I want to start messign with the generator alittle. I was wondering if any body can give any tips on what stands for what.
Like what would I mess with to start to get the water to kinda raise and lower or make waves in the water. Something along those lines.
Useing the Fractal Generator
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Magicfinger
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Making waves (heh) is actually part of the settings, not the terrain editor. Dont think its documented properly atm (mainly coz its one of those bits of code that ive got no idea how it works), but if you look in *settings -> Landscape and fiddle with the values that include the word 'Wave' you'll probably find something appealing soon enuf.
The fractal terrain stuff is pretty much covered in the current docs (cut n paste below), but assuming you're talking about sabrada (which i think uses a heightmap?) then its probably not appropriate. Your landscape is an either/or choice between a heightmap or a fractal.
The fractal terrain stuff is pretty much covered in the current docs (cut n paste below), but assuming you're talking about sabrada (which i think uses a heightmap?) then its probably not appropriate. Your landscape is an either/or choice between a heightmap or a fractal.
Height Map
If you wish to use a heightmap file, enter the name of the bitmap you wish to use, excluding the path and extension.
e.g. If your bitmap file is called 'Racetrack.bmp' enter "Racetrack" in the height map section of the dialog.
The Island will always look for the Racetrack.bmp file in its Maps folder, so make sure that is where the image is stored.
Using a heightmap file overrides some of the settings below - as it replaces the fractal landscape generator.
Seed Value
This number is used to set up the fractal generator and can be selected at random to produce different looking islands.
Height Seed
This specifies how high the initial point added to the fractal map will be, and hence it will determine the average height of your island landscape. Because the 'Smoothing' settings are also based on the height of the landscape, changing this number can also have radical effects on the nature of your landscape.
Bulge Type
The 'Bulge' system is a routine which is used to automatically lower the land around the outsides of the map, making it easier to form a more-rounded and island-looking Island. It currently has 3 modes that will each give the island a slightly different appearance. The best way to find out which one is most suited to your island is to try em out and see..
0 - Geometric
1 - Linear
2 - Parametric
3 - Is a special mode that makes the island completely flat
Entering any other value for Bulge Type will turn the Bulge system off.
Bulge Min *This setting is only applied when the Bulge system is active. (See above)
The Bulge Min determines how far from the center of the island the bulge system will start to round off your island. (The distance from the center of the island to the edge of the map is 128)
Bulge Range *This setting is only applied when the Bulge system is active. (See above)
The Bulge Range determines the 'steepness' of the falloff beyond the 'Bulge Min'. For instance, if the Bulge Min was 128, and the Range 10, then the landscape height will be 0 at every point more than 138 units away from the island center.
Smoothing - Level
The 4 Smoothing 'Levels' determine the height at which each smoothing amount is applied. So if the Smoothing Level 1 value was 100, all points on the landscape below 100 units high would be smoothed by the first Smoothing amount.
Smoothing - Amount
These values determine the amount of smoothing done on the landscape at each height level. The higher the number, the rounder and flatter the landscape will be.
Example :
Smoothing Level 0 : 50 Amount : 5
Smoothing Level 1 : 100 Amount : 3
Smoothing Level 2 : 255 Amount : 0
Smoothing Level 3 : 255 Amount : 0
In this case, all parts of the landscape below height 50 will be smoothed 5 times (i.e. low points on the map will be very round & flat), points from 50-100 will be smoothed 3 times (slightly less rounded) and points above 100 in height will not be smoothed at all. (So high parts of the landscape will appear very sharp and jaggedy).
Max Sea Level
This value determines the height of the sea.
if your gonna mess with the waves, do NOT set wave range mod to anything over....i think it was 200 or so. the instant you do, your cleint will crash, and any client trying to enter the island will crash during the settings download.
only way to fix it is to either delete the settings file, restore a backup of it, or if another sysop was on at the time, have them edit the settings
side note for sea level.
the number you set for the sea level is on the same scale of a 256 color greyscale heightmap with the default land height setting. i.e. setting it to 30 will have water the same hight as land represented by grey level 30 in a drawing program
only way to fix it is to either delete the settings file, restore a backup of it, or if another sysop was on at the time, have them edit the settings
side note for sea level.
the number you set for the sea level is on the same scale of a 256 color greyscale heightmap with the default land height setting. i.e. setting it to 30 will have water the same hight as land represented by grey level 30 in a drawing program
depends what u want to do really..
Most ppl seem to use heightmaps coz it gives you more control of the landscape.. letting u place flat bits where u want flat bits, and hilly bits where you want hilly bits etc. Heightmaps can do everything the fractal generator does if you draw em right.
The advantages of the fractal generator are pretty slight - using it means theres no heightmap for the clients to download, so login can be a bit quicker and bandwidth use a bit lower - and it can be quicker to get a 'realistic' looking landscape using the fractal generator than using a heightmap.
Probably the most practical use of it is to fiddle with the numbers a bit and generate a fractal landscape that looks pretty much like the sort of island you want, then save it to a bitmap (using the command .saveheightmap ) and then modify that bitmap with a paint program to flatten the specific bits of the island u want flat.
Most ppl seem to use heightmaps coz it gives you more control of the landscape.. letting u place flat bits where u want flat bits, and hilly bits where you want hilly bits etc. Heightmaps can do everything the fractal generator does if you draw em right.
The advantages of the fractal generator are pretty slight - using it means theres no heightmap for the clients to download, so login can be a bit quicker and bandwidth use a bit lower - and it can be quicker to get a 'realistic' looking landscape using the fractal generator than using a heightmap.
Probably the most practical use of it is to fiddle with the numbers a bit and generate a fractal landscape that looks pretty much like the sort of island you want, then save it to a bitmap (using the command .saveheightmap ) and then modify that bitmap with a paint program to flatten the specific bits of the island u want flat.