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Showing results for tags 'heightmap'.
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I've discovered that heightmaps don't import correctly into SC3KU (GOG version, if it even matters) for me when using load terrain. Most of the terrain always ends up below sea level, and the terrain ten up/terrain one up commands raise both the sea level and the terrain itself which obviously doesn't help. I've tried modifying my bitmap file every six ways from Sunday, but it seems like no matter how I go about changing them, exporting them, et cetera I'm left at square one. I've also tried heightmaps created by others (e.g. the one found in the tutorial for importing heightmaps into SC3KU by catty-cb), and they too are plagued with this same problem. The heightmap itself (heightmap.bmp): The result: What it should actually resemble (the terrain had been modified post-import here, but it my point still stands):
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Grayscale value vs SC4 region height - What is going on??
Zoopermarkt posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
I stumbled across this post regarding heightmap vs the grayscale and the so-called ImageImportScaleFactor = 3, ie. absolute elevation = 3 * grayscale value. https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13196.0 So i did some tests on importing heightmaps and regions. First test - Theory verification I import this grayscale image into a SC4 region. For each band, the grayscale value increases by 50, going from 0 (upper band) to 250 (lower band). The result is below As you can see the two lower bands are above sea level, but the SC4 devotion thread said the grayscale value 83 equivalent to "lowest land above sea level" while in my case, its the grayscale value somewhere around 200 above which means land. If you look closely, what is even more confusing is the 2 darkest grey bands yield the same "deepest ocean" elevation. OK, now for test 2. Test 2 - Amsterdam tests This involves importing regions from two different grayscale images (Origin found here https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/5371-amsterdam/) First one is cropped to fit a 12x12 km region. Two major grayscale values are unaltered. (Darker: 52, Brighter: 94) Second one is the same image (, but the grayscale values are changed (Darker: 104, Brighter: 202) I'm expecting two resulted regions to be different and if lucky, there might be lands. But to my surprise, both yield almost exact same regions shown below (not gonna bother uploading other result because it IS the same result for other region), which is all underwater and same elevation change. So after all of this tests, I did not get any conclusions about relationship between grayscale values of the image and the terrain height of the imported region in SimCity 4. I tried to find other threads about this but no result. And my question is Does anybody know any sort of informations concerning the relationship I am talking about? Or am I missing something? -
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Version 1.0
85 Downloads
Install region folder and use ctrl-shift-alt-r to render in-game. (6 x 6) = 36 Large Tiles of Earth intersected with pentagram symbol. Geo Pentagon, Based on Plato's Perfect Solids. In three-dimensional space, a Platonic solid is a regular, convex polyhedron. It is constructed by congruent (identical in shape and size) regular (all angles equal and all sides equal) polygonal faces with the same number of faces meeting at each vertex. Five solids meet those criteria: Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid Tetrahedron, Cube, Octahedron, Dodecahedron, Icosahedron Four faces, Six faces, Eight faces, Twelve faces, Twenty faces Geometers have studied the mathematical beauty and symmetry of the Platonic solids for thousands of years.[1] They are named for the ancient Greek philosopher Plato who hypothesized in his dialogue, the Timaeus, that the classical elements were made of these regular solids.[2] _________________________________________________________________________ Earth's structure has 5-sectioned major tectonic plate regions each like a section of an apple cut down to the magnetic core and center of gravity. -
Version 1.0.1
478 Downloads
