RAW Terrain File doesn't open in latest photoshop - terraforming

[Erwin Solo]

Well, its not clear which forum this should go in.  I want to edit my region's raw file in Photoshop.  That used to work.  Now I have a photoshop subscription and so the software is always current.  Photoshop doesn't recognize the RAW layers or even the grid size.  If the topic is not familiar to you, RAW files are described here:  http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Tips_for_Creating_Heightfields_and_Details_on_Terrain_RAW_Files .  

Should I be using a different tool?  In addition to Photoshop I can also work in Blender or Maya LT or MudBox, or I can learn something new.  

I looked on YouTube, but the videos there are about the way things used to work in PhotoShop.

P.S. I think I'll throw the words terraform and terraforming in here just to help the search engines. 

[Rolig Loon]

I have never used RAW files in Photoshop myself, but my son ( a freelance photographer) uses it.  When I look in Photoshop, I see RAW listed as an accepted file type :

I'm using the current Photoshop CC.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Rolig Loon

[Erwin Solo]

Aye, but Photoshop doesn't recognize the RAW layers or even the grid size.  

[Rolig Loon]

8 minutes ago, Erwin Solo said:

Aye, but Photoshop doesn't recognize the RAW layers or even the grid size.  

Oh. That stinks. 

[Erwin Solo]

Well, as long as we are getting our post count up.  I'm sure there is some way to do RAW files.

[Klytyna]

49 minutes ago, Erwin Solo said:

Aye, but Photoshop doesn't recognize the RAW layers or even the grid size.  

Did it prompt you to enter the image size in pixels and the number of channels and then ignore the info, or did it imply it would figure them out for it's self and it didn't ? Please specify.

RAW files are not SL specific, they do not contain 'grid size', just raw data... you have to specify what size the image is, how many channels it has and what order the data is in, ie the interleave settings, on or off.

PSP (that I use, when it imports a raw file for example, if I fill in the data correctly re image size and channel numbers and interleave, turns the first 3 channels into a single 24 bit rgb image which isn't very useful at all, and it doesn't ask for the number of channels.

SL's 3 of 13 channels 16 bit format, isn't what image editing software was expecting, they expect photographic data, rgba or cmyk or whatever other 'colourspace' somebody might be using, in 24 bit colour or 32 bit colour + alpha
 

[Erwin Solo]

3 minutes ago, Klytyna said:

Did it prompt you to enter the image size in pixels and the number of channels and then ignore the info, or did it imply it would figure them out for it's self and it didn't ? Please specify.

RAW files are not SL specific, they do not contain 'grid size', just raw data... you have to specify what size the image is, how many channels it has and what order the data is in, ie the interleave settings, on or off.

 

Oh, now I see!  I tell it 256x256 and 13 channels, and then I have the RGB, Red, Green, and Blue channels up top, just like I needed!  

Thanks so much!  Problem solved.

[IvyTechEngineer]

Did anyone figure out how to import the terrain.raw file into Photoshop? I am using 2020 and if I select Interleaved and 8 bits it works but I think you need 16 bits...