Generating Terrain From Basic Outline Map

[Element]

Hello all,

I'm trying to import this map (see attached reduced-for-forums image), and I'm unsure of the best way that I can import this map and keep proper outlines for all details I've placed on it. It keeps generating additional terrain height in the black areas around the land mass and it doesn't keep the lakes that I have drawn.

I guess the best way to describe my objective is: import image, have L3DT generate a blank landmass within the confines of the image, then have L3DT use that blank landmass and randomly add terrain details to the confines of the image.

Any help is appreciated!

[Aaron]

Hi Element,

I'm sorry, L3DT does not have that sort of feature. I've had a bit of a thinker about it, and I may be able to implement it, but it will take quite some time.

In the mean time, you might have luck using something like Howard Zhou's terrain synthesis work (see here). I think this may have been implemented as a plugin for World-Machine, but I'm not sure. I also don't know if that method will work with a dataset defined in the way you've done it, or if it will preserve the exact coastline detail you want (perhaps not, I'd guess.)

As for what you can do in L3DT; you could use your image as a drape overlay on the design map, and use it to build a design map, which L3DT can then turn into a detailed heightmap. This will be a very manual and time-consuming approach, and it won't produce the exact coastlines you want either, although you could tidy that up manually in the 3D editor, again using the drape overlay feature. If you're willing to try, there are these two tutorials that may help:

• The first is the venerable fjord tutorial, which is a good introduction to using the design map editor to build a map.
• The second is the ski run tutorial, which shows how to use the image drape feature to guide the design map editing process.

Best regards,
Aaron.