Map creation tutorial - 2020 Update (WIP)

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

THIS TUTORIAL IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED. SPOILERS AT THE BOTTOM CONTAIN OLD TUTORIAL CONTENT

 

In this tutorial you'll find everything (once it's complete) that you need to know to make, export and play on your own map in War Thunder. It's focused around making map for air battles, but you can apply most of the things to making ground/naval maps. It's based on dev tutorials, community contribution on forum and on my own learning via trial and error. If you are experienced in cdk and you know how to do something in a different/better way, please write in this thread and I'll add it in (and credit you obviously).

List of content [WIP]

 

Usefull links [WIP]

https://wiki.warthunder.com/Location_editor

https://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Creating_locations

 

Let's start. What you need:

• War Thunder CDK https://wiki.warthunder.com/Download_War_Thunder_CDK
• Graphics software of your like (Photoshop, GIMP, etc.) [This tutorial will use Photoshop]
• [Optional] Account on https://urs.earthdata.nasa.gov/home for getting heightmap of real world location (it's free)
• A lot of time (duh)

 

1. Basic control and interface

1.1 [WIP] https://wiki.warthunder.com/Location_editor

 

 

2. Heightmap
2.1 Preparing your location

Open location editor through dagored.cmd and load location_sample.level.blk. Once it loads everything you'll see Iwo Jima map which we need to clear. Press H key to select objects by name. You'll see list of all objects on map which you can select. Select everything except last object called water_3d_001 (click first object, then last one while holding shift).

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Once selected, press Ok and delete key. Press Project in top left corner of editor and Save as... Enter name of your map and press Ok to save it. We are ready for further works now.

 

2.2 Downloading heightmap

We will prepare heightmap for import into editor now. It's possible to go without one and just sculpt terrain, but in most cases you'll get better and faster results with using textures that contain height data. These can be manually painted by you or contain real world height data. We will look how to get and work with real world heightmaps from ASTER GDEM which is offering highest resolution as of now.

 

Go to https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search, find location you want to make and in the left panel open Instruments tab. Check box next to ASTER. Find and press on ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003.

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Press middle icon just below search bar in the left panel (highlighted on picture in spoler below) and the select Rectangle. Select area you need by clicking and draging your mouse. Tiles containing heightmap will show up on map and in the white middle panel. Press on green Download All button (You'll have to be registered and logged in to go further).

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Click Download Data and after a short while you should see blue View/Download Data Links button. Once clicked you will see zip files which you download by clicking on each of them.

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2.3 Editing heightmap in graphics software

Once we download and unpack compressed folders, each folder will contain two files - ASTGTMV003_N**E***_dem.tif and ASTGTMV003_N**E***_num.tif. Open all *dem.tif files in the same Photoshop file. To visually see the data in dem files we need to adjust level values. To do that we will add new adjustment layer which will control all layers at once. Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels, give it some name and change highlights value from 255 to 2. 

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Heighmap should be visible now - clipped to few colours when zoomed out, but with visible details once zoomed in. Applying/merging levels adjustment layers will allow you to see details when zoomed out, but keep in mind we will tweak levels further on, so if you want to do that - do it on copies of those layers.

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It's time to arrange it correctly (if you're working with only one file you can skip this part). Choose Image > Canvas size and rescale it using percentages. For map used in this tutorial we have two files that need to be aligned horizontally, therefore we need to rescale width by 200%. Then it's just matter of moving each file/layer into place (names of files will help you figure out how to arrange them). Merge heightmap layers at the end (don't merge level adjustment layer).

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Once arranged and merged we will crop the heightmap, as it's currently quite big and with bits that we most likely don't need. Also, keep in mind that heightmap imported into game needs to be square. We will start by roughly selecting square area that we want to keep with selection tool (rectangular marquee tool) and noting down how big in pixels is the selection. In case of our tutorial example we need around 3050 x 3050 pixels.

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Now onto some math. ASTER GDEM that we are using have resolution of 30m per pixel. By multiplying 3050px by 30m we get 91 500. This is our selected area in meters. Next step is to divide it by 2048 (this is going to be our final heightmap resolution¹). Result is 44,677734375. This is cell size that Location Editor is using to determine the size of map (The size of the cell x The size of the heightmap = The length measured by one side of the map in meters)². We will round up our cell size to 45 (this will make our inital selection a bit larger). This time we will go back to determine exact size in pixels that our heightmap needs to be to fit into cell size of 45 while keeping real dimensions in meteres. Multiply cell size of 45 by heightmap resolution of 2048. Result is 92 160 (area in meters).By dividing 92 160 by ASTER GDEM resolution of 30m we get 3 072. This is size that our inital selection on heightmap needs to be. Simply crop heightmap to those dimensions in desired place.

 

¹Note that default dimension of heightmap imported to Location Editor is 2048 x 2048. You can move it up to 4096 x 4096, but dimensions bigger than that seems to be not supported. 

²As per Warthunder Wiki, cell size needs to be a factor of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc.), but that's neither practical (you can't round down our cell size of 44,67 to 32 as this will cut a lot of map, while rounding it up to 64 will create a lot of not needed land) nor it seem to cause any issue from my experience so far. Therefore it will be ignored in this tutorial.