There are 2 folders, each with grayscale heightmaps, config.bmp and region.ini files ready to be placed in your User\ Documents\ SimCity 4\ Region folder. Render using CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+R, then navigating to the Alpine Sublime/BO folder and selecting the Alpine_Sublime_1025x897_MAXIS/GOBIAS.bmp file, OR, use SC4 Mapper to 'Create a Region' from a 'Grayscale Image'. The MAXIS version is made with height levels for most terrain mods. If you are rendering using the SC4 rendering function the resulting region view will reflect the terrain mod you have installed. If you are using a Gobias terrain mod the height levels are different so a special file has been made for the Gobias mods. Featured in the previews is the Gobias Berner Oberland terrain mod designed for the Alpine biome specifically of Switzerland. Both the SC4 Mapper program and the Gobias BO Terrain mod are located at SC4 Devotion on the LEX (Lot Exchange) SC4 Mapper 2013 (v1.0) Gobias Berner Oberland Terrain Mod (v1.0) ________________________________________________________ The World of SimCity 4 In SC4 sea level is about 225 meters from the sea floor. Each increment raises the terrain 50 meters, so at 5 increments sea-level is half under-surface and half above-ground. Add one more increment of 50 meters and you are on land at about 25 meters above sea level. Only by using the terra-former or a grayscale heightmap can you get the land down to touch the water and wade around in the wet sand. The Gobias Terrain mods, BO and Sudden Valley, change the increments from 50 meters to 100 meters, doubling them, so 3 increments from sea floor in Gobias is 300 meters, or (300-225) 75 meters above sea-level. The CPT Terrain mods, Columbus, are consistent with the Maxis vanilla terrain so no adjustment is needed to compensate for the higher elevation of ground level above sea-level. The grayscale range from 0 to 255 covers about 1200 meters above sea floor (24 increments x 50). Subtract 5 increments below sea level (19 x 50) gives you about 900 meters of height above ground. The full depth of the SC4 block of space is (62 x 50) 3100 meters or about 3 kilometers high, about 1-third of the highest mountain on Earth. SC4 was designed to represent building construction, not geological topography. The tallest building in the world is near 900 meters, and the tallest mountain is about 10 times as high. For persepctive, look up a mountain you know that is in the 1000 meter range to get an idea of how SC4 renders topography. If this is not confusing enough then consider the explanation I give for the scaling in SC4 3D Space in my SC4 Earth Maps Grayscale and SC4M Maps file. The difference in scaling is between fitting SC4 into the real world and fitting the real world into SC4. Therein between, is the wonderful world of SimCity 4. ________________________________________________________ Special thanks to @CorinaMarie for continuing inspiration and study of the joy of SC4 Mapping. Here, I will, hopefully, soon link this file page to another major mapping project. -
Version 1.2.0
722 Downloads
5 Various maps of the Earth for rendering in SC4, and including one SC4M file. MAP FILES INCLUDED: Folder: Earth Grayscale Heightmaps 01_Earth_257x257_1x1_Signature.bmp 02_Earth_513x257_1x2_Hemispheres.bmp 03_Earth_513x513_2x2_Squared.bmp 04_Earth_769x513_2x3_Continents.bmp 05_Earth_769x513_2x3_Relief.bmp All files listed above and below are in the same sequence as the previews. Folder: Regions Earth Signature 1x1 Earth Hemispheres 1x2 Earth Squared 2x2 Earth Continents 2x3 Earth Relief 2x3 The following text is contained in the zipfile in readme.txt and HTML. INSTALL the REGIONS Folder: SC4M Earth 2x3 Relief I have included an .SC4M map of the '05_Earth_769x513_2x3_Relief' map in a new folder. To load the map in SC4 Mapper, click on 'Create Region' and select 'Grayscale'. SC4 Mapper creates the city files and a config.bmp file by default, but not a region.ini file. A region.ini file is included in the folder which may be cut and pasted into the Region folder SC4 Mapper creates. Included above are 2 new previews (to the right) showing an image from SC4 Mapper, and the rendered map in 'SC4 Region View.' FOR ALL OTHER MAPS using the SC4 in-game Map Renderer From the unzipped 'Regions' folder select any or all of the sub folders, cut and paste into your user '/Documents/ SimCity 4/Regions' folder. Each of the Regions will then appear in your 'Region' menu in the game with the same name as the folder. Each folder contains a region.ini file and a config.bmp file, defining the name and layout of the region. The 'Earth Signature' region