Vandy

Hello, All. While I'm not new to Simtropolis, I've been away long enough that I thought I'd do an "official" reintroduction for all the new (and old) members. My name is Gary and I go by Vandy on the 'net, although; I'll answer to either name. I've been associated with Simtropolis since December of 2004 (Wow! It's been THAT LONG?!?!) and find it to be one of THE BEST SimCity 4-related sites available today. I've actually never seriously gotten into "playing" SC4 as it was intended. Rather, I enjoy making maps. I have a number of maps available on the STEX so, if you're interested, check them out. If you're looking for me, you'll most likely find me hanging out in the Mapping Community Room Forum. That's where I spend most of my time. You might also find me in the Map This! - Cartography Services thread which is where I showcase and discuss the maps I've made and am making. I'm looking forward to getting to know all the new members as well as reconnecting with the current membership. Y'all have a great day! Regards, Vandy

Hello, Omega128. First of all, my thanks to RICHBoyZ for helping Omega128 with his mapping problem. I certainly appreciate your "pitching in" and helping out. Thank you! Omega128, in the future you might want to consult the How to Install a Map From the STEX article at the top of the Mapping Community Room. I do believe that this article will anwer any questions you have. Good luck! Regards, Vandy

This is Part One of a 5 part tutorial on how to create an American Southwest terrain using SC4Terraformer. Within this tutorial are a number of "sidebars" -- that is, aditional explanatory information -- that cover the use of a number of the SC4Terraformer features and functions. It is recommended that this tutorial be done from Part One through Part Five so that the results obtained closely mirror the results of this multi-part tutorial. The map created from this tutorial is available on the Simtropolis STEX under the name American Southwest - Monument Valley. Downloading, Installing and Running the SC4Terraformer Application Downloading the Application 1) The SC4Terraformer application (SC4TF), version 1.0c can be found in the Modds & Downloads -- -- section of SimTropolis. For version 1.1, click on SC4Terrafomer, version 1.1. 2) Create a folder on your computer's hard drive and name it SC4Terraformer. 3) Download the application (it is a zipped archive) and save it to the SC4Terraformer folder you created. Installing the Application 1) Unzip the archive ensuring that you use the "Use Folder Names" option in order to reconstruct the necessary folder structure for the application. 2) The application is installed -- there is no installer file that needs to be run. Running the Application 1) To run the application, navigate to the sub-folder in which you unzipped the application and double-click on the file named SC4Terraformer.exe. 2) The application's ReadMe file is displayed and can be closed, if desired. 3) In the Browse for Folder dialog box, highlight a region to load and click the OK button. A Loading Region dialog box is displayed as cities are being loaded. 4) In the Report dialog box, click the OK button to open the region. 5) The SC4Terraformer Main Window, SC4Trraformer toolbar, Overview and Slider Window open and display the region. 6) In the SC4Terraformer Main Window, click on File - Create a region (or, press Ctrl+N). 7) In the Region creation dialog box, in the Region Name field, type in the name given in the specific tutorial instructions. In the Width and Height fields, typ in the dimensions given in the specific tutorial instructions. 9) Leave the SC4M file field blank. 10 Click on the OK button. 11) A blank, flat region is created. 12) Go to a tutorial and following the instructions given to create a region. IMPORTANT NOTE The default configuration bit map created by SC4TF when creating a new region is 4 x 4 pixels and consists of all small (red) city tiles. If you wish to use either medium, large or a mix of city tile sizes or, a specific tutorial calls for a specifically sized config.bmp file, you must create the appropriate config.bmp file yourself using a graphics editor application. A good tutorial to follow for creating config.bmp files is Config.bmp: How to Make it Yours. Once you've created a new region, overwrite the config.bmp file created by SC4TF with the one you just created. The next time you run SC4TF and open the region you created, it will be configured to use the config.bmp file you created. The config.bmp file created by SC4TF can be found in the following path: \My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\\config.bmp where is the name given to the region in Step 7), above. Monument Valley in the American Southwest The following is quoted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (information has been updated since the below quote was taken): "Monument Valley provides perhaps the most enduring and definitive images of the American West. The isolated red mesas and buttes surrounded by empty, sandy desert have been filmed and photographed countless times over the years for movies, advertisements and travel brochures. Because of this, the area may seem quite familiar, even on a first visit, but it is soon evident that the natural colors really are as bright and deep as those in all the pictures. The valley is not a valley in the conventional sense, but rather a wide flat, sometimes desolate landscape, interrupted by the crumbling formations rising hundreds of feet into the air, the last remnants of the sandstone layers that once covered the entire region." For more information about Monument Valley, click on the Monument Valley link. This tutorial details how to create a region with topological features similar to Monument Valley. The tutorial is broken into five parts as shown below: 01) Creating a Butte (this tutorial) 02) Creating a Chimney Rock Spire 03) Creating a High Tableland Mesa 04) "Roughing" Up the Land 05) Creating a Dry Wash In order to successfully complete this tutorial, the SC4Terraformer application (Version 1.0c or higher) is required to be downloaded and installed. Please consult the Downloading, Installing and Running the SC4Terraformer Application information above for detailed instructions on installing the application. Use the following information when creating a new region: Region Name: American Southwest Width: 4 Height: 4 Create a config.bmp file that is 4 x 4 pixels and blue in color (single large city tile). Overwrite the config.bmp created by SC4TF with this 4 x 4 pixel blue config.bmp file. This tutorial is rather lengthy as I am introducing a number of explanations on how to use SC4Terraformer (SC4TF) features and functions. In subsequent sections of the tutorial, I will reference those explanations rather than re-explain them again. Creating a Butte Launch the ST4TF application Launch SC4TF and load the region named TUT01-American_Southwest. SC4TF User Interface Before starting our tutorial, let's explore the SC4TF User Interface (UI). UI Components The interface is made up of four distinct parts as follows: Overview Window The Overview Window shows the complete map you are working on in a 2D overhead view. SC4Terraformer Toolbar The SC4Terraformer Toolbar contains all of the applications tools used to create a terrain. SC4Terraformer Window The SC4Terraformer Window is where you actually create the terrain. It is shown as a 3D view and can be scrolled in all four directions, rotated and zoomed in and out. Sliders Box The Sliders Box is use to set the size of the drawing tool (Radius), the strength of the drawing tool and to set the minimum and maximum heights of the selected tool. The Overview Window and Sliders Box can be independently moved around the screen. The SC4Terraformer Toolbar is permanently docked on the left hand side of the SC4Terraformer Window. Also, the Overview Window can be closed, if desired. To reopen the Overview Window, click (in the SC4Terraformer Window) on File - Show overview or, press Ctrl+V. Configuration Tools The following completely explains the use of the Configuration Tools as they are useful to use when terraforming your terrain. In the SC4Terraformer Toolbar, click on the Configuration