This is basically what the tool is doing, using OGT as an example.[R-DEV]Rudd wrote:thats not always necessary, and the sec heightmaps from that tool are a good starting point/placeholder
Now with OGTs VD you most likley wouldn't notice how crappy the surrounding terrain was but with a much larger VD, and epically on a map with air assets, you would easily be able to see things like for starters, the river looks totally wrong and the train track lines (which the terrain has been modified for) don't meet up at all etc, espically in the NW of the map the train line goes off at a 90deg angle all of a sudden.. In some locations you could even see the extra rivers on the map...
The tool isn't a good starting point as it means you need to do even more work to clean it up the surrounding terrain than if you where just working with a blank map and if used as a place holder, it would get left...
It is far better to do the surrounding terrain at the very begging of the map, epically if your generating the terrain or using DEM data.
If generating your terrain, generate your map size by 3 then split the map up in photoshop, using the centre for the pri terrain and the edges for the surrounding terrain, as I did for my "Test Airfield" map:
Design Map:
L3DT Minimap with surrounding terrain:
And if your using DEM data, take the area outside of where you want your map to be as well as the map, then split it up in photoshop, much like what you would do above with generating terrain, except your not generating it, although if your going to shove it though Geocontrol keep it as one for that before you split it up.
Doing the above not only means you get a much, much better result and very nice transition between your Pri and Surrounding terrain, but you also save a heap of time trying to clean up a really crappy surrounding terrain which dosen't work.
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