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Author Topic: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer  (Read 14114 times)

Draco18s

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[33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« on: July 24, 2008, 03:33:31 am »

Here's some easy to follow instructions to get you set looking at your worlds in 3D!

Get this nifty little program:
http://www.alpix.com/3d/TerrainViewer/

Install to a location of your choosing.

Export the following maps via Legends Mode [d]:
Elevation map respecting lake and ocean floors
Standard Biome + site map

If you wish for the viewer to show lake surfaces, export elevations respecting water level and then copy/paste the blue non-river areas (rivers come out blue as well, but make the map look bizarre).  Use an image editor of your choosing, I offer no help in this regard.

IMPORTANT!
Resize both images to 1024x1024 or smaller and save as DFRegionTexture.png and DFRegionHeight.png (.jpg may also work, untested).  The default export's 2048 is too large for the Terrain Viewer and it will crash (bmps may also cause a crash).

Move the new pngs to the \maps and \colors folders of Terrain Viewer

Open up \TerrainViewer\maps.xml and add this inside the <maps> tag:
   <map name="Dwarf Fortress">
      <terrain demfile="maps\DFRegionHeight.png" texturefile="colors\DFRegionTexture.png" altscale="0.4" />
      <sky skyfile="skys\Sky_Gradian_Day1.jpg" />
   </map>


The sky file is unimportant, you can change that in the viewer and you can change the one it loads by default if you wish.

The "altscale" variable determines how much z is given per degree of terrain variant, 0.4 looked the best to me, you may wish to experiment.

Run Terrain Viewer by clicking the .exe

Click Maps and choose Dwarf Fortress

Enjoy.



Other fun things to do?  Export a temperature/rainfall/volcanism/etc map and use it as a texture!  See how they compare!
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Davion

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2008, 03:41:08 am »

Well this is creepy, you and me both made similar "View your world in 3D threads"

I will have to check this program out.
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Draco18s

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2008, 03:57:38 am »

Well this is creepy, you and me both made similar "View your world in 3D threads"

I will have to check this program out.

Yes we did.  :P

What program did you use?  Any thing special needed?
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Davion

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2008, 04:03:35 am »

Just Terragen, imported the height map and had to mess with the water levels to get the water to to where it should be. I had to edit the file type to 24-bit TGA and the size of the exported image to 1025, mainly because Terragen has a weird system of measure and flips out if it's not a certain image type you're exporting.

Other than that it was just messing with eyecandy.
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Draco18s

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2008, 04:05:48 am »

Neat.  Should put those instructions in your thread as I linked us both on the Wiki\Utilities page.

Will have to mess with Terragen tomorrow, I need to be in bed...2 hours ago.  Having too much fun!
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sinoth

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2008, 08:03:28 am »

Thanks for the instructions!  While it may not look as pretty as Terragen, this is much easier and doesn't require the, err, procuring of a certain program.  Will definitely make site selection easier :)
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Draco18s

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2008, 03:08:18 pm »

I'm not sure it makes site selection easier, as you're looking at a world map.  Each pixel is roughly a 2x2 embark area.
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Draco18s

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2008, 09:49:42 pm »

Terrian gradient similar to the one the Terrain Visualizer uses (Geo and Geo_Water), but made to conform to DF's height differences.  I haven't tested it with a bunch of maps, but the waterline is accurate and the "tree line" occurs about where DF starts displaying mountain tiles.  One of the problems with the provided gradient is that the middle of the gradient is the waterline and it shows up only at the extreme lows (RGB (0,0,0) ) on DF's heightmaps.

This is great for not needing to export a second texture file, but still being able to view the general features.

Terrain Gradient
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Lightning4

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2008, 10:05:00 am »

It's that image that really brings out the intricate details put into DF's world gen. It's simply amazing.

Although, I think the terrain variance is a bit much. Seems like mountains are scaled up a bit too much. Nonetheless, it's really cool.
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Draco18s

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2008, 02:34:30 pm »

It's that image that really brings out the intricate details put into DF's world gen. It's simply amazing.

Although, I think the terrain variance is a bit much. Seems like mountains are scaled up a bit too much. Nonetheless, it's really cool.

I completely agree.  I've been working with DF's gen options to try and reduce that.  Keep in mind that most of the real wold IS practically flat and that mountains do crop up without much warning.  The problem is the lack of hills and small rises.
Here's the map I have set up in the TV right now, with the gradient posted above and the height scale turned from 0.4 to 0.6, 0.4 was chosen originally due to the scale it gave to the default world gen.

As you can see, mountains jutt up less abruptly and less steeply (this was a small world, the medium I did had a really nice transition on one of the edge mountain chains).  Oceans still are super-deep really fast, but this has little impact on game play.
Here's a side view of an edge, showing the change in elevation along that part of the world.  Nice and steady into the mountains, quick drop to seabottom.  And yeah, the skysphere isn't quite big enough for DF. :P  It cuts off the corners a little.


Here's the Elevation mesh I use.
[ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:2:1:2:1:3:1]
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MuonDecay

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2008, 10:07:51 pm »



Looks a lot like a number of places along the US west coast. Central/northern California comes to mind.
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Draco18s

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2008, 10:40:47 pm »

Looks a lot like a number of places along the US west coast. Central/northern California comes to mind.

Quit possibly!  I was a So Cal kid growing up, so I suppose my mental model of geography might be a little skewed in that direction.

Now I just need to go out and paint myself a nice desert + aquifer + Extreme Cliffs area for an awesome Hanging Gardens. :D
The one I built was ok, but it was too short, only 8 z-levels off the ground, but I didn't have the patience (or even the materials) to build it higher.  Building walls on top of walls is a pain.

Edit:
Haha!  This map is hot!
Had to recolor the DF export (black is cold, white is hot, there was A LOT of pure white here!  Edit 2: DF didn't claim any area as "scorching" so the exporter might just make the highest known temp and work backwards....) but this is what came out.
« Last Edit: July 25, 2008, 11:28:19 pm by Draco18s »
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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #12 on: July 26, 2008, 12:16:35 am »

Vegetation overlay:



This one is odd, and I can't figure it out - it's black in some areas I know forests are, but on mountains and in the seas too.  Same thing goes for white areas.  I've got no clue how to read it, although I think white is supposed to mark vegetation.

In any case, the effect is cool.
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Cthulhu

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2008, 12:36:49 am »

This is awesome, like, pantswettingly cool.  I wish I were on my good computer.
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Draco18s

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Re: [33d+] World Terrain Visualizer
« Reply #14 on: July 26, 2008, 12:45:21 am »

Vegetation overlay:

This one is odd, and I can't figure it out - it's black in some areas I know forests are, but on mountains and in the seas too.  Same thing goes for white areas.  I've got no clue how to read it, although I think white is supposed to mark vegetation.

In any case, the effect is cool.

That is odd.  Hadn't done that one yet.  I wonder if it counts just plants?  Eiterh way...that'd odd banding.  I'll have to try that one later.

Drainage would be an interesting one to do as well, I think.  Might not provide any useful information, but might look neat.
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