Tools drop down arrow to open this set of tools. Edges scrolling checkbox When checked, this function causes the map displayed in the SC4Terraformer Window to scroll left, right, up or down depending upon where the mouse pointer is placed in the window -- when the mouse pointer is placed on the left edge of the window, the display is scrolled to the right; when placed on the right edge of the window, the display is scrolled to the left; at the top edge, the display is scrolled down; at the bottom edge, the display is scrolled up. Compute Shadows checkbox When checked, this function causes SC4TF to determine where shadows should be placed and then display them where appicable on the terrain in the SC4Terraformer Window. Show cities borders checkbox When checked, this function displays the appropriate city tile squares on the terrain in the SC4Terrafomer Window. The default displays as all small city tile using light gray lines. The configuration of the config.bmp being used in the region shows the appropriate city tiles as bright white lines. Render water checkbox When checked, this function displays any water shown in the SC4Terraformer Window in the default water color. When unchecked, the underwater terrain is displayed in the default underwater terrain color. lock/unlock cities button When this button is pressed, the Report dialog box is displayed and allows you to protect or unprotect city objects. Undo last terraforming button When this button is pressed, it undos -- that is, removes -- the last terraforming performed. This is very useful in undoing a mistake or removing terraforming you don't like. Note there is only one level of undo. If you perform two terraforming functions, only the most recent is undone. Change colors button When this button is pressed, the Choose a new color scheme dialog box is displayed and allows you to select a different set of default colors to use in SC4TF. Navigation Key Combinations There are a number of key combinations that are used to move around in the SC4Terraformer Window. We'll finish our tour of the SC4TF UI by explaining how to use them. Left Arrow Key -- scrolls the display to the right and displays more of the left side of the terrain Right Arrow Key -- scrolls the display to the left and displays more of the right side of the terrain Up Arrow Key -- scrolls the display down and displays more of the top of the terrain. Down Arrow Key -- scrolls the display up and displays more of the bottom of the terrain. NOTE: "Camera" is a term used to describe how the terrain is viewed. Ctrl+Left Arrow Key -- Rotates the camera to the left moving the terrain to the right. Ctrl+Right Arrow Key -- Rotates the camera to the right moving the terrain to the left. Ctrl+Up Arrow Key -- Rotates the camera until the bottom of the terrain is displayed. Ctrl+Down Arrow Key -- Rotates the camera until the top of the terrain is displayed. NOTE: Ctrl+Up Arrow Key is useful to get a ground level view of the terrain. Ctrl+Down Arrow Key is useful to get a "straight-down" overview of the terrain. Scrolling the mouse wheel towards you or pressing the "+" key on the numeric keypad raises (zooms in) the camera. Scrolling the mouse wheel away from you or pressing the "-" on the numeric keypad lowers (zooms out) the camera. Pressing and holding the Shift key in combination with any of the above keys causes the action of the key to be much slower and results in more precise movements. Useful keyboard shortcut keys: -- The "G" key toggles the grid display on and off. -- Ctrl+S displays the Save dialog box. -- Ctrl+Shift+S opens the Save file as dialog box and allow the saving of a picture of the current SC4Terraformer Window. -- Ctrl+O displays the Browse for a folder dialog box and allow the opening of a region. -- Ctrl+N opens the Region Creation dialog box to create a new region. -- Alt+F4 will display the SC4TF Quit dialog box. SC4TF Tools To Be Used In making a butte, a number of SC4TF tools are used including the following: Brush Tools -- Canyon, Mesa, Volcano Zone Tools -- Draw, Smooth, Make Valley, Water erode Enhanced Slider Window -- Radius, Strength, Min Height, Max Height Creating a Butte A butte is simply defined as an "eroded mesa". That is, a high area which, over time, has been eroded away leaving only a relatively small and very tall rock mass. In the American Southwest, it is not at all unusually to find buttes between 133 and 333 meters (approximately 400 and 1000 feet) in height. Mesa Tool In the SC4Terraformer toolbar window, click on the Brush Tools drop down arrow and select the Mesa tool. The Mesa tool creates a raised portion of land whose minimum and maximum height is dependent upon the settings of the Min Height and Max Height sliders. (More on these sliders later.) If we use the default values of the sliders and click somewhere on our terrain, we create a mesa of some height. The height is further dependent upon how long the mouse button is clicked before releasing it. For example, the picture below shows a mesa created using a rounded drawing tool shape (selected from Zone tools), default slider values and clicking the mouse button for 1 second, 3 seconds and 5 seconds. The difference in height is very obvious, isn't it? In its simplest form, this is all that is necessary to create a butte. However, MTCS never does things in a simple way. Slider Window The Slider Window selects the Radius of the drawing tool (that is, the size of the rounded or square shape used to create terrain features), the Strength of the drawing tool (that is, how much of an affect a selected tool will have on the terrain) and sets the minimum and maximum heights of the terrain by adjusting the Min Height and Max Height sliders. The Radius slider adjusts the size of the drawing tool. It can be set by clicking on the slider pointer and dragging the pointer to the desired value or, for larger differences, by clicking in the slider groove. For very precise changes, click and drag the slider pointer to a value near what you want the then use either the Left Arrow or Right Arrow keys to get to the precise value you desire. Notice the example below where the Radius has been set first to 7 and next to 18. The Strength slider changes the amount of affect a selected tool has on the terrain. To show this, the following examples use the Zone Tool "Make Hills" with the Radius set to 10, the Min Height set to 0002 and the Max Height set to 6000. In the far left example, the strength is set to 10. In the middle example, the strength is set to 12. In the far right example, the strength is set to 15. The "Make Hills" tool is selected for 3 seconds in all three examples. The Min / Max Height Sliders are used to restrict the minimum height to use when terraforming and the maximum height to use when terraforming. The values are shown in units of meters. By restricting the height, a terrain object starts at a specified height and does not go over a specified height. To show this, the following examples use the Zone Tool "Make Hills with the radius set to 5 and the strength set to 5. The far left example shows a Min Height of 0280 and a Max Height of 281. Note that smallest Max height value that can be selected is 1 meter higher than the Min Height value. The middle example shows a Min Height of 0300 and a Max Height of 0350. The far right example shows a Min Height value of 500 and a Max Height value of 750. To change the value of the sliders, click on the slider pointer and drag the pointer to the desired value or, for larger differences, click in the slider groove. For very precise changes, click and drag the slider pointer to a value near what you want then use either the Left Arrow or Right Arrow keys to get to the precise value you desire. Creating Different Height Buttes Move the drawing tool over the terrain and notice the lower right portion of the SC4Terraformer window. You'll see the X and Y coordinates changing as well as the height of the terrain under the drawing tool. Notice that level terrain shows 280 meters (approximately 840 feet). Leave the Min Height value at 0002 and change the Max Height value to 500 meters (approximately 1500 feet). Leave the Radius and Strength values at their default values of 05 and 10, respectively. Using the same 1 second, 3 second and 5 second values for mouse clicks we get the following results: Notice that the first two mesas at 1 second and 3 seconds are pretty much the same height. However, the 3 second mesa never rose above 500 meters while the first 3 second mesa only stopped rising in height because I released the mouse button. The Min / Max Height sliders are very useful in controlling either the minimum height of an object as well as the maximum height of an object. Creating our example butte That's enough SC4Terraformer explanations for now. Let's go ahead and create our example butte. The butte will be 300 meters tall (approximately 900 feet) and generally oval in shape. Note that when moving the drawing tool over the terrain, the height shown in the lower right portion of the status bar in the SC4Terraformer window shows 280 meters. We'll use this value as our Min Height and we'll set our Max height to 580 meters. Set the Radius and Strength Sliders to 10. To set the Min Height and Max Height values, follow the below steps: 1) In the Slider Window, click on and drag the Min Height slider pointer to a value close to 280 meters. 