creating 16 bit grey scale maps from scratch

[ldvger]

How is this done, does anyone know?  Has anyone unlocked the secrets the game engine uses to assign various degrees of elevation to individual grey scale values? 

I am thinking about trying an experiment.  I have a USGS topo map with contours at 100' intervals for both above and below sea levels.  I am thinking about tracing the contours in Photoshop and creating a greyscale, with each contour level assigned it's own greyscale value.  Then, I'd open the resultant greyscale in Terraformer and create a region. 

But before I do this, I need to know how the game reads the grey scale color values.  From what little I already know about mapping, there would be no water in the resultant region...I would have to lower terrain until the game sea level of 250m was reached, but at least then I would have a semi-realistic sea bed under my water. 

Do grey scales get darker as they get higher in elevation, or do they get lighter?  Is it possible to assign a "0" level and have grey scale values below that at negative values?  Would this establish a sea level? 

Lora/LD

[yecartes]

I generated a 16-bit png map with grey values of 2^15-1 (essentially white), 2505 (harbor level), and 0 gray values (-252 sealevel, 2 m by terrain query, color black) through a simple python script.  I'm thinking of creating mathematically generated map like a Mandlebrot set

Its hard to scroll to the top of a 6,553.5 meter plateau though

[semi_crazy]

I have done a few grey scale maps. I use paint but the lines in elevation change are pretty blocky. Maybe I could make the steps smaller...but 8 or 10 clicks on the "smooth terrain" button in each city make it decent.  I made 1 region with just black on one side and white at the other with all the shades between.  Then found what was sea level and labeled it. Now I open paint and have this tester pallet on the side and just use the eye dropper thingy to get the next higher/lower elevation Im drawing. Its actually really easy.