make a matrix of say 100x100 tiles
make a bitmap of 100x100pixels
draw the heightmap on the image (in just one colour eg:red)
read each pixels red value (0 to 255)
set the tile height for that pixel to colour/scale
so for example a scale of 255 means the highest a tile can be is 255/255=1 , a scale of 10 means the highest tile on the map is 25.5 units tall etc, if you want to use realy big images (like 1000x1000 for eg) then you can`t use large 1000x1000 tile matrixes cos of the speed hit, so just get the height at every tenth pixel for example, or better, average the pixels for each tenth pixels location, that way you get the general shape of the terrain, add other detail with textures and models (boulders etc), cheers
Mentor.
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