2) Use the cursor left or right key to precisely select a value of 0280. 3) Click on the Max Height slider pointer to a value close to 580 meters. 4) Use the cursor left or right key to precisely select a value of 0580. Now, lets create out butte. 1) Open the Brush tools choices in the SC4Terraformer Toolbar and click on the Mesa Tool. 2) Choosing an area on the terrain in the SC4Terraformer window, click and hold the mouse button. 3) Allow the mesa to raise to the Max Height value then, with the mouse button still pressed, move the drawing tool slowly about two inches and allow the rest of the mesa to raise to the Max Height value. 4) You should end up with something similar to the below example: We're done, right! Wrong! This is just a bit too "vanilla" for my taste. We need to work with the smooth walls a bit and add some bottom to the butte. 1) In the Sliders window, change the radius to 1 and the Strength to 20. 2) Leave the minimum and maximum heights as they are. 3) Click on the Zone Tools drop down arrow and select the Water erode Enhanced tool. 4) In the SC4Terraformer Window, zoom in on the butte until it just about fills the window and position it in the center of the window. 5) Choose a starting point at one end of the butte, click on the top edge with the tool and slowly work your way to the base of the butte. 6) Notice that part of the wall of the butte has been removed leaving an indented area which resembles a sheer cliff. 7) Continue using the tool on the wall of the butte as explained in Step 6, above, rotating the display as necessary until you get back to the point at which you started. You should have something similar to the below example: As you can see, we've done a great job of "roughing up" the walls of the butte and make them look more rugged. Now, we need to add some bottom or, fill, along the base of the butte. 1) Chose a height value of about one fourth the height of the butte by moving the drawing tool over the butte's walls about a quarter of the way up the wall. 2) Look in the lower right side of the SC4Terraformer Window Status bar and note the height in meters. 3) Use this height to reset the Max Height Slider value plus 100 meters. 4) I chose a value of 333 meters so, my Max Height value is set at 0433. 5) Leave the Min Height value set at 0280. 6) Set the Radius Slider to 3. 7) Set the Strength Slider to 10. Click on the Brush Tools drop down arrow and select the Volcano Tool. 9) Choose a starting point at the base of the butte and randomly click the mouse along the base of the butte. 10) Randomly hold the mouse button down for a longer time then, 11) Randomly hold the mouse button down for a shorter time and, 12) At the same time, randomly move the drawing tool up the wall of the butte and out from the wall of the butte. 13) Slowly work your way around the base of the butte rotating the display as necessary until you get back to the point at which you started. 14) You should end up with something similar to the below example: We now have a great base added to the butte -- rough in places, high in some areas, lower in others and a nice mix of rock and soil. Some of the places look a bit too rough. We'll correct this by using the smooth tool. 1) Leave the Radius Slider value at 3. 2) Change the strength Slider value to 3. 3) Leave the minimum and maximum height values as they are. 4) Click on the Zone Tools drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 5) Choose a starting point at one end of the base fill and start smoothing it rotating the display as necessary until you get back to the point at which you started. 6) Be careful to not go up the walls of the butte. 6) You should end up with something similar to the below example: Finally, let's finish the butte by adding some roughness to the very top of the mesa. 1) Change the Radius Slider value to 2. 3) Leave the Strength Slider value at 3. 4) Change the Max Height Slider value to 0600. 5) Change the Min Height Slider value to 0580. 6) Make sure the Zone Tools section is still open. If not, open it. 7) Click on the Make Hills tool. Zoom in so that the top of the butte almost fills the window. 9) CAREFULLY click on the top of the butte with the drawing tool randomly holding the mouse button down for longer and shorter times to create a bit of a rolling top to the butte. 10) You should end up with something similar to the below example: And, FINALLY, we have a completed butte! Please note the steps I've given you in this tutorial are based on the way I make a butte. They are by no means the only way a butte can be made. Please feel free to modify any steps in this tutorial in order for your own personal style to be incorporated when terraforming with the SC4Terraformer application. Part Two of the American Southwest Terrain tutorial series will explain how to create a chimney rock spire and can be access by clicking on *** MAKE SURE TO FIX American Southwest Terrain - Part Two: Creating A Chimney Rock Spire

This is Part Five of a five part tutorial on how to create an American Southwest terrain using SC4Terraformer. Within this tutorial are a number of "sidebars" -- that is, aditional explanatory information -- that cover the use of a number of the SC4Terraformer features and functions. It is recommended that this tutorial be done from Part One through Part Five so that the results obtained closely mirror the results of this multi-part tutorial. Well! Here we are at our last section for the American Southwest tutorial. Today, I'll give you the steps (well -- my steps, my procress...) on how to make a dry wash. What is a dry wash, you ask? It is a river, creek or stream bed that typically stays dry most of the year in a particular area (like the American Southwest) except in the "rainy season" when these dry beds can suddenly and dramatically be filled with water either from a flash flood or from run off from the surrounding land. It doesn't stay wet for long as this area is, after all, a desert region. We'll be using the High Tableland Mesa created in the previous section as a "backdrop" for our dry wash terrain. If you've been following this tutorial and have been terraforming and saving into the same region, it's okay to use your saved region for this section. If you haven't been saving, you can either create the High Tableland Mesa to use as our backdrop or, simply work through this section on a level terrain. If you've been saving your work from each section of the tutorial in separate regions, you'll need to load the region in which you saved the High Tableland Mesa. Before we get started, I'll assume you have loaded an appropriate region to use for our dry wash section. I'm using the region in which I created a High Tableland Mesa and have positioned it so that I have roughly the right upper corner as shown in the below example: Creating A Dry Wash In this section, I will be creating a dry river bed. If you wish to create a creek or stream bed, you'll need to adjust the Radius value accordingly. (Typically, a creek and stream is smaller than a river so the Radius vaule would need to be set smaller.) Based on where you wish to create your dry wash, you'll want to rotate the terrain in order to get a better look at where you will be placing it. This will also allow you more control over your creation as well as help you see the underlying terrain better. My dry wash is going to start in the upper right, curve around the knife butte and exit the lower center. Consequently, I've rotated my region so that I'm looking towards the mesa and have a better view of the top (now, right) edge as in the below example: 01) In the Sliders Window, set the Radius value to 6 and Min Height value to 0277. The Strength and the Max Height values aren't used and can be left at their defaults. 