 

To ease the importing of our heightmap into Location Editor it's necessary to know the highest elevation (and lowest in case there's no ocean/sea) and modify levels a bit further. Basically, we want to get heightmap that have full range from pure black to pure white (the lowest to the highest points). For the heightmap that we are using in this tutorial highest elevation is Mount Yonaha at 503m above sea level. Remember or write down elevation for your heightmap - we will need it later on. Right now we have to locate that place on our heightmap. If it's single point then it should be easily visible as it will be brightest, near pure white. If you struggle finding it, just compare heightmap with satellite maps and pinpoint it's location.

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Select Eyedropper tool and check color/values around the highest point (make sure you have heightmap layer selected). It's easier to keep track of changing values as you move around if you have color wheel enabled.

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What you need to do now, is to find pixel that's the closest to white (0% on color wheel slider). If it's above 0% (e.g. 5%) then highlights value in levels adjustment layer needs to be lower. If there's a lot of pixels with 0% then highlights value in levels adjustment layer needs to be raised. Our aim is to make sure there are only few pixels with 0%-1% value (ideally only one).

 

Optional: If you want to be more accurate (might help a lot if you have very flat beaches/low terrain near ocean/sea) you could select Eyedropper tool and switch it from 8 to 16 bits in Info Panel. Instead of values 0%-1%, you aim for exact value K: 32 768.

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By accident, brightest pixel on heightmap we're using as an example in this tutorial is already at 1% which would be fine (by previously changing highlights value from 255 to 2 just to see heightmap clearly). If only such luck would be with us more often! Either way, we are gonna be perfectionist on this and set it at exactly 0%, just so you can see how to adjust it in case you're not so lucky. 

 

We will use two levels adjustment layers to fine tune those levels and have greater control over them. Set highlights value in existing levels adjustment layer to something like 40. Copy levels adjustment layer and move it on top of previous one. Set it's highlights value to something like 15. Keep changing those two values until your brightest pixel reaches around 0%-1%. Things to remember: 

• raising each value will make the brightest pixel darker, while lowering those values will make it brighter;
• top layer (initial 15 value that we set) will be more sensitive to changes. Bottom layer (inital 40 value) is better for fine tuning as it will not change values as much;
• if needed, you can add another levels adjustment layer to have even greater control.

In case of our tutorial heightmap example, values of 13 and 38 made the single brightest pixel at exactly 0%. Of course yours will be most likely different.

 

One of two next steps to do depending on what type of map you're working on:

• If your map don't have ocean/sea/lake (the lowest point is above mean sea level) you need to add another levels adjustment layer on top of all the previous ones. Highlights value should be at 255, but shadows raised (from default 0) until lowest point on map will have values 99%-100%. Merge everything, choose Image > Image Size... and rescale it to 2048 x 2048 px (preferred) or any other square image with dimensions that are power of 2, e.g. 4096 x 4096 (but not higher than that). Save as TIFF image (*.tif). Your heightmap is ready to be imported into Location Editor and you can skip to point 2.4 Importing heightmap into Location Editor.
   
• If your map have ocean/sea/lake (the lowest point exactly at mean sea level) you need to raise output level of shadows (on one of the levels adjustment layer) until ocean/sea (pure black on heightmap) reaches exactly 50% value³. In case of our tutorial heightmap example, value of 127 was correct. You can merge/apply all levels adjustment layers at this point.
  Optional: Again, if you wanted to be more accurate (might help a lot if you have very flat beaches/low terrain near ocean/sea) you could select Eyedropper tool and switch it from 8 to 16 bits in Info Panel. Instead of 50% value, you aim for exact value K: 16 384.

³End result will be that bottom of the ocean/sea will be as deep as high is the highest point on map. Therefore, for flat islands (e.g. Midway) ocean would be very shallow, so try sea level at something like 75%, 80% etc. (you'll have to calculate that later on).

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We will remove ocean/sea now. In ASTER GDEM it's always flat and pure black (we changed it to 50% grey), but in Location Editor we need to have heightmap with underwater landscape. Choose Selection > Color range, change Fuzziness in new window to 0 and click on ocean/sea (in the new window or on the image itself; eyedropper tool icon should be visible).

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Press Ok. This will select only ocean/sea.

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Delete selected area.

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Add new layer under current one and fill with with pure black colour (RGB 0, 0 ,0)⁴. All you have to do now is to create underwater landscape. You can do it your own way, but I'll also show you my way of doing it. Copy heightmap layer and move it below current heightmap. Rename it to Underwater slopes generic - those will be our basic slopes around entire coastline. Right click on this layer, select Layer styles and select Outer Glow.

