Spawn Points

[Raptor]

How do I add GV spawn points? Also can I get some help with the filter?

[B17Skull12]

go to object's find entry point. place it and then go down to vehicle entry, same with fighters except go to fighter entry.

[Bullethead]

One important thing about spawn points;  always be sure to rotate them correctly or you'll get the spawn buttons in the wrong place on the clipboard.

You know how on the clipboard during play there's that array up to 9 spawn buttons (hangar plus up to 8 directions)?  OK, each time you create a spawn point (of any type) and assign it to an airfield, a button for it appears on this array in the game when you use the map.  HOWEVER, the location of the button in the array depends on the facing of the spawn point, NOT on the position of the spawn point on the map.  The button will appear on the array in the position corresponding to the facing of the spawn point.  Thus, you must always rotate the spawn point to face the direction where you want its button to appear on the clipboard.

For instance, you want to make a GV spawn from northern field 1 to southern field 2.  In the game, therefore, you want the spawn button on the clipboard to be in the south position on the button array.  However, IIRC new spawn points always default to pointing north.  If you don't rotate the spawn object to face south, the spawn button on field 1's clipboard will be north of the hangar button, even though the actual spawn point is to the south and the yellow arrow you see on the map points south.  IOW, the spawn point will function correctly and put your GV to the south, but it will confuse players because the spawn button on field 1's clipboard will be to the north.  To fix this, rotate the spawn point to face south, and now the clipboard button at field 1 will be south of the hangar button.

As to the filter, are you talking about the terrain or the object filter?  If the object filter, it's pretty simple.  The purpose of the object filter is to make things easier for you by limiting what objects you see on the list in the editor.  Basically, there are a BUNCH of game objects that you have no need to ever put on a map, such as all the different types of bombs, rockets, drop tanks, etc.  Having them on the list in the editor's object window just makes it harder for you to find the objects you really want to use.  Best thing is to not show them.  

So what you do is make a file called shpfilter.txt and put it in your Editor\terrains folder.  This file is simply a list of all the objects you DO NOT want listed when you run the editor.  Then your editor list will just be the objects you really use.

The filter doesn't remove the objects from the game or the map, of course, it just affects what you see on the object list in the editor.  If you ever want to use one of these objects, just "comment out" the object's name in the file by putting a slash in front of it.

Here is my shpfilter.txt file.  Just copy the text below (except for the ===== lines) , paste it into notepad, and save it as Editor\terrains\shpfilter.txt.  As you can see, originally I had all the planes on the list but I commented them out so I could select them in the editor and export their textures to reskin them.  Now that I've got all their textures, I should probably remove the slashes and take them off the list again, but I'm too lazy

=====================================

BMBSGT
CB1
DRUM
EXPLGND
EXPLWTR
EXPSGND
EXPSWTR
FHLRECT
FIRE
FSLRECT
GUAGE
HANGERF
HLRECT
LCRATER
MFLASH
SECCNT
SELRECT
SHEEP
SMKTRAI
TEXRECT
USERPNT
BISHOP
CLIP
KNIGHT
ROOK
SKY
SUN
50CALA
50CALL
BG10
BG100
BG100A
BG100L
BG10A
BG10L
BG200
BG200A
BG200L
BG25
BG25A
BG25L
BG400
BG400A
BG400L
BG50
BG50A
BG50L
BULLET
DT100L
DT44
DT44A
DT44L
DT45
DT45A
DT45L
DT50L
DT300
DT300A
DT300L
DT75
DT75A
DT75L
DTF6F
DTF6FA
DTF6FL
DTL100
DTL100A
DTL50
DTL50A
DTR100
DTR100A
DTR50
DTR50A
DTZERO
DTZEROA
DTZEROL
PODR6A
PODR6L
RKTPOD
RKTPODA
RKTPODL
ROCKET
ROCKETA
ROCKETL
/ 109G10
/ B17G
/ C47A
EJECT7
/ LA5FN
/ P51D
/ SPIT9
/ GC000
/ GC001
/ GC002
/ GC003
/ GC005
MATRIAL
/ N1K2
DT400
DT400A
DT400L
GC004
MCRATER
SCRATER
/ 190A8
CLOUDS
CLD0
CLD1
CLD2
OCLD0
C205
/ 4FU1D
/ F4U1D
PLNTRC
EXPAIR
/ B26B
/ 109F4
/ 109G2
/ 109G6
/ F4U1C
HORIZON
KIDT
KIDTA
KIDTL
LRKTRLA
R4LR2A
R4RL2A
RATO
RATOA
RATOL
RCKT2
RCKT2A
RCKT2L
RCKT2LA
RCKT2RA
RP60
RP60A
RP60L
RRKTRLA
RS132
RS132A
RS132L
RS82
RS82A
RS82L
SC100
SC1000
SC1000A
SC1000L
SC100A
SC100L
SC1800
SC1800A
SC1800L
SC250
SC250A
SC250L
SC50
SC500
SC500A
SC500L
SC50A
SC50L
TORP
TORP2
TORP2A
TORP2L
TORPA
TORPL
TWINPOD
/ M16
/ P38L
/ SPIT5
/ C202
/ TYPHOON
/ PANZR4H

