Well i use Revenged a lot if i make a new mission, but never used the Z-Depth feature. It was just too much time consuming and not that accurate.
If you ever create a working Z-Depth map, don't hesitate to share
Revenged is currently the best editor you can work with. However there's no real editor for adding new ground elements and Collisions (tree.klz)
Before the 3ds plugin, placing objects was all done manually, place it on map, check ingame where it is and move it a bit closer where you want it, and so on, and so on...
There's a
LS3D Sandbox
for Mafia, which development is currently paused. Should not be much of a problem to make it run for HD2. (hdmaster talked to him already) HD2 is just using a bit newer version of 4ds.. But it's not even finished for Mafia.
To get the z-depth nowadays i load the scene.4ds in 3ds Max and read it off there. (not only z also x,y of course) By the way there are several plugins by hdmaster. Not sure which you have installed. Best working and latest is called
LS3D Editor
Just put the
.gup file in plugins folder of 3ds Max and it should run. You need 64-bit version of 3ds Max. If it works also with latest 2017 version i don't now. Having installed 2014.
You can import 4ds, parts of tree.klz, actors/scene2.bin (not displayed but selectable), check2.bin
Export of 4ds and check2.bin does also work!
Sadly i have not heard anything from him since a year now.. He was so close..