I just finished doing in Sketchup the 3D mesh with heights for my map project and I know how to turn it into a greyscale highmap with the correct size in order to import it to the game. Now, some questions: -How I set up the import parameters? Meters per pixel, Height scale...also not sure about how I can take advantage of texture maps to help me "painting" the white terrain. -The resulting terrain layer will lack buildings and other stuff. I'll make the building and props in Sketchup, but how should I add them to the game? I know how to edit the position and scale of things with the map editor tools, but not sure about how actually add them in the first place. -The map is based on a real park, which has many water features, at different heights, with many different shapes. How the water is supposed to be added, by using the river tool and scaling them in each spot? -The park also has many different types of surfaces, apart from usual stuff such as grass, rock, dirt...it contains at least 10 types of sidewalks and paths, some layed out in different shapes like a triangle of one kind of floor contained within other type of floor. Should I add them as 3d objects textured in Sketchup, or there is other option, like maybe creating the paths in the height map and then using texture maps adding them to the game? (That involves the first question, since I don't know how to create or import them properly) For example, 7 types of surfaces in a small area, some are paths, the rest is a flat plaza, with different types of materials: I hope the answers are clear enough, I will try to explian as much as possible if needed. Thanks in advance for the help! I hope this serves as help for many other people
Import Parameters You get them when you import an heightmap You can set everything you asked for here. 'SplatMaps' as they are named usually (or 'Texture Map' as the importer calls them) are what can be used to paint the terrain automatically. You need RED GREEN BLUE version of your map. Then you can assign each colour to a texture. Sometimes you have to FLIP vertically the texture map. Adding Objects Export your object as DAE. Put the DAE and the textures inside your map folder. Here's how the official maps does it: You can organize the folder how you want. Remember that each folder will have it's own materials.cs file (You can't have two of them in the same folder as the name can't be different from 'materials.cs'). This file contains all the 3D Material information. Simply add your objects from the 'Scene Tree': Here you can find more info: http://wiki.beamng.com/Creating_static_objects Also this: Water & Rivers Depends on what you are adding. If you want to have a sea (infinite plane of water basically), you should add a 'Water Plane' If you want to have a block of water (for a lake for example, something that doesn't extend to the infinite), use 'Water Block' For rivers you have to use the 'River Editor' GroundType When you 'paint' a terrain, you are basically painting a material (press F3 in the editor, you will see a list of materials avalaible in your map. To add more you have to add them manually). The important part is how you name the terrain. If you check the 'groundmodel.json' file in this path you can find a whole list of avalaible groundmodels. You have to name your terrain material as one of the aliases in order to tell the game to use that groundmodel
