Mapping to New Heights ⛰️

Rajirrah

Rajirrah
for anyone not familiar with bump maps this is awesome news. You can take a topographic map and use it to create real world locations in your zoo. Super!!

Topographic-map-of-the-Alps-Swiss-plateau-and-the-Jura-mountain-chain-between.png

The above map is a simple example, although the height is reversed with darker being higher, it's easy to create a negative of this map and create what you want. Of course editing out the text first. Or just take longer than the 2 minutes it took me to find this one and locate one without all that stuff in it.

:D
 

Aramar

Aramar
I would also like a tool that automatically creates a hole and fills it with water. Sometimes I have trouble when I dig some terrain and then I want to put the water in, because the water overflows the hole or stays too low. Imagine just setting that you want some water which has a 6m deep and then you just put the water and the hole is automatically dug.
 

Jileha

J
Here are 2 sample maps created in World Machine. Including the download and installation, it took me maybe 10 minutes. The same initial random image slightly modified for softer and rougher terrain.
 

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Dinomation6

D
Eltanin Casciani said:
Hayo Zookeepers!

We've been really hyped to announce this new feature to you all, so instead of waiting any longer, let's jump right into it!

In a future update, we're introducing an exciting new tool to Franchise, Challenge, and Sandbox Mode - the Height Mapping tool. This tool will allow you to create your own custom Heightmaps via image files, bringing even more diversity and customisation to your Planet Zoo builds!


There are 4 custom Heightmaps coming premade with the update, so if you're unsure how to go about making your own, editing these is an easy way to get to grips with how it all works. Once you've got the hang of it, it doesn't take more than a few minutes to create a custom map - edit the .tif file directly, refresh the map, and ✨ta-da!✨ Your changes will be there!

Here's our handy mini-guide on how to go about creating yours:
  • First off, you need to make your Heightmap, and for this, you need a 1024x1024 .tif file. Any modern image editor lets you save images as .tif, even paint!
  • Next up is making your map! The shade of grey decides the height of the map: the lighter it is, the higher the terrain. You can also create pits and crevasses by going darker if you choose. The ground level is set at 128 RGB and blurring or smudging can make some awesome things, so get creative with it!
  • Once finished, save your .tif file to Documents -> Frontier -> Planet Zoo -> UserHeightmaps
  • Launch Planet Zoo and go to create your new Sandbox, Challenge, or Franchise zoo as normal, selecting your biome/continent and set the terrain type to "Heightmap - YourFileName"
  • Click create and your new map will load! Practice in Sandbox before using Franchise so you don't waste any CC opening new zoos
  • After loading up a custom map, you can jump in with the in-game tools to smooth and tidy everything up!

Easy-peasy, right? We can already tell how creative you're going to get with this, and we're sure that soon enough, you'll be blowing us away by using Heightmaps in ways we couldn't hope to predict - just like you did with the recent Diorama trend!

We hope you've enjoyed hearing about the incredible new height map tool coming to you all soon. This will be included in a future update and we'll be sharing more information soon - so be sure to keep an eye out on our forums and official channels 👀
Click to expand...
Looks pretty nice. Good on making new shapes.
 

ElectricMonk

ElectricMonk
Awesome - this’ll make it a whole lot faster to terraform maps. I’ve been wanting this since beta… now I’m just wondering what other goodies we’re getting soon….. in the meantime I’m googling ‘height map’ and seeing what pops up.
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
Great information and sounds very neat! I will probably how to watch how it's done, because I'm not really "getting it" by written explanation, but I think I sort of do, Can't wait to try it and see what else will be coming soon!
 

SirTophamHatt

SirTophamHatt
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
That feature is actually really cool if you ask me. Especally if there will be an easy way to import real height maps to the game, making it rediculously easy to terraform a real place, because the game literally does most of the work for you
Click to expand...
But unless I'm mistaken, there isn't.
Sorry to burst the bubble but this just seems an easier way to make hills... something we can already do (albeit awkwardly with the landscaping tools).
Not saying this isn't good, just it's not a huge game changing feature.
 

nutrit

nutrit
Great news 🤩
I know that there are a lot of people who would make incredible things out of it 😍 like real life canions, mountains, river valleys, lakes etc.

I can’t wait to see what else they have prepared in the update and new dlc for us this time.

I must say my most requested features apart from generally more animals in the game are:

  • brachiation - I would love to see that for gibbons and orangutans
  • better climbing also available for big cats and some ungulates. Rock climbing would be awesome.
  • fixing Malayan tapir - my favorite animal is kind of robbed 😜
  • fixing sizes of some animals - elephants, camels and bisons
  • adding 3 animals that are essential for me Red River hog, Maned wolf and Stripped hyena.

Please frontier make those happen one day. You are making incredible work and making a lot of us animal nerds very happy everyday and we really appreciate that.
 
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SalamAnders

SalamAnders
This looks like a feature I am either going to use all the time or not at all, I am not really sure yet. No matter what it looks like a great tool and unexpected which is cool!

Looking forward to see what else the coming update include. It is always super exciting to read through the full update announcement!
 

ElectricMonk

ElectricMonk
SirTophamHatt said:
But unless I'm mistaken, there isn't.
Click to expand...
I don’t see why not - as long as you can access a height map of the area you want, which are available for some areas. Finding one that’s the right scale might be tricky but a bit of work in an image program should smooth things out, then a bit of in-game tweaking. Most of all, though, this’ll make large-scale terraforming much, much quicker and easier. Agree it’s not game changing, but I think we’ll be seeing some good starter maps coming on to the workshop.
 

[VR] Deggial

[VR] Deggial
Wow!
Oh WOW!

This news is pure awesomeness!
And basically the one thing I’ve asked for in one of my earliest PZ posts here in the forum.
Thank you, Frontier, thank you, thank you!!!

Hm.
Maybe I’ll even start a ‘Mudbox’ session on my work computer (home office has its benefits ;) ) in order to model some hight maps ...

Easy large scale terrain creation, here we come!
 
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