02) In the SC4Terraformer Toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down arrow and select the Draw tool. NOTE: The draw tool ONLY uses the Min Height value. All other values can be left at their default. REMEMBER: Once you used the draw tool and let go of the mouse button, BE SURE you press the Enter key in order to "release" the draw tool and be able to use a different tool. 03) In the SC4Terraformer main window, position your drawing tool so that the red dot is at the very edge of the terrain on the lower right side. 04) Click and hold the mouse button and slowly move the drawing tool to create your river bed as you desire. NOTE: You may have to release the mouse button, press the Enter key and the rotate your terrain in order to best see where to continue to create your river bed. You should end up with something similar to the below example (Note that I stopped before the knife butte because I need to rotate my terrain.): 05) I've rotated my terrain and have completed using the Draw tool to create my river bed. Remember to press the Enter key when you're finished with the Draw tool. You should end up with something similar to the below example: 06) In the Sliders window, change the Radius value to 02 and the Min Height value to 0275. 07) Still using the Draw tool in Zone tools, position your drawing tool at one end of the river bed, click and hold the mouse button and slowly go over the VERY MIDDLE of your river bed to the other end. You should end up with something similar to the below example (note that I had to rotate my terrain to get to the other end): Here's another view from the top of the high tableland mesa (yes, you right. I didn't finish terraforming my example region. Shame on me!): Okay. We've got the basic shape and depth for our dry river bed. It is very smooth right now. Let's rough up the walls a bit. 08) In the Sliders window, set the Radius value at 02, the strength at 03, the Min Height value at 0002 and the Max Height value at 6000. 09) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down box and select the Rough tool. 10) Position your drawing tool at one end of the dry river bed and directly on one of the upper walls. (Try not to go into the lowest part of the river bed. 11) Click and hold the mouse button and S - L - O - W - L - Y "jiggle" the drawing tool up and down the upper wall whle moving along the upper wall to the other end of the river bed. NOTE: This is where your own creativity comes into play. Try "jiggling" the drawing tool more in some places, less in others. Also, try going back over sections that have already been done. When you are satisfied with your result, move on to the next area. If you don't like the terraforming that has been done, "erase it" by clicking on the Configuration tools drop down arrow and then clicking on the Undo last terraforming button. Doing this will cause your terrain to remove the last terraforming you did. You should end up with something similar to the below example: We're almost finished. Notice that you might have some "rocky" areas in the river bet. Let's smooth then out along with some of the roughness now -- just a little bit. 12) In the Sliders window, set the Radius tool to 06 ( or the width of your original dry bed), the Strength value to 03, the Min Height value to 0002 and the Max Height value to 6000. 13) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down box and select the Smooth tool. 14) Position your drawing tool at one end of the river bed, click and hold the mouse button and QUICKLY move from one end of the river bed to the other. DO NOT smooth over an area more than once. You should end up with something similar to the below example: Don't be concerned about any rocky areas that remain. We will spot smooth them later if necessary. Okay. Next, we're going to deepen the very middle of the river bed. 15) In the Sliders window, set the Radius value to 01, the Strength value to 03, the Min Height value to 0240 and leave the Max Height value at 6000. 16) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and select the ValleySteep tool. 17) Position your drawing tool at one end of the river bed with the red dot in the middle of the lowest area, click and hold the mouse button and move the drawing tool from one end of the river bed to the other staying in the middle of the lowest area. You should end up with something similiar to the below example: You may or may not end up with water in some places like my above example and you may or may not have the same "jaggegness" to the lowest area of the river bed. We're going to correct this in the next step bu doing a process I refer to as spot smoothing. 18) In the Sliders window, set the Radius value at 02, the Strength value at 02, the Min Height value at 0002 and the Max Height value at 6000. 19) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 20) Position your drawing tool over the first place you wish to spot smooth and click the mouse button ONE TIME. 21) Repeat Step 20) until any water or rocky features are gone and only the green terrain remains. What we are looking to do here is to JUST remove the water, rockyness and any "sand" from the terrain leaving only the green terrain. Continue this until you are at the other end of the river bed. You should end up with something similar to the below example: Great! We are now at a point where you need to make a decision. If you like the "ruggegness" of the river bed the way it looks above then we are done with this section. If you would like it just a bit smoother (which is the way I like it) then you'll want to continue with Step 22), below. 22) In the Sliders window, set the Radius value to 06 (or the original value for the dry wash you created), set the Strength to 01, the Min Height value to 0002 and the Max Height value to 6000. 23) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 24) Position your drawing tool at one end of the river bed, click and hold the mouse button and QUICKLY move from one end of the river bed to the other. DO NOT smooth over an area more than once. You should end up with something similar to the below example: Granted, it is a subtle difference but one that I believe looks good. Wonderful! You've now created a dry wash for the American Southwest tutorial. This concludes the lessons part of this tutorial. Here are a few more views of the dry wash from different angles: View 01: View 02: View 03: And, finally, from near ground level, View 04: This concludes the lessons on creating an American Southwest region. The next part of this tutorial will showcase the example region I created for this tutorial. I'll show a few view from SC4Terraformer and then will show an "In-Game" view of the region from SimCity 4 taken with Region Census. SC4Terraformer 2D Overview of Example Region: SC4Terraformer West Looking East View of Example Region: SC4Terraformer South Looking North View of Example Region: SC4Terraformer North Looking South View of Example Region: SC4Terraformer East Looking West View of Example Region: In-Game View of Example Region from SimCity 4 Taken with Region Census: The above finished map can be downloaded from the STEX under the name American Southwest - Monument Valley. I used CycleDogg's Painted Desert Terrain Mod as my terrain overlay for the final touch on the example region. As always, I have shown steps the way I would create the region. If you find a different way or modify my steps, that is wonderful. After all, the purpose of this tutorial is to teach -- not to dictate.

