I have tried and tried to find a way to get a simple height map from places like Google Earth, but I always find some kind of hitch. Even that topography plugin for Google Earth is not working right. Is there any way I can use a real world map to get a height map? And I hope I'm not posting in the wrong place. I've just tried everything and now I'm very frustrated.

I've successfully used both of these tutorials to create maps from real world data:
http://ts3cc.canadian-forum.com/t27...a-by-napalm_vfr
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/144433.page

I have also searched for greyscale topographic maps and converted topographic maps into grayscale.

However, it's been a while. If you can post the specific problem you're having, I will try to help.

Does SRTM work for your google earth? 'Cause it isn't working for mine.

This is the link to the original tutorial: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/247783.page.

It's been a couple of years since I used this so I re-installed everything and SRTM does not work for me either. I did some Internet searching and it appears that the SRTM database is down. You may want to contact the holders of the database:
For Technical Correspondence regarding the SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data, contact:
Andy Jarvis, Ph.D.
Program Leader - Decision and Policy Analysis
International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
Email:[email protected]

For site/web related Correspondence regarding the SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data, contact:
Sadir Mohideen
CSI-CGIAR Chief GeoNetwork Technologist / Senior Web Applications Development Specialist
Email:[email protected]

See the discussion and some possible workarounds here: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/po.../75/247783.page. As an alternative - if it is a specific place/country you are wanting - you may want to try searching for a topographic map (preferably greyscale or you can convert it to grayscale) and use that. I did that fairly recently for the country of Germany which I converted into an island for a CAW project I'm working on.

Sorry I could not be more help. Good luck with your project!

Thanks! I just wish that it was easier to make natural-looking mountains in Create a World.

You could try this website, which I've used many times for making real-world heightmaps for Cities Skylines. It's set up for that game specifically, but gives 16 bit heightmaps. I haven't tried them in Sims 3, but they should work. You may need to smooth and resize them first.

http://terrain.party/