Export a Rust .map file (the main RustEdit export)

Crucible Heightmap can export your map as a Rust .map file: the same file format Rust and RustEdit use for a complete map. This is the main, recommended export (it is the default in the export panel), ahead of the older .raw heightmap route. The advantage over the World Creator splat import is that a .map opens directly in RustEdit in one step, with your terrain height and your painted ground textures (splats) already in place. There is no World Creator importer to run and no separate file set to line up: you open one file and your map is there.

Why a .map export?

The World Creator route brings the same height and splats across, but you import a folder of files through RustEdit’s World Creator importer and then take care to protect your terrain during proc gen. The .map export is the shortcut:

	World Creator import	.map export
Terrain height	Yes	Yes
Painted splats	Yes	Yes
How it opens in RustEdit	Through the World Creator importer	Open the file directly
Files to import	A folder of files	One .map file
Biomes and topology	Added in RustEdit	Carried in the file
Lakes and cliffs	Added in RustEdit	Carried in the file

The .map export is the far more complete route. The World Creator import can only carry height and splats, because that is all its importer accepts. A .map file carries the whole world: your terrain, your ground textures, and every layer the worldgen derived, including real biomes, all the topology layers, lakes as real water bodies, and Rust’s own cliff and rock models.

How to export a .map

1. Build your map: generate and sculpt the terrain, then paint any splats you want.
2. Generate the world so the map has biomes, topology and lakes. (You can skip this. See below for what a plain map ships as.)
3. Open the export panel. The top row is labelled .map and Cliffs + Lakes is already picked.
4. Export. Crucible writes a single .map file into your output folder.

The five .map versions

The .map row holds five chips and you pick one of them, because they are five versions of the same file. They differ only in how much world comes with the terrain. Clicking the picked chip again turns the .map off entirely, if all you want is a picture or a .raw.

• Cliffs + Lakes (the default): everything. Your terrain, your ground textures, and every layer the worldgen derived, plus Rust’s real cliff and rock models on the steep ground and every lake as a real water body.
• Cliffs (no lakes): the same, but the lakes are handed back to the ocean. Their Lake and Lakeside layers become Ocean and Oceanside, so a basin below sea level fills with sea instead of sitting empty.
• Lakes (no cliffs): everything except the cliff and rock models.
• Splats (biomes and splats only): your terrain, your ground textures and the biomes, with no topology layers, no cliffs and no lakes. For when you want RustEdit’s own proc gen to lay the rest down.
• Terrain: bare terrain, no ground textures and no world layers. For when you want to do all the world building in RustEdit yourself.

The cliff and lake outputs are self-contained: they are generated at export, so you get them whether or not Generate cliffs and Generate lakes are ticked in the Worldgen panel. Those two only decide what you preview while you work.

How to open it in RustEdit

In RustEdit, open the exported .map file directly. Your terrain, ground textures, biomes, topology, lakes and cliffs all load together. From there you finish the map the usual way: place monuments, roads and prefabs, then test it on a local server. You can also skip RustEdit entirely for a quick look: Crucible Local Server finds your Crucible exports on its own and lists them in its map menu, so a freshly exported .map is one click from running.

A map you never ran the worldgen on still exports a valid Rust world. It simply arrives as fully Temperate, with terrain and ground textures, and you add the climate in RustEdit.

Which export should I use?

• Want the fastest path into RustEdit, with the whole world in one file? Use the .map export with the default Cliffs + Lakes.
• Following an existing World Creator workflow? The World Creator import brings the same height and splats across a folder of files.
• Just need bare terrain for a manual RustEdit heightmap import? Export a plain 16-bit .raw and follow how to make a custom Rust map.