This is Part Four of a five part tutorial on how to create an American Southwest terrain using SC4Terraformer. Within this tutorial are a number of "sidebars" -- that is, aditional explanatory information -- that cover the use of a number of the SC4Terraformer features and functions. It is recommended that this tutorial be done from Part One through Part Five so that the results obtained closely mirror the results of this multi-part tutorial. In this section of the American Southwest tutorial, we'll learn how to "rough up" the level terrain of our region and give it some character by creating hills, valleys, gulleys and semi-mountainous areas. Then, we'll create some specific terrain features such as higher hills, a knife butte and a couple of small chimneys. We'll be using the High Tableland Mesa created in the previous section as a "backdrop" for our roughed up terrain. If you've been following this tutorial and have been terraforming and saving into the same region, it's okay to use your saved region for this section. If you haven't been saving, you can either create the High Tableland Mesa to use as our backdrop or, simply work through this section on a level terrain. If you've been saving your work from each section of the tutorial in separate regions, you'll need to load the region in which you saved the High Tableland Mesa. Before we get started, I'll assume you have loaded an appropriate region to use for our roughing up the land section. I'm using the region in which I created a High Tableland Mesa and have positioned it so that I have the upper third showing with a large section of level terrain in front of it as shown in the below example: Roughing Up the Level Terrain 01) In the Sliders Window, set the Radius value to 15, the Strength value to 10, the Min Height value to 0280 and the Max Height value to 0300. You may need to adjust the Radius vaule dependent upon what is in the terrain you're using in order to not go over terrain features that may already be in your region. The Min / Max Heigh values will cause our rough terrain to stay between 280 to 300 meters (approximately 840 to 900 feet) and keep the roughed up terrain from going over 20 meters (approximately 60 feet) in height. 02) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and selct the Cliff tool. 03) In the SC4Terraformer Main window, start at one edge of your terrain (I started at the bottom of the mesa in the upper left-hand corner), click and hold the mouse button then randomly and somewhat slowly move the drawing tool around the level terrain in the region. 04) Let go of the mouse button, position the drawing tool on a differnt part of the level terrain and repeat Step 03), above. 05) Continue to do Steps 03) and 04), above, until you've covered all the level terrain in your region. If you wish to go over an area already done, that is okay. It will add a variety of terrain to your region. You should end up with soemething similar to the below example: It certainly roughed up the terrain, didn't it? Let's smooth it out some next. 06) In the Slider window, change the Strength to 03. Leave the Radius and Height vaules at their current settings. 07) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 08) In the SC4Terraformer Main window, start at one edge of your terrain (I started at the bottom of the mesa in the upper left-hand corner), click and hold the mouse button then move the drawing tool around the roughed up terrain in the region until you've made one pass over all the roughed up terrain. It is up to you if you wish to make more than one pass over the terrain. I did not. You should end up with something similar to the below example: We're done! No, honestly -- we're done! Done with roughing up the land, that is... Now, lets create a few hills, a couple of small chimneys and then, I'll show you how to create a knife butte. First, some small hills. 09) In the Sliders window, set the Radius value to 04, the Strength value to 04 and the Max Height value to 0400. Leave the Min Height value at its present setting. 10) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and select the Hills tool. 11) In the SC4Terraformer Main window, select an area on the terrain, click and hold the mouse button and V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y move it just a little in one direction. 12) Let go of the mouse button and enjoy the hill you've created. 13) If desired, repeat Steps 11) and 12), above, as many times as you wish to add hills to the terrain. You should end up with something similar to the below example: If you don't want a "rocky" hill (a hill with a lot of grey mixed in the green), you can smooth it using the Smooth tool. 14) In the Slider window, change the Strength value to 02. Leave the other settings at their current values. 15) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 16) In the SC4Terraformer Main window, position the drawing tool over one of the rocky hills, click and hold the mouse button and move the drawing tool over the hill. 17) Let go of the mouse button and inspect your results. If you are satisfied, go to the next step. If more smoothing is necessary, repeat Steps 15) through 17) as many times as you wish to smooth the hills. It may be necessary to rotate the terrain in order to view all sides of the hills. You should end up with something similar to the below example: We're finished. You've created some random hills on your roughed up terrain. Let's add a couple of small chimneys to the terrain. The steps to create the chimneys are exactly the same as the steps we've already done in Section 02 of this tutorial when we created our chimney spires. The only difference here will be in the height of the chimneys. I will detail the necessary steps for the small chimney's below. For all other steps in creating the chimneys, please refer to Section 02 of this tutorial. 18) In the Sliders window, set the Radius value to 02, the Strength value to 07 and the Max Height value to 0405. Leave the Min Height value at its current setting. 19) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar window, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and select the Mesa tool. 20) In the SC4Terraformer Main window, select a point on the terrain and position the drawing tool on it. 21) Click and hold the mouse button and allow the mesa to rise to the Max Height setting then let go of the mouse button. 22) Move the drawing tool just a little away from the chimney you just created and repeat Step 21), above. 23) If desired, move the drawing tool to a different place on the terrain and repeat Steps 20) through 22) for as many chimneys as you wish to create. You should end up with something simiiar to the below example: 24) I zoomed in on the chimneys, flattened the tops, trimmed the sides and added a bit of base to them as detailed in Section 02 of this tutorial. If you did as well, you end up with something similar to the below example: Alrgight! We've made some hills a couple of chimneys and now we're ready to make a knife butte. Knife Butte is my term for a very thin butte. Typically, this type of butte has a wall of rock that is only a few meters in width and has the profile of a knife blade. Let's make our knife butte. 25) In the Sliders window, select a Radius value of 03, a Strength value of 04 and a Max Height value of 0410. Leave the Min Height value at its current setting. 26) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar window, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and select the Hills tool. 27) In the SC4Terraformer Main window, select a point on the terrain and position the drawing tool over it. 28) Click and hold the mouse button and create a hill with one end higher and wider than the other end. You should end up with something similar to the below example (I've zoomed into the hill I created): 29) Move the drawing tool to the highest point on the hill you just create and not the height value shown in the lower right corner of the SC4rTerraformer Main window. 30) In the Sliders window, set the Radius value 01, the Strength value to 10, the Min Height value to the height found in Step 29) minus 10 and the Max Height value to 0500. 31) Rotate the terrain until you are looking right down the spine of the hill created in Step 28). 32) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and select the Mesa tool. 33) Position the drawing tool (it will look like a red dot at a value of 01) over the highest point of the hill. 34) Click and hold the mouse button then CAREFULLY move the drawing tool towards you about one third the length of the hill making sure you stay on the spine of the hill. Release the mouse button. 35) Rotate the terrain until the front of the hill is facing you. 36) Place the drawing tool just in front of where the butte rises from the hill. 37) Click and hold the mouse button then CAREFULLY move the drawing tool towards you for about one eight of the length of the hill making sure you stay on the spine of the hill. 38) Rotate the terrain until you are looking at the side of the hill. 39) "Fill out" the butte by placing the drawing tool on any low spots then click and hold the mouse button until the butte rises to the same level as the rest of the knife edged rock. You should end up with something similar to the below example (I've zoomed in on the knife butte): 40) If desired, follow the steps in Section one of this tutorial on creating a butte to trim the sides of the butte, flatten the top and add a base. If you've done so, you should end up with something similar to the below example (I've taken this picture from the other side of the knife butte): Well! We're finished! We've learned how to rough up the terrain, added some extra hills and chimneys and how to make a knife butte. Here's a picture of what my example region looks like after this section of the tutorial: Okay! We've finished the section on roughing up level terrain. Please note the steps I've given you in this tutorial are based on the way I rough up level terrain. They are by no means the only way that terrain can be roughed up. Please feel free to modify any steps in this tutorial in order for your own personal style to be incorporated when terraforming with the SC4Terraformer application. Part Five of the American Southwest Terrain tutorial series will explain how to create a dry wash or, dry river bed, and can be access by clicking on American Southwest Terrain - Part Five: Creating A Dry Wash

