terrain editing with external editor

#1 With detail do you mean the terrain texture? Or the detail of the heightmap?

#2 The painted ground details of course. i don't find any files which i can save and restore etc. If such files exist, where are they?

#3 If you export your terrain in Torque it generates "yourTerrain_heightmap" this is the terrain heightmap and "yourTerrain_layerMap_0_sand" , "yourTerrain_layerMap_1_grass" and so on, each layer map represents one texture layer and can later be applied again.

#4 Thanks, but i only find png's from earlier levels of this project in "Torque\My Projects\game\art\terrains". i made a new level and can paint the ground, but i see no updated files.

#5 You have to export them again.

#6 Sorry, i have imported an undetailed/painted heightmap, and have detail-layers painted in Torque. Now i want to import a modified heightmap (without detailmaps), without deleting the detail-layers already made. Is this possible? Again, i don't find those MyTerrain_layerMap_N_texturename-files.

#7 If you export your terrain Torque generates them, you can import them to another program after and when you are done editing you can export the layer maps again, but I would not do it this way, it is too complicated.

So far I sketched my terrains in an external program and then edited them only in Torque.
Another thing you could try is the auto paint function in Torque.

#8 can it be that T3D stores all that terrain-painting in the (binary!%!§!) .ter-file??? and no export is possible?

#9 I said he generates the layer masks on export.

#10 Go to File->Export Terrain Heightmap, select a folder and then export. All of the associated layer images will be exported. If you have old versions in the selected folder they will be overwritten. When loading a mission I believe the engine looks in the mission folder and then /art/terrains for the assets that it needs, but I could be mistaken.

So paint your terrain and then export it again. Then edit the xxx_heightmap.png as desired. This should do the trick when you import it. If it doesn't then we're probably looking at a bug....

<Edit>
There is a bug - when you import, add each of your layer images and then bring it all in. The materials are not updated, but all you have to do is re-select them for the appropriate terrain material slot in the editor - the actual "painting" mask is saved. This is probably an improvement over repainting everything, but still an issue. Do Not use the "Edit" button when adding the layer images - you will lose the data. I have submitted this as an issue here.

#11 Thanx alot, Richard!
You saved my day, maybe my project. Now i know the way.
Duions answers were too short for me. He was right, but
i didn't understood, what he was telling me.
Again, thanks.