Hi

When importing a heightmap in MED
the Z-postion has a formula R*1 + G*1 + B*2

I assume this means Red*1 + Green*1 + Blue*2
and is used for heigt calculation.

The problem is that I don't understand this so
if anyone could explain this I would be grateful.

The heightmap file, isnt that a greyscale image
where Red=Green=Blue? So why B*2 ?

Say I have designed a heightmap where white(R=G=B=255)
should be equal to 50 meters and black(R=G=B=0) is 0 meters.
How should the formula look for this scenario?

~Roland

This link may help explain a bit about heightmaps and how they work.

It's not GameStudio related but it explains about how they work.

I'm sure GS uses the same principle.

Info about heightmaps.

Hi again

I have made some reading trying to find out what the RGB formula achieves.

If I got it right it should work like this:

RGB tells the z-position of each vertex in the imported terrain
RGB=0 gives a Z-position of 0, RGB=255,255,255 gives the highest Z-position.

Normally we have grayscale height maps where R=G=B so for them any of the
RGB values can be used. R is normally used.

So, the formula for grayscale height maps should be something like

R*1 + G*0 + B*0

We only care about one of the RGB components as they are all the same values
for each pixel

In MED the formula is said to calculate z-position.

I did a simple test by in MED importing a black 1024x1024 height map with one
white dot in it with following results when importing the produced .hm file into WED.
----------------------------
R*0 + G*0 + B*10 - terrain pos at z = 0, size 1024x1024x512
R*0 + G*10 + B*0 - terrain pos at z = 0, size 1024x1024x512
R*10 + G*0 + B*0 - terrain pos at z = 0, size 1024x1024x512
R*10 + G*10 + B*10 - terrain pos at z = 0, size 1024x1024x512

So apparently the formula does nothing for grayscale height maps
or have I totally missed the whole idea of how this works?


~Roland