[World Editor] L3DT terrain maps, manually painting texture areas?

I'm trying to do a lot of trial and error experimenting with getting textures applied to key locations on L3DT maps. You have to generate a heighfield map and alpha maps and then import them over to Multiverse's world-editor.

So far I'm liking the level of detail vs. amount of work involved in creating maps with L3DT. I will continue to look at more options, but I wanted to see if there's a way to get textures applied exactly where I want.

I know that I can use a paint-brush to apply textures to the map in L3DT, but I lose them when importing only the alphas to Multiverse.

Is there a specific method to being able to apply textures by hand, that will show up when I import the map(s) to Multiverse?

Thanks.

I really love L3Dt Terrain Generators ability to create some fairly decent terrain vs. the ease of use. It offers a fairly robust amount of sliders to control automatic generation. I even figured out how to go in and then manually sculpt parts of the terrain to fit my vision.

My trouble is with placing the textures just where I want. Multiverse allows up to 8 textures per map, which is quite nice, I think. I've been scrutinizing current MMOs, in-game, and they seem to rarely use that many textures in any given area.

However, I can't seem to figure out how to control where the textures end up. I'd like to be able to edit the texture map(?) so I could "paint" the textures exactly where I want them.

As it is now, if I manually sculpt part of the map and, say, create some spiky rocks in what was a grassy area, the grass may stay on them, when I want them to have a rock texture.

Basically textures end up seemingly randomized to make my finished maps look unrealistic. Rocks get painted in huge areas on the ground, while patches of grass get put on the sides of sheer cliffs. None of it makes sense.

Does anyone know how to control this in L3DT?

I'm currently looking into other terrain generators, but so far, my favorite choice is L3DT.

I don't know the solution, but I'm curious about the problem --

Do these textures place randomly within L3DT or is it just after importing into Multiverse that they end up in random places? Is it truly random, or do they maybe have swapped/reversed X or Y coordinates?

You can tell there's supposed to be a rhyme-to-the-reason. L3DT looks as though it has its own algorithms, just as the Multiverse terrain generator bases textures off of height.

But it also seems to be really inaccurate at times, and it especially gets inaccurate if you start manually editing terrain(lifting, digging, etc...).

You only import a height map and alpha maps over from L3DT to Multiverse. I've tried creating a texture-map in L3DT. It let's me use a texture brush set to actually paint pin-point accuracy textures exactly where I want, and although texture maps don't carry over to Multiverse, the resulting Alpha Maps I create always show the new texture locations. I've tested this by painting familiar shapes onto the terrain, like a smiley face.

Usually they show up in Alpha2, not Alpha1

But when I load it into Multiverse World Editor.... nothing.

I hope that helps explain the situation.

jstrat74 wrote:

Is there a specific method to being able to apply textures by hand, that will show up when I import the map(s) to Multiverse?

Sorry for not replying sooner, been tied up with stuff.

In short, yes.

The people over at Multiverse Inc. were working on a new tool that would ultimately add terrain editing features to the World Editor.
http://www.multiversemmo.com/wiki/Using_Terrain_Editor_Preview

It's called Terrain Editor, and although it has a few bugs, it's pretty good. Most importantly, it uses heightmap terrain, instead of fractal terrain for its rendering, and so will convert your current world terrain to heightmap terrain if loaded in this Editor. (Therefore, I suggest you make a backup of your config folder, even though you can just close the Editor without saving.) It all has something to do with faster rendering and better manipulation.

In answer to your question, the Editor features terrain painting, and general terrain editing tools (similar to that of L3DT's heightmap section tools)



Enough of my babbling - go and check it out

I don't see where the Terrain Editor source is in the repository. In the Tools folder I see the terrain generator, but not the editor. Do you know where the source is checked in?

Very interesting, Tristan. Looks great!

I'm a little confused. Is this a new tool that will also include the World Editor, in the near future?

The images look as though you can do everything the world editor currently let's you do, with the addition of manipulating textures.

If this let's you assign your own textures and paint them on, this is a god-send and plus 1,000 to you, sir.