This is Part Three of a five part tutorial on how to create an American Southwest terrain using SC4Terraformer. Within this tutorial are a number of "sidebars" -- that is, aditional explanatory information -- that cover the use of a number of the SC4Terraformer features and functions. It is recommended that this tutorial be done from Part One through Part Five so that the results obtained closely mirror the results of this multi-part tutorial. SIDENOTE: Using the SC4Terraformer Smooth tool. Before we get into this section of the tutorial, let's take a closer look at using the SC4TF Smooth tool. This tool was introduced in the first section of the tutorial. The use of this tool is pretty straight forward, however; I believe it would be useful to give a bit more detail on how to use it and the results it gives. You can consider this Sidenote to be "view and read" -- that is, it is not necessary to do the steps yourself unless you would like to see the results for yourself. First of all, I'm going to open the blank region we created and use it for the example. I will show this sidenote as a series of steps in case you would like to follow along. 01) In the Sliders Window, select a Radius value of 15 and a Strength of 15. 02) Leave the Min and Max Heights at their default values. 03) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and select the MountainSteepHill tool. 04) In the SC4Terraformer Main Window, position the terrain so you have most of the middle of the terrain available for terraforming. 05) Position your drawing tool at one side of the terrain, click and hold the mouse button and S-L-O-W-L-Y move the drawing tool to the other side of the terrain. You should end up with something similar to the below example: 06) Repeat Step 05) going the opposite way with your drawing tool. You should end up with something similar to the below example: 07) At any time during this Sidenote, please feel free to rotate the terrain in order to see the results of any of these steps. It doesn't matter what position the terrain is in when applying the steps. I will keep the same orientation for my example throughout this Side Note. 08) In the Slider Window, select a Radius of 10 and a Strength of 10. 09) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Zone tools drop down box and select the rough tool. NOTE: The rough tool will result in exaggerated changes in altitude of the terrain under the drawing tool. 10) Position the drawing tool at one end of the mountain, click the mouse button and move the mouse at a normal speed to the other end of the mountain. You should end up with something similar to the below example: Okay. We've finally created an object on which we can use the smooth tool. I'm going to show the results of the smooth tool at four different Slider Window settings in order for you to see the difference the settings make in the results. The Min and Max Height values will be left at their default values for these examples. 11) In the Slider Window, select a Radius of 5 and a strength of 5. 12) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 13) Position your drawing tool in front of one end of the mountain, click the mouse button and S-L-O-W-L-Y move the mouse over the mountain and off onto the other side of it. You should end up with something similar to the below example (I've zoomed in order to see the smoothing result better): 14) Repeat Steps 11 through 13 with a Radius value of 10 and a Strength value of 10. You should end up with something similar to the below example (I've zoomed in order to see the smoothing result better): 15) Repeat Steps 11 through 13 with a Radius value of 5 and a Strength value of 15. You should end up with something similar to the below example (I've zoomed in order to see the smoothing result better): 16) Repeat Steps 11 through 13 with a Radius value of 10 and a Strength value of 20. You should end up with something similar to the below example (I've zoomed in order to see the smoothing result better): Notice as the Radius increases, the amount of terrain that gets smoothed increases. Likewise, as the Strength value increases, the amount of smoothing done on the terrain increases. Also, if you rotate the terrain so that the opposite side of the mountain is viewed, you'll see that the smoothing was not equally applied to this side as shown below: In the below example, I have repeated the same smoothing using the same settings as in Steps 13 through 16: As you can see, smoothing on both sides gives a more uniform result. This process can be useful when creating a "saddle" or, low point, between two mountain peaks. END OF SIDENOTE Creating A High Tableland Mesa A mesa is defined as a broad, flat-topped elevation with one or more cliff-like sides. This high tableland is commonly found in the Southwestern United States. In this section of the American Southwest tutorial, we are going to create a high tableland mesa. The mesa will go the length of one side of the terrain. Let's make this mesa approximately 370 meters in height (approximately 1100 feet). Follow the below steps to create the mesa. 01) In the Slider Window, select a radius of 15 and strength of 20. 02) Select a Min Height value of 0280 and a Max Height value of 0650. 03) In the SC4Terraformer toolbar, click on the Brush tools drop down arrow and select the Mesa tool. 04) Position the terrain in the SC4Terraformer Main Window so that you can see one complete side of the terrain NOTE: You can pick any of the four sides you like. I will use the Northern most side. 05) Starting at one corner edge of the terrain in the SC4Terraformer Main Window, click the mouse button and, allowing the mesa to raise to the and/or near the Max Height value, S-L-OW-L-Y move the mouse to the opposite edge of the terrain on the side being terraformed. You should end up with something similar to the example below: NOTE: You may wish to zoom in on the terrain in order to get a better view of the rising mesa. When creating the High Tableland Mesa, you will need to be careful and be sure that ALL of the terrain area is included in the mesa. It is very possible that the terrain BEHIND the mesa has not completely been raised. You'll want to either rotate the terrain and terraform it to the appropriate height or terraform it from the front of the mesa. And... ...We've created a High Tableland Mesa! We're done, right? (Y'all know where this is going by now, don't you?) NO! Map This! - Cartography Services (MTCS) never does things quick or easy. Let's add some detail to the mesa similar to what we did with the butte. 06) In the Sliders window, change the radius to 1 and the Strength to 20. 07) Set the Min Height value to 0280 and the Max Height value to 0650. 08) Click on the Zone Tools drop down arrow and select the Water erode Enhanced tool. 09) In the SC4Terraformer Window, zoom in on one end of the high tableland mesa until it just about fills the window. 10) Click on the top edge with the tool and slowly work your way to the base of the mesa. 11) Notice that part of the wall of the mesa has been removed leaving an indented area which resembles a sheer cliff. 12) Continue using the tool on the wall of the mesa as explained in Step 11, above, until you get to the other end of the high tableland mesa. 13) You should end up with something similar to the below example: As you can see, we've done a great job of "roughing up" the wall of the high tableland mesa and made it look more rugged. Now, we need to add some bottom or, fill, along the base of the mesa. 14) Chose a height value of about one fourth the height of the mesa by moving the drawing tool over the mesa's walls about a quarter of the way up the wall. 15) Look in the lower right side of the SC4Terraformer Window Status bar and note the height in meters. 16) Use this height to reset the Max Height Slider value plus 100 meters. 17) I chose a value of 365 meters so, my Max Height value is set at 0465. 18) Leave the Min Height value set at 0280. 19) Set the Radius Slider to 3. 20) Set the Strength Slider to 10. 21) Click on the Brush Tools drop down arrow and select the Volcano Tool. 22) In the SC4Terraformer Window, zoom in on one end of the high tableland mesa until it just about fills the window. 