Was looking for a 3d heightmap editor, When i could not find one I decided to make my own.

Not too much to look at but here is a quick glimpse of a terrain in the editor.
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8518/exampleyn.jpg

Everything you need is in one place, including Video tutorial!
Only 15 megs foreverything :)
http://www.alii3d.com/download/AOSheightmap.zip

No more starring at a black bitmap trying to imagine the hills and valleys.

I also have it set up to automatically mirror the map, so it is all ready for CTF with 100% even sides.

It is possible to paint the terrain mesh too, the terrain is UV mapped. You can use textures, shaders or plain colors on the terrain you make, just use the baking tools.
I am working on a shader and a utility to automatically texture the terrain by its elevation, then a full render with IBL or HDR lighting.

To learn more about sculpting check out the tutorials on blender.org or on BlenderArtists.org forums.

Here is a nice tutorial here for most of the tools, You will only need a couple of the tools, but it is nice to see what is available to you.
http://www.blendercookie.com/2010/07/23/sculpting-blender-2-53/

On a side note here is a cheezy heightmap editor, only good for quick touch ups. Everything over 20 will draw, under 20 is ocean:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hme/files/hme/Source%20and%20Win32%20binary/hme.zip/download

Oh man, you made your own editor??

this will go great with the map i want to make!

Yea Mega Deuce, Blender is cool like that. With a little tweaking, you can make some really cool stuff, including free standing games with physics simulations.

The instructions are only a few moments, in less than half a minute I am sculpting the terrain in the video.

Just open the blendfile with my editing tools, and you can start sculpting right away!

If you guys want to save the map to edit later, press control S, and name the file.

Will make a setup for automatically paint the tarrain via elevation as soon as I learn the new controls for blender 2.59.

[HK]asher418, looking forward to your epic new battleground :)

Very close to having the shader ready for painting terrain.

Looking for testers, so the release will be perfect for everyone.

ben should be reading this
we have to replace this with our voxed

Yea that is a great idea. i would love to have something like this integrated with Voxed.

Would really save some time, rather than the way voxed makes you either make only boxes, unusable sphere blobs, or single blocks.

Just kick back with the paint tools, and paint away on your terrain.

Would be cool if he made an UNDO system for voxed too. I am really liking using my template. I have unlimited undos!

I am incorporating Proxils non-destructive editing script too, so you can go back to every brush stroke and edit it, or delete it. If voxed had something like this, it would really rock!

With the shader update, you will also be able to place lights, and go back and edit them!! It will bake a shadow map, and make a control image for easy selecting in your image editor.

I already have the export, and import functions working for GIMP, Zbrush, Photoshop and paintshop pro. Hit the button to edit the image, Your paint application open up... You tweak the texture, and when you save, it automatically updates in the editor.

Well, to make a long story short... +1 for adding these feature to voxed :)

I need this very bad. I can use Blender very well. Post this in the blender artist.org forum please. Can you use this to make Minecraft maps?

Yes indeed you can use this for minecraft. Just export a .VRML or OBJ file and use the Minecraft mesh importer.

The resolution is 4 quad polies to a single block.

oh, use the mouse button 3 to rotate the 3d view, sorry i forgot to say something about that.

Looks awesome! Very Impress. Wish I had more than zero blender skillz...

I save the whole blender file? Can you just make it save a text file? I changed the ramp material you made and assigned colours. I used the Node editor to assign external textures to the colors. It looks good but I need more help.

Thanks Mega Deuce!

Take a look in the zip file, there is a quick video showing the core functions.
You will be painting terrain in about 10 minutes after watching the video I bet :)

Here is a full featured tutorial / overview of some of the new tools:
http://www.blendercookie.com/2010/07/23/sculpting-blender-2-53/

Ignore the 2.53 download link, the current version is 2.59

I think I am going to try recording my next map terrain video, that way you guys can see everything from planning to testing the final version.

@ Angel,
Can you post your material setup? i would really like to check it out :)
And NO, i am not going to do a text exporter, Look around on google, you will probably find one.
The .OBJ and VRML file formats are both text, just use blender exporter to make them.

Here is a height-map visualizer http://sourceforge.net/projects/hme/files/hme/Source%20and%20Win32%20binary/hme.zip/download

NOt the greatest tool in the world, but is nice if you have to quickly tweak something.http://sourceforge.net/projects/hme/files/hme/Source%20and%20Win32%20binary/hme.zip/download

Yes I will post.Can I put a screen here for you to look at? I have made nice earth areas and a swimming pool. I maked a house in slab6 just like my house.

Sure you can post here.
Even better, you are welcome to make your own thread just for talking about your map.

I would be happy to comment either way.

Ok, just updated the file.

Grid now is exactly the same as AOS in game map.

Material is easier to see.

made a warning if you tried to extrude from a multires mesh.

Save and import heightmap.

Blend existing heightmap into current HM, with intensity slider.

masking is now possible for ALL tools.

Each stoke can be edited.

I tried it real quick tonight, but blender and me have a hatred of each other. (need to graba new version...I have a beta version from a while back.)

I wanted to reply to a bit I read about Voxed:
You "could" make a terrain inside of voxed, using the spray voxels tool. Basically the same as creating a heightmap. Uses an odd combo that is hard to push (Alt + Home)

You can also undo a number of of objects, using the "\" key, pretty much anything that uses the mini-cursor.

You can mass insert voxels using the Insert button, and then moving the minicursor with the numpad keys. (works the same for deleting)

Here is what I've been wanting for years in an Heightmap editor:
- 2D and 3D view of the heightmap
- Ability to edit terrain in the 3D window, or on the 2D window.
- A variety of brushes/blur effects

The closest one I have seen/used is the one built into Unreal Engine (UE2.5 at least) I could have the texture browser on on the side, and paint in the 3D window.

Truth be told, I make my heightmaps inside of GIMP still. +1 or -1 value (in the color browser) is the height of one block. I also really like that I can use my tablet inside of GIMP, that most other programs don't support.

@JoJoeStinky Hey would you drop me an email at sandcrawler (at) sandcrawler.net I have a few thing I wanted to talk to you about, and these forums don't have a PM system? Or I can't find it :P

Hey sand crawler, Thanks for testing :) !

Well, thanks to blender, you can have all your requests :) They even implemented a new quad view hotkey so you dont have to manually chop up the interface.

there are a few blur tools, along with flatten, and fill tools for both painting and sculpting. You can also use the vertex coloring , along with all the other goodies blender has to offer. Simply hold Shift if you want to do a simple smooth without changing your brush.

I make Height-maps so i can texture in an image editor. Voxed controls are really unpolished at this point. Plus I can not automate voxed the way i can blender or texturemaker. The lack of a proper undo system makes me avoid voxed as much as possible. i have it now so all i use it for is a viewer, and to place prefabs.

The way i have everything set up with the next update you can import existing heightmaps, and paint your terrain color map in the 3d window, or the 2d UV editor window. You can even import your own textures if you wish to paint with them, or use them for the terrain shader.

You need the newest stable version of blender to use my setup.

BTW i have found that anything over 10,10,10 is above the ocean level, and every layer of bricks is at an increment of 5.
With this information making staircases, and roofs is child's play :)

I am on the AOS IRC right now, we can chat in private there if you wish :)