Help with grayscale map

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  • Hello everybody. Long time lurker (since Train Fever), I registered because I need your help.
    I'm attempting to make my first custom map in Transport Fever. I used the size and colors of an existing grayscale map to be sure that it was within the limits, started pasting together bits of real life geographical maps and tweaked it here and there to hide seams. It's not the best map ever, but it's enough for me. Loaded the picture in the Map Creation Tool and placed what I wanted, exported, tried it in the game. Trouble is, when I load it in Transport Fever, there are noticeable steps at each terrain elevation change, plus the terrain is all marred, as if there were some graphical artifacts in the grayscale picture that however I can't see when I look at it on screen.
    I double checked my map and it's not any more pixelated than the ones that come with the downloads from Steam Workshop.



    This is an image of how it looks in game: http://steamcommunity.com/shar…iledetails/?id=1271909159


    And this is the grayscale image: https://ibb.co/b8HehR


    Has anybody had this issue before? Suggestions on how to fix it? Thanks in advance

  • Hmm... two issues that come in my mind. First try to choose the height limits as close as possible to the maps limits. So if the highest point of the map is at 150m then set this value in the map.lua or how it's called. Haven't made it for a long time and not in tpf, so it may not be very accurate ><


    Well, when you choose those limits you have to adjust the colors/grays. Use brightness and... erm saturation? The result should be a map where the highest point is white and the deepest black.


    Then: it's better to use a 16bit grayscale instead of 8. But not all programmes can handle this. Gimp 2.8 isn't able and 2.9 is ;) the problem is, you need 16bit raw material. It's useless to save 8bit data as 16bit. It's possible but missing data can't be guessed ;P


    Well, not the best English and a lot only remembered but I hope it helps a bit :)

  • There are several things which can be done.


    1. Use a 16 bit grayscale map - obviously your shown file is already in 16 bit but was it created already in that format? You'll need to make sure thats already 16 bit while editing.
    2. Anyway, open the file your favorite paint program, for example GIMP 2.9.8. Older versions of GIMP can't handle 16bit grayscale PNG files.
    3. Use a diffuser / softener brush in order to smooth / blur your 16bit picture. That way you will remove possible steps.


    4. Last but not least check the "range" value in the corresponding map.lua for your heightmap.
    The line looks for example like : range = {246, 839 },
    The first value is the lowest point of the map (black) in meters, and the second value is the highest point of the map (white).
    In the sample this will result in a range of (839-246 => 593 meters)
    So you might want to adjust those values in to define a lower range... Just keep in mind that 100 meters is the water level, so if your first value is <=100 this will result in the map having some flooded water areas...

BlueBrixx