Terrain Editor Update:
New Features
Ability to "paint" terrain textures on land using scalable brushes.
Ability to draw shorelines as well as water depth and water color using scaleable brushes
Terrain: Land Texture Specifications
Texture sizes are Tileable 1024x1024 and cover a 4 sqr. mile area (2miles x 2miles)
Texture Names: Textures are named "nttXXXX"
ntt0000 Deep water ntt0000 will always be deep water (This is a greyscale BMP designed to vary the water over distances)
ntt0001 Grass
ntt0002 Forest 1 (evergreen)
ntt0003 Forest 2 (deciduous)
ntt0004 Farm 1
ntt0005 Farm 2
ntt0006 Rock
ntt0007 Swamp
ntt0008 Rocky Grass
ntt0009 Sandy Grass
ntt0010 Beach
ntt0011 River bed /
ntt0012 Snow / Coral
The terrain tab in the editor will allow you to select a brush size and texture type to paints.
You are also able to blend 2 textures while painting.
The editor will create a file in your terrain directory named gndtype.bmp.
This greyscale.bmp sets the terrain types over the terrain. It is 4096x4096 resolution.
1 pixel on this texture is equal to 1/8th of a mile.
Editing gndtype.bmp outside of the terrain editor:
The gndtype.bmp can be edited in photoshop or other graphic editing software.You may find it easier to edit types in a paint program outside of painting in the editor.
Be sure you are working in greyscale mode. (sgrey profile for photshops users)
RGB Values
0 = ntt0000
17 = ntt0001
34 = ntt0002
51 = ntt0003
68 = ntt0004
85 = ntt0005
102 = ntt0006
119 = ntt0007
136 = ntt0008
153 = ntt0009
170 = ntt0010
187 = ntt0011
204 = ntt0012
To Blend 2 textures outside of the editor:
RGB values for blending formula: (texture A ntt number * 16 + texture B ntt number) = blended RGB
So say we want to blend ntt0001 with ntt0010: (1 / 10)
01 * 16 = 16
16 + 10 = 26
26 is rgb for ntt0001/ntt0010 blend
or we can blend ntt0012 and ntt0006 (12 / 6)
12 * 16 = 192
192 + 6 = 198
198 is RGB for ntt0012/ntt006 blend
WATER
there will be a waterd.htz and a waterc.htz file in your terrain folder now.
the waterd.htz is for water depth, and waterc.htz is for water color.
The Water tab in the editor will allow you to draw/erase water, set the water depth and even color.
Converting/Creating a Terrain:
First - open an existing terrain with the new editor. There will be a delay as the program creates the new files (waterd.htz, waterc.htz, gndtype.bmp as well as a few others)
After the files are generated you should see the terrain, but it will be blocky. Here you have a choice - edit the shorelines in the Terrain editor, or use an external graphics program (photoshop).
Go File » 'export water bitmap' - This will create 2 16384x16384 bitmaps named waterd.bmp and waterc.bmp. They will be in the texsrc folder.
Open the waterd.bmp in your graphics program.
You will see a black and white image of the terrain. Black (rgb 0,0,0) is water, White (rgb 255,255,255) is land. RGB values less than 255.255.255 will be water depth.
Now you can paint your new shorelines.
Once finished, save it as an 8 bit greyscale BMP in your texsrc folder.
Open the Terrain Editor, goto file »import water bitmap.
Your edited water will now display.
Hint for smooth water depth from shore - select color range 255,255,255 - create a new layer and fill selection with white. Duplicate this layer then blur it a few pixels to make a smooth shallow transition in the water.
You can also smudge this layer to create shallow transitions in water.
After you have your land/water done it's time to do the terrain types.
Open your Waterd.bmp with graphics program
Open your gndtype.bmp with graphics program - convert to greyscale.
Copy and paste onto a new layer within the gndtype.bmp the waterd.bmp. You will have to reduce the scale.
Select color range (255,255,255) on the resized color layer.
Now increase the selection size about 4 pixels. (Select - modify - expand in photoshops)
Create a new layer and fill selection with rgb 170 (ntt0010 - or beach/sand)
Save gndtype.bmp as 8 bit greyscale in the terrain folder overwriting the existing one.
Open your terrain in the editor - you should now see all sandy terrain and water.
From here you can go back into your graphics program and fill out the different types of terrain.
Water tricks tips.
Say you want to have some brown muddy lakes, next to greenish river which flows into a blue sea.
The editor is set up to use wnttXXXX bmps, which are underwater textures that correspond to the ground nttxxxx texture.
So wntt0001 would display wherever ntt0001 type turns into water. Hence HTCs setup for ntt0012 being snow/coral.
When we draw ntt0012 on land it displays as snow...but when you put water over it, it displays wntt0012 texture which is coral.
So if you want some brown ponds in your farm land, you could create a wntt0003, and wntt0004 texture.
It's pretty much open to whatever you can think of.
Also, since these textures are underwater, they don't need to be large textures, you can make them 256x256 or 128x128.
SETTINGS: Terrain Type Settings.
Here is where you can set up the names for your textures, as well as change the base colors for ocean / river color.
There is also a "chage selected color" button which allows you to change the displayed color for the terrain type on low detailed settings.
You will find a "low detail" check box on the lower left to see what the terrain will look like in low detail.
Elevation tab:
Water not 0. Water must be at 0 elevation. Running this check will display water vertices that are not at 0.
There is now a check box to show affected cells. You will have to paint land over any water not 0 , or set the elevation of any non-0 vertices to 0.