 

Set following settings:

• Blend mode: Normal
• Opacity: 100%
• Noise: 0%
• Solid colour: RGB 148, 148, 148 (Grey with value of 58%); It's best to pick it with Eyedropper tool from coastline to get exactly K: 16 384
• Technique: Precise
• Spread: 0%
• Size: 15px (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)
• Contour: As on the image in spoiler below (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)
• Range: 50%
• Jitter: 0%

⁴If your map is big/huge and have long coastline (like in our tutorial example) you'll likely struggle to accurately represent it without ramping up geometry quite a lot. You can save a bit of it by cutting down how deep is your ocean/sea so your underwater slopes are not as big. Simply, instead of pure black go for dark grey. In my case I added levels adjustment layer with output level of shadows at value of 64 (RGB 85, 85, 85). Lowest point will be at 251,5m below mean sea level (instead of 503m). This will not mess with our math before so you don't have to be precise on this one.

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Copy previously created layer (Underwater slopes generic) and move it above. Rename it to Underwater slopes small shelf - this layer will fill small bays with continental shelf. Right click on this layer, select Layer styles and select Outer Glow.

 

Change following settings:

• Technique: Soft
• Size: 7px (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)

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Copy previously created layer again (Underwater slopes small shelf) and move it above. Rename it to Underwater slopes small shelf - this layer will fill larger bays with continental shelf. Right click on this layer, select Layer styles and select Outer Glow.

 

Change following settings:

• Solid colour: RGB 148, 148, 148 (Grey with value of 58%); It's best to pick it with Eyedropper tool from coastline to get exactly K: 16 384 (You may lower/darken this one very slightly if you wish)
• Size: 100px (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)

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Copy previously created layer one more time (Underwater slopes medium shelf) and move it above. Rename it to Underwater slopes large shelf - this layer will fill large bays with continental shelf that will be bigger and slightly lower than previous ones. Right click on this layer, select Layer styles and select Outer Glow.

 

Change following settings:

• Solid colour: RGB 147, 147, 147 (Grey with value of 58%); Around K: 16 125 or lower
• Size: 250px (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)

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Once done layers and heightmap should look more or less like on the images in the spoiler. If you want to remove shelf from some part of heightmap - pick Eraser tool and remove a bit of heightmap next to palce you want to modify. I have also put all four layers into folder to keep it tidy.

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If you also want coral reefs on your map then create new layer below four layers we just created. Paint by hand the coral reefs (you should paint it also a bit below heightmap so it's connected with it for sure) with colour of value around K: 16 309 (RGB 148, 148, 148; but you'll want to be more precise to bring it close to sea level). Once done, right click on layer, select Layer styles and select Inner glow.

 

Set following settings:

• Blend mode: Normal
• Opacity: 100%
• Noise: 25% (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking - this will make it uneven and less uniform on edges; set to 0% if you want to save geometry)
• Solid colour: RGB 130, 130, 130 (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking - lighten the colour if you want to see more reef inside)
• Technique: Soft
• Source: Center
• Choke: 0%
• Size: 10px (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)
• Contour: Default; As on the image in spoiler below (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)
• Range: 50%
• Jitter: 0%

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On the same layer select Outer glow.

 

Set following settings:

• Blend mode: Normal
• Opacity: 100%
• Noise: 0%
• Solid colour: K: 16 309 (same colour as what you hand painted)
• Technique: Precise
• Spread: 0%
• Size: 25px (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)
• Contour: Default; As on the image in spoiler below (feel free to mess with it to get it to your liking)
• Range: 50%
• Jitter: 0%

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Merge everything, choose Image > Image Size... and rescale it to 2048 x 2048 px (preferred) or any other square image with dimensions that are power of 2, e.g. 4096 x 4096 (but not higher than that).

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Save as TIFF image (*.tif). Your heightmap is ready to be imported into Location Editor.

 

2.4 Importing heightmap into Location Editor [WIP]

Start Location Editor and load map we previously cleaned and saved. Choose Landscape > Import heightmap and open heightmap we saved as *.tif file.

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Two new windows will appear - Set parameters from last export, press Yes and then Import HMAP data range, press Ok. Editor will process data and new window will pop-up - Rebuild everything, press Yes again. You'll see your heightmap in the viewport now, most likely with some floating building and trees. We'll clean it for now and come back to it later. In the Properties panel on the right go to Script Parameters and find Layer #6: shore. Press shore_mask.

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In new window click on <-- reset tex --> and then Ok.

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Click Generate color map under Script Parameters. This will regenerate textures and objects on our map and in this case overlay everything with sand texture. Don't worry too much about it for now, it'll be explained in depth later on.

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We'll set correct size of our map now. Under Heightmap Parameters change Height offset to negative value of your highest point on map. For this tutorial map it was Mount Yonaha at 503m above mean sea level, so your input will be -503¹. That's our lowest point set. In Height scale put distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the heighmap. Since our map is divided in half by ocean, it'll be 503m * 2 = 1006m. Last thing to set is Cell size. We also calculated it previously and in our case it was 45 - that's the value we need to input here. If you're making tank map, you want to set up Detailed Heightmap area box as explained in https://wiki.warthunder.com/Location_editor.

 

¹If you shifted your heightmap in a way where middle value is not at ocean/sea level (flat islands example) you'll have to calculate it properly. I.e. if I'd shift my sea level to be at 75%, Height offset would need to be at -251,5. Same goes for Height scale.

