As you can see I don’t use WM in the typical manner. I use a screenshot of the terrain shown in WM and create a map from there.
I’d love to see a feature where a jpg, bmp, png, etc could be exported directly from WM in some future release.
I do have Bryce though and wonder if anyone could offer some suggestions concerning how to get a WM export into Bryce so I will not be limited by screen captures. (That is until the ability to export image files is integrated into WM).
Your map is very nicely done! I’m impressed. Where is the location that is depicted, what “world”?
As far as exporting images, I presume you mean with the shading that WM applies. This is apparently something that a lot of people wanted, but was not anticipated as a desirable feature. Now that Stephen knows people would like this feature, he will probably implement it at some point in the future, I am hoping with the 1.0 release some time this year.
Until then you can of course export the terrain as a BMP and other image formats, then it’s just a matter of shading it as you want. In Photoshop for example you could use a color remap and change the palette of the terrain to map to the colors you want for each altitude. White is high, black is low, so you could remap black to dark green or blue, as you have in your map, then grays would be varying shades of gray, and as it got closer to white, you’d map more and more to brown. You can accomplish this with a properly edited gradient and a color remapping. And that’s just one approach. There are other terrain applications like 3DEM which can do altitude-based shading.
Dragon Island is entirely fictitious and does not exist in any larger world. I liked the terrain WM generated so I used it to experiment with.
You were correct when you assumed that I meant the shaded image that WM produces. You suggested to use Photoshhop to create larger images. I have a small amount of experience with shaded relief maps in photoshop however this leads to the next question.
Won’t the exported/saved greyscale image being modified in PS be an overhead 2D image as opposed to the 3D shaded model that WM shows in its 3D image preview? Is there a way to save the 3D image directly to greyscale other then an image capture?
I found some articles at shadedrelief.com that tells how to bring images into Bryce so I think I’m going to toy with that next.
I sure hope that Stephen does incorporate the ability to save the 3D images into a graphic file. It would make purchasing the registered version of WM all the more worthwhile!
There is currently no way to save the shaded model as displayed in WM into an image file. Again this is something for which demand was not anticipated, I believe. Knowing the desire for it, perhaps it will now be included in a future version.
Hmm, I don’t mean to spoil things by sharing my pessimism on that… And I also am not speaking for Stephen either, so this is just an outburst of by opinion…
But I think WM is a “terrain modeller”, not “terrain renderer”… So any 3D stuff, is meant purely for previewing purposes… A quick way to check things, and to figure out what to do over that device output. So any 3D render made by WM is meant to be used only within WM… Not really “outside”, unless for screenshots…
:!: However, (*) I can now imagine a useful application for saving 3D renders: To be able to check the outputs of different parameters more easily, without the need for rendering the terrain elsewhere.
(*) - ok, so my pessimism suddenly turned into optimism, is there a problem?
But please, do be aware that once people get access to something new, they will most likely want something more, soon after… So from there, people will start to want texturing, water, clouds… They will want to pay less for a WM that does everything that TerraGenIV will do by then!
WM is not meant to replace Terragen… It is meant to make terrains only. We are free to use it on terragen or any other thing… (We can even do seamless greyscale wallpapers with the right macro ) To be generic enough, WM shouldn’t implement any cloud stuff or texturing, because if it is supposed to be a preview, it should be similar to the final looks. And if WM is simulating other applications’ behaviour, the risk of not looking like it was supposed to, is too high.
I understand what you’re saying Fil, but I’m not sure I entirely agree. Firstly, if there is another application that fills this role as well as WM (or better), than we should simply refer any people who want this feature to that. So far we have not come up with one, so it seems to be a feature in need of implementation, and WM is already half way there. It just needs to output its render buffer to an image instead (in simplified terms).
As far as “feature creep” and implementing too many renderer-like features, it’s certainly a concern. However it’s just a matter of picking what makes sense to program. Many programs like 3DEM have managed to remain relatively focused on their particular problem domain, but still support features like the one we’re describing - terrain shading and image output. On the other hand some applications like Leveller are dabbling in the rendering area, for better or worse. I for one would rather Leveller’s developer focus on better terrain painting functionality and “feel”, so I agree that there can be problems with getting defocused. But I don’t think it is a necessary evil.
This particular feature has been requested very often and since it is already a part of what WM does, it seems to make sense to extend it a bit. Other feature requests may not make so much sense and should be considered but no doubt decided on differently. But again in this case I think it makes sense to implement this. No other app I’m aware of that is anywhere near WM’s price is capable of shading the terrain as quickly and easily as WM and with the same good results.