Blog: "Tech feature: Terrain geometry"

[WindexGlow]

The jpeg conversion didn't seem fair - looks like you added a ton of noise to it. In the slightest the lack of accuracy would have caused blocky formations, not total erratic values.

well it was fair the way it is saved jpeg just does not work. I am not sure any lossy image format would.

Yes, but how do you go from
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QfesHslH-uc/TN..._24bit.jpg

to
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QfesHslH-uc/TN..._24bit.jpg

I understand (been making procedural terrain my self, 32bit RGBA. 8bit caused odd steps on my terrain, too few bits) that jpeg will lose data over time with saves & messes color up, but all that will do is make it blocker looking - not completely invert colors.

I'm not denying the fact that jpeg is a poor choice for heightmaps. I'm just curious as to *how* you could make a jpeg like that without putting noise in.