==================================

[NHawk]

Originally posted by Bullethead
One important thing about spawn points;  always be sure to rotate them correctly or you'll get the spawn buttons in the wrong place on the clipboard.

Thank you for pointing this out. It drives me nuts trying to locate the proper spawn point on some maps. Not a good thing when using a tiger and you wind up ditching because the map creator didn't know this, or ignored it.

[Raptor]

I meant the Terrain Filter. I want to give my mountains a more natural look instead of looking like a platue.
This is kind of off topic but how do I change the skin on a plane? Where do I export their textures from? I know I have to save them under my texsrc file for the map.

[Bullethead]

Raptor01 said:

I meant the Terrain Filter. I want to give my mountains a more natural look instead of looking like a platue.

I've never had much luck with the terrain filter.  It always gives me something that looks like eggcrate foam, as in a very regular pattern repeated over a large distance.  You can avoid this to a limited extent by putting the x and y waves to different shapes and heights and, most importantly, to non-harmonic frequencies.  But it still always looks like eggcrate foam at some distance.  

The only good way to do mountains, IMHO, is to import an elevation map.

This is kind of off topic but how do I change the skin on a plane? Where do I export their textures from? I know I have to save them under my texsrc file for the map.

Before you get all excited, understand that in AH1 you can only use user-made skins on maps that you make, not on any of the existing maps used online.  This is supposed to change in AH2 but that feature has yet to be added.  However, for the nonce, making skins for AH1 is good practice for AH2 .

Anyway, you got the last step of the process down pat--put the new skin file in the mymap\txsrc folder and build the map, and your new skin will be on that plane on your new map.  The intermediate steps are very simple.  You don't even need a map.

• open the editor
• get in object mode
• in the list of objects, select the object you want to reskin
• hit the Save Texture button.
• close the editor

Now start Windows Explorer and look in the AH Editor\Terrains\Savedtex folder.  All the .bmps used by the object you selected will be in this folder.  Note that this folder is directly off the \terrains folder instead of being off a specific map's folder, because you didn't have a map file open.  If you'd had a map open, then the saved .bmps would be in the \AH Editor\Terrains\MyMap\Savedtex folder.

Anyway, if you're reskinning any player ride, you'll see BEAUCOUP .bmp files in the folder.  90% of them, however, can be deleted.  This is because they're all cockpit instruments.  Unfortunately, all rides use the same instrument .bmps so you can't change them just for 1 ride.  Anyway, what you end up with is 2-3 files that have the external skin of the plane and 2-3 more files that have all the internal cockpit textures.  If you're not into redoing the cockpit, ditch the latter as well.  So out of all the dozens of .bmps you get when you hit the Save Texture button, you only really need to mess with 2 or 3.

Now it's just a matter of digging in with your graphics editor.  Use Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.  It also helps to have a very small map to use as a test area for your new skins, because you'll have to check what they look like in the game and go back to the editor, many times.  Each time requires building the map, then launching AH and picking the plane and going at least as far as the runway so you can look at it.  Having a tiny map speeds this up.  So I recommend using the tiny map you make in most editor tutorials :).