Creating and Texturing Terrain with EarthSculptor

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Tools UI References

Model Viewer  •  World Editor  •  Terrain Generator

Working with Terrain

About Terrain  •  Using L3DT Pro  •  Using EarthSculptor  •  Using PnP TerrainCreator  •  Importing Heightmap Terrain  •  Using Mosaic Creator

Other Tools

Third-Party Tools  •  Creating Skyboxes with Terragen

This tutorial was written by Multiverse developer DimiTree with help from KreatO, Shadowstar, and holtt.

EarthSculptor is a real-time heightmap terrain editor and paint program featuring an easy to use interface with immediate feedback editing designed exclusively for rapid development of 3D landscapes for visualization, multimedia and game development

Contents 1 Preparing EarthSculptor 2 Using EarthSculptor 3 Preparing the files for Multiverse 4 Importing the files to your Multiverse asset repository 5 Using the files in Multiverse World Editor 6 Results

Preparing EarthSculptor

1. In the Earth Sculptor installation folder, edit EarthSculptor.ini.
2. Find the following line: maxTerrainHeight 300.000000 Change it to: maxTerrainHeight 1000.000000
3. Save the file and start Earth Sculptor.

Using EarthSculptor

1. Make a new map with 512x512 for all settings and four detail textures.
2. Before you can start editing your terrain you must set the terrain height to 1000 using the user interface in Earth Sculptor.



3. Edit your terrain.



4. Paint Detail maps. WARNING: Add a texture to ALL the detile map layers (and paint with all of them (just in case)) or the Detile textures map will not work with Multiverse.



5. Save your map in a separate folder, for example MyMap.
6. Export the Heightmap and save it in a new folder inside MyMap folder, for example HeightMap.



7. Save and exit EarthSculptor.

Preparing the files for Multiverse

1. Start Multiverse Mosaic Creator.
   
2. Load the Height Map .png file from your MyMap\Heightmap folder.
3. Make the following settings:
   • Tile size 512
   • Meters Per Pixel 1
   • Select the Height Map checkbox.
   
4. Save the Mosaic file in a new folder inside your MyMap\Heightmap\ folder for example Mosaic.
5. Next we will create the alpha splat Mosaic file for the first four detail layers that you assigned in Earth Sculptor. Load the file (in my case) MyMap_d.png located in your MyMap folder.
6. Make the following settings:
   • Tile size: 1024
   • Meters Per Pixel: 1
   • Leave the Height Map checkbox unchecked.
   
7. Save the Mosaic in a new folder inside your MyMap folder, for example SplatTexture.
8. If you are using 8 detail textures, you will need to create a second splat texture Mosaic for Multiverse to use (without it, your terrain will not look correct in the Multiverse world if you used 8 detail textures). Load the file (in my case) MyMap_dd.png located in your MyMap folder.
9. Use the same settings as you did before:
   • Tile size: 1024
   • Meters Per Pixel: 1
   • Leave the Height Map checkbox unchecked.
   
10. Save the Mosaic in a new folder inside your MyMap folder, for example SplatTexture2.
11. Exit Multiverse Mosaic Creator.

Importing the files to your Multiverse asset repository

1. Start the Multiverse Asset Importer.
2. For the Asset Type chose Mosaic.
3. For Asset Name type MyMapTerrain.
4. Click the Browse button in the Mosaic field and open the .mmf file located in your MyMap\Heightmap\Mosaic folder, for example C:\EarthSculptor\Maps\MyMap\Heightmap\Mosaic\MyMapMosaic.mmf.
5. Click the browse button in the Optional Textures field and chose all the textures.
6. Save the Asset File in your AssetDefinitions folder.
   
7. Exit Multiverse Asset Importer.
8. In your MyMap\SplatTexture folder, copy the two files to your assetdefinitions \Textures folder.
9. In your EarthSculptor \Textures folder, copy all files to your assetdefinitions \Textures folder.

Using the files in Multiverse World Editor

1. Start Multiverse World Editor.
2. Chose File -> New World from the Menu and type a name, for example "TestWorld."
3. Select Terrain, right click on Terrain and chose Load Terrain.
   
4. Browse to your assetdefinitions \Textures folder.
5. From the Files of Type chose the L3DT Mosaic Heightmap files.
   
6. Now you can see the Mosaic file for the terrain.
7. Select MyMapMosaic.mmf file and load it.
8. Change the Auto Splat to Alpha Splat.
   
9. Click the [+] next to Terrain and select Terrain Display.
10. In the Alpha0MosaicName type the name of the .mmf file in your MyMap\SplatTexture folder without the .mmf at the end. This is the MyMap_d.png file that you converted to Mosaic and saved in SplatTexture folder and then copied and pasted to the asset definitions \Textures folder.
    
11. If you are using 8 detail textures, you will need to assign a name to the Alpha1MosaicName variable. Type in the name of the .mmf file that you created for the second alpha splat mosaic Textures\SplatTexture2. Without this alpha splat, the engine will not know how to display the last 4 detail textures that you have assigned for your world.
12. In the DetailTexture type l3dt-detailmap.jpg.
13. For the Layer1, Layer2, Layer3, Layer4 textures Open Earth Sculptor and see the names for the textures that you used for Layer1,2,3,4 and type them in World Editor.

Note: Ensure that you also type the extension name as well or the world editor will not load the bitmap texture for that detail slot. (ie. if your texture was a JPEG called Grass you would need to type Grass.jpg).

14. You can use the textures from Earth Sculptor because you copied them from Earth Sculptors\Textures folder in the Multiverse asset defenitions \Textures folder.
15. Scroll down to Textures TileSize and set it to 10.

Results

Result in Multiverse World Editor:

Result in EarthSculptor: