I have clear references of each and every piece of the map but I just don’t know where to begin, and what to do with everything, and it’s quite frustrating to just keep staring at my screen trying to figure out a solution.
To add more context: I’m attempting blend mesh rocks with roblox terrain, which is the issue, if I had a good idea of where to begin, I’d have no issue, but I don’t, which is the bad part.
I’d probably made the decal the size of the map and slightly transparent, then draw up a rough sketch layer by layer. After that, I’d shape small details and add/carve the rocks and paths.
I had the same issue. Correct me if I am wrong, but you want to change the mesh into Roblox’s terrain.
If this is the issue, I don’t think you could do that.
What I did was import the mesh into Roblox then made it transparent, and added terrain where needed. Basically like a blueprint and I followed it. This took me an hour to do as I had a large map.
If anyone else has another solution, please reply.
I would recommend starting from the deepest point and slowly adding layers and make a general outline of the terrain, then start adding the details here and there.
The first question that comes to mind is whether you want to build THAT map, pretty much exactly as shown, or if you want to craft something similar by using that as a reference.
If you want to get as close as possible to the 2D layout, then you might think about using the image (or a modified version of it) as a height map and have the software do much of the heavy lifting. I’ve used that approach in the past, and it gives a good starting map that usually needs a number of adjustments. I haven’t tried it with Roblox, so I can’t help with the finer details in this case, but there is at least one page on the dev site that touches on the idea. Generating Terrain with Heightmaps (roblox.com)
If you want to just use that 2D map as a reference and create something similar, then this approach has worked pretty well for me:
Create a flat rectangle of terrain that covers the area you want to fill (Terrain Select and Fill tools). The depth should probably equal about half the distance between your highest height and lowest low (keep in mind that you can get weird lighting issues if you have extreme height variation). May have to stitch together a few regions to get the size you want, although the Part->Terrain conversion may help with that (idk if that has a size limit or not).
With your reference image close by, zoom out and look straight down (more or less) at your terrain. Use the terrain tools that cut away terrain to “sketch out” the main features as shown on your reference. For example, I’d probably start by drawing in (carving out) the river and lake on your map. The Subtract tool is excellent for that kind of thing: To start, I’ll generally use a cube or cylinder shape for the tool with the base size and height settings adjusted as needed and the pivot position set to “top”. For deep valleys, I’ll drill down in one spot to the depth I want and use a tall thin cube with pivot on the bottom and carve away the sides of the valley as needed to make cliffs. Keeping the mouse held down as long as possible while you carve away helps keep all the carved areas at a constant depth. It helps to keep places where you want water perfectly flat.
Once the lower areas and main feature outlines are chiseled out, I’ll use a combination of Add and Grow tools to pull up the higher parts of the map, moving the camera around as needed.
At this point, the map should have all the main landmarks, and I’ll go in with the Smooth, Erode, and Flatten tools to distress the map and knock down odd sharp edges and such, spending more time on areas of interest and less in other places.
Painting and multiple passes of refinement will wrap up the terrain process (generally speaking). I tend to create everything with just a dirt texture to start and then apply the grass, rocks, water, and whatnot in a paint pass (making minor adjustments to terrain or adding things I hadn’t thought of at first as I go).
Adding other things like modeled rocks and trees and flowers and such isn’t part of the terrain creation, strictly speaking, but I generally save that until last. In the image below, I did add the trees pretty early in the process because I had them auto generated in a random way and used them as a guide for parts of the terrain and painting once I had an arrangement I was happy with.
Anyway. It’s one way to go about it. I’m certain there are loads of ways to approach terrain like what you’re after. The key thing in my experience is to start creating in a rough, broad way and move toward refining things in areas of detail over a number of successive passes
That’s more or less how I approached my submission for the Builder’s Challenge last year.
There are also videos on YouTube with tips and probably some in-depth tutorials on the forum if you felt like searching around a bit. Just dive in and start experimenting. You don’t have to go with the first terrain you come up with. Give yourself the option of having 2-5 “practice” maps before you attempt one that you want to call “final” (of course, if you stumble on something great before that then great).
That’s my 2 cents. Best of luck with your journey.
