A few members of the community have requested a tutorial on how I created their maps so they might be able to create some maps of their own.
Some of you (like me), may be short on $$, and don't own a terrain generator such as World Machine or Terragen, or find them too difficult to use (like me), or just simply don't have or want to take the time to learn one.
This tutorial is intended to demonstrate how to create accurate topographical representations of existing city areas or... even imaginary ones. It's basically an expanded technique I used to create maps for the old SimCity Rush Hour. It was only with the release of the new "Cities XXL Map Editor" that I am, joyfully, able to create new maps for Cities XXL(2015).
The pdf content, hopefully, clearly demonstrates my method using any paint program or image editing program, preferably one that supports layers, to create a "height map" for import into the new "Cities XXL Map Editor".
Keep in mind a "height map" is only one of the first steps, of many, required to create a modded map's patch file.
Tutorial Map Making: Part 1 .
Create “height maps” without any 'terrain generator' software.