Arcane University:World Heightmap Creation

Arcane University:World Heightmap Creation

Producing height maps means to develop a greyscale map either through painting in a 2D-Tool or by sculpting in a 3D-Tool. Then, the converted greyscale heightmap can be imported in Creation Kit to generate a new huge worldspace; and the heightmap is then rendered as 3d-Terrain.

General considerations

• 1) <http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_Exterior_Worldspace>
• 2) <https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/cgexz4/how_to_create_a_large_worldspace/>
• 3) <http://hoddminir.blogspot.com/2012/02/from-heightmap-to-worldspace-in-skyrim.html>
• 4) <https://forsakenaskyrimmod.wordpress.com/2018/03/18/a-new-heightmap/>

You want to create a picture that is maximum 4096 x 4096 pixels, perhaps 1024 x 1024 pixels in size. It is supposed to be a greyscale map with a monochrome layer and an alpha channel in RAW formate and 72dpi.

This file can be painted by hand (Photoshop, GIMP) or loaded from map scanners (real world pages like terrain party) and then be refined optionally by tools like worldmaker etc (for realistic slopes of elevation etc). Then, you would import the file to TESAnwynn tool and convert so that it is usable with Creation Kit. Finally you import the file to Creation Kit and generate the heightmap.

CreationKit

• 1) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekNNX9biLDE>
• 2) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q7C1GhG7NU>

Gimp

Paint heightmap and import to CK

• 1) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SDnp4x60mM>
• 2) <https://www.buildandshoot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4984>
• 3) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSIflnj3OM>

Blender

sculpt, render heightmap, import to CK

• 1) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXDSfrzR0zI>

TES ANWYNN

http://www.oceanlightwave.com/morrowind/TESAnnwyn.html

Try 11: the following command is sait to work nicely: tesannwyn -i Skyrim -p 1 -b 16 -d 512x512 -l -16048,32760 C:\Users\LBoeg\Documents\_ModFiles\Testing\HeightmapNaariel_512x512_16bit_72dpi_greyscale_04.raw

RAW FILE CONVERSION

you want to have your heightmap as a 16 Bit RAW picture formate file, and some online converters are available as well as some plugins. Try to search for "PNG to RAW" converter or similar; note that conversion only works if you previously converted to greyscale mode (removed RGB channels, so there is a monochrome channel and an alpha channel). Also, the editor is said to be able to load 1024 x 1024 to 4096 x 4096 pixel pictures. Skyrim has about 3000 x 3900, of which not all landscape is accessible. So the size scale below 4k should be fine; and for bigger worldspaces, at least in x direction, there are glitches like the "sinking into ground" bug.

External Tools

• 1) <https://www.3d-map-generator.com/3d-map-generator-3d-mapper-shop/>
• 2) <https://terrain.party/> (for real world maping)
• 3) <https://tangrams.github.io/heightmapper/> (real world)
• 4) L3DT <http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/>
• 5) Scape
• 6) WoldMachine <https://www.world-machine.com/>
• 7) Inkscape <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WveZ-kyoUiA>

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