Terrain size = map size - how?

(eRRoLfLyNN) #1

Hello again. I searched for this, and there’s a lot of stuff about easygen, heightmaps and radiant, but I couldn’t see anything for this:

I have made the mistake of building all my buildings before putting terrain in my map :bored: Disregarding heights etc, how can I make my terrain horizontally the same size as my actual map. The tutorials etc usually say to make the heightmap 33x33, 66x66 or whatever, but none of those are the size I need. Does anyone know what 1 pixel is equal to on the Radient grid?

(MuffinMan) #2

u got something wrong here - the bitmap size actually does not indicate the size of the terrain but only it’s possible detail level, you can set the size yourself in easygen by setting a gridsize (units per block), after all it won’t be easy to make the terrain fit exactly if the rest of the map doesn’t fit to the gridsize, you might probably be forced to cut your terrain…

(hummer) #3

http://www.hummerdesign.com/et/archives/00000010.htm

This might help.

(badong) #4

first of all completely disregard all tutorials where they say you should have the size 33x33 or whatever. I don’t know where they got this but it’s wrong…you can have your terrain(and your hightmap) be any size you want. My last terrain was 77x85
To see the actual size look at the left side when you first open easygen. You’ll see three different parameters: Divisions, Widths and Div.Witd.
Divisions represent how many “squares” is your terrain in each direction(x, y). Each square is 2 triangular brushes when you export your terrain.
Widths are your lengths in game units in each direction(x, y). These are the same units as in radiant.
Div.Witd. are the dimensions in game units of each “square” of your terrain.

Now to make the terrain fit your map just enter the length and width desired on the Widths fields and press Apply. Done.That’s the easy way.
A better way to do it is to enter the Divisions and Div.witd. Pick a Div.witd something like 256x256 or 128x128 (it can be pretty much anything you want but I usually use powers of 2) and then calculate how many of these you need to cover your whole map. Basically just divide the width and length of your map by your div.widt. Then enter these in the Divisions field and then enter the Div.witd in their respective fields too, and press apply. You might have to do this several times cause as you enter one attribute and apply it the others change.
Remember your terrain doesn’t have to fit your map perfectly. Once you’ve exported it you can trim it in radiant to make it fit anything you want. Also don’t forget that you can import your buildings in easygen and then shape the terrain around them to fit them any way you want.

Oh yes by the way…one pixel of your hight map corresponds to one square(it actually corresponds to one vertex but it’s the same thing). So basically in game units one pixel corresponds to whatever your div.witd is set to. Also I rarely use hight maps to make my terrain. Usually in the time that it takes you to make the hight map you can shape your terrain by hand in easygen with much more accurate and better results.

(eRRoLfLyNN) #5

Thanks again badong! That has really helped me. I was wondering why it HAD to be 33 or 66. It makes a lot more sense now.

This morning I started doing the terrain without the heightmap, using only the modifiers, and already it is taking shape much better. I am at work now. (Overtime - getting paid for mapping hehe :clap:) But I am pretty confident I will be able to work the terrain into my map when I get home, albeit with a bit of work. I really appreciate that! Thx a lot sir :drink: