help visualize and spatially organize the height range of the heightmap editor. Through its interface, one can also filter and isolate specific height ranges to work in. To bring up the color masking window, press the color mask icon, between the grid and marquee icons, or choose it from the View pull-down menu. With the window open, you can see that there are 10 mask ranges - all of which can be individually scaled and adjusted to shade the pixels within the defined height range of that particular mask. To change the color for a mask, simply click on the swatches below the sliders to adjust the color respectively through the standard Windows color picker. The color mask system will specify that any pixel in the heightmap at that height, in [[exterior cells|units]], will be shaded that color, and will interpolate smoothly to the next masking step above or below. For example, suppose you wanted to have all pixels below the water level be blue. You could simply set one masking level to be blue and to have a height value that is the same as the sea level. Set the next masking step to be one unit above the masking level, and to have a different color. There should now be a clear distinction on the heightmap of what is below and above the water line. It is also possible to use the color masking tool to temporarily prevent certain height ranges from being edited. In the previous example, you could block all pixels below the water level from being editable by making sure the minimum value for all of the 10 masks was at or above the water level height. This temporarily tells the editor that there are no alterable pixels below the specified height. Later, this height can be readjusted via the color masking to open it back up for editing. To set a height range for any mask, simply adjust the sliders or enter in a numerical value, in [[exterior cells|units]], within the number fields above each mask. It is also possible to change the colors of the grid overlay and the edit cursor in this window by clicking on their respective swatches, and choosing a color through the Windows color picker. Press '''OK''' to accept the changes and close the color masking window. Press the '''Cancel''' button to discard any changes and close the color masking window. Press '''Reset''' to revert back to the default settings. Range: 0-65535

*'''Mesh errors:''' The heightmap editor frequently creates some errors in the generated landscape mesh. These are most frequently located in cell 0,0 and the corners of each quad. These are rips in the mesh that cause errors when saving the esp. When you save it and get error messages about the CS being unable to create the mesh for a cell, write down the cell cordinates (don't hit "yes to all"). If you quit before fixing these errors, on reloading your mod the entire cell will be "missing" e.g. be set to elevation 0, which is hard to fix. To avoid this, load up the cells with errors in the render window, switch to wireframe view (w), and turn on the cell borders (b). Look around the edges of the cell (most often its the lower left corner), and if you find the anomaly, use the soften or flatten vertices tool to mend the mesh. In general, it is best to correct these errors with the local landscape editing tools as corrections done with the heightmap editor can re-introduce the same errors during the saving process - even after initially fixing them.

*'''Go easy!:''' It's very easy to overdo it with raising land, creating huge unnavigable mountain ranges instead of the nice hilly landscape you planned, especially when using the standard color masking options. Go easy when raising the land, keep the intensity low, and maybe adjust the color masking options to something more sensitive for the lower elevations. The values and colors depicted in this [[:image:colormasking.jpg|image]] were used to generate and shape Cyrodiil for TES:IV Oblivion.