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For next steps it's important to understand how heightmap works in Location Editor and what actually is exported to game. What you imported and are looking at is heightmap - this is used by Location Editor to import heightmap saved in image file; its geometry is evenly split into triangles across entire map. Then there's so called landmesh - this is generated by Location Editor based on imported heightmap and eventually exported to game. It's split into triangles as well, but not evenly. When there's little change in height Location Editor will generate large triangles and the opposite is true - when there's a lot of changes in height Location Editor will generate more, smaller triangles. All this is done so final geometry is optimized where possible. To switch between those two, press F11, this will bring Plugins visibility list window. From there you can switch on and off various bits of what you see in Location Editor - including heightmap / landmesh. You can also assign hotkeys to them to speed up your work.

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Switch to landmesh now and head to Properties tab > Mesh, and click on Rebuild mesh. Your landmesh should more or less look like imported heightmap now. Depending how big and complex your map is, you'll want to adjust it properly. Main parameters to mess with are:

• Vertices: This is most important setting. It'll roughly set how many vertices (corner of each triangle) there are. The higher number we set here, the more detailed our landmesh will be. It is not recommended to set this beyond 200 000 vertices according to devs. I took some liberties on this, as the map that I'm using in this tutorial is huge, so I ramped up that number quite significantly.
• Importance scale: This is especially important if you have shoreline or areas that need additional geometry (e.g. airfields). Later on we will paint texture that will specify which areas we want to have additional geometry to preserve detail. The lower the value, the more geometry will be assigned to those areas.
• Error threshold: The lower the value here, the more geometry will be assigned to shorelines. Keep in mind that very low values may cause some artifacts.
• Has water surface: Check this if your map have ocean/sea. This is creating ocean across the map that will split the landmesh along shoreline. It seems like you don't have to specify anything in Water mat: <>.
• Water surface level (m): Self explanatory. Keep at 0 unless your ocean/sea is not at mean sea level.
• Min underwater depth (m): This will lower all vertices underwater by given value to avoid flickering/artifacts.
• Add world ocean: Check this if your map have ocean/sea.
• World ocean expand (m): Ocean on your map will be extended by value you put in here to avoid situations where you reach end of map and see end of ocean / gap in the ocean. Keep in mind that you don't have to put here high values as ocean is repeated over and over along heightmap
• Shoreline tolerance (m): This is similar to Error threshold. It's the maximum distance between two points on the shoreline after separating a landmesh (by Has water surface). Lower values will create more accurate shoreline, but increases vertices and may cause artifacts in certain cases.

Preview distance only affects how far you see in Location Editor. Cell Grid should not be changed. LOD1 density specifies the percentage of points from the original landmesh that will remain in the first LOD (simplification based on distance from landmesh in game).

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[WIP]

 

Old guide in spoiler:

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  Here's my tutorial how to make custom map and test it in Warthunder. I'll show you how to make maps which looks like this http://live.warthunder.com/post/19521/ Most of the things I learned by trails&fails so maybe there's faster and simpler way for some things. If you know something which I missed here, or know better solutions just post it here and I'll add it to this tutorial. 

 

What You need:

• CDK http://wiki.warthunder.com/i...War_Thunder_CDK . You shoud Install it on Warthunder Dev. 
• Any graphic editor (Photoshop, GIMP, PaintNET, etc.) which can save images to .tga format.
• For making heightmaps from real topography data: SRTM Tile Grabber, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission database, MICRODEM, SRTM plugin for Google Earth
• This map http://live.warthunder.com/post/20879/ (extract folder to WarthunderCDK/level/)

Index:

1. Heightmap

1a. Heightmap (continuation)

2. Splines and Polygons (terraforming)

3. Water and landmesh

4. Autocolouring (vertical tex, textures and prefabs)

 

- Creating height map from real topography data [SubRyan]don't follow it step by step - read what I wrote in <<Creating Heightmap>> (below)

- Maps sources [SubRyan]

- Interface guide 

 

Authors:

- SubRyan

- oksy

- Senshi_Isamu

 

 

 1. Height map

 

 1. Creating heightmap image

 Creating height map from real topography data - check this tutorial by SubRyan, but when You saving image, be sure to press <<No zoom(1:1 view)>> and don't zoom anything (You'll do that later)

 

It's very important! When you save it to .bmp, it should have tha same dimensions as .tiff image. If it have different dimensions, change it back using Ps, GIMP, etc. to original or You'll have deformed heightmap. For example my map was 6001x6001px but after saving it to .bmp - 6001x6700px. I changed it back to 6001x6001px. If you downloaded heightmap from SRTM it's 1pixel = 90meters. Now some math... I'll explain on my map - Okinawa. My map will be something around 130x130km (checked it using google maps). Find how big will be your map and open location editor (I advice you to open my empty map for that step) and on right <<Properties>> panel find <<Heightmap Parameters>>. Look for <<Cell size>> - it should be with value 16. Under it, you can see <<Origin offset>> - it's our map dimensions in meters(only half).

