How to import a greyscale height map into Fractal Terrains?

[waldronate]

Getting a pale blue map indicates that FT has problems with the extents (most likely the top and bottom - FT wants top to be 90 and bottom to be -90 for a whole-world import). To make things easier when importing into FT I flipped the map and extents in Wilbur before saving the MDR.

I'm sorry that FT isn't doing what you had hoped it would. What were you hoping it would do for you, btw?

I never got around to writing a help file for Wilbur because there's really no particular benefit for me in doing so. The program documentation is a little dated, but it can be found at the same place that you downloaded the program.

[EDG]

Getting a pale blue map indicates that FT has problems with the extents (most likely the top and bottom - FT wants top to be 90 and bottom to be -90 for a whole-world import). To make things easier when importing into FT I flipped the map and extents in Wilbur before saving the MDR.

Not sure what's going on then. I'm sure I did exactly as you said in the instructions. I could try it again and see if the same problem shows up.

I'm sorry that FT isn't doing what you had hoped it would. What were you hoping it would do for you, btw?

Well, I was more hoping it wouldn't do everything I was complaining about in my earlier post . Its terrible sluggishness, the early 90s interface, limited options, the number of fiddly steps (and the requirement to use another program which isn't even included with it) I have to do just to import a heightmap, the documentation (I have three PDF files that claim to be manuals - one of which appears to have been stored with the installer files but not actually installed - and no idea which one is the most up to date)... I'm sure that was great in the mid-90s, but 15 years later I kinda expect to see something much better than that, especially for an asking price of $40. It needs to be completely rewritten and modernised to be worth that much IMO.

To import this map, I expected to be able to open up FTPro, hit an "import imagemap" button, select my gif or PNG or whatever, have a dialogue box appear in which I define the bounding latitude/longitude and the atltitude range, and that's it. It should be a simple, basic, straightforward task - having to use another program, do this 'flip' thing, export as MDR format, reimport, and so on is just unnecessary IMO.

I've applied for a refund for it anyway. Haven't heard back yet, but if I've not heard back after a few days I'll give them another poke. Hopefully I'll get my money back and chalk it up as a learning experience.

I never got around to writing a help file for Wilbur because there's really no particular benefit for me in doing so. The program documentation is a little dated, but it can be found at the same place that you downloaded the program.

Ok, I'll have a look for that then.