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By pelagius_septim
#97176 Hello, This is my guide to terraforming! Terraforming is a wonderful way to show your skills in building and also does wonders when creating custom regions. Now I have been at terraforming for 1 year now so I am pretty good at it and have got through the twists and hoops. So I am here to share ALL that I know about it!

First off, we need to discuss the terraforming tools which can be used. This is the MOST important thing about terraforming. Otherwise you would have to build the terrain by hand, and we dont have 2 years to do that :)

1. WorldEdit
World edit it a bukkit plugin, I do not suggest using world edit because its a bit more difficult then using the other tools. But basically you take a few hours and brush a terrain on a flat island by hand.

2. World Painter
I use world painter. I can spit out a nice terraform in less then a hour. It is the easiest way to make a terraform. It is basically where you design the terrain and you can brush on trees and such.

3. World Machine
I just learned this can be used for terraforms. But it is the MOST difficult thing to do. Plus you have to buy the full version to do alot with it. So try to avoid this tool because its complicated and is VERY time consuming.
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Now that I have discussed that, We shall move on to how to terraform and the tips you will need!

First you need to download world painter. Get it here: http://www.worldpainter.net/
I would suggest allocating more RAM to Java applications or worldpainter so then it loads up and saves larger worlds faster.

BUT! On to how to use it watch this video if you need a tutorial, I didnt make it. But it can help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8moPJzPqfg
Now dont just go ahead and creat that crappy terrain he was working on, nobody will like it. Before creating a map play around with it for a while, have fun. Mess with your tools provided. But lets move on to a more advanced setting. Custom brushes. Yep no more circle brushes. I am going to share my current collection of brushes designed by a PMC user. I have one of the only remaining copies. And DID NOT CREATE THE BRUSHES! I didnt make them, I just use them with permission and since they are under a CC license you can use them.
Brushes were created by Kamberli:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdgdxbhh73f76 ... 20pack.zip
That is a exact unedited copy of Kamberli's brushes. I plan to make my own custom set in the near future so there will be another pack to use. Once you download the brushes open the zip folder. You need both the zip file and world painter open. At the top of the world painter screen will be a tool bar. Click tools -> Open custom brushes folder. Place the .png files in the zip folder within the custom brushes folder. Then restart world painter.

Once these brushes appear DO not use a raise a mountian tool. Use the raise/lower land tool to create a mountian. If you use the raise a mountian tool then it will look kinda retarded. But lets contenue.

Here is a picture of some tips I got from inHaze who is a professional terraformer. He is well known for his work in the terraforming community so absorb his tips and keep them close to your heart.
Image
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Now that you have inhaled all of that information, start to craft your world! Always go in to Files>New and create a new world. I would suggest making the map larger then 640. Also lower the land level and make sure the ocean level is 62. Then start playing with your brushes. Now I do not suggest using the preset World Painter trees which generates a biome/forest where you want it depending on the type. I use custom objects.
The best trees can be obtained from here:
http://www.planetminecraft.com/project/ ... y-1779952/
I use these trees all the time because Lentebriesje is amazing. Then place a folder with these trees somewhere easy to find. Follow the directions below to learn how to place the objects on the map


" WorldPainter allows you to include arbitrary, custom made objects in the world. You can use this to, for instance, create forests with tree types or other vegetation that WorldPainter (or Minecraft) doesn't support, or sprinkle buildings or artefacts around. Since these "objects" can also consist of water and/or empty space, and can be below ground, you can use them in various advanced techniques to create rivers and underground caverns or tunnels with more control than WorldPainter allows (note that this advanced usage is only supported for bo2 objects, not schematics).

WorldPainter currently supports two custom object formats: the bo2 format (as used by the Terrain Control mod) and the schematic format (as used by MCEdit). Note that the bo2 support is limited; bo2 objects can have various properties, but most of these are ignored by WorldPainter. In particular, WorldPainter does not support groups or branches! The only properties which are supported are spawnWater, spawnLava, needsFoundation and randomRotation.

The way you use these objects is as follows:

Click on the + button on the Layers panel and choose "Add a bo2 format custom object layer".
Add one or more bo2 files or schematics to the list using the + button.
Note that if you want some objects to be more prevalent than others you can adjust the relative frequency of each object, after adding it to the list, by clicking the button in the Options column or double clicking on the row.
Type a name for the layer in the Name field. This name will be displayed on the button, so keep it short.
Choose a colour. This is the colour with which the layer will be displayed in the editor. Choose different colours for different layers or you won't be able to keep them apart.
Press OK and click on the new button on the Layers panel to begin painting with the layer.
Note that you can paint with different intensities just like with any other layers. The higher the intensity, the more dense the objects will be.
The objects will be randomly rotated and mirrored to add variety (although you can turn this off in the object options). " -Pepijn some world painter dev member.
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World Edit Terraforming.

I am no pro on using world edit of voxel, but it is a little bit more difficult then using World Painter. So again I suggest using World Painter. However here are some tips.
1. Be careful and slow, going too fast can cause your server to crash.
2. Dont over do the size. The bigger the brush size the easier to crash your server.
3. Video time :3 (Ok after looking the only thing I could find useful to you all is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFThKaF00pI
It may be in some foreign language but I mean, it shows the pretty basic stuff for it. Just watch it and learn with your eyes ;)
4. [Remember!] You need a basic understanding on how all the W/E tools work to understand how to do this. If you dont have a basic understanding of it, then use World Painter.

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Pro Terraforming Tips.

Like inHaze told me, playing around with your resources is the best way to improve. Make multiple maps, and scrap the bad ones. There is always room for improvement, so get to work!
Realism, creativity, and originality is the way to become a great terraformer. If I were to make a map similar to another one, I would get less views assuming the other one was posted before mine. Oh another tip, distortion is my thing :p It was one of my original ideas, and its very easy to do, but you have to play with your resources to do it. If you have some maps you want criticized then ask me please! I can help you out with your mapping needs :) If you dont want other people judging your terraforms thats ok, pm me the pictures and I can do it privately. Also if you are in highschool and want to become a better terraformer, take a semester of Geography. Looking at topographic maps can also help you grasp a better understanding of how the terrain flows. Good luck!
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Thank you all for reading my guide! Its my first guide which I hope helps out the pixelmon community! It took me some time to do this so tell me what you think and feel free to have a look at some of my work!
(Note if you go to the last page you can see where I started and where I am now when it comes to building and terraforming)
http://www.planetminecraft.com/member/pelagius_septim/

Again thank you so much, have fun creating your custom regions for your servers or your single player maps! And have a happy new year! Woot 2014!
-Pelagius_Septim

By PokeWillpower
#97327 More WorldEdit tips would be cool, I can already use it just fine but it would be nice to see if there's any more little tricks I could know that I could use in my server. ;)
By pelagius_septim
#97402
PokeWillpower wrote:More WorldEdit tips would be cool, I can already use it just fine but it would be nice to see if there's any more little tricks I could know that I could use in my server. ;)

Ok I will add those to the guide before nightfall :)
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