23) Randomly click the mouse along the base of the mesa. 24) Randomly hold the mouse button down for a longer time then, 25) Randomly hold the mouse button down for a shorter time and, 26) At the same time, randomly move the drawing tool up the wall of the mesa and out from the wall of the mesa. 27) Slowly work your way across the base of the mesa until you get back to the other end of the high tableland mesa. 28) You should end up with something similar to the below example: We now have a great base added to the high tableland mesa -- rough in places, high in some areas, lower in others and a nice mix of rock and soil. Some of the places look a bit too rough. We'll correct this by using the smooth tool. 29) Leave the Radius Slider value at 3. 30) Change the strength Slider value to 3. 31) Leave the minimum and maximum height values as they are. 32) Click on the Zone Tools drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 33) In the SC4Terraformer Window, zoom in on one end of the high tableland mesa until it just about fills the window. 34) Click on the top of the fill at the end of the mesa with the tool and slowly work your way to the base of the mesa. 35) Be careful to not go up the walls of the mesa. 36) You should end up with something similar to the below example: Finally, let's finish the high tableland mesa by adding some roughness to the very top of the mesa. 37) Change the Radius Slider value to 2. 38) Leave the Strength Slider value at 3. 39) Change the Max Height Slider value to 0700. 40) Change the Min Height Slider value to 0650. 41) Make sure the Zone Tools section is still open. If not, open it. 42) Click on the Make Hills tool. 43) Zoom in so that the top of the mesa almost fills the window. 44) CAREFULLY click on the top of the mesa with the drawing tool randomly holding the mouse button down for longer and shorter times to create a bit of a rolling top to the mesa. 45) You should end up with something similar to the below example: And, FINALLY, we have a completed High Tableland Mesa! Here are three close-up shots of our completed example High Tableland Mesa. Left Side of Mesa Middle of Mesa Right Side of Mesa Please note the steps I've given you in this tutorial are based on the way I make a High Tableland Mesa. They are by no means the only way a mesa can be made. Please feel free to modify any steps in this tutorial in order for your own personal style to be incorporated when terraforming with the SC4Terraformer application. Part Four of the American Southwest Terrain tutorial series will focus on "roughing" up the surrounding landscape to give it a more realistic feel. This section will also discuss adding smaller terraformed landscaping features It can be access by clicking on American Southwest Terrain - Part Four: "Roughing" Up Level Terrain.

This is Part Two of a five (5) part tutorial on how to create an American Southwest terrain using SC4Terraformer. Within this tutorial are a number of "sidebars" -- that is, aditional explanatory information -- that cover the use of a number of the SC4Terraformer features and functions. It is recommended that this tutorial be done from Part One through Part Fivev so that the results obtained closely mirror the results of this multi-part tutorial. The next part of our tutorial will discuss how to create a chimney rock spire. This is a very tall, narrow "needle" of rock typically found in areas around Monument Valley, Arizona. They can be found at the end of a butte or free standing. This tutorial will cover how to create a singe rock spire. At the end of this section, I'll show some examples of chimney rock spires in the sample region we are creating. Creating the Chimney Rock Spire You can either use the same sample region in which we created the butte or create a new region for the chimney rock spire -- either will work for the purpose of this tutorial. I will be showing the steps on a "clean" new region. Note that I won't be re-explaining any features of SC4TF that we've already been using. 1) If necessary, launch SC4TF and open the region in which you will be working. 2) In the slider window, select a radius of 3, a strength of 20, set the Min Height value to 0280 and the Max Height value to 0530 (approximately 700 feet). 3) Click on the Brush Tools drop down arrow and select the Mesa tool. 4) Place the drawing tool somewhere in the terrain, click and hold the mouse button letting the mesa rise up to 533 meters then let go of the mouse button. 5) You've just created a chimney rock spire something like the below example: Looks good, don't you think? Well, for a plain column of rock it's okay. However, y'all should be getting the idea by now that MTCS doesn't ever do things plain. Let's go ahead and create a bit of a bottom to the chimney. 1) Leave the Radius at 3, change the strength to 5, leave the Min Height at 0280 and the Max Height at 0580. 2) In the Brush Tools, click on the Volcano tool. 3) Place your drawing tool at a point at the bottom of the chimney and start randomly clicking at the base of the chimney working your way around the chimney by rotating the display until you're back at your starting point. 4) Be careful to keep the drawing tool at the base of the chimney and not go up the walls. 5) When you are finished, you'll have something similar to the below example: You'll notice in my example, there are a few "rough" spots where there are some small "cone-like" rocks. I really don't like a feature this prominent in the base, so I'm going to use the smooth tool to soften the base a little. 1) Using the drawing tool, find the highest point on the base. 2) Set the Max Height value to the value of that highest post plus 0020. My highest point was 382, so I set my Max Height value to 0402. 3) Leave the Radius, Strength and Min Height values as they are. 4) Click on the Zone Tools drop down arrow and select the Smooth tool. 5) Place your drawing tool on the base and gently start randomly clicking the mouse button on those base points you wish to smooth working your way around the base. 6) You should end up with something close to the below example: Now that's starting to look pretty good, however; I believe we need to taper the chimney a little to make it smaller towards the top. Let's do that now. 1) Set the Radius to 1 and the strength to 20. 2) Leave the Min Height value at 0280 and change the Max Height value to 0580. 3) In the Zone Tools, select the Water erode Enhanced tool. 4) Place the drawing tool near the top of the Chimney and carefully click the mouse while moving it down the wall of the chimney. NOTE: Only go about halfway down the wall of the Chimney. The goal here is to "chisel away" some of the wall material and taper he chimney. 5) t's okay if the chimney gets a bit pointed. Well take care of that in the next section. 6) You'll end up with something similar to the below example: You can see that my chimney is quite a bit pointed. If that is the result you want or like then keep it. Otherwise, follow the next steps to make the top more "mesa-like" flat. 7) Using the drawing tool, find the highest point on the chimney. Set the radius to a value of 1 and the strength to a value of 5. 9) Leave the Min Height value set at 0280. 10) Set the Max Height value at the highest point found in Step 1), above plus 10. My highest point was 520 meters so I set my Max height to 0530.. 11) Click on the Brush Tools drop down arrow and select the Mesa tool. NOTE: It will be easier if you zoom in to the top of the chimney in order to perform the next step. 12) Place your drawing tool on top of the chimney and VERY CAREFULLY click the mouse button. Continue to click on the top of the chimney until the top is relatively flat. You may have to rotate the display to get to all sides of the chimney. 13) Try NOT to click on the walls -- just the top. 14) You should end up with something similar to the below example: Okay. We're just about done. The last thing I'd like to do is to "rough" up the walls a bit like we did with our butte. I don't want to use as much strength (affect) as the chimney is quite narrow and using too much strength may go through the walls completely. 1) Using your drawing tool, find the highest point on the chimney. 2) Leave the radius at 1. 3) Set the strength to 9. 4) Leave the Min Height at 0280. 5) Set the Max Height to the highest point. 6) Click on the Zone Tools drop down arrow and select the Water erode Enhanced tool. NOTE: It will be easier if you zoom in to the top of the chimney in order to perform the next step. 7) Place your drawing tool at the tope of the chimney wall and carefully click the mouse button moving down the wall rotating the display to do all sides of the chimney. You should end up with something similar to the below example: If you wish, you can use the Smooth tool to once again smooth out any "rough" spots or points that may have been created with roughing up the walls. I did this and below is my finished chimney rock spire: Okay! We've finished the section on creating a Chimney Rock Spire. Please note the steps I've given you in this tutorial are based on the way I make a chimney rock spire. They are by no means the only way a spire can be made. Please feel free to modify any steps in this tutorial in order for your own personal style to be incorporated when terraforming with the SC4Terraformer application. Part Three of the American Southwest Terrain tutorial series will explain how to create a high tableland mesa and can be access by clicking on American Southwest Terrain - Part Three: Creating A High Tableland Mesa.

