Creating Terrain for 3DGS: by Jeff Frazer                   page: 1 2 3 4 5

Finishing up in MED:
Okay. Start MED and open your BMP height map. You'll have to select height map from the file type drop-down menu. An options dialog when come up and show vertices and triangle size. I generally try for a triangle (polygon) size of no more the 75.XXXXX but, trial and error is the best until you figure out what you like. Hit OK and you should see your height map in all of its 3D glory!
height map in med
Applying Our Skin:
After you have loaded your height map BMP into MED, go to the skin viewer (view -> skins). Import the skin we made earlier (file -> import -> skin image) into the viewer. You should now see your height map in its brand new skin! Close the skin viewer and check out your terrain. Once you are done admiring your handy work, save the terrain as a HMP file. That's it folks.
skinned terrain in med
Footnotes:
Well, we made it through the tutorial. Terrains are pretty simple once you understand about height maps and skins (duh!). I hope that I have provided you with some useful information and that you now can create terrains that will put my puny little example to shame!

Here are the textures that I used as well as the finished height map. They are in a zip file.

The programs mentioned in this tutorial can be downloaded from the following links:

I would like to hear your feedback about his tutorial. Send me an email at jfrazer@ndmedia.net.