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The purpose of this tutorial is to provide the details necessary for you to map a Vue 4.12+ terrain.

First, one must understand that picture and terrain scale are critical in mapping a picture on to a Vue 4.12+ terrain.

Terrain Mapping Mode

When you map a terrain use 'faces' and object-standard mapping. For simplicity reasons, I keep the material scale of the terrain at one.

The material scale
is set at one.
This multiplier can be
used if needed to match
the terrain scale after
resizing a terrain.

World Units

There are three basic things you need know in order dynamically map any Vue 4 terrain: the definition of a terrain in world units, the ratio between picture scale and terrain scale for creating an undistorted map, and the required picture offset for the picture map.

The first two steps are to choose a picture map and to create a terrain. After you've created your terrain, you need to size it. Size the terrain with the same aspect ratio as the picture. Read on to learn how size your terrain.

Once you have sized your terrain, you need to calculate the terrain’s size in world units:

The size of a terrain in world units is dependent on the size of the terrain’s scale and the terrain's polygon count (polygon resolution).

This is the x, y, z controls
of terrain scale.

This is the terrain’s polygon resolution. The control with the two squares on top
of the Terrain Editor brings forth this Resize Terrain dialog.
Use this dialog to size your terrain with the same aspect ratio as the picture map.

The terrain’s scale multiplies the terrain’s polygon resolution and determines the size of the terrain in world units:

Size of a terrain in world units = (polygon count on axis) x (terrain scale on axis)

Picture Scale

The next step is to calculate the size of the picture scale to match the terrain’s size. Many thanks to MightyPete, and his tutorial on terrain-mapping, I have been able determine the ratio between a terrain's size in world units and picture scale:

1 unit of picture scale = 45 world units

To calculate the picture's scale, this is the formula:

picture scale for this terrain on axis = this terrain's size in world units on axis / 45

Simplified by using 1 in terrain scale and remembering axis correlation:

picture scale = terrain's size  / 45

Here are examples of picture scale and terrain scale:

Picture Offset

After setting the picture scale in the Material Editor, set the picture's offset by one-half of the picture’s pixel resolution.

The picture offset is one-half the size of the picture.

Here is a summary of the process I follow:

1. Choose your picture.
2. Create your terrain.
3. Size the terrain polygon count with the same x and y aspect ratio as the picture.
4. Set the terrain's x and y scale to 1.
5. Calculate the size of the terrain in world units.
6. Calculate and set the picture scale using the terrain's world size.
7. Set the picture offset while in the Material Editor.
8. Set the material scale to 1.

If you use a picture in the Function Editor, the process is the same as the Material Editor’s color production's mapped picture.

What if you want to resize your terrain after mapping the picture? Just multiply the the terrain scale values and the material scale value by the same amount. For example, if you wanted to double the size of the terrain, the terrain scale controls would go from 1 to 2, and the material scale would also go from 1 to 2.

Continue to the next page to see a step-by-step example of terrain mapping.