Attempting custom worldspace creation, producing only worldspace desperation.

[KhrajiriiOfCorinthe]

I'm following this tutorial, but have also tried every other tutorial in existence, with the same (or worse) results.

 

So I've got a heightmap all sculpted out. Everything's as it should be. I'm using L3DT for the job. The slopes are smooth and non-threatening. If I flatten it much more, it'll be a frictionless plane. The lower height is 117.04, and the upper height no more than 1000, as prescribed by the tutorial, and the horizontal scale is set as instructed too. The map is 3072x3072 over all (using the free pro-trial of l3dt to load a map so big).

 

The RAW is exported according to instructions. 16-bit, correctly sized, not y-inverted, etc. TESAnnwyn flags are set also according to instructions, including doing the math for -x and -y about five times (and getting -48 every time).

 

TESAnnwyn runs and produces the .esp, with no apparent problems (except a hideous number of over/underflows, and nothing I do to the map no matter how drastic changes their quantity).

 

The resulting .esp opens in the CK...and that's about it. Absolutely nothing else about this process has succeeded. Nothing is working the way everything says it should. I can't find a single place online talking about anything like this.

 

One problem is not being able to get between wilderness cells except manually. I click on a cell to load, it loads that and the two above and below it in the list (ex. click 24, 20, get 24, 18-22). If I go past 24,22 it should automatically load 24,23. Instead, it just goes out of the cell into the void, as if it was an interior (it's not, and not set as one). I have to click it manually to get the next chunk of cells. Zooming out also shows only those couple cells, then void.

 

Another problem, the land is beyond messed up. Like cell tearing, but worse than any example I can find. Anything that's not flat plane is either twisted into random shapes, or turned into a completely two dimensional (!!) plane sticking perfectly straight up into the air for MILES. I keep smoothing and smoothing and smoothing and flattening and adjusting, but nothing I do changes or helps. tbh, I don't even see a difference whatsoever, even after cutting the vertical range in half and drawing the horizontal range out as far as the tutorial said it could do. I just can't even seem to affect anything, nevermind fix it. I'm starting to doubt this is even an example of cell tearing to begin with, but have no idea what else it could be.

 

Third problem(s) was found when I tried looking at the heightmap using CK's own viewer. Firstly, I dunno if maybe it's supposed to be like that, but the whole thing looks like nothing but a mess of perfectly square pixels of random colours, attempting to smooth it with CK's tools crashes the CK when trying to save the changes. (Since I can't see more than a couple cells at once, this is the only way to see the entire map.)

 

But even if I could save them, it wouldn't matter. Because, if the height editor preview is any indication, about half my map is being cropped off from around each side, despite TESAnwynn having been set to the right image size. Hell, on some attempts the stupid thing has even been cropped AND squashed slightly at the sides so it's not even square anymore. I checked the RAW being output by L3DT in PS, the whole thing is there and intact. And once again, not a single thing I change about any part of the export or import process or original L3DT map seems to have ANY change on any part of the problem.

 

I'm completely lost, and have nowhere left to look for information, so any kind of idea would help (any screenshots or details requested will be eagerly supplied). I've literally done nothing but try to fix this for almost a week now. Literally, I wake up, I research and try different solutions until I'm too tired, sleep & repeat. And haven't made a single, solitary inch of progress on this problem. I'm frustrated, exhausted, and UTTERLY out of ideas; I've just beat my head against this wall so hard for so long every thought has turned to mush. I'm still 1000% devoted to this project, I just really, really need a hand getting over this seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

[Rigmor]

what about scaling the map to 4096 x 4096. The ck is really happy with sizes such as 1024, 2048, 4096 I have never heard of a map at 3072

[KhrajiriiOfCorinthe]

what about scaling the map to 4096 x 4096. The ck is really happy with sizes such as 1024, 2048, 4096 I have never heard of a map at 3072

Thanks for the suggestion, the CK does seem at least somewhat happier. The tut listed 3072 as an example of a valid size, but I couldn't remember why I'd picked that one specifically in the first place, so I just moved up to 4096 and spent a day playing around with that.

 

About half the map now looks pretty good, with no/minimal tearing issues. The other half still has some very worrying twisty shapes and mile-high 2D spikes, but it's definitely an improvement from before, and I guess I'll just have to finish up re-proportioning around the last few smaller bits that I'm actually sure are definitely tearing, and hope it fixes the spikes too as a side effect. (which it hopefully does, since there's not even anything pointy there on the map so I can't just flatten the problem cells--they're already pretty much flat).

 

Speaking of maps, if the CK's heightmap overview is right, it's actually loading the whole map now instead of just the middle--also a step in a good direction!

 

I guess the main non-spike issue now is not being able to see what I'm doing, then, since the CK will still only give me a few cells at once and won't change to a new "chunk" of cells as I move around. I strongly suspect at least some of the twisty shapes are half-loaded hills that look wrong because the CK won't load the other half as I approach it. I've looked everywhere and can't find any setting related to this, which was my only real idea on the subject (that and a thought that maybe generating lod would make more cells visible so the loaded area would have to start following me as it should, but I'm almost certain that's not part of what lod does, so...*shrug*).

 

Also of concern is that fact that, in an attempt to finally get a good look at the land, I tried plunking down a cocmarker on a likely-looking plateau, then boot into the game and check it out in person. But when I coc'd in, there was no land at all, totally invisible. I was in the right worldspace, about where the marker should be, but there was nothing but infinite water in every direction but upwards. I thought maybe I put the water to high and tried to swim down, but after swimming who knows how long I didn't see any part of any landmass. Water, water everywhere. No clue here either. So just gonna have to hope here too that polishing up the map so it shows well in the CK will make it fit to appear in the game too.

I tried moving land up and water down via both "Cell view>edit>water height" and "World>Worldspaces>Water/Land Height fields, to no obvious difference. Maybe I'm picking the wrong numbers.

 

I need a rest for a bit, so I'm gonna leave off here for the night. Tomorrow morning I guess I'll check this thread, then unless another nice Person Smarter Than Me suggests doing something else, I'll just soldier on with my spikes and water-levels.