I've just bought Sim City 4, and in that game it's possible to import a heigt map as the game terrain. I thought it would be cool have a poser figure as map. I exported the figure to bryce and applied that height map texture that comes with bryce. I placed the camera directly above the figure. And rendered. But all the height maps turn out wrong. They have shadows and darker places which cause the terrain to be deformed. I've tried many different light configurations and turning of the shadows. But nothing turns out right... Is there a better way of doing this?

Try laying the poser figure flat on it's back on the ground, go to top view (zoom in if needed) and on the left click the bottom triangle by the render button. Select altitude mask and render then save the image.

Ah thanks that works. Is there a way to increase the contrast of the height map? The fine details of the models don't really stand out now.

You could try increasing the size of the poser model until the highest points are white in the altitude mask. Be careful not to make it too big. Other than that I'm not too sure.

Delete the ground plane.

That just sounds funny... It gives the phrase "I think I like living near the mountains." a whole new meaning. LOL!