Import a Gaea terrain into 3ds Max

Assumptions:

• Terrain footprint = 5000 m × 5000 m
• Heightmap is 0..1 where black = 0 m and white = 2500 m
• You want real-world scale in meters

A. Import as a displacement map (heightfield)

1. Set Max units to meters

1. Customize → Units Setup…
   • Display Unit Scale: Meters
2. Click System Unit Setup…
   • System Unit Scale: 1 Unit = 1.0 Meters

(Do this before importing/creating geometry.)

2. Create a 5000 m plane

1. Create → Geometry → Standard Primitives → Plane
2. In the Plane parameters:
   • Length = 5000
   • Width = 5000
   • Segments: set reasonably high (or use TurboSmooth later)

3. Apply displacement

1. Select the plane.
2. Add Modifier: Displace
3. In Displace:
   • Map: assign a Bitmap and load the heightmap
   • Ensure the bitmap is treated as linear/non-color if you’re in a color-managed pipeline (i.e., don’t apply sRGB/gamma to the height data)

4. Set height to 2500 m

In Displace:

• Strength = 2500
• Decay = 0

If the displacement is inverted, flip it by either:

• Checking Flip in the Displace modifier (if available), or
• Inverting the bitmap via Output (RGB Level/Invert) or a simple inversion map.

5. Add geometry detail

• Increase plane segments until you get acceptable fidelity, or:
• Add TurboSmooth before Displace (common for clean results), or
• Use a subdivision workflow suitable to your renderer.

Result: white areas displace up to ~2500 m above black.

Import as a mesh (OBJ/FBX)

1. Import the mesh

• File → Import → Import… (OBJ/FBX)

2. Scale the mesh to meters

1. Select the mesh.
2. Open the Transform Type-In (right-click Move/Rotate/Scale or use the toolbar).
3. Scale it to:
   • X = 5000
   • Y = 5000
   • Z = 2500

3. Reset transforms (important)

After scaling:

• Utilities → Reset XForm → Reset Selected
• Collapse the stack (right-click → Convert to Editable Poly or collapse modifier stack)

This prevents downstream modifier/render issues caused by non-uniform scaling.

Common gotchas

• Gamma/Color management: heightmaps must be treated as data (linear), not as a color texture.
• Insufficient subdivisions: displacement needs dense geometry; otherwise it will look faceted or "steppy".
• Clipping/viewport: very large scenes may require viewport clip adjustments; use meters consistently.