Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 5.10
Screen grab from Photoshop showing process of illing in the land masses on the red channel in the
Wheely Island terrain ile. “Step2_Wheely Island.raw”can be downloaded from the Chapter 5 content at http://www.
anncudworthprojects.com.
Walk your avatar around the landscape so you can compare the difference in actual terrain height you
get in the sim (use your avatar's Z coordinate) with the grayscale scale values you painted in the height map.
If you like the coniguration of the landmass, but ind that it is just a little too high or too low, you have a
few options.
1. You can go back into the paint program and lighten or darken the overall ile to raise or lower the
entire landscape.
2. You can turn to third-party software such as Bailiwick (PC) or Backhoe (Mac) to adjust the region
multiplier and raise or lower the entire region.
3. You can select the whole region or the parts you want to change with the terrain editing tool and set
the bulldozer strength to the weakest settings and raise the landscape “by hand.”
If the land is just too bumpy, you can smooth it again with the Gaussian blur in your paint program. Be
aware that this will start to lower the hills as it blends them into the surrounding areas. You can also smooth
the landscape with the inworld bulldozer, just make sure you bake the terrain irst and set the Terrain Raise
and Lower limits to small numbers.
Have patience as handmade terrain making is not an exact science and requires a bit of practice to get the
land just the way you want it. Once you think it looks good, take your avatar for another “walk about,” paying
attention to the views you obtain, as well as the accessibility of the landscape.