is a 1x1 large city tile, containing only one large blank terra-formed tile. This folder also contains 1 city file (662k) named 'City - New City.sc4'. This region does not have to be rendered and may be viewed and used immediately in the game. The city has not been 'Start'ed so is still named 'City - New City.sc4'. All other region folders only contain the region.ini and config.bmp files, the maps must be rendered in SC4 region view using the included grayscale heightmaps in .bmp (256 indexed grayscale 8-bit) format. The grayscale heightmaps in this package were hand designed for use with the SC4 in-game map renderer using a popular color relief map. If you use SC4 Mapper or Terraformer, smoother surfaces and smaller file sizes may be achieved, but elevation interpretation is different, generally the water level is one increment shallower, some land area may go under. Instructions for rendering the maps with SC4 can be found at the bottom of this page. SCALING in SC4 3D SPACE: The maps are not proportionally scaled either horizontally or vertically, they only represent a general idea of area and height. Horizontally, the term 'tile' is used for both the grid of squares in the city view and the grid of cities in the region view. One city view tile is 16m x16m, and one large city tile in region view is 4km x 4km. Grid lines in city view may be toggled on/off by pressing the 'g' key. Grid lines in region view may be switched on/off by checking/unchecking 'Show City Boundaries'. Vertically, buildings are scaled in (cubic) meters, but land area and elevations are more often very disproportional. In my 'Earth Relief' map one increment of land in region view is about equal to 1800m, so 5 increments from sea level is the highest point on Earth at near 9000m. There are 62 (62 x 1800m) increments from the bottom of the sea in SC4 to the top of its 3D space, sea level cannot be raised or lowered from its 6 increment setting. In terms of my 'Relief Map' then 6 x 1800m is the deepest surface below sea level at 10,800m, almost 11 kilometers. Actual scientific measurements indicate about the same depth. Consistently, the top of SC4 space is (62 x 1800) 111,600m, about 112km above the solid surface of the Earth. Objects below about 160km in orbit are considered to be below "Low Earth Orbit". The International Space Station orbits at about 3 times the height of SC4 space in the same spherical area defined as the 'Thermosphere' of the Earth. INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS: 1.) Launch SC4. In Region View use the Load Region scroll menu to locate and open the region you want. 2.) In Region View press CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-R. You should now have a window in the top-left corner. 3.) Navigate to the 'Earth Grayscale Heightmaps' subfolder in the unzipped 'SC4 Earth Maps 256 Grayscale' folder. 4.) Scroll to the bitmap (.bmp) corresponding to the region you have selected and click 'Okay'. (The exact file names of the region and map must match) The simulator should begin processing the map. If successful, you will see the region with city layout. The processing takes from a few minutes to several minutes to complete. --/-- -
Version 3.0.1
518 Downloads
These are 7 region maps, each of the maps are hand drawn using MS Paint, optimized for city-building and sea-faring networks. Folder/Map Names (in order of previews): 1.) Atlantis Cosmos: An interpretation of the circular layout from the story of Atlantis which is reversed from isometric to show a facing circle. 2.) Atlantis Paramecium: An elipsoid interpreted as a paramecium bacteria 3.) Atlantis Velociraptor: A zig-zagged variation of the first map I made imaged as a velociraptor. 4.) Atlantis Point: A map adapted from a picture of a face which shows the forward isometric projection. 5.) Atlantis Networks: A single large tile region based on a computer chip. 6.) Atlantis Meadows: A 4-leaf clover. 