(Update: Leveller 2.0 demo has arrived. I haven't tried it yet, I hope my notes aren't totally obsolete.)
I've recently stumbled across a MUST HAVE utility for track making called "Leveller", it's a powerful program that allows you to easily draw your track terrains by hand, very useful if you've ever done any manual editing of terrain bitmaps in the past (which is an easy thing to do by the way). This is not another "Terragen", though it has many of the same abilities, it's more like a paint program and it's designed for drawing and manipulating the exact sort of grayscale terrains our tracks are made from, better than any paint program ever could. As it turns out, this program was used in developing terrains for Microsoft Motocross Madness 2, so let the Madness continue! ;-)
It's excellent for shaping terrain during the roughing out phase, it's most impressive feature might be it's ability to create incredibly smooth surfaces very quickly and easily, for banked turns as well as hills and valleys with excellent altitude transitions. It's basic tools are very easy to use and it contains many cool advanced features and filters. The download is small, the learning curve is quick and trial version is packed with usable features (though many things are disabled until you register the product).
Downloads and information are available on the official website, here: <a href=http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/index.htm>http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/index.htm</a>
Note the system requirements on the "demo" page.
<img src=http://www.homestead.com/winterkillmtm/files/leveller.gif>
Above is a screenshot depicting a example banked curve I made with only two mouse strokes, draging the drawing tools on the right pane in 2D and watching the 3D view on the left pane in realtime. I used the dig tool set to 5 and carved the inside stroke, then used the raise tool set to 10 and made the outside stroke, these two strokes combined to make quite a nice bank, after some work with the smoothing tool to make better altitude transitions this would be ready to export.
The realtime 3D view can be zoomed to any level, from extreme closeups to viewing the entire terrain at once, this gives one an incredible sense of the entire track geography. It's much easier than Traxx for shaping and visualizing terrain on a large scale.
To use the bitmaps (.bmp) this program exports you will also need a good paint program and know how to use it, something along the lines of Paint Shop Pro.
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My tips and recommendations for getting started with Leveller:
Download the ZIP file and be sure to extract it so that it's folder structure is restored upon extraction, the folder structure in the ZIP file MUST be restored properly.
Start the program and then click "help" -- "quick start" for a simple introduction to the interface and active keys, be sure to learn the camera keys.
Every time you start a new image you should resize it to the 200x200 pixel maximum allowable in the trial version by clicking "Edit" --"Resize Grid" -- "Custom - 200x200" (or simply choose 256x256 for a quicker way).I recommend setting the zoom level to at least 400-500% before drawing, and get your 3D view set to watch from a good angle as that's the best part.
Set the "Dig" and "Raise" tools to 5-8 pixels and the "Smooth" tool to 5 pixels for general rough shaping, these sizes produce mounds and ruts at a pretty good scale for monster trucks. Setting the brush style to "Round" and alternately setting the brush sizes you'll have a good basis for terrain shaping experiments, generally producing something of an 'immediately' drivable scale (after importing into a track editor).
Also bear in mind the "Strength" of your tool, which determines the depth of material displaced, the defalt 0.5 is good but less might be more appropriate when making multiple strokes, 0.3 is a very good all-around strength.
Use the smooth tool generously.
To create a relatively flat road of a monster truckin' scale, work on some relatively even terrain at
least 5 pixels wide and use a 2 pixel smoothing tool to rub and flatten out a roadway.
The grid you see in the 3D view is the same scale as Traxx and TrackEd, a grid sqaure is a grid square, and a single pixel in the 2D view is a grid square as well.
After editing, use the smooth filter! It does some very subtle wonders. Try the other filters too, filter combinations can produce some amazing effects.
Click "view" -- "overview map" and deselect 'quick shading' in order to see the grayscale 'almost' exactly as it will export.
When done you can click "File" -- "Export" -- "8-bit Bitmap". This will save your work as a 200x200 .BMP you can open in a paint program and then paste into a proper sized 256x256 image which can then be imported into Traxx if you're doing MTM tracks, other export formats and bit-depths are available too.
I think it important to note that your exported image will frequently need to be tweaked and scaled using your paint program, quite simply:
Contrast will "scale" the height. Lower the contrast to flatten extreme terrain. White is highest and black is lowest so when you lower the contrast you bring the colors together forming closer shades of gray.
Brightness will raise or lower the terrain globally, so if you have a 'perfect curve' but need it at a lower elevation to place in your own track terrain just lower the brightness till it's the right height.
It's very simple to select and then modify areas in that way.
Due to the way this program seems to work you may not be able to easily create an entire track terrain at once if it ranges from very high to very low, it might be better to work exclusively within certain elevations and piece the track sections together later in a paint program, that's my first impression anyway -- due to scaling issues. Without a doubt this program is great for creating a piece of a track, like a smoooth banked curve, as well as creating awesome base terrains to work in. Still, if you can get adjusted to the relative scale of your entire terrain you may be able to export the entire thing with great success, you'll just have to learn the scale of things.
Try this thing! Have fun drawing and experimenting, the crater tool is excellent and be sure to use the smooth filter at LEAST once before exporting an image. This thing will make filling off track areas with interesting surfaces a breeze, it will even import your current track terrains for editing. I think this program has the potential to create a quantom leap in track design, making rookies look like pros and speeding up the otherwise painstaking process of creating smooth surfaces and varied terrains.
Important note: Scaling is relative! In the program you will not notice this, but it makes a big difference in your exported BMP. If you have some small hills that are very nicely scaled and then add a high mountain to the same terrain it will end up dwarfing the hills when the terrain is exported to BMP, yet this will not be visible in the program.
<center><img src=http://www.homestead.com/winterkillmtm/files/leveller2.jpg></center>
The upper left image depicts a mound created with one stroke of the mouse, with the add tool set to 5 pixels and 0.5 depth. The middle left image depicts another mound placed directly behind the first, made with two strokes at the same setting, the bottom left image depicts an additional mound made with ten strokes.
Each of these of these steps were exported to BMP and placed in an MTM2 terrain exactly as exported, the results are depicted on the right, the small object in front of the first hill in all three images is the monster truck Snakebite.
Note how the scaling changed as larger and larger mounds were added.
Below is an image of the terrains exactly as they appear exported and loaded in a paint program, at upper left is the single mound, at middle is the two mounds and at lower right is the three mounds. In all three examples the arrow is pointing to the first 'one stroke' mound.
<center><img src=http://www.homestead.com/winterkillmtm/files/leveller3.gif></center>
So, you can scale your image by exporting the BMP and using "contrast" in your paint program OR by placing properly sized mounds in your Leveller terrain. In any event, this balancing act must be learned before satisfying results can be expected.
I believe it's better to use a paint program to scale with in some cases, so that you can export a higher 'resolution' BMP and scale it more flexibly. Adding too high mounds for scaling purposes in Leveller can end up flattening some things beyond recovery with a contrast tool.
Note: The Leveller "elevation limits" setting does not appear to correct this scaling issue, as you might expect from setting it to a range of 256 units of height, as used in MTM2 terrains.
I hope my notes will help get people started, though they would be best received after becoming a bit familiar with the program. I have not yet included any information on editing, saving and using the actual terrain images with track editors, hopefully someone else will come along and continue to share links, tips and whatever else may fit in here. ;-) Have fun.
[This message has been edited by Winterkill (edited 19-06-2001).]
