RWG with Externally Gen'd Height / Biome Maps

[zztong]

There have been a variety of tools that did a nice job of generating height maps and matching biome maps. I think RWG does these decently too. (Stamps are neat and have promise.) But I was wondering if RWG might be made to allow for external height/biome maps and then place roads, tiles, POIs, etc.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

I don't know if this is what you mean, but. I gen maps with rwg
kinggen nitrogen and teragon. After generation, and before I enter
the first time, I open the dtm.raw file in photoshop. select the
grayscale layer and copy it to a new image using RGB. 8 bit

if you create 5 copies of the base layer, use the wand and select
20% starting at the darkest color, paint it with the biome color you
like. next do the brightest. proceeding to select other shades in
decending order you save it to the world folder you created and you
have a personal distribution of biomes. just save it as biomes.png.

the actual colors needed are in the biomes.xml near the biome names.

biomemapcolor="#FFFFFF"   snow
biomemapcolor="#004000"   pine
biomemapcolor="#FFE477"   desert
biomemapcolor="#ffa800"   waste
biomemapcolor="#ba00ff"   burnt

use a solid PEN not brush. Square
check that 1 pixel = actual 1 pixel
to get solid colors and no holes.

before saving temporarily convert it to indexed color, and check table
if it has more than 5 colors adjust, mark down the bogus colors, and revert
back to rgb. use wand set to 0, select the bogus colors and paint them correctly.
or else you may have holes that you fall through the world.

this is manual, but teragon, can do it by selecting values and generating.

So yes, you can actually paint, any biome collage you wish to add to random gen worlds.

If you want to be even more creative, you can use any photo, and repaint it using
just five colors and from birds eye view the biomes will look like the picture.

In regard to the externally generated heightmap. I think the last alpha that allowed it
before converting to the new gen system, was the low A17's. The code was removed from
the dll and the rwgmixer.xml.

That was actually how I first got interested in terraforming.

4Sheetz

 

[zztong]

I don't know if this is what you mean, but. I gen maps with rwg
kinggen nitrogen and teragon.

Thanks for the information. I was aware of that technique. What I'm suggesting is that if you use an external tool to make a heightmap and/or a biome map, that the Game's "Vanilla" RWG have options to use those instead of generate it's own. That is, the Game's "Vanilla" RWG would skip its step(s) where it generates those and uses the ones you give it, placing roads, POIs, etc.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

The last time i got that to work was in Alpha 17. There was a part of the code in the managed exe that called for a sutek.png  in the rwgmixer.xml file

Part of the code is still there but it doesn't make the call anymore, well at the moment. Maybe they can reincorporate it.  Yeah, that was one of the

things I liked too.

 

[HIREDGUN]

re of that technique. What I'm suggesting is that if you use an external tool to make a heightmap and/or a biome map, that the Game's "Vanilla" RWG have options to use those instead of generate it's own. That is, the Game's "Vanilla" RWG would skip its step(s) where it generates those and uses the ones you give it, placing roads, POIs, etc.

Sorry to dig up the old post... but ..
It WOULD be Nice to be able to Upload the Height map and Biome and have the current version of the game do all the other work in the world...

To The Fun Pimps : Considering that your user base has been making RWG generators and their popularity... and me being a fan and modding since A13...
I think is would be a FANTASTIC idea to be able to select a height map and biome when generating.

I REALLY think the community would benefit from this feature, it is simple enough but has HUGE impact in generating more worlds and hence more life into the game.

 

 

[Riamus]

Sorry to dig up the old post... but ..
It WOULD be Nice to be able to Upload the Height map and Biome and have the current version of the game do all the other work in the world...

To The Fun Pimps : Considering that your user base has been making RWG generators and their popularity... and me being a fan and modding since A13...
I think is would be a FANTASTIC idea to be able to select a height map and biome when generating.

I REALLY think the community would benefit from this feature, it is simple enough but has HUGE impact in generating more worlds and hence more life into the game.

 

The way they place towns and terrain in RWG, I don't think it would be an easy thing for them to use an external heightmap.  But I could be wrong.  Biome maps can be changed after generating the map, so you can always use your own.  You just have to change it before starting a game with that map.  Of course, if the biomes don't match the traders, you won't have the same trader progression that RWG creates.

As you said, there are other map generators available that can use external heightmaps and biome maps, so that's always an option if RWG doesn't support it.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

There may be a way to get custom biomes and keep trader progression. But it would take a bit more

work. If you paint your own biome scheme, but, the tile that the traders occupy leave it the same then

it could possibly keep progression in tact. The new layout is based on square tiles, configured sort of like

and nand nor or. Before it was based on, lot, height, and roads were limited to the angle of ascent.

The new way processes much faster with less overhead, but limits configuration to a more squared layout.

Also there was a call, to a customized png or raw file that was nullified. This is what was the key to the custom

terrains being available. If it is re-enabled, and poi height placement is de-regulated then RwG importable

heightmaps could be used again.

Personally I wish that Nitro,King,and Tera could be merged because each had specific aspects separate from the

others that allowed for max flexibility.

 

[Riamus]

There may be a way to get custom biomes and keep trader progression. But it would take a bit more

work. If you paint your own biome scheme, but, the tile that the traders occupy leave it the same then

it could possibly keep progression in tact.

Biomes do not affect progression.  Not really.  Only traders do.  The only connection biomes have is that traders in RWG are placed in their own biomes.  But if you put the traders in other biomes, either by moving them in the World Editor or some other way, or you change the biome map, the trader progression still works.  You just might end up going to Jen in the wasteland for your first open trade routes quest, which might not be great. 

 

[HIREDGUN]

I would assume TFP have to generate a Height map and Biome map before they insert other things.
Why then would it be hard for them to add an upload feature for both or either in their RWG ?
I would assume it would be simple to allow.

On another note, has anyone played around with the core RWG code and modified the files to force these loads?

 

 

[Riamus]

I would assume TFP have to generate a Height map and Biome map before they insert other things.
Why then would it be hard for them to add an upload feature for both or either in their RWG ?
I would assume it would be simple to allow.

On another note, has anyone played around with the core RWG code and modified the files to force these loads?

 

There was a dev post a year or so ago that mentioned something about generating mountains and hills after placing towns.  If they do that, even if they also generate some before towns, then importing a heightmap would be a problem because that would mean the code is designed for placing towns before mountains and might not be able to handle doing it afterwards without some significant changes.  But I don't know if that is still how they do it or even if maybe I just misunderstood what was said.  Though if you look at RWG maps, it seems like this is how things are being done just based on how the mountains are around many towns.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

I would assume TFP have to generate a Height map and Biome map before they insert other things.
Why then would it be hard for them to add an upload feature for both or either in their RWG ?
I would assume it would be simple to allow.

On another note, has anyone played around with the core RWG code and modified the files to force these loads?

 

One major change was the Raw files. Prior they were 2 layer, 8 to 16bit, the second layer was an editable gradient.

Now it is on layer with the gradient removed. If a dual layer could be created by a user then converted to a single

pixelated representation then it might allow for custom terrains again.  But there is math, to get it to work at the

moment I've tried, but maybe someone can figure it out. If so let me know too.

But the controlling factor is the tiling, the rules are much different, so it may constantly render barren terrain unable

to support tiling. The external generators seem to be a hybrid of the old and the new formats.