Heightmapped Terrain with Noggit Red

! This method should only be used by beginners. Once you are familiar with the workflow, use the bash script instead as it is significantly faster.


Requirements

Noggit Red

GIMP

Ofnuts' Tiles plug-in
Extract the "ofnuts-tiles.py" file into your GIMP install directory at "GIMP 2/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/"

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Step 0

• Get a heightmap and matching alphamaps. You can generate them with a program like Gaea or find some online for free. Download the files used in this tutorial here.

        (Heightmaps should be in 16-bit .png or .exr format to ensure maximum detail.)

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Step 1 - Tiling the Heightmap

• Load your heightmap into GIMP.

        (If you're using the files supplied in this tutorial, the heightmap is "height.png")

• Resize the heightmap with Image > Scale Image... to match your WoW map dimensions in ADTs x 257. 

       
        (Our map will have 10x10 ADTs, so we need a 2570x2570 heightmap.)

• Export your heightmap tiles with File > Export tiles > Export tiles (by rows and columns). 

        (If you don't see this option, the plug-in isn't installed correctly.)

• In the Export tiles options box use the following settings.

        Directory: Create a folder somewhere for your heightmap tiles
        Tile Name: Mountains_{column1}_{row1}_height.png
        Rows: 10
        Columns: 10

• Click OK and sit back while GIMP exports the image as 100 individual tiles using the naming convention we supplied, which matches what Noggit Red is expecting for heightmaps.

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Step 2 - Tiling the Alphamaps

• Load your layer1 alphamap into GIMP.

        (If you're using the files supplied in this tutorial, the layer1 alphamap is "layer1.png")

• Resize the image with Image > Scale Image... to match your WoW map dimensions in ADTs x 1024 using 3.780 pixels/mm resolution.

        (Our map will have 10x10 ADTs, so we need 10240x10240 alphamaps.)

NOTE: The alphamaps supplied in this tutorial are being scaled up from 4k to 10k, but this is only done for convenience and will produce a blurry texture mask. For best results your heightmaps and alphamaps should be as close to the intended size as possible, or scaled down if necessary.

• Export your layer1 alphamap tiles with File > Export tiles > Export tiles (by rows and columns).

• In the options box that pops up, use the following settings.
  

        Directory: Create a folder somewhere for your alphamap tiles
        Tile Name: Mountains_{column1}_{row1}_layer1.png
        Rows: 10
        Columns: 10

• Click OK and wait for GIMP to finish.
   

• Repeat the process for the layer2 and layer3 alphamaps.

Requirements

Noggit Red

Git Bash

ImageMagick (16-bit HDRI)

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Step 0

• Get a heightmap and matching alphamaps. You can generate them with a program like Gaea or find some online for free. Download the files used in this tutorial here.

          (Heightmaps should be in 16-bit .png or .exr to ensure maximum detail.)

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Step 1

• Download the Noggify_Texturemaps.sh bash script and place it in a folder with your texture maps. Open the file with a text editor and configure the variables. (They are preset to follow the rest of this tutorial.)

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Step 2

• Double-click the bash script to run it and create your texture map tiles.

(Color used for visual purposes only, alphamaps must be in grayscale)

Get your alphamaps from an RGBA splatmap to avoid overlap between layers. The R/G/B channels define the opacity of layer 1-3 and the alpha channel defines the base texture.