What a lot of food for thought, I shall go through it all a  bit later.

Just wanted to mention an improvement to the node that occurred to me- publish the height field itself, so that a user doesnt have to edit the node itself. It does have a 'publish' button so it should work, but I havnt tried it yet

"I paint that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence."
Man Ray, modernist painter
http://artpearl.redbubble.com/