Help Needed - Ultrascenery 2 & Mask Builder 2 Height Map Interaction Issues
christopher.zupp
Posts: 12
Hi Folks,
I am trying to build some scenery with a tarmac on it for some aircraft. I have created my own height map and applied it in US2 and I have placed a mask square where I want the terrain to be level. I then open Mask Builder and select the mask square and right click and select masking both biomes and height and when the live update happens my terrain disappears. I am not sure if this is intended functionality, or if I'm doing something wrong. Can anyone help me understand? Thanks!
-Chris
See attached PDF of the screenshots of the issue.
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Comments
What are you wanting to do? It looks to me as if your mask in Mask Builder is inverted, but that may be a misunderstanding of the goal.
I have some terrain I made with photoshop to create a height map. I applied that height map to US2, and then applied noise to the map to give it some added variability through the US2 tool. In that corner where the blue rectangle is I just want to level out the terrain so I can put some Hangars and a Tarmac down for an airport scene. When I go to apply height masking using the Mask Builder 2 when the live update happens my mask in Ultrascenery disappears and is replaced by the height map with just the mask. If I go and re-apply my height map in US2 it seems to work, but that's not what I understood the process to be. I thought I get the US2 scene ready, then apply masking as needed. Thanks for asking and thanks for your time!
-Chris
What happens if you switch black and white in Mask Builder? You'd then probably need to raise the flat area back up, but at the moment you are masking out (black) the areas that need the relief as far as I can see (but I am rusty).
It still basically does the same thing. It Nukes the height map I had in place in US2 instead of just adding to it. It doesn't seem to merge them......
The only thing I can think of that might be an issue is when I first set it up it asked me for the folder to put stuff in and I did use the same folder initially for Mask Builder 2 and US2, but when read the manual it said not to do that so I changed the Mask Builder 2 directory to something else. I don't know if it got hard coded in somewhere. I tried to uninstall Mask Builder 2 but it didn't ask me for the directory again when I started it up after the reinstall.
I don't have use, or know how to use Mask Builder, so that's a warning that what I'm suggesting uses another way of working, and it may or may not be of use to you.
You have a custom height map. So why not put the flat area in the height map? It would simply be a patch of even coloured grey. Darker = lower - decide what altitude you want and make the colour grey suit how high you want it. If you have the max and min altitude, and the altitude you want the flat area (assuming it's between the two extremes), then the grey colour will be:
RGB component value = 256 x ((Flat area altitude - min altitude)/(Max altitude - min altitude))
This 'RGB component value' is the number to put in the Red, Green and Blue component values (assuming 0-255 range) in the grey to use for the flat area.
This could be done in almost any graphics package (I use Paint Shop Pro 5 that I got on the front of a magazine in the year 2000). Then you could edit the height map image to blend with the edges of the flat area.
Finally, start with a copy of the height map, and over the flat area where you don't want vegetation, paint it black. Everywhere else, paint it white. This will allow vegetation everywhere except over the flat area. It may be worth having 2 masks, one for the smaller vegetation and one for the trees, giving more room around the flat area.
It may be a bit more explicable if you look at an explanation for a similar requirement I did here.
Regards,
Richard
Richard, thanks very much for the suggestion! I may do that, since I used photoshop to make the height maps, I could definitely do that. Only issue I can see is when I introduce noise to the US2 scene it may mess up my flat area, but I can probably deal with that. Thanks so much for the suggestion and laying it out. I had hoped to find a solution with the tools I bought for this purpose, but this definitely gives me a very viable alternative to move forward. Thanks so much!
-Chris
It is relatively long winded, but hopefully gives you the exact level of control not really seen in the USC tools.
I will admit I don't use them, not because they're not useful, but because I'm not going to use them often enough to justify buying them.
Anyway, hope it works for you.
Regards,
Richard