 

By adding these two values, you'll get your actual map dimension. So 16384 + 16384 = 32768 meters. Our map have dimensions 32.768 x 32.768 kilometers now.Now you can adjust your <<Cell size>> to your heightmap. It should be value between 8 and 64 (according to last video about CDK from Devs). Let's take my map now - to get dimensions around 130x130km I changed <<Cell Size>> value to 64. I have 131.072 x 131.072 km after that. Now we have to know how big it's in pixels according to our heightmap. Take your map widht and divide it by 90 (1px = 90m), so  131072 / 90 = 1456,3(5) = ~1456 px. You have to cut your heightmap to 1456x1456 px now. I draw rectangle with that dimensions and move it around my heightmap. I put it in correct place and cut rest of image.

 

One more thing - Invert vertically your heightmap, game will invert it too for some reason (giving you correct landscape). Now just save heightmap as .tga (choose 32 bit when saving).

 

 2. Importing and adjusting heightmap in editor

 To load you heightmap to editor, go to <<Landscape/Import heightmap>>

 

and find your .tga file (change searching files from .dag to .tga in explorer). When importing editor will ask you: <<Set offset and scale from last heightmap export?[...]>>, press <<Yes>>. Now go to <<Mesh>> under <<Properties>> on right side and press <<Rebuild mesh>> (leave default settings for now), then go to <<Script Parameters>> and press <<Generate color map>> (leave default settings too) - your map is correctly imported now. You can adjust max height and water position now. There are two ways to do it:

1. Possibility (probably more difficult)

Go to <<Heightmap Parameters>> and look for <<Height scale>> and <<Height offset>>

 

First value changing maximum height of landscape, when second is the lowest point on your map. I can't say what you should set there, because that depends on heightmap and your idea for map - just try to change these values. For my map I change it to 800 and -10. Don't forget that your map must have correct height too! So first value is very important here. How to check it: You must know how high is highest pint of your map (I used google earth which showing you alt), find this point in editor and move camera there (press <<Space>> and using WASD keys place your camera on that point). Now <<Y>> value is showing height in meters

 

Just adjust <<Height scale>> until you get your correct alt. Import is done, but don't forget to save heightmap changes

 

2. Possibility 

Press <<Rescale heightmap...>> under <<landscape>> (see previous screenshot). Now set your min and max height of your heightmap. The most bright pixel will be you "max alt" when darkest will be min height. Press ok, heightmap should update now.

 

You have to save it after any change to heightmap you did. Also you can revert it when you'll make mistake(if you save it before). Saving project will not save your heightmap!

 

1a.Heightmap (continuation)

 

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Senshi_Isamu

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

 

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 1a. Heightmap (continuation)

 3. Terraforming tools

 

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 <<Hill up mode>> using this tool you can draw mountains or valleys. Left mouse button will raise heightmap, when right mouse button will lower it. You can change settings of this tool pressing <<TAB>> key.

 

•  <<Power(height)>> how big mountain/valley you'll draw
•  <<Brush radius>> size of bruh
•  <<Opacity>> 50 = half of your <<Power (height)>> setting, etc.
•  <<Hardness>> lower values will allow you to draw smooth mountains/valleys
•  <<Spacing>> I'm not sure, but better leave it as it is (causing many bugs)
•  <<Autorepeat>> I don't see any difference
•  <<Use mask>> it's something like template for your brush, try all and you'll see which one will be best for you
•  <<Apply once>> you'll be limited to your <<Power (height)>> when holding LMB/RMB (but you can press LMB/RMB again and you'll draw 2x higher than your <<Power (height)>> value in places where you already used this tool)
•  <<Autoangle>> I see difference
• <<Use limit>> you'll be limited to value which you enter there (no matter how many times you'll use this tool)

 <<Hill down mode>> LMB lower terrain, RMB lower it. It's similar tool to <<Hill up mode>>. <<TAB>> settings are the same.

 <<Align mode>> copies heightmap where you press first time to any other place. Settings for this tools are different but better try it by yourself.

 <<Smooth mode>> You can smooth terrain with it. 

 

 4. Improving your heightmap with smooth tool

 If your heightmap is too "sharp" (you can see pixels from image on it), you should smooth it. Select <<smooth mode>> tool and use it over "sharp" places to smooth them. Here's example from my map - right side of coast is smoothed, when left isn't

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 Do that with whole map if needed (this may take some time...)

 

 Ending work with heightmap

Your height map is correctly imported and improved/fixed now. Don't forget to save heightmap again!

 

2. Splines and Polygons (terraforming)

 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Senshi_Isamu

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

 

Spoiler

 

2.Splines and Polygons (terraforming)

  1. Difference between splines and polygons

 Splines and polygons can be used to modify heightmap. Difference between spline and polygon:

- Spline - drawed line which you can use to modify heightmap or place road

- Polygon - drawed shape which you can use for modify heightmap and placing assets (i.e. water)

 

 2. Drawing spline or polygon

  Before starting drawing it, go to <<Renderer>> (under <<Parameters>> on right side) and change <<Show heightmap>> from <<initial>> to <<final (after modifer)>>

Now, press <<Move snap>> so you can place your spline/polygon point anywhere(not limited to grid)

Choose spline or polygon now and close <<Assign asset to spline/polygon>> window(we don't need it now)

You can now draw. When you'll finish drawing a spline, press right mouse button. Polygon must be closed so place first and last point in the same place. Press <<P>> key now - You should see properties of your spline/polygon now.

