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[maccam912]

I know I can export crazy detailed heightmaps, but I am looking for a way to export either a heightmap or an easy to work with file format of every cell in every region/zone, for the entire continent.

Basically, i made this from the heightmap PNG: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae1nq8NFuUE&feature=youtu.be

I want to get even more detail before my next render, down to individual trees if possible. Something I can zoom in on close enough and see these small detais.

I know DFHack can export the region you are playing in, but short of embarking in every region on the entire continent, is there a way to quickly get all the detail I'm asking about?

Hopefully this will be warmly accepted here as my first post on the official forums. Usually a redditor and was directed here for this exact same question.

EDIT: I also will mention that I have noticed that both world dat files look like just a bunch of bytes. The .dfmap export from DFHack looks similar on the surface level, but has a header the non-DFHack exported files do not (according to the IsoView tool). Is there anything I can extract from these files that DFHack is doing that wouldn't require me to embark in each region first?

[Putnam]

isoworld?

[maccam912]

isoworld?

As in "did you mean Isoworld when you said isoview?" (yes, I did mean isoworld) or is there a way to "export" every square in isoworld for the entire continent in some format I can work into something I'll be able to render with Blender? If it is the second way, I'll play around but if you have a fast-track solution I'd love to hear it!

[Putnam]

I really don't. That's the fastest-track solution I can think of, which is why I suggested it.

[maccam912]

Fair enough. Do you know if I can export the details I find? I may have to resort to moving across the whole continent, but it seems as if the parts out of "view" are gone and lost. Is there a way you know of to save that data somewhere? I just wish I could use this to get the entire continent in this style, not just a portion of it. Again though, I'm not done playing with it yet. Maybe I'll figure it out.

[Putnam]

The problem is that the game AFAIK doesn't generate smaller-scale things until they're needed.

[maccam912]

Ok. Question for anyone then: Does anyone know a way to fake the game into thinking I need the smaller scale details in a way faster than embarking at each location? I don't mind if it takes awhile. I just don't want to have to manually do it.

I also wonder about adventure mode. That is another way to get things to generate "as needed", so is there a way to systematically move around the entire world? Make it always daylight, turn off food/hunger, and get rid of anything that would attack you?

[Mr S]

As Putnam said, it's not that the game doesn't DISPLAY smaller resolution until needed, it doesn't even GENERATE smaller resolution items until needed.  As seen through SCIENCE in other threads, not even the layer materials are assigned until needed.

The second very valid point is that even a small world is HUGE when fully rendered.  This type of thread has come up before, a few weeks ago last I recall.  It was calculated that a small region, fully rendered in even so-so detail level would be a file around 30TB.  Pretty big.

Technically, it would be possible to use some DFHack-fu to make an adventurer with [NOEAT], [NOTHIRST], [NOSLEEP], [NOEMOTION], etc. that can pass through walls and fly and script your way around the entire map.  Recording something useful from this extra long tour route is another issue.  Maybe dump a view after every so many moves.  Then have to post process the images to collate them.  I'd say, call a good freind at NASA.  They should have satellite imaging software to help.

[maccam912]

So not feasible in other words. Ok. One day 30TB will be nothing and I'll be working on it though.

[Timeless Bob]

Necro'd because I think I've found a way to do this:
1) Beginning with one corner, embark on a 16 x 16 square fortress, thus generating the heightmap info
1b) Use dfhack to export that info to a 53x53 array per square (44,944 height points per 16x16 embark)
2) Artificially close Dwarf Fortress, not allowing it to save fortress information
3) Restart Dwarf Fortress and embark on the next 16x16 square in that column.

I believe there are 289 large squares in the "pocket world" (17x17), so that would total only 12,988,816 height points for the entire map.  The next size up is 48,944,016 (33x33) height-points, and it rapidly increases from there.  However, The array can be accessed in "Chunks" like Minecraft or Google maps does it, allowing the visualizer to map a certain area, clear its cache and move on to the next area without going into overload.

I basically am doing just that with my "Luckiest Tourist EVER" game.  I've already stitched together all the pixels into one vast image, now any updates or details become a quick cut n' paste job.  Higher resolution is merely a finer noise of voxels in the same size array.

[maccam912]

Good plan. Although embarks seem slower than writing some sort of script for adventure mode to visit every possible square. Can maps be exported from that? I am a complete noob at modding DF, but if I get a good unit vector of a way to accomplish this, I'll take off that direction. I just have no idea. DFHack does memory modification? That is why the "embark, quit, embark" loop is a good suggestion?

All the info is there, just procedurally generated lazily (as needed). I am just curious if I can get heightmaps of the entire continent, procedurally generated. Tarn or Zach: If you are reading this, do you have any suggestions? I should have asked yesterday but didn't think to. I'm not sure if this would be difficult to add to the code.

[Quietust]

Good plan. Although embarks seem slower than writing some sort of script for adventure mode to visit every possible square. Can maps be exported from that? I am a complete noob at modding DF, but if I get a good unit vector of a way to accomplish this, I'll take off that direction. I just have no idea. DFHack does memory modification? That is why the "embark, quit, embark" loop is a good suggestion?

It would certainly be possible to write an Adventurer mode script which teleports the player close to the edge of the currently loaded region, takes a step to force a map refresh, then repeats as necessary, but it'd take a long time since the Adventurer mode "terrain window" is only the size of a 3x3 embark region.

[maccam912]

Any longer than doing it embark by embark?