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/>

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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