Introduction

Modeling

Create Heightfield map

1. Launch L3DT
2. File > Import > Heightfield...
1. File name = <your directory path>/Heightfield/Beleriand Terragen.ter
3. Ok
4. Wait for import...
5. File > Save > Save group as...
1. File name = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand.mgf
6. >

Create Design map

1. Operation > Design map > Gener<te form HF...
1. Average altitude = slider all to left (sea), actually disabled
2. Altitude range = slider all to left (flat), actually disabled
3. Scale of features = slider all to left (tiny), actually disabled
4. Fractal roughness = slider all to left (weak)
1. (this is a trade-off; introduces a little variation of heightfield roughness)
5. Peak overlays = slider all to left (none)
6. Cliffs and terraces = slider all to left (none)
7. Erosion = slider all to left (none)
8. Lakes = slider all to left (few)
1. (this is a trade off; creates randomly some lakes that, however, may be deleted during creation of Water Map - Water Table)
9. Default climate = Temperate
2. Ok
3. Manually assign climates. I've assigned Arctic and Arid at North of Beleriand and Sea at Sea level.
4. >

Create Water map, Water table map and Water Salinity map

1. Click Next  twice (automatically flood seas and flood lakes)
2. Click Delete water body mode (put icon)
3. Manually delete all lakes created during process of Design map creation
4. Click Water map flood tools (put icon)
5. Manually create all water bodies identified by blue contour lines. This is a tedious process at Helcaraxe. A trade off is that L3DT cannot blend or put near Sea body and Lake body. Because I've used Lake bodies to fill rivers, I'm forced to assign as Sea bodies all rivers nearby Sea, whereas I've assigned all others rivers and lakes as Lake bodies. Actually I've flooded all rivers and lakes bodies at Depth =  20 metres.
6. Click Next (flood water-table)
1. Leave all settings unchanged
7. Ok (about 2 hours)
8. >
9. >

Create Attribute map

1. Click Next
2. Wait about ???
3. >

Create Normal map

1. Click Next
2. Wait about ???
3. >

Create Light map

1. Click Next
1. Light map (1/3)
1. Sun position direction = 90 degrees
2. Leave other setting unchanged
2. Light map (2/3)
1. Cast shadows = checked
2. Water effects = checked
3. Bump mappings = checked
4. Make high resolutions light map = checked
1. LM/HF ratio = 4
5. Use disk-drive paging (mosaic map) = checked
1. Tile size = 512
3. Light map (3/3)
1. Leave settings unchanged
2. OK (about 6 hours)
3. >

Create Texture map

1. Click Next
1. Use light map = checked
2. Interpolate texture = checked
3. Bump mappings = checked
4. Make high resolutions texture = checked
1. LM/HF ratio = 4
2. Per-pixel land types = unchecked
1. (this is a trade off; with Per-pixel land types = checked after 12 hours of calculation L3DT crashes. Must notify it to Aaron)
5. Use disk-drive paging (mosaic map) = checked
1. Tile size = 512
2. OK (about 3 hours)
3. >

Save model

1. File > Save > Save all
2. L3DT saves maps as follows:
1. Map group file = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand.mgf
2. Settings = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand.def
3. Heightfield map = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand_HF.hff
4. Water map = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand_WM.wmf
5. Water body list = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand_WBL.txt
6. Water salinity map = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand_WS.hff
7. Attribute map = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand_AM.amf
8. Normal map = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand_TN.jpg
9. Light map = <your directory path>/3D/LM/<lots of files>
10. Texture map = <your directory path>/3D/TM/<lots of files>
3. L3DT saves a summary files called <your directory path>/3D/summary of Beleriand.html
4. Close L3DT

...and finally...

1. Open L3DTVi2
1. File name = <your directory path>/3D/Beleriand.mgf
2. Wait for a while...
3. I've selected some snapshots but many others deserve the scene. For now enjoy these shots!

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