Looking for a good heightmap tutorial

[AlphaWoIF]

What size is your heightmap.

 

The free version of L3DT can only import 2048x2048.

original version is something in the 16000 as i wanted the max skyrim could handle but the i scale a version down to 2048 for l3dt

[Zehryo]

I've been writing a guide on how to build a new worldspace for Skyrim, however I've not been using L3DT for a particular reason which just the cause of your problems.

 

Your problem, and this is where L3DT fails, is that you didnt set a proper vertical scale for your heightmap. To have a 1:1 height ratio between your model and your worldspace in Skyrim you have to set the max world altitude to 7471 meters. Actually I've found 7466 is closer to the right scale, but both are good, in the end (matter of centimeters over hundreds of meters).

 

So a whole quad is 1872 meters wide, a single cell is about 58,5 meters and the max altitude is about 7471 meters. Your problem, with L3DT, is that you should set the vertical scale to the right max altitude when you export the heightmap.

 

Seeing your heightmap I can say that it's way too bright. For what I see from the cartographic map, I'm not surprised you get such bad tears and crazy steep hills: it should be about 1/5 less bright or even less, probably.

 

I've got to know there's a way to set the vertical scale at the moment you export your heightmap from L3DT and I've also opened a thread on L3DT forums for this, so you might find the information you need right there.

[bDeferredShadows]

Looks like you did what I did at first, I didn't follow the tutorial closely enough either.

 

Two things could have happened here.

 

1. When you started your project, you did not set the Horizontal scale to 1.8288221359252928 or

2. you did not export the heightmap .raw file with the correct settings (this is where I made the mistake)

 

In the RAW options, you must set the Mode to 16-bit unsigned (manual scale). There are 5 different options for exporting in 16-bit. Double check that you're selecting the correct one. Then, directly below Mode, there is the ManualScale setting. Make sure this is set to 0.114301. Lastly, double click the InvertY to set it to false.

Now you can name and save the .raw file.

 

 

How and where do I do step one? Pulling my hair out here.

[Chiaro22]

It's step 4 in this tutorial.

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/809556-from-l3dt-to-skyrim-heightmap-tutorial/