Change name of it if you want. Under <<Spline knots coner type>> you can choose if spline will have smooth curves or straight lines (polygon need also checked box next to <<Smooth contour>>). Change <<Modify type>> to <<modify heightmap>>. You can move your spline/polygon now (<<W>> hotkey). After that change other settings under <<Modify>>:

• <<Width>> - width of area around spline/polygon line which will be modified
• <<Smooth>> - area around <<Width>> which will be modified
• <<HT center ofs>> - height of center
• <<HT side ofs>> - height of area around <<HT center ofs>>

Under these you can see few more settings - you can try it by yourself. To browse splines/polygons and any other object on map, press <<H>> key(and find your object there). You can delete spline or polygon when you finish modify heightmap

 

3. Water and landmesh

 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Senshi_Isamu

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

Spoiler

 

 3. Water and landmesh

 1. Water

 If you're making map with sea/ocean, water is already on it and you can leave it as it is. It's just polygon with assigned water asset. However if your map don't have water or just few rivers/lakes, you should delete current water polygon and place new - smaller. To do that press <<Select objects by name>> (H hotkey), choose <<water_3d_001>> and press <<delete>> key. Now, press <<Create polygon>> and in window which appears select <<assets/landclasses/common/water_3d>> (or anything what you want there). Draw your polygon now - you should see water now

Using this tool you can draw lakes and rivers (waterfall?)

 

 2. Landmesh

 Landmesh is optimized heightmap. Any object will be placed on landmesh (not heightmap). Also in game you'll not see heightmap, but landmesh. To rebuild it, go to <<Mesh>>.

<<Cell grid>> should be the same as your <<Cell Size>> in <<Heightmap Parameters>>. Value <<Vertices>> is responsible for mesh smooth. Bigger value - mesh will be more smooth, lower value - mesh will be more sharp but also simplier. By default it's 50000, if your map is bigger you can put there bigger value. You should uncheck box near to <<Add world ocean>> or editor will not recognize land above water. When you set all settings, press <<Rebuild water>> and <<Rebuild mesh>>. To see your landmesh instead heightmap, press <<F11>> key and uncheck box near to <<(filter) Heightmap>> and check <<(filter) Landmesh>>.

 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Senshi_Isamu

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

Spoiler

 

4. Textures and autocolouring

 1. Vertical textures 

 Vertical textures are used to paint mountains, cliffs, etc.

<<Use Vertical Texture>> - turn on or off usingthis textures

<<tex:"tex_name">> - main texture 

<<nm tex:"tex_name_nm">> - normal map for texture. If our selected texture don't have it, leave it at <<afr_rocks_b_nm>>

<<det tex:tex_name>> - it's some kind of 'overlay' for your main texture.

<<XZ Tile, m>> - dimensions of texture

<<Y Tile,m>> - as above

<<Y Offset, m>> - ths allow you to move texture up or down

<<Start angle, deg>> - you can set on which angle texture will be placed, default on 40° and higher

<<Full angle, deg>> - betweem Start angle and Full angle texture will be smoothed. Leave there delta 5-10 from Start angle for default

<<Horizontal blend>> - it will 'blend' your texture horizontally (just try it and you will see)

<<Det XZ Tile, m>> <<Det Y Tile, m>> and <<Det Y Offset, m>> - the same as above, just for detailed texture

 

2. Autocolouring (textures and prefabs)

 It's on of the most difficult things to understand - mostly because many depends on texture, where you want to place it, etc. I'll try to write here everything what I know but keep in mind that I didn't understand everything so you shold try it by yourself too. Maybe you'll find something new

First four options aren't really needed - better leave it untouched if you don't want to mess up something.

<<Generate colour map>> - press it when you'll change something to update map textures.

 

You should have only Layer #1 if you downloaded my map. Press on <<phi_phi_coast_sand>> (<<florida_island_sand>> on attached picture). You'll see all available land classes now (with prefabs). Choose which you want. As you can see dagor using layers for textures, so texure no.2 will be placed over first texture, third over second, etc. Press <<Generate colour map>> and you should see your land now. *All prefab objects (like trees) are placed on landmesh, not heihtmap!*

 

Now press <<Props...>> and new window should appear

<<Sum Wights>> - when you ckeck it, editor will take all weights separately. For example: you set height weight 25 and angle weight 5 - that mean your landclass will pe placed above 25 meteres OR 5° land angle. When you uncheck this option it will take places above 25meters and 5° angle only.

<<Mask weight conv>> - <<1>> - texture will be everywhere, <<As is>> - you can use mask, <<Smooth step>> - texture will be smooth and <<0>> - nothing?

 First landclass (layer) should have value <<1>>!

