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Warcraft 3 Terraining Class
Welcome to the Warcraft 3 Terraining Class!
Here you can learn about the terraining process from start to finish. Feel free to ask questions if there's anything you don't understand and I will help you. Please refrain from asking about things that haven't been covered yet; either wait until they are covered in a lesson, or ask somewhere else; there are plenty of friendly people on the terrain board who can help you with any problem you may have.
If you weren't signed up as a student before, don't worry, you can just read these lessons and/or watch the videos and do the assignments. Send any assignments you missed to me before you start working on the new ones. If you need help, I will be here to help you catch up.
If you don't want to participate as a student but still want to learn, that's fine too. I'll still be here if you need help.
For this lesson, you will need the World Editor and the MiscData.txt attached below. You will create a folder called UI in your Warcraft 3 directory (likely C:\Program Files\Warcraft 3\UI as the path once created), and save MiscData.txt into that folder. This text file will allow you to raise terrain to any height with any steepness to the slope.
Today we will be learning about the height tool and a few of the different ways to use it for mountainous terrain.
The first thing you want to do is use a map size larger than what you plan on using. It's important because you don't want to hit unintended boundaries, because those will look very bad later when you extend the map boundaries as any terrain at the previous boundaries gets stretched "to infinity and beyond!"
Now, using the raise tool, create mountains. We can't afford to make full-scale mountains since people need to actually be able to see them, so you will instead create lines of mountains. These lines don't have to, and in fact should not be, straight. Make sure your mountainous lines do NOT have the same height throughout them. You don't want them to look like caterpillars. Be sure to raise them to peaks in some places and lower them in others. For a really good mountain look, raise edges of the mountains to create secondary height around them.
It's important that players have more to do than just walk on flat ground with mountains around them, so next you'll want to start creating walk-able areas through mountains. Raise ground to the height you want this walk-able area to be. Now, using the plateau tool, click on the top of that walkable area and drag around to create a perfectly flat area going around, past, over a mountain, or just straight off in a direction of nowhere and make your own new mountains around it using techniques covered earlier in the lesson. Now your walk-able area needs a way to get up to it. Instead of using the ramp tool like you would with blizzard cliffs, you will instead use the smooth tool to create a good looking ramp that leads up to the walk-able area. You will also want to use this smooth tool to smooth-en the edges of your plateau to get rid of the boxy edges.
Now that you've got your walk-able plateaus and mountains, you might want to create water. To make good-looking water, use the water tool, check the Advanced Tab to uncheck "Enforce Water Height", and then fill in the water using the increase level tool until it looks like nothing happened. Now whenever you use the lower tool on that area, you will "dig" down to the water.
Now that you're done with that, you'll want to go back to the mountains. If you have flat ground between them, you'll want to raise and lower it in certain areas to create height variation on the walk-able terrain. Terrain is much more interesting when the walk-able zone is not a flat platform.
Next you'll want to go over your mountains with the noise tool to make them look less smooth. This depends on what sort of mountains you're making, though; extremely old mountains such as the Blue Ridge Mountains in my state are smooth from the wears of time, but usually you'll be wanting to make rougher mountains. Be careful with the noise tool; don't drag it around, instead go over an area of mountain, click once, go over the next part, click once, until all of your mountains have been clicked once.
Your first assignment will be to create a playable mountainous terrain using ONLY the height tools (as well as cliff tools to create and fill water if you wish, but there should be no visible blizzard cliffs in the terrain!). Attach your maps to a post in this thread, a private message to me, or pastebin link them. Any method is fine, and it's up to you if you want to submit them privately or publicly.
Welcome to the Warcraft 3 Terraining Class!
Here you can learn about the terraining process from start to finish. Feel free to ask questions if there's anything you don't understand and I will help you. Please refrain from asking about things that haven't been covered yet; either wait until they are covered in a lesson, or ask somewhere else; there are plenty of friendly people on the terrain board who can help you with any problem you may have.
If you weren't signed up as a student before, don't worry, you can just read these lessons and/or watch the videos and do the assignments. Send any assignments you missed to me before you start working on the new ones. If you need help, I will be here to help you catch up.
If you don't want to participate as a student but still want to learn, that's fine too. I'll still be here if you need help.
For this lesson, you will need the World Editor and the MiscData.txt attached below. You will create a folder called UI in your Warcraft 3 directory (likely C:\Program Files\Warcraft 3\UI as the path once created), and save MiscData.txt into that folder. This text file will allow you to raise terrain to any height with any steepness to the slope.
Today we will be learning about the height tool and a few of the different ways to use it for mountainous terrain.
The first thing you want to do is use a map size larger than what you plan on using. It's important because you don't want to hit unintended boundaries, because those will look very bad later when you extend the map boundaries as any terrain at the previous boundaries gets stretched "to infinity and beyond!"
Now, using the raise tool, create mountains. We can't afford to make full-scale mountains since people need to actually be able to see them, so you will instead create lines of mountains. These lines don't have to, and in fact should not be, straight. Make sure your mountainous lines do NOT have the same height throughout them. You don't want them to look like caterpillars. Be sure to raise them to peaks in some places and lower them in others. For a really good mountain look, raise edges of the mountains to create secondary height around them.
It's important that players have more to do than just walk on flat ground with mountains around them, so next you'll want to start creating walk-able areas through mountains. Raise ground to the height you want this walk-able area to be. Now, using the plateau tool, click on the top of that walkable area and drag around to create a perfectly flat area going around, past, over a mountain, or just straight off in a direction of nowhere and make your own new mountains around it using techniques covered earlier in the lesson. Now your walk-able area needs a way to get up to it. Instead of using the ramp tool like you would with blizzard cliffs, you will instead use the smooth tool to create a good looking ramp that leads up to the walk-able area. You will also want to use this smooth tool to smooth-en the edges of your plateau to get rid of the boxy edges.
Now that you've got your walk-able plateaus and mountains, you might want to create water. To make good-looking water, use the water tool, check the Advanced Tab to uncheck "Enforce Water Height", and then fill in the water using the increase level tool until it looks like nothing happened. Now whenever you use the lower tool on that area, you will "dig" down to the water.
Now that you're done with that, you'll want to go back to the mountains. If you have flat ground between them, you'll want to raise and lower it in certain areas to create height variation on the walk-able terrain. Terrain is much more interesting when the walk-able zone is not a flat platform.
Next you'll want to go over your mountains with the noise tool to make them look less smooth. This depends on what sort of mountains you're making, though; extremely old mountains such as the Blue Ridge Mountains in my state are smooth from the wears of time, but usually you'll be wanting to make rougher mountains. Be careful with the noise tool; don't drag it around, instead go over an area of mountain, click once, go over the next part, click once, until all of your mountains have been clicked once.
Your first assignment will be to create a playable mountainous terrain using ONLY the height tools (as well as cliff tools to create and fill water if you wish, but there should be no visible blizzard cliffs in the terrain!). Attach your maps to a post in this thread, a private message to me, or pastebin link them. Any method is fine, and it's up to you if you want to submit them privately or publicly.
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