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Import a heightmap and splats into RustEdit (World Creator)

Crucible Heightmap can export your terrain and the ground textures (splats) you painted, then bring them into RustEdit together through its World Creator importer. This page walks the whole import, step by step.

First, in Crucible Heightmap, open the export panel, turn on Splat export, and export. That writes a set of files (the heightmap, the splat maps, and a .xml named after your project) into your output folder. See splat painting for how to paint the textures in the first place. Then follow along in RustEdit:

1. Create a new map. Open RustEdit, click Create New, and just click the Create button.

RustEdit open with the Create New Map dialog, ready to create a blank map

2. You start on a blank slate. RustEdit drops you into an empty map.

A blank, empty map in RustEdit before importing a Crucible heightmap

3. Open the World Creator importer. Go to Tools, Map Tools, World Creator Importer.

The RustEdit Tools menu showing Map Tools and the World Creator Importer option

4. Click Select. That opens the importer window.

The RustEdit World Creator importer window with a Select button

5. Pick your project XML. Navigate to your Crucible Heightmap project output folder and select the project’s .xml file.

Selecting the project XML file from the Crucible Heightmap output folder in RustEdit

6. Match the resolution, then create. Set the heightmap and alpha (splat) resolution to your map size, the same size shown in Crucible Heightmap, then click Create.

The World Creator importer with the heightmap and alpha resolution set to match the Crucible map size

7. Your map loads in. It comes in with the Crucible base terrain splats, plus any splats you painted yourself.

A Crucible custom Rust map loaded into RustEdit with its base terrain splats and painted splats applied

8. Take a look around. Make sure you are happy with the result. If something is off, go back to Crucible and make your edits there before doing anything else in RustEdit.

Inspecting the imported Crucible terrain and splats up close in RustEdit

9. Build out the rest of your map. Once you are happy, start the routine: hand-paint and place everything yourself, or use RustEdit’s procedural generation tools.

RustEdit ready to build the rest of the map with custom painting or procedural generation

10. Test the ocean topology first. Before you go too crazy with proc gen, turn everything off in this window and test just the ocean topology on its own.

The RustEdit procedural generation window with options turned off to test only the ocean topology

11. Confirm the shape. That gives you a solid idea of your island’s shape and your splats with water around it.

The imported Crucible island in RustEdit with ocean water around it, showing the island shape and splats

12. Protect your terrain and splats. The key thing to remember: disable the heightmap and the splatmap in the proc gen window so it does not overwrite the terrain and splats you imported from Crucible.

The RustEdit proc gen settings with the heightmap and splatmap disabled so they are not overwritten

13. Mind biomes and monuments. Keep an eye on biomes and the monuments that spawn. If anything looks strange in an area, that is usually the cause.

Checking biomes and monument placement on the imported Crucible map in RustEdit

14. That’s really all there is to it.

A finished-looking custom Rust map in RustEdit built on imported Crucible terrain and splats

15. Done. You have imported your Crucible map and splats into RustEdit, just like that.

The completed Crucible custom Rust map and splats imported into RustEdit

Where to go next

Section titled “Where to go next”