Mapping to New Heights

​Hayo Zookeepers!

We've been really hyped to announce this new feature to you all, so instead of waiting any longer, let's jump right into it!

In a future update, we're introducing an exciting new tool to Franchise, Challenge, and Sandbox Mode - the Height Mapping tool. This tool will allow you to create your own custom Heightmaps via image files, bringing even more diversity and customisation to your Planet Zoo builds!

There are 4 custom Heightmaps coming premade with the update, so if you're unsure how to go about making your own, editing these is an easy way to get to grips with how it all works. Once you've got the hang of it, it doesn't take more than a few minutes to create a custom map - edit the .tif file directly, refresh the map, and ✨ ta-da! ✨ your changes will be there!

Here's our handy mini-guide on how to go about creating yours:

• First off, you need to make your Heightmap, and for this, you need a 1024x1024 .tif file. Any modern image editor lets you save images as .tif, even paint!
• Next up is making your map! The shade of grey decides the height of the map: the lighter it is, the higher the terrain. You can also create pits and crevasses by going darker if you choose. The ground level is set at 128 RGB and blurring or smudging can make some awesome things, so get creative with it!
• Once finished, save your .tif file to Documents -> Frontier -> Planet Zoo -> UserHeightmaps
• Launch Planet Zoo and go to create your new Sandbox, Challenge, or Franchise zoo as normal, selecting your biome/continent and set the terrain type to "Heightmap - YourFileName"
• Click create and your new map will load! Practice in Sandbox before using Franchise so you don't waste any CC opening new zoos
• After loading up a custom map, you can jump in with the in-game tools to smooth and tidy everything up!

Easy-peasy, right? We can already tell how creative you're going to get with this, and we're sure that soon enough, you'll be blowing us away by using Heightmaps in ways we couldn't hope to predict - just like you did with the recent Diorama trend!

We hope you've enjoyed hearing about the incredible new height map tool coming to you all soon. This will be included in a future update and we'll be sharing more information soon - so be sure to keep an eye out on our forums and official channels ?