7.) Atlantis Channels: A 9 large tile region with a few smaller tiles which see-through to the region background, especially designed for building an elaborate ferry network through inland channels. ___________________________________ Atlantis Cosmos inset picture: The elliptical picture in the top left of the preview is the image generated by the Planck mission showing the cosmic microwave background when the universe was 370,000 years old. About Atlantis: Atlantis is a fictional island world from Ancient Greek mythology, initially popularized by the philosopher Plato who compiled modern ethics and ideals into his revised stories of Atlantis. It is said that Atlantis may have existed somewhere in the center of the Atlantic ocean, or it may refer to real islands that exist today. ___________________________________ INSTALL: For 3 of the maps this download includes both an .SC4M file, and an 8-bit .bmp, 256 grayscale indexed heightmap, config.bmp and region.ini files for each region map. Each region is in its own folder ready to be placed in the regions folder under your user documents SimCity 4 folder. Follow the instructions in the included readme.txt file. If using SC4 Map Maker or TerraFormer follow instructions for those programs. The SC4M versions are contained in the SC4M folder in this download. _______________________________________________________________________ EDIT Feb 28, 2017 An alternate Atlantis map can be found below. The grayscale can be rendered in SC4, or loaded into SC4 Mapper. The map below may be considered to be more specific to the story, or at least to the popular versions of it. Its a flat map made up of concentric circles divided into sections. For more info and discussion of methods of map-making and installing see: C.O.R.I.M.A.P.S. - A Tutorial for SimCity 4 by @CorinaMarie For more of my novelty region maps see: SC4 Novelty Region Map Collection -
Version 2.0.0
238 Downloads
This map began with a modelled picture of a dove, and was processed into an 8-bit 256 indexed grayscale. It was discovered that although a grayscale height-map could be 8-bit and 256 shades of gray, it must also be 'indexed' specifically as a grayscale image otherwise SC4 will simply render a flat region. Thanks to @CorinaMarie for investigating the format and rendering the image into the initial dove-shaped island landscape. From there, I developed the 'Dove Islands' region theme with a city layout (config.bmp). Included in the zip-file is the preview image, install instructions (readme.txt), the Dove Islands region height-map, config.bmp, and region.ini file. Also included is a file for the cloud background in the preview. The 'region_bg_1-clouds.dat' may be placed in the Plugins folder where the game is installed. For more about creating grayscale heightmaps see: C.O.R.I.M.A.P.S. - A Tutorial for SimCity 4 Install: 1. Place 'Dove Islands' folder in user account Documents/SimCity 4/ Regions folder. 2. Load SC4 and select 'Dove Islands' region 3. In region view press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+R and navigate to Grayscale Heightmap subfolder. 4. Select Dove_lslands_513x449.bmp 5. Wait for SC4 to render the map and create the city files. -
Version 2.1
204 Downloads
This file includes a collection of novelty region maps for SC4. There are 4 regions in this package, each one is an 8-bit grayscale indexed bitmap, the 'Donut Mesa' and 'River Valley Delta' also include SC4M files which may be opened and installed using SC4 Mapper or Terraformer. Upon installing the region folders the regions will appear at the bottom of the list in-game as they are each named with a leading 'z' in the 'region.ini' file. z Bridge Loop Plains z Donut Mesa z River Valley Delta z Tileset Metro Bridge Loop Plains ----------------------------------- A map specialized for connecting large tiles through bridges and tunnels on small tiles in-between. This may correct the Eternal Commuter Bug, or it may just be a great map for building visual networks and large cities. Donut Mesa ----------------------------------- This is the original novelty map I made when I first studied map-making in SC4. I began by drawing a 'config.bmp' in the shape of a donut and then enlarged it to grayscale map size, painting the elevations by hand in MS Paint. This map now includes an SC4M version. At that time I wrote a tutorial on map-making which was included in the map package, but is now published on Simtropolis linked HERE: River Valley Delta ----------------------------------- Many major cities in the world throughout history are built on delta lands near the ocean. Here's a blank one to start your own civilization. The map was drawn and lightly contoured using MS Paint. Tileset Metro ----------------------------------- This map is similar to the map layout in SimCity 3000. There is one central large tile with 4 large tiles on each side of the square. I originally designed this map to demonstrate the 4 tile-sets in SC4. For a complete inventory of each tile-set see the 