SC4 Mapper Inverts Colors on Import

[laubacht 4]

Greetings all!  Big question regarding the creation of custom maps for regions using SC4Mapper and Photoshop.  Please note, the attached images are highly incomplete and are being used for testing purposes until I can figure out my issue.

So my process; I am pulling in various maps from sources and combining them in Photoshop to create a rough outline of the land I want to create for a new region.  I have a basic photoshop files with various layers for each feature.  Once I have them in place, I will then save as a PNG, which looks like the GREEN image you see below.

After that, I go to put them into SC4 Mapper.  Upon loading into the program, it looks as if it inverts the colors to the BLUE image you see.  I have mainly attempted to 'CREATE REGION' via the Grayscale Image as I get various errors on the other options.  I have also attempted to make the color image a GRAY, and I get the exact same results.

So in short... GREEN is the exported file from Photoshop, BLUE is what SC4 Mapper turns the green into upon import, and GRAY is just the grayscale version of the green.

The endgame is to be able to create the image with Photoshop, clean it up in there.  Render it out, import into SC4 Mapper, create the config.bmp file and export as SC4M and create the region that way.

So, my questions are...

Is there a certain save format I need to do in Photoshop so I can bring the correct colors into SC4 Mapper?

Is there a certain color profile, export setting, or other information I need to properly export from Photoshop?

Is there an alternative method I am not seeing?

Any and all help appreciated

[Odainsaker 2,137]

Hiya!

The technical steps of saving and exporting an image from Photoshop to SC4 Mapper actually did work correctly for you.  However, it reads like the images you are using to make maps are not actually grayscale digital elevation maps, or DEMs, and so the maps you are ultimately generating in SC4 Mapper are not what you are expecting.  For example, the last image you showed as a source, with the blue rivers and green land, is not a DEM but is instead a shaded relief map that is color coded so that light blue is water, dark green is land, and lighter green is sun-facing mountains.  While such a map can be turned into a general grayscale image as seen in your second image, this is still not actually an ideal "digital elevation map" and will usually not lead to the generation of terrain useful for SimCity.

Rather than color coding light blue for water and dark green for land, a proper grayscale digital elevation map is value coded such that lighter gray values denote higher elevation and darker gray values denote lower elevation.  The highest value white denotes the maximum highest elevation, while the darkest value black denotes the maximum lowest elevation.  In the second image you showed, the conversion to grayscale essentially nullified the color component to make grays but preserved the lightness/darkness values, and so light blue became light gray and dark green became dark gray.  Because lighter gray values are higher elevation and darker gray values are lower elevation, the light blue area you may have thought of as water is instead turned into mountains while the dark green you may have thought of as lush land is instead turned into a deep sea.

Instead of just converting colored images to grayscale, you might consider making images in grayscale now with an eye towards lighter gray values creating higher elevation and darker gray values creating lower elevation.  Paint swaths and shapes in a variety of different grayscale values to see their result in SC4 Mapper.  Look at other grayscale digital elevation maps already made for SimCity and cut-and-paste the parts you like to see how they ultimately look as SimCity terrain.

You can save images in JPG, BMP, or PNG format.  They should be in either 8-bit or 16-bit grayscale mode.  They should not be compressed, interlaced, nor palletted.  However, that you were able to get SC4 Mapper to create your first blue image indicates that your file format and save settings from Photoshop to SC4 Mapper were already valid.

If using 8-bit mode, gray values 0-83 are below sea level and gray values 84-255 are above sea level when imported into SimCity.  If using 16-bit mode, gray value 2500 in SC4 Mapper is default sea level.  8-bit mode is more accessible and familiar with players, but has limitations in the elevation ranges it can represent and in the workarounds required.  16-bit mode has greater elevation range and fidelity, but is radically more complex to work with and less familiar to players.  16-bit mode shines best when used with high-quality DEM data of real-world topography.  For starting out and practice, it might be easier to keep to the 8-bit route for now.

[CorinaMarie 29,898]

You explain map making so well, @Odainsaker!

Btw, @laubacht, see his replies in this thread too for some really good details.

[laubacht 4]

@Odainsaker Fantastic reply, thank you for a very in-depth explanation.  Unfortunately you eliminated what I was hoping was going to be a simple solution (i.e. make sure this box is checked).  Hahaha

But seriously, that's good info.  As I have gotten into this, I realized how incredibly in-depth this is.  Certainly nothing wrong with that except it draws out this process a little more than I anticipated.  Even still, as I have returned to the game after a couple years, it's one of my biggest projects I want to tackle is designing my dream landscape and work on that canvas from there.  That said, it's worth the investment in time to learn all this.  I think like anything else, once you start playing the game, making cities, etc, it gets a little monotonous unless you have specific goals.  Happened to me in Animal Crossing, got really into it, then I eventually was a "do my dailys" player til I finally just stopped.  I got bored.  Terraforming a region is new to me on this scale, so it's opened a new door to the game.  And I think it will keep me engaged, even into the city planning parts since I have designed my region with certain ideas in mind once I get to the city stages further on down the road.

After all that long-windedness, I will take your very detailed explanations into practice and see how that suits me.  Once again, I appreciate such a detailed response!