ELV and TYP files?

[Voss]

Is there any documentation on the makeup of these files? Pov-Ray offers a pretty good UV-mapping to mesh. It wouldn't be too hard to write a mod for Pov to output a new file type(s), perhaps even with tiles properly alligned? I'd like to give it a shot anyway. Even a parsing macro would probably do the trick.

[Voss]

Nevermnd, I figured it out.

[Shiva]

Originally posted by Voss
Nevermnd, I figured it out.

I would assume that they're a raw array of integers, either indexes into the terrain types table or elevations...

[NHawk]

Originally posted by Voss
Nevermnd, I figured it out.

Care to share?

[Voss]

I don't mind sharing, but it doesn't seem that I have everything figured out yet. I still don't know how to rotate textures and have that recognized by the editor. I'll let you know.

Anything I make will be created with either Visual C++ or Visual Basic 6, rather then modifying Pov-Ray (or least *before*). Nuttz has hinted that something has already been created and is in testing, so maybe I don't have to do anything. I'm still proceding though; for now.

[NUTTZ]

Nah, me and Pokie were wondering "IF" some sort of program could be made to auto tile the maps based on the color number of the greyscale. It would cut down on the map making ten fold.

NUTTZ

Originally posted by Voss
I don't mind sharing, but it doesn't seem that I have everything figured out yet. I still don't know how to rotate textures and have that recognized by the editor. I'll let you know.

Anything I make will be created with either Visual C++ or Visual Basic 6, rather then modifying Pov-Ray (or least *before*). Nuttz has hinted that something has already been created and is in testing, so maybe I don't have to do anything. I'm still proceding though; for now.

[Voss]

Yeah, and I think it would be pretty easy to do so. I also think working out the math, to pre-calculate the required rotation of tiles for coastlines, would be fairly straightforward.  I'm pretty sure simple trig would do it.

Off the top of your head:

1) How many different textures should be used from 0k to max alt (given that max. alt. is defined by the user at runtime)?

2) Is there a way to indicate to the terrain editor that a tile should be rotated (and that info. stored in the typ file)? If not, it makes the task easier but some post-editing will still have to take place.

V.B. is built for making a tool like this and it should be quick and easy.

[NUTTZ]

Tiles are not rotated, its 7 different tiles

water at flat 0 alt is terr0000

terr0001 threw terr0005 are tiles

and terr0016 is a  tile so thats 7, the rest are transitional tiles so there are 21 TOTAL tiles. the transitional tiles are 4 quartered tiles consisting of parts of the 2 tiles that transistion.

the transistion tiles don't rotate. I know "brand x" tiles do rotate.

NUTTZ

edited to add, NO tiles in AH rotate.

Originally posted by Voss
Yeah, and I think it would be pretty easy to do so. I also think working out the math, to pre-calculate the required rotation of tiles for coastlines, would be fairly straightforward.  I'm pretty sure simple trig would do it.

Off the top of your head:

1) How many different textures should be used from 0k to max alt (given that max. alt. is defined by the user at runtime)?

2) Is there a way to indicate to the terrain editor that a tile should be rotated (and that info. stored in the typ file)? If not, it makes the task easier but some post-editing will still have to take place.

V.B. is built for making a tool like this and it should be quick and easy.

[NHawk]

Originally posted by NUTTZ
Nah, me and Pokie were wondering "IF" some sort of program could be made to auto tile the maps based on the color number of the greyscale. It would cut down on the map making ten fold.

NUTTZ

Just off the top of my head, if you use grayscale mapping, what you'll wind up with in many cases is a striped terrain. Especially if the terrain has gently sloped hills and mountains.

They only 2 or 3 that can be based on gray scale altitude would be water(0), snow(say 20k or max alt) and rock(just below 20k or max alt). The rest would have to be random.

[Voss]

Okay, Nuttz, here's why I was asking about rotated tiles. How the hell do you fix the coastlines? Please explain what you mean by 'quartered tiles,' as I can assume quite a bit about that. Maybe you mean transitional tiles (tiles that 'tween' two different tiles)? What the hell does terr0016 do?

NHawk, why would gently sloping terrain cause striping? I've been using height_fields for years and never seen this? In fact, we've been using color images for input by ignoring two color channels and using only one; works fine.

[Shiva]

Originally posted by NUTTZ
Tiles are not rotated, its 7 different tiles

water at flat 0 alt is terr0000

terr0001 threw terr0005 are tiles

and terr0016 is a  tile so thats 7, the rest are transitional tiles so there are 21 TOTAL tiles. the transitional tiles are 4 quartered tiles consisting of parts of the 2 tiles that transistion.

the transistion tiles don't rotate. I know "brand x" tiles do rotate.

So it sounds as if what we actually have in practice is that the terrain types are defined for the edges between each pair of adjacent tiles, with a limitation on how many different types of terrain can edge a tile.

[detch01]

Voss email me at asw441@shaw.ca and I'll send you a completed tile set so you can get a look at the transitions.

Cheers,

[NHawk]

Originally posted by Voss
NHawk, why would gently sloping terrain cause striping? I've been using height_fields for years and never seen this? In fact, we've been using color images for input by ignoring two color channels and using only one; works fine.

If you're talking about tiling using the grayscale height map, then this is what you'll wind up with

Grayscale 0 - water
Grayscale 1 to 10 - Grass
Grayscale 11 to 20 - farm
Grayscale 21 to 30 - forest
Grayscale 31 to 40 - rocky grass
Grayscale 41 to 50 - rock
etc..etc..

This is simplified, but unless I'm missing something... sure looks like layers/stripes to me. On a fairly flat terrain this wouldn't be a problem. But, on anything with a good slope to it, it might be.

If I'm misunderstanding something here, fill me in.

[NUTTZ]

if this WERE the case snow would be auto placed anything over the 50 greyscale mark, But it doesn't.

NUTTZ

Voss the water tile is terr000. Now any tile can transistion with this ( athou I would recommend ONLY using grass terr0001) to start with. The transitional tiles with water/grass are terr0018-terr0019-terr0020. Once comfortable with tiling JUST grass against the water, I'll be more than happy to show you how to make more than one tile transition with water.

Someone already offered to send you tiles, If you don't get them or would like to see some more, I'll post some tonight when I get home.


NUTTZ

Originally posted by NHawk
If you're talking about tiling using the grayscale height map, then this is what you'll wind up with

Grayscale 0 - water
Grayscale 1 to 10 - Grass
Grayscale 11 to 20 - farm
Grayscale 21 to 30 - forest
Grayscale 31 to 40 - rocky grass
Grayscale 41 to 50 - rock
etc..etc..

This is simplified, but unless I'm missing something... sure looks like layers/stripes to me. On a fairly flat terrain this wouldn't be a problem. But, on anything with a good slope to it, it might be.

If I'm misunderstanding something here, fill me in.

[Voss]

By all means post anything you feel might be helpful.