!help needed! questions I have on making maps

So I'm making a map for BeamNG.Drive, and I have a few questions the wiki doesn't go over that I've compiled here.

1.) What is a heightmap and how do I make one?

2.) [FIXED]

3.) [FIXED]

4.) How do I get 3D grass onto my level, other than going to the art folder, then the groundcover folder?

3D grass:


My grass:


5.) [FIXED]

6.) When I'm making a map, sometimes when I go off of the map all I can see is purple-pink. It also decreases the view distance.

I may update this forum if I have more questions.

 

To make the grass, go to object editor, click "library", and then "level", and open the Environment folder.



Open "Gorund Cover" and name it what you want. Now you should see "No material" Blocks



Go to material, and select "BNGGrass_3"



Then click "Types", then "[0]" and then "layer" and then select "Grass"



Then the grass should have 3D grass on it.

 

That didn't work for me. I still have just no material blocks everywhere.

 

Did you select a material for it like I said?

 

yeah, after naming it I went under groundcover general and selected BNGgrass_3

 

Did you click the "Select" button in the window?

 

where is that?

 

At the bottom right of the material select window.

 

oh, i see. yes, I clicked select.

 

Is the grass texture there now, or are you saying you already clicked Select?

 

I clicked select, and there are still the no material boxes

 

Did you double click the material before you clicked Select?

 

yes

 

Well I have no idea what's wrong. Maybe the material is all ready in use by another groundcover?

 

Tutorials:
https://wiki.beamng.com/Starting_a_new_map_project
https://www.beamng.com/threads/tutorial-how-to-create-your-own-map-for-beamng-drive.19598/

These tutorials are what got me to even start i had no clue before reading them. Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the video, ill check it out. but like I said, the wiki doesn't go over any of the questions I have. I used https://wiki.beamng.com/Starting_a_new_map_project to make my map.

 

1) A heightmap is a file, a picture, with 8 or 16 bits black and white colors that represent the height of your terrain. Depending on the resolution you choose and the size of your map, each pixel of the picture is a portion of your terrain.
For a 1024x1024 px heightmap, on a 1024x1024m plane, each pixels represent 1m and give a height.

There is many different options to make one.
With a picture editing software for basic shapes or very simple heightfield.
With a dedicated software,L3D, World machine, terragen, earth sculptor...
Or get them from the net. With google image, earth, terrain.party, vterrain...

2) The file forest.json is basically the index of your vegetation prop in game. This file will be automatically created when you insert a tree or bush for example.

 

ok, thanks but do you have a more in depth tutorial on heightmaps?

 

Well it depend on many things... What software are you planing to use ? What is your skill in 3d/texturing, picture editing (photoshop/gimp) ?

Personally I'm using World Machine, 3Dsmax, SubstancePainter/Designer and 3Dsmax to make my maps and statics.(Not released )
But as I've said, Gimp is enougth to make a rudementary map. You can find some tutorials on youtube without any pain...