MTM2.com

Can someone please tell me how to make a good terrain bitmap? I don't want to go through and make an island with 5 billion elevation changes by hand, but, on the other hand, when I try to make a good bitmap in PSP, it just sucks. Random Terrain can't do anything either... Does anyone know what I can do?

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-Wipeout
- MTM2 Vault

I do not think there is a possible way, I beleive the bit map is something to start off, then you continue work from that, you cannot make such small changes and such on a little bitmap.. to hard...

So if I am right, and I believe i am, you must do most of the goodness with yer mouse in Traxx...

Sorry



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RuDeE
<IMG SRC="http://www.stas.net/4x4e/rudeesig.gif" border=0>
4x4 eVolution Garage

RuDeE is correct. Bitmaps are a fine place to begin but no matter what, you'll need to make "an island with 5 billion elevation changes by hand". Yes, there have been several tracks made using the bitmap as the starting place (including Stealing Dudley's Horse) but none could avoid hand editing, and these kinds of creations are rare.

I don't mean to avoid hand editing... I just want to make the hilly, high elevation in the bitmap to start my track instead of doing it all by hand... adding the fills. Because it can't be done to make an extremly good relastic looking hill system. The BLUR function works well to create realistic hills, but no quite well enhough. I kind of want it to look like ZooN Euro Park... (not copy though, lol).. Oh well, back to hand editing. I just wanted to do it fast cause I wanted to make a GOOD track before 4x4 came out... I can still do that of course. Anyway, I'll hand edit it... and be ready for a good track, cause I already got awesome custom textures and a great track plan laid out!

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-Wipeout
- MTM2 Vault

I take it u know how to edit your Track MAP (RAW) file?

Use the bigfoot1.raw or bigfoot2.raw it may suit your needs - i've used it alot on MTM2MARS.

or just rename bigfoot1.raw to [yourtrackbasename].raw and choose close tracked track from the traxx file menu.

Try this with some otehr trucks like boogey van 2 some of the otehr trucks are even better

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---> HAC-MAN
---> Keep On Hackin'
---> Hacman@start.com.au
---> Http://Come.to/HMTM2

I don't really see a problem in hand edditing, ALL my tracks are made by hand...

Sometimes I used a random terrain to fill the bitmap up in Photoshop (does this make sense..) but all my tracks are done by hand.

It's more sattisfying, believeyou me...

Lookee here experiment
Just lately I've been trying out making terrain bitmaps using different texture files, copying them into the paint program, using different effects (blur, sharpen etc) and have come up with some very satisfying results. This one for instance:
<IMG SRC="http://emcee4.tripod.com/trxxterrain.gif" border=0>
I just opened one of the many background fill files (from CorelPaint - but there are hundreds in Windows and PSP, and thousands on the Net), messed around with effects, resized it to 256x256, converted it to 8-bit greyscale, then copied to the clipboard and in Traxx under Edit, Paste Terrain bitmap... easy peasy! It's just a matter of experimenting 'til you get the desired effect. You can't really tell what a bitmap is gonna look like as terrain until you paste it into Traxx and have a look, but obviously gradual transitions from black to white will give you a smoother landscape.
Hope this helps or gives you some ideas AW... BTW you can use the example above if you like.

edit: I just noticed that you contributed to the original topic so you probably know all this stuff already.. no harm in refreshing one's memory tho' huh?

edit2: "I beleive the bit map is something to start off" - yup, can't avoid editing to make something perfect.
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Keep on Monster Truckin'

EmceeMart

[This message has been edited by EmceeMart (edited 25-08-2000).]

[This message has been edited by EmceeMart (edited 25-08-2000).]

I'll try what Hacman said. Also, blur is, in my opinion, the best way to do things... It makes your hills rounded, and better looking.

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-Wipeout
- MTM2 Vault

yes i used the trucks textures then blurred it heaps. I've used it alot on MTM2MARS - a sneak peak l8ter this year will be shown. Also theres this cool utility called terragen and its on my old XOOM HMTM2. I'll try and get the url for u soon

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---> HAC-MAN
---> Keep On Hackin'
---> Hacman@start.com.au
---> Http://Come.to/HMTM2