Symmetric MOBA heightmap

Development Rendering
1

Hello,
I would like to create diagonally symmetrical MOBA heightmap.
My background is that I completely suck at photoshop, but have some knowledge about World Machine and UE4.

What would be the best approach to create such a map while having complete geometrical control over it?

  • mask out the lanes to be able to texture it in the engine?
  • lower the heightmap in the riverbed to not intersect with water plane?
  • rise the heightmap to create unpassable jungle walls?
  • how to quickly iterate over the map, make adjustments and easily import it to the engine?

What would be the best tools for this?

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

2

Use any program that allows you to work natively in 16bit. So not Photoshop.

3

Hey,
thank you for the comment :slight_smile:

Can you maybe elaborate a bit more? :

  • what’s the meaning of 16 bit?
  • what software do you recommend?
  • how(layers, masks,…) and what format should the map be saved in?

Thanks .)

Edit:
I read some documentation and if I understand it correctly, <x>bit means a number of bits/pixel to store height value…?
E.g. 8bit allows storing only 256 values.

Isn’t 8bit enough for MOBA map?
Or would that produce huge(unpassable) “cliffs” between individual parts of the map(river, lane, base,…)?
So you recommend using 16bit OR MORE, right? That could be GIMP, right?

4

Quite simply.
if you use Epic’s landscape system you are forced to use 16bit PNG format.

I suggest using Krita, but it does not perform well with files above 10,000 px ^2 - on a 64GB ram system that could theoretically hold the file in memory.
Realistically any program would have trouble given the sheer size of the files in 16bit.