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| - Go to the View menu and ensure that Layers and Tool are checked. If not, check them now. Select the Elevation layer at the bottom of the Layers window: The Tool window should change if Elevation was not previously selected. It should look like this: At the top is choice of all available terrain brushes. The terrain will be raised up or down in the same shape as the brush. Blue means the terrain will be raised; red means the terrain will be lowered. The other options are: Strength: How much your brush changes at a time.
* Size: How large the brush is in world units.
* Maximum: The maximum height allowed by the brush. If you are raising the terrain, a plateau will form at the height you specify here. Using a brush on terrain with a higher elevation than Maximum will cause the terrain to be lowered to Maximum.
* Minimum: The minimum height allowed by the brush. It functions the same as Maximum, except that it acts as a lower boundary. Before you set out to shape the map, it is very helpful to have an idea of what the final map should look like. As mentioned previously, this guide will create a map similar to Winter Duel. Go ahead and open up Winter Duel through File > Open. It can be found in the SCMP_013 directory. If the editor gives you a black screen, simply restart the program. If you encounter this problem frequently, you can start multiple instances of the map editor to switch between maps. Zoom around and pan the camera to get a feel for the landscape. You should notice that the map is slightly bowl shaped. The terrain begins level where the players start, and gradually slopes downward into a small valley below. This is the first feature we are going to replicate. Smooth slopes such as this are set up by first creating a stairstep pattern. Select the round1k brush from the Elevation Brush window. Set the Maximum field to 65 (remember: our initial elevation is 64, so this will create a step 1 unit high). Draw a line down the center of the map, slightly off to the left. Now set the Maximum field to 66 and repeat, placing a line slightly to the left of the first step. Repeat this all the way to the left edge of the map. The result should look similar to this: How closely together you space your steps will determine how steep the slope is. The leftmost side of this image has a height of 73; the center has a height of 64. When designing the rest of the map, we need to keep in mind that the final product will be rotationally symmetrical. Although this takes some of the feel and personality away from the map, it does guarantee an even playing field, and that is an important consideration. Additionally, it will make texture and decal placement much easier, as we will see later. Since the map will be symmetrical, we only have to work on the left side of the map. Changes on smooth terrain can be tricky, so we will keep the slope as a stair-step for now. Next we will add a cliff face protruding into the middle, similar to what Winter Duel has: As you design cliffs, you will want to make sure you are actually creating cliffs. Go to View > Debug and click Slope. Green indicates that land is flat enough to construct buildings on. Red indicates that land is too steep for units to traverse. Colorless means that units can traverse that land, but it is too steep to build on. What next? Maps on Winter Duel frequently break into short stalemates in the center with massive defenses on opposing cliffs. Let’s add another cliff above the first to spice things up a bit. This cliff will shadow the one we just added, such that if an opponent can gain hold of it, they will gain a tactical stronghold against the enemy’s defenses. Terrain height is an important consideration when designing cliffs. A height difference of 2 is not passable by units, but such a low cliff is difficult to work with. Cliffs should typically be at least 4 units high. After some tinkering, the result should look similar to this: The next logical step is to do something with the lower left of the map. However, without visualizing the lower right, it’s difficult to make a good call. This is where Photoshop comes in. With the Elevation tool selected, click the property (Image:Editor-menubutton-property.jpg) button on the top toolbar. Next click on Export Heightmap where your brush choices used to be. Save the .raw file in your map’s directory with a distinct name. Note that the editor will not prompt you if you try to overwrite an existing file.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)