<<Height weight conv>> - this allows you to place texture only on above or below certain heights

<<Angle wieght conv>> - allows you to place it only on certain terrain angles (i.e. only on flat fields or only on mountains)

<<Curv. weight conv>> - I don't know what it is (something when you placing prefabs). If someone know, please tell me.

 Now, under <<Output and thresholds>> you have four options. I'm not sure for what these are but:

<<Write weight to DetTex>> - I have it always checked. I'm not sure about value so leave it as it is.

<<Write weight to Importance mask>> - it's for airfields, towns, villages, etc. Grass and trees will not be placed on this texture.

<<Write weight to Land #1>> - Leave it checked or your texture might not be visible. Again, I'm not sure about values.

<<Write weight to Land #2>> - As above. Check it if you choosed two textures in one layer.

 

3. Using height/angle weight
   <<Base>>
 Height weight - it's value from which editor will start drawing. For example - set there 20 and texture will be placed above or below 20 meters (depends on <<delta>>).

 Angle weight - editor will start drawing from angle which you will set here. When you write there 5, editor will colour everything above/below 5° land angle.

  You can put there negative values aswell, i.e. -25 (-25 meters)

 

   <<delta>>

 Height / Angle height - for example value 5 will mean edtior will smooth texture on 5 meters above <<Base>> value, 50 = 50meters, etc. Negative values will smooth it below <<Base>> (You can't put there 0)

 

4. Masks

To use mask you have to choose <<As is>> or <<Smooth step>> in <<Mask weight conv>>. Now press --no mask-- and create new one. Now i your layer should appear two new options - <<mask_name>> and <<Edit>> next to it. If it's still not available, choose <<Hill up mode>> tool (shortcut 1). Press edit and choose <<Hill up mode>> tool. You can also check <<show blue white mask>> for better view (white is your mask, blue - nothing). Just draw what ever you want now - Left mouse button for drawing and Right mouse button for deleting (you can change brush options of course). When you will finish, press <<Done>> (there where was <<Edit>> before).

 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Senshi_Isamu

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

Reserved for tutorial expanding

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

Reserved for tutorial expanding

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

Spoiler

 

Creating height maps from real topography data

 

-----------------

You will need

-----------------

 

SRTM Tile Grabber

 

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission database (if you know your SRTM tile #)

 

MICRODEM

 

SRTM plugin for Google Earth - SRTM plugin is down as servers are offline

 

A way to convert .bmp files into .tga  (GIMP works for me)

 

War Thunder CDK

 

---------------

How to do it

---------------

 

Using the SRTM Tile Grabber, find an area you are interested in; I will choose northern France for Dunkirk

Download the SRTM data and extract into a folder; you will need the .tif

Using MICRODEM, open the .tif by File -> Open -> Open DEM -> selecting the SRTM .tif

Right click on the map -> Legends/marginalia -> deselect all 4 checkboxes

Right click on the map -> Display parameters -> Elevation -> select greyscale

Select the area you want to zoom in on

Right click on the map -> Grid/graticule -> Neither

You end up with something like this

Right click on the map -> Save Image

Open the .bmp with your file converter and save as .tga

 

At this point it all depends if the CDK wants to cooperate

 

Run dagored.cmd in WarThunderCDK

Open the default level.blk

Select Landscape -> Import Heightmap -> Select the .tga you just made

Ta-da

 

And that is all I can help with. I'm still learning how the CDK works myself, when it isn't crashing

 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by Senshi_Isamu

[Donster8448 6,866]

There we go.

If i move all posts from old topic it will mess up everything because of time other users posted. So basically if post is made yesterday it will put it on 1st post.

 

I will ask if transfer of posts is possible tomorrow but for now we will leave it.

 

Enjoy.

[Majogl 912]

Looks OK, you might want to remove the links that used to point to other parts of the tutorial from the posts, and special thanks to Radijacia... :salute:

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

There we go.

If i move all posts from old topic it will mess up everything because of time other users posted. So basically if post is made yesterday it will put it on 1st post.

 

I will ask if transfer of posts is possible tomorrow but for now we will leave it.

 

Enjoy.

Uh, so what happened with SubRyan posts? He make a parts for tutorial too :(s

[Donster8448 6,866]

Uh, so what happened with SubRyan posts? He make a parts for tutorial too :(s

They are in another topic. I can move them under this topic but then his posts will be 1st. I will find a way to move them don't worry.

 

Ok this is the best i can do for tonight. Post number 8 is SubRyan post from other topic. I put it on end so you can add more numbers and not mess with order.

 

In morning i will check and ask someone to format 2 topics properly. Have a nice day.

