Importing HeightMaps in OpenTTD?

yasinko · Post by **yasinko** » 20 Jul 2005 17:21

I have used sv0creator to import a heightmap. I used a program called GEODAS to get a heightmap, and then converted to a bitmap (common BMP file) using printscreen key. Opened in MSPaint and fine-tuned with ACDsee and then imported via sv0creator. The Countour seems OK (as you may see below), but something is dissatisfying, because although the sea-line countour is fine, there is only a plateau behind the coast, and elevations don't change ver much. Well, in fact it must have been changing dramatically.
I am using WinXP(isnt it obvious at all?), and only sv0creator itself without ant patch because don't seem to understand where to apply them...

Is it because the red color in the heightmap? Should I use blue-green shades only?

Or is it the game limit since sharp (steep) mountains cannot be fully represented in TT?

PS: Dont understand terms pallette order, 4-bit bitmap (I assume windows bitmap I contribute is 16bit, I might have been wrong, probably, with a high probability, exactly, uh-whatever)

Archonix · Post by **Archonix** » 21 Jul 2005 10:07

Your problem there is that the land is too bright. The brightness of the land is how high it is. If you want the land next to the sea to be low it needs to be a lot darker.

Nappe1 · Post by **Nappe1** » 21 Jul 2005 13:10

yasinko wrote: PS: Dont understand terms pallette order, 4-bit bitmap (I assume windows bitmap I contribute is 16bit, I might have been wrong, probably, with a high probability, exactly, uh-whatever)

This is the main problem. you need to reduce the color depth to 16 colors before saving it. (first convert the height map to Greyscale and then save it as 16 colors PNG file.)

Also, if you want to make highest point of your height map as high as it is possible in OTTD map, you need to adjust color levels after you have converted the height map to greyscale.

FoxAlpha · Post by **FoxAlpha** » 28 Jul 2005 12:24

Can someone please update this patch ?

I try to apply this to the current SVN, but landscape.c has too many changes and my Compiler wont finish.

Fox

DaleStan · Post by **DaleStan** » 28 Jul 2005 21:39

OK, up to date. No functional changes.

Not sure how useful 6to7.diff will be, but I'll post it anyway.

FoxAlpha · Post by **FoxAlpha** » 29 Jul 2005 00:02

Thx for ur Work.

No Errors. Now it is possible to include it in my Integrated Build (See Signature)

Fox

lucaspiller · Post by **lucaspiller** » 07 Sep 2005 10:30

Here is a new version, now with a file selector dialog, so you can select what file to load. It is untested on Windows and OS2, so if it doesn't compile fix it yourself.

DaleStan · Post by **DaleStan** » 20 Sep 2005 05:02

PNGmap9 is a minor codechange (see pngmap8to9.diff (next post)) and an update to r2963.

Since I have to double-post anyway, there's some duplicate data in these two posts. This post has the full source of PNGmap9 (rar and 7z), and pngmap9.patch.

DaleStan · Post by **DaleStan** » 20 Sep 2005 05:02

This post contains pngmap8to9.diff, and a win32 binary (zip)
As its revhack reflects, this binary is expected to be compatible with the current nightly (r2963).

richk67 · Post by **richk67** » 22 Nov 2005 14:17

Awesome patch Dalestan...

I want to create some maps that work with 0.4.0.1. However cygwin (only compiler I have) cant build with the PNG libraries.

Can you create & post a win32 binary of 0.4.0.1 + pngmap9.patch only?

Will scenarios created with this be compatible with all 0.4.0.1+ nightlies?

Thanks
RichK

MeusH · Post by **MeusH** » 22 Nov 2005 22:34

Sorry for posting in a few-months old thread. However, I'm experiencing very irritating bugs.

I've made a 4-colour png ready to be imported to OTTD, so I'm importing it and I see all valleys became mountains and vice-versa.
So I've inverted all colours in the image, saved in 4 colour mode (so OTTD can read it) and imported. And what I saw? All valleys remained mountains and vice-versa. The land was a bit higher, however. Just don't look at the diffusion - I've turned it off now.

I've compiled Heightmap v9 on r2963 without errors and warnings.
Why is the result almost the same with different heightmaps?

Edit:

The problem with ur Highmap is the palette order.
The colors are not in the order u have paint there, because of conversation i thing.

Reopen it and change the colors to one in the order u want to have on the map.

Foxy

I think my problem is the same. Can you tell me what software were you using to fix Purno's heightmap?
I'm using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

Bob Smith · Post by **Bob Smith** » 27 Nov 2005 22:35

I used Paint Shop Pro and created custom palettes to get heightmaps to import how I wanted.

MeusH · Post by **MeusH** » 28 Nov 2005 04:26

I'm wondering if Paint Shop Pro X 30 days Trial would do the right job...
I'm also wondering if my Photoshop can load your palette file... Can you attach it, please?

richk67 · Post by **richk67** » 28 Nov 2005 13:29

MeusH - one thing I noticed. You say 4-colour PNG. Its actually 4-bit colour; ie. 16 colours. You can get a whole load more detail in your maps this way.

PS. I use PaintShopPro 7 to do just the conversion to the right bit-depth and sort out palette problems. One useful trick once you have it nearly correct, is to convert to greyscale, then jump back to 4-bit. The palette is then in 16 strict shades of grey - perfect for import.

MeusH · Post by **MeusH** » 28 Nov 2005 15:04

Okay, thank you, I'll try to work on it more in Photoshop, if without success, I'll download PaintShop trial...

DaleStan · Post by **DaleStan** » 28 Nov 2005 20:10

richk67 wrote:Can you create & post a win32 binary of 0.4.0.1 + pngmap9.patch only?

I can post a patch that compiles, but it won't link; it appears that 0.4.0.1 expects zlib to contain stuff it doesn't. (compiling with MSVC .NET; compiling 3244 works.)

richk67 wrote:Will scenarios created with this be compatible with all 0.4.0.1+ nightlies?

Yes, if it can be made to link.

Here's the patch, if anyone wants to play with it. (0.4.0.1 is/was rev 2354, I believe. That's the revision I made this patch against, anyway.)

MeusH · Post by **MeusH** » 28 Nov 2005 20:59

DaleStan: could you tell me what graphics software do you use to create heightmaps, please?

Ladis · Post by **Ladis** » 28 Nov 2005 22:53

Meush, your map was in 256 colours mode, and that heigh-map importer need it in 16 colours (as 15 levels of land and 1 as sea). So I converted it and here it is. I made a scenario and everything is what it was supposed to be. Just an important note: each level of land is created out of special colour from the scale, so you cannot expect a 1st level land to be created out of black (sea) sprayed by some grey - that makes just small islands. If you want to create a map, you need to use all those colours putting them at each other. Then, you can spray for example 8th level land colour with 2nd level land colour, but not very densely - that will make very nice and naturally looking mountains.

MeusH · Post by **MeusH** » 29 Nov 2005 15:07

Thank you! Could you tell me what what software were you using? I'll modify the png anyway because I knew there will be loads of islands/pyramides

railer · Post by **railer** » 29 Nov 2005 15:41

This PNG-import is such useful I don't understand why it's still not in the trunk..

And what to do with maps that are not islands, like yours MeusH, because it's a must to have water on each side.. I think it would be more realistic not not have water and water and water and water

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