Tried using Geocontrol for terraine mapping and distribution. Haven't really liked it all that much. But I was wondering....does anybody know if there is a way to export vue terrains as greyscale height maps? If I could do that I wouldn't need to get Geo control

You didn't like geocontrol?! I'm intrigued, may I know why? What specific problems did you have? I ask because I love geocontrol and I find the workflow with vue very easy and efficient. There's no comparison with Vue terrain editor, it's even in a different league. GC is way more powerful.
In case you don't know yet, here's a good tutorial on that.
http://www.virtual-lands-3d.com/geocontrol-2-vue1.html

Regarding terrain export from Vue as height map, just click on "Export terrain" in the vue terrain editor.

Didnt like GeoControl ? WOW ! I to am curious as to why...it is an a mazing piece of software perfect for Vue.

In the terrain editor you have an option 'Export terrain' in the bottom right corner.
There are 22 export formats you can choose from inclusive jpeg, png, ect...

Hope this helps :-)

Wim

Castaneda -

I guess we are all asking the same question. I also think GeoControl is a terrific program. If you are new to it, do Cajomi's tutorials to see the power of it. As you keep using it, you will find more and more that it will do and more and more that you can add to your Vue scene such as bringing in distibution maps, color maps from shaders, etc.

One think I have found to do that is very useful is to do a screen capture of the 3d image. Then on my second monitor all I have to do is hit preview since it is in png format. I do this if I want to place the terrain in Vue in a similar orientation. If you are looking for an exact replica, you will find that there is some difference as to mountain height. Vue tends to condense it.

There are also good tutorials out there on bringing it into Vue. They are listed in some recent threads. Offrench's is one (in 2 parts)  and Rutra's also dealt with GeoControl in his Vue tutorial.

There is an even easier way to do what you wan,t: simply copy the terrain from the top row of tools in the terrain editor, and paste it in a new photoshop document.

I guess my concern with Geo is with Geo 1 not Geo 2. I watched the video by Artur and he had Geo 2 and the brush seemed much better than the brush in Geo 1. And I can't afford Geo 2 yet. And the whole program seemed much more intuitive. So, do I need to get Geo 2? The Geo 2 demo I downloaded didn't give me access to any brush activity. I couldn't find the brush. Is that common in the demo for Geo 2? So, I figured if I could do terraine shaping in Vue and export it in greyscale I could easily do distribution maps and start creating again. (I've been in a slump and haven't produced anything lately.

GC2 doesn't use the brush as GC1 does. It's been replaced by isolines, so you could try the tutorial on the GC website for details of how those work. They're much more powerful (but rather more complex) than the old GC1 brush.