jscREED

Tried using Adobe Photoshop to open the primaryheightmap.raw , opened it in 16bit but can not edit it unless i change it to 8 bit. Anyone have a suggestion on what other program i could use? Thanks

=Sarc=

What's wrong with editing it in 8 bit?

If I open a BF2 height map in PS, it won't open unless it's in 8 bits.

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jscREED

Good question lol, i was trying to follow one of the posted tutorials and it said it had to be opened in 16bit, so I figured there must be some reason. If editing it in 8 bit is cool then I will give that a try.

Nigelbland

Editing in 8bit mode should be ok, but you may find that the gradient between black and white will have less values than 16bit.

Meaning you may not be able to get a decent hill, it would probably appear a bit stepy. The less Bits the larger distance between the steps.

You need to save it as 16bit though.

RAW files contain no Image information unlike others, its just a string of numbers. If you save it in the right data length then Bf2 which is expecting a 16bit IBM order of data, will either truncate your map or not display it at all.

Small experiment:
Chuck a small JPEG file into notepad with out Wordwrap on and you'll see the data in ASCII format (pretty much useless in this format) you see the header, ok its probably jiberish but it'll look something like this:

ÿØÿà JFIF



ÿÛ C   $.' ",#(7),01444

Mine is this, you may have extra data, like Adobe or other (JFIF is JPEG)

Now throw another one into note pad and you'll see it has exactly the same header(or close too.)

Now throwing in a RAW file, there is no file header, nothing that tells the opening program what to do with it, thats all done by the program.

Overkill I know but someone may be interested.


P.s. I'm just writing this by memory(except the header, I didn't memorise that ) so I may be wrong in a few places but you get the idea.

jscREED

"Editing in 8bit mode should be ok, but you may find that the gradient between black and white will have less values than 16bit. Meaning you may not be able to get a decent hill, it would probably appear a bit stepy. The less Bits the larger distance between the steps. "

Thats what I was worrying about. The heightmap tutorial on Planetbattlefied(i think) made no mention of converting the file to 8 bit, but said they used Photoshop to edit it so I thought maybe I was doing something wrong.
The info you posted on raw files adds some light as to what they are. Thanks

Nigelbland

You could try saving the RAW file as another type of image, BMP would be the best as it is an uncompressed format so doesn't alter the image. You should be able to edit these files in 16bit. Then save the file as a RAW and make sure its the right dimensions(as mentioned in the planetbattlefield tutorial) and 16bit IBM byte order. This should work, though haven't tried it, will give it a go when home.

GIMP with RAW files I think is a no no, then only Plugins for RAWs that I have left to try are Linux and, well, I haven't got that.

Over the weekend I got used to the ingame editor and was pleased, however I don't think its that easy to create a city based map thats not all on one level. I think the city maps are a bit mathematical.

On the Strike at Karkand maps you have those steps running up to the next level of street. You'll find the model files for these but how do you get your map to use them.

Take the following grayscale values:

White 100% Black 0% (Top)

White 75% Black 25% (Mid Top)

White 50% Black 50% (Mid)

White 25% Black 75% (Mid Low)

White 0% Black 100% (Low)

Now all these values are relative to the hightlevel of your map.
e.g.
Heightlevel 100, then Top will equal 100 and Low 0
Heightlevel 700, then Top will equal 700 and Low 0
the other values will the the relative percentage
Heightlevel 700, Mid Low is 25% of 700

Anyway, if you create part of your map with just these grayscale values in a step formation

e.g.
-----
......]
......-----
............]
............-----
..................]

You can import those side walk steps we mentioned eariler and tweak the Heightlevel until the terrain and the model fit.

e.g.
height of the model is 50(just an example) say, so you'd need the heightlevel to be 200

----- Top 200
......]
......----- Mid Top 150
............]{=} <----Step model going up to the next level
............----- Mid 100
..................]
..................----- Mid Low 50
........................]{=} <----Step model going up to the next level
........................----- Low 0

And you'll find that once you've found the heightlevel, you can fit the steps and wall at anylevel Mid, Midlow, mid high.

However on the ingame editor you can only work with a circle shape brush, which unless you want to spend ages with a small circle you really need a flat edge. With a graphics program as I expect the reason why you want to use photoshop this is all quiet simple as long as you keep percentages in mind.

jscREED

Here was a thread talking about Photoshop, said it will not edit in 16bit mode, only 8 bit.

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums...hreadid=286920

jscREED

Does anyone have any experience with this program

http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/

They say you can take a satelite image and convert it into a heightmap? That is what I am trying to acomplish in Photoshop. Didnt know if this program was the same type of thing or if it would make life a little easier

Nigelbland

Use Terragen to render the heightmap from satelite data rather than statelite images.
Heres a tutorial on getting it working for Half life (2 I think)
http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w...evation_Models

You need this first: http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3dem.html

Other resources
Terragen the program (Free)
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
http://www.terrasource.net/

DEM (Digital Evelvation Models is a VERY complicated subject to get your head around, all these Sat stats make my head spin)
http://www2.cs.uh.edu/~somalley/DemTutorial/

Terragen is excellent and even just generating landscapes, though I have found that it creates some minor odd artifacts on the edges on the map that you may have to iron out in the editor.

jscREED

Very cool info. Cannt wait to try it out. Thanks!