'SimCity 4 Building Index' HERE: The four tilesets are: Chicago 1890, New York 1940, Houston 1990, European Contemporary __________________________________________________________________________ Indexed Grayscale Height-map This region folder includes a demo of the indexed grayscale heightmap showing the water and land heights rendered according to the indexed shade of gray used. Also showing the best land heights for building bridges. The original demonstration can be found on Simtropolis linked HERE. Also featured in the Simtopical section HERE ___________________________________________________________________________ SC4 Mapper The folder named SC4M contains files for the 'Donut Mesa' and 'River Valley Delta'. These files were made using SC4 Mapper. INSTALL instructions are in the readme.txt and html file in the zip package. ___________________________________________________ Thanks to @CorinaMarie for some helpful critique, technical details and editing on this project. For more discussion of methods of making maps see: C.O.R.I.M.A.P.S. - A Tutorial for SimCity 4 ____________________________________________________ NOTE: The grayscale height-map could be 8-bit and 256 shades of gray, but it must also be 'indexed' specifically as a grayscale image otherwise SC4 will simply render a flat region. ____________________________________________________ More of my novelty regions maps...- 1 Comment
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Hello. This is my first Question. I have many addons on Sc4 rush hour, and I know how to create configuration.bmp for a long time. To create properly a map of region from an image file, it seems that Ctrl-Alt-Shift-R open a dialog box in order to load a greyscale bitmap, no special version or addon required. With this combination of keys, nothing appears. Does someone else have this problem? On other topics,deficient dialog box bug all the game. Thanks for an accurate answer. -
Altitude range in map editor moddable?
Simulanten posted a topic in Cities: Skylines Modding - Open Discussion
Well, Boston is on hold. It still looks deserted with 80% of all trees that disappeared (Why only me? That's so unfair!) and all the bus network that is completely broken. Let's see when I get the spirit back to continue. In order to relax a bit and to make sense of all that snow (I still haven't bought the DLC though) I'm working on an idea of a small Rocky Mountains settlement - somewhere in Colorado or Wyoming - very detailed and without public transport except for a school bus... Now - I started to mess around with the map and theme editor and immediately hit one of those incredibly stupid and unnecessary brick walls in the game: the 1024 meter limit for the altitude range. Really? How pathetic is that? It seems to be impossible to create dramatic mountain ranges like around Jackson Hole WY or the valleys around Ouray CO. Hm. Is that hard-coded and unmoddable? Why is that? Does one of our modding geniuses ( @boformer ) have an idea? Can we change this? I would surrender and get Snowfall if it was possible not only to recreate the Finnish tundra but real mountain ranges and dramatic scenery. Help! -
Simple Mapper, a terrain.party Alternative
Robotica posted a topic in Cities: Skylines Modding - Open Discussion
Greetings everyone, I have setup a new tool called Simple Mapper, which aims to be an alternative to terrain.party for generating heightmaps. It also has the feature of producing transparent road maps which can be used as an overlay in game to help with making roads. Follow the link below to learn more and start making realistic maps easily. https://www.googledrive.com/host/0B_eKj0yj3xkJaDRQOVYxNldueW8 -
So I've been searching the web for a map of Japan, but every map I come across has some of the south cut off or the islands ommited. I'm looking for a heightmap or SC4M file that contains all of Japan, all the way down to the Okinawan islands, and all the way north to Hokkaido. I really like building in Japan, and I want all of it to build on so I can make my own Tokyo, Kyoto, Okinawa, Nagasaki, Sappuro, etc. I'd be greateful if someone knows where I can get an entire map of Japan, or if someone could make one. I've tried making heightmaps before from real world data but I've never even gotten close. It'd be nice to have a fairly large map if possible, Japan may be small but it doesnt need to be tiny like I've seen some maps/regions. The best I can do for a heightmap is make a flat map
