Hi Aaron,
I have a request for you, for something to implement into L3DT..
Can you please implement a warning, or something, that that informs the user that clicking a single checkbox could alter the look of their terrain to the point of being unrecognizable, in ways that are not at all expected or even understandable, and that it might not be reversible?
I just lost hours of work on a map project, because I clicked one checkbox during the generation process: "flood lakes".
I thought, naively, that clicking that box would simply do what the label describes... find depressions that could become filled as lakes, and fill them with water. I had no expectation, nor warning, that clicking that one simple, innocent looking checkbox would turn my entire map (4096x4096 - yes, my copy of L3DT is registered) into geographical swiss-cheese, with holes all over the place, all sense of form and shape that it had completely destroyed. It was unrecognizable from the map I'd been working on just moments earlier.
And worse, when I tried to undo it, something went wrong and the heightmap prior to that process was completely lost, unrecoverable, costing me hours of work. This is despite saving frequently. It seems every time you update the map, it overwrites the same images, instead of at least keeping a back-up copy saved that can be restored in case such issues as mine, or others, arise.
As great as L3DT is, I notice this happen a lot when using tools. It often seems like a single process is doing far more than its label describes. Adding the slightest bit of erosion - the lowest possible amount - utterly changes the entire terrain, lowering peaks and making the terrain, again, seem unrecognizable. I've not seen this happen with other programs. In other programs, if I say "add some erosion to this mountain area" - the mountain maintains its overall shape and height, and merely has the desired effect applied to make it look eroded. L3DT is the only program I know where adding erosion is tantamount to saying "Erase this land feature from existence, please".
Thanks for your time.