TerrainPlugin

From here:

Terrain:

This is the height-map... wherever your map is brighter, the terrain will get higher than where it is darker.

128 is the "mid-level". Since RGB-Channels (however in this case only "grey-scale" is interesting) have 256 states (0-255), this can be seen as "ground-level".

Paint (if "Filter: Make Mountain" is set):

There are 3 modes:

• The first one "o" will paint with the "height" defined by the slider above it. (defalt 128, but can be set to whatever you want from 0 - 255.
• The second is "+". This will "add on the existing height available at the pixel you will paint on. The longer you press, the brighter will be the color / the higher the mountain you create.
• The third is "-". This will decrease the height where you paint. the longer you press, the lower the level will be.

Fill:

Set the whole image with the color defined by the slider on the left.

Load:

This is one of the most important features. You can load an image-file (for instance jpg or tga) in the generator... this means, get an existing height-map or create one in photoshop to create a terrain.

Filter:

This defines, what you will do by painting on the map. There are several possibilities available like "Make Mountain" (more or less the same as "Paint" in a normal graphic software), blur, sharpen, etc.

Try them out if you do not know what they do... they will just change the map where you will paint on it differently. (oh, and dont forget to apply the change there before you start painting...)

Noise:

This is more or less like a "random" height generator.

Use one of the Noise-Algorithms (defined by type).

• Octaves are the same like in materials and will change the visible octave-range (we are talking about curves internally here... it is not very important to know what it is mathematically, you just need to see what it will do if you set it higher or lower...).
• Lacunarity is a value which will more or less define the resolution of the map (not really, but close enough ;)).
• Gain means, how high or low it will be. 1.0 means the highest points will be 100% height (white color), 0.0 means black / ground-level.
• Scale: The noise algorithm can be used at 100% or higher or lower values. this is defined by the algorithm and will act exactly as if you are using a material and a noise-algorithm on it.
• Seed: This can be used to change the result. You can set everything the same and it will always result in the same result. If you do not want that because you need more random results each time you use the wizzard but all the other values are what you want, change the seed number. (same as with particle-generation in A:M for instance).

Smooth-Step:

I would recommend to leave this at 0 - 1. It will result in harder edges on the map if you decrease this, just because the blur-factor will not be "smooth" (as smooth as 8bit can do) but harder.

Grid:

The height-map will be applied to this grid you create here.

For detailed terrains, use high step values (depending on the width and height. It will define how many subdivision you get in your grid.

Magnitude means, how high in "world-units" a totally white pixel on the map will be in A:Ms resulting terrain model.

Edges flat will just ignore the outer edge of the grid and will ot apple the map to it but keep it at ground level.

Orientation just says, on which axis the grid will be created.

Detbear: Higher resolution greyscale imagery is very important. When I tried to use this wizard, I found that the hardest part was getting a grey scale image of my topography. Without that, you are kind of sunk trying to use the terrain wizard.