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

They are in another topic. I can move them under this topic but then his posts will be 1st. I will find a way to move them don't worry.

oh, ok, take your time

[Majogl 912]

 1. Height map

 

 1. Creating heightmap image

 Creating height map from real topography data - check this tutorial by SubRyan, but when You saving image, be sure to press <<No zoom(1:1 view)>> and don't zoom anything (You'll do that later)[spoiler][/spoiler] It's very important! When you save it to .bmp, it should have tha same dimensions as .tiff image. If it have different dimensions, change it back using Ps, GIMP, etc. to original or You'll have deformed heightmap. For example my map was 6001x6001px but after saving it to .bmp - 6001x6700px. I changed it back to 6001x6001px. If you downloaded heightmap from SRTM it's 1pixel = 90meters. Now some math... I'll explain on my map - Okinawa. My map will be something around 130x130km (checked it using google maps). Find how big will be your map and open location editor (I advice you to open my empty map for that step) and on right <<Properties>> panel find <<Heightmap Parameters>>. Look for <<Cell size>> - it should be with value 16. Under it, you can see <<Origin offset>> - it's our map dimensions in meters(only half).

 

If after saving the .bmp with microdem i get a bmp of size 3000px x 3400px (original tif was 6000x6000) and i resize it back to 6000x6000 wont it already be deformed? Didn´t you mean that .tga needs to have same dimesnions as,bmp?

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

If after saving the .bmp with microdem i get a bmp of size 3000px x 3400px (original tif was 6000x6000) and i resize it back to 6000x6000 wont it already be deformed?

You want to save whole heightmap (6000x6000px) or you cut 3000x3400 in microdem?

[Majogl 912]

You want to save whole heightmap (6000x6000px) or you cut 3000x3400 in microdem?

 

Well whole map is kinda unnecessary i guess... But that still confuses the hell out of me, when it comes to dividing by 90 and all that other stuff...

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

Well whole map is kinda unnecessary i guess... But that still confuses the hell out of me, when it comes to dividing by 90 and all that other stuff...

Easier - save whole heightmap as bmp. If it's not 6000x6000 px, you have to rescale it. Now you can cut what you want in Photoshop (or whatever you using). 1px=90m, so for example if you want map 32x32km: 32km = 32000m, 32000/90=~356px. So you have to cut your image to 356x356 px

[Majogl 912]

What am i doing wrong here? I keep trying to adjust the hight scale and offset under heightmap menu, but no matter what numbers i put in, its not making any difference... Y is still cutting the terrain off at 0

 

[attachment=95251:prob.jpg]

 

EDIT: Now i did something and, from afar the map looks ok, but its basically just a picture... :kamikadze: damn this thing

 

[attachment=95252:1.jpg][attachment=95253:2.jpg][attachment=95254:3.jpg]

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

What am i doing wrong here? I keep trying to adjust the hight scale and offset under heightmap menu, but no matter what numbers i put in, its not making any difference... Y is still cutting the terrain off at 0

 

prob.jpg

 

EDIT: Now i did something and, from afar the map looks ok, but its basically just a picture... :kamikadze: damn this thing

 

1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg

Turn off ocean (<<Add world ocean>>) in "Mesh" tab. It should help. Also I forgot to write there easier way to change heightmap (I found it few days ago). First post updated.

 

2. Possibility 

Press <<Rescale heightmap...>> under <<landscape>> (see previous screenshot). Now set your min and max height of your heightmap. The most bright pixel will be you "max alt" when darkest will be min height. Press ok, heightmap should update now.

 

[Majogl 912]

Nope, still cutting the terrain off at level 0

[attachment=95258:4.jpg]

 

doing (rescale heightmap) or editing the parameters in heightmap properties is doing nothing...

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

Nope, still cutting the terrain off at level 0

4.jpg

 

doing (rescale heightmap) or editing the parameters in heightmap properties is doing nothing...

uh, are you sure you're looking at heightmap, not landmesh? (Press F11 and check it). Removing ocean and rebuilding mesh works perfectly when I had this issue, maybe try to rebuild water aswell

[SupermarioPS 5,374]

http://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Location_editor

Keofox posted this lovely Wiki page for us :D

 

If you guys want to have something posted there, do it! We have mods now to approve edits :yes:

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

http://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Location_editor

Keofox posted this lovely Wiki page for us :D

 

If you guys want to have something posted there, do it! We have mods now to approve edits :yes:

I'll add link to it on first page, thanks! Is there any chance we will get more tuts soon? dev promise us some video about it, but still nothing :dntknw: 

 

So we can post this guide there, right? It's still not finished, but if it could help someone...

[SupermarioPS 5,374]

I'll add link to it on first page, thanks! Is there any chance we will get more tuts soon? dev promise us some video about it, but still nothing :dntknw:

 

So we can post this guide there, right? It's still not finished, but if it could help someone...

We are doing a meeting tonight and I will bring that point forward.

I presume, you can have your own page and we will make a link to it on the main page.

As far as I can see it this tutorial is superior. But the current wiki one is more "organized" (dont know the word, language barrier, you can see what I mean).

[Senshi_Isamu 1,265]

We are doing a meeting tonight and I will bring that point forward.

I presume, you can have your own page and we will make a link to it on the main page.

As far as I can see it this tutorial is superior. But the current wiki one is more "organized" (dont know the word, language barrier, you can see what I mean).

I see what you want to say. That's because I'm writing what I have learned by myself, then adding something, correcting, etc. With this description about GUI and tools, I can try to rewrite it to be more clear.