Hello, Cleaner. I can't see your graphic as dropbox is blocked at my work. I've downloaded the grayscale image and have looked at it six ways to Sunday but don't see the little dots you've described. I see solid gray areas for the land and blacker areas for the water. I can help you with the size problem on the two files. The grayscale image shows a size of 2381 x 1398. Right off the bat, those dimensions are wrong as a grayscale image SHOULD NOT have an even number as one of its dimensions. In order to ensure you have the right dimentions for grayscale image and config.bmp file, follow the below formula: cw = width of the config.bmp in pixels ch = height of the config.bmp in pixels gw = width of the grayscale image in pixels gh = height of the grayscale image in pixels If the region size is known, find the dimensions of the config.bmp file: (gw-1) / 64 = cw (gh-1) / 64 = ch This would result in the 2381 x 1398 pixel gray scale image neede a config.bmp fille of the size 37.1875 pxiels by 31.828125 pixels. (2318-1) / 64 = 37.1875 (1398-1) / 64 = 31.828125 This size is completely ludicrous. If you take the existing config.bmp dimentions and apply the formula: (cw * 64) + 1 = rw (ch * 64) + 1 = rh You'll get a grayscale image dimension of 3073 pixels by 2049. (48 * 64) + 1 = 3073 (32 * 64) + 1 = 2049 Given these two files dimensions, you should be able to create the region in SC4. Finally, I'm completely at a loss to understand why, if you've already used the grayscale image and config.bmp files to create a region in SC4, you have to then use SC4Mapper or SC4Terraformer to futher "create" the region. It's already been created in SC4 (assuming you've modified the files as I've outlined above). Good luck! Regards, Vandy

Hello. First of all, thank you, ANM and CaptCity, for helping out Sbachta. CaptCity, I'm curious about your above comment. I'm not aware of any problems in installing a grayscale image and config.bmp map into SC4. Would you be able to elaborate on this issue? Thank you. Regards, Vandy

Hello, Tropical Storm. It's always nice to have a new mapper creating maps for SC4. Welcome! If I may be so bold, take a look at my maps on the STEX under the name Vandy and the name NHP. I believe you'll see some good examples of what you can create using SC4Terraformer. When you're making your mountains, try using the volcano tool and vary its size as you build up the mountains. In order to get a good erosion, try using the new valley tool (I hope I'm remember its name correctly) at its smallest setting and carefully drag your brush down your mountain slopes to create the erosion. You'll find that solid ground (sand) appears at about 251 / 252 and that solid ground (grass) appears about 254 / 255. I usually use the plains tool to "flatten" out my land as I get nearer to a body of water (pond, lake, river, stream, bay, ocean, etc.) This gives me a very nice elevation change from water to whatever height I desire. The new valley tool is great for caring out a steep valley as well as for plunging your water to a depth you desire. The canyon tool is wonderful for creating those beautiful glacier valleys. The best advice I can give you is to spend a good deal of time playing around with SC4Terraformer and its tools. Once you have mastered them, your maps will take on a whole new quality and life! Good luck! Regards, Vandy

Hello, Pegboi. I would suggest reading through the How to Install a Map from the STEX post at the top of the page. It should give you answers to your questions. Regards, Vandy

Hello, GreekMan. I would suggest reading through the How to Install a Map from the STEX post at the top of the page. It should give you answers to your questions. Regards, Vandy

Map This!- Cartography Services Hello, Everyone! I've been reworking on some of my older maps (created with Landscape Designer and edited with PaintShopPro) by using SC4Terraformer to create a bit more iof a "city-friendly" environment for region developers. I do not plan on reworking all of them but I do have a series that I'll be reworking. Map This! - Cartography Services is pleased to announce the availability of its first reworked map, Vicki's Sound. After the last ice age, the retreating glaciers scoured out a very large bay which quickly filled with water melting from the glaciers and mixed with water from the surrounding sea. Over time, the bay and surrounding areas settled into the familiar landscape known today. Vicki's Sound, as it is now known, has very deep and chilly waters which are frequently visited by whales returning to breed and rest during their migratory journey. The Oringal Version of this map was made using Landscape Designer and then heavily modified using PaintShop Pro, v9.1x. Version 2 builds upon the original version by using SC4 Terraformer to modify the landscape so that it is more “playable”. There is ample opportunity to develop both the upper bay and all around the sound as well as an interesting opportunity to tie the lake into the bay by cutting a canal across the small isthmus separating the two. As you travel inward from the sound above the first range of hill/mountains, you will find several valleys well suited for development into villages, towns and -- who knows? -- even cities. There should be little need for terraforming other than personal preferences or personal changes to the landscape itself. [MAP INFORMATION] Type: Fantasy Region Size: 513 x 513 pixels config.bmp Size: 8 x 8x Pixels [Dependencies] SC4Terraformer or SC4Mapper to render the map [Map Images] SC4 Remder - Unmodded SC4 Render - Modded SC4Terrformer 3D View with Cities SC4Terraformer 2D View with Cities Northwest Corner South Looking North North Central South Looking North Northeast Corner South Looking North West Central South Looking North - Mouth of Sound Central South Looking North - Body of Sound East Central South Looking North Southwest Corner South Looking North South Central South Looking North Southeast Corner South Looking North Vicki's Sound Large City Tile Enjoy developing the map. Regards, Vandy (Gary)