Map Setches and Elevation importing.

[2Hawks]

Greetings.

In the Help file on building your first terrain, mention is made of importing your sketch into the .bmp with the grid lines and saving it as 'myterr.bmp' or something to that effect.  

What was not mentioned in the help file is how, once I am in the mode to set vertice type and stuff. I see my 'sketch' in the small window that shows me the grid lines, but am unable to 'zoom' in on this small map to view the details and create my city.  How does one accomplish this?

Second, I would like to import elevation data into my maps as mentioned can be done in the help file, but does not go about declaring what values in paint will create a given alt in the editor. What format will the editor read from and can I use topography maps?

I am nont new to map editing, but it helps to have all the docs, does anyone have a website with some tutorials on accomplishing the effects I am hoping to achieve?

Thanks in advance.

2Hawks.

[NHawk]

Zooming is done in the terrain editor window with the ALT slider, not in the clipboard map window. Move the slider down for lower elevation and up for higher elevation. The clipboard map simply shows your location on the map.

Elevations are 8-bit grayscale 0 to 255. 0=zero altitude(water or land) anything above that is scaled to the maximum elevation on your map. In other words, if 25,500ft is your maximum elevation then each step in grey scale will equal 100 ft. or greyscale 100 will equal 10,000 ft. (at least that's the way it's worked for me).

[NUTTZ]

where it says "myterr.bmp" that means you need to rename the BMP to whatever you called your map. AKwabbit made a utility to import the Bmp greyscale ( 1024x1024 pixels) into the editor. It also allows you to preset the elevation range. If you set the elevation range to lets say 10,000 feet, all your pure black 0,0,0 will be water and zero alt. All your pure white 255,255,255 will be 10,000 feet, so anything in a grey around 132,132,132 will be 5,000 feet in altitude.

look back in some old post here , you'll find damn near every question has been answered at one point. Any further help you need , don't hesitate to post, you'll probably get an answer right away. There are alot of knowledgable people who frequent this forum.


NUTTZ

Originally posted by 2Hawks
Greetings.

In the Help file on building your first terrain, mention is made of importing your sketch into the .bmp with the grid lines and saving it as 'myterr.bmp' or something to that effect.  

What was not mentioned in the help file is how, once I am in the mode to set vertice type and stuff. I see my 'sketch' in the small window that shows me the grid lines, but am unable to 'zoom' in on this small map to view the details and create my city.  How does one accomplish this?

Second, I would like to import elevation data into my maps as mentioned can be done in the help file, but does not go about declaring what values in paint will create a given alt in the editor. What format will the editor read from and can I use topography maps?

I am nont new to map editing, but it helps to have all the docs, does anyone have a website with some tutorials on accomplishing the effects I am hoping to achieve?

Thanks in advance.

2Hawks.

[2Hawks]

I am aware of the ALt Slider, and thanks for the Colors for the alt info . However, one question remains.

What is he point of importing your 'sketch' if enough details cannont be seen in the small window to use as a template?

What about making cities with roads to scale of Tanks?

[pokie]

Originally posted by 2Hawks
I am aware of the ALt Slider, and thanks for the Colors for the alt info . However, one question remains.

What is he point of importing your 'sketch' if enough details cannont be seen in the small window to use as a template?

I'm not sure what you mean!

You can only view 40 miles X 40 miles of your terrain at a time while  in the TE.

What about making cities with roads to scale of Tanks? [/B]

You could always reskin ( use a paint program of some kind ) the CITY.BMP and when you place that shape, then just add the building shapes that you want ontop of it.

Pokie

[pokie]

Just to be clear.

This is just for me to make sure that I'm understand what steps you are doing.

Pokie

[pokie]

Originally posted by 2Hawks
I am nont new to map editing, but it helps to have all the docs, does anyone have a website with some tutorials on accomplishing the effects I am hoping to achieve?

Thanks in advance.

2Hawks.

You may find some useful stuff here

Pokie

[NHawk]

Originally posted by 2Hawks
What is he point of importing your 'sketch' if enough details cannont be seen in the small window to use as a template?

OK, I think I see what you're saying. You already have a city layed out on your sketch and it's let's say for argument's sake 1 mile square. You want to be able to zoom in on the clipboard map to see that 1 square mile so you can re-create it on the terrain editor window.

That's where a hard copy of your sketch comes in handy. Anyone else have any ideas?

[pokie]

Originally posted by NHawk
OK, I think I see what you're saying. You already have a city layed out on your sketch and it's let's say for argument's sake 1 mile square. You want to be able to zoom in on the clipboard map to see that 1 square mile so you can re-create it on the terrain editor window.

That's where a hard copy of your sketch comes in handy. Anyone else have any ideas?

2 ways to do what you are trying to do, if I understand you correctly.

First way

1) Take you sketch of your City.bmp and resize it 512 X 512 and make sure it is set as 256 color and not 24bit.

2) Now rename it terr0016.bmp ( we are going to use the SNOW tile for this example )

3) Make a new folder call texsrc and place this folder in the folder of the terrain you are working on.  If you are using the Default ( MyTerr ) then you would see this: C:\Program Files\HTC\aheditor\terrains\MyTerr\texsrc

4) Take the terr0016.bmp and place it in the texsrc folder.

5) Run the TE and select the center of one of you grid squares and set type as SNOW

6) You'll see your CITY.bmp sketch.

Second way

1) Get the CITY.bmp and CITY_a.bmp files.  ( do this by selecting the CITY shape and then Save Textures while in the Object section of the TE ).

2) These 2 file will be found in a folder called savetex in which the TE automatically makes.   C:\Program Files\HTC\aheditor\terrains\MyTerr\savedtex

3) Open the CITY.bmp with a Paint program

4) you'll notice that the ( default ) size is only 64 X 64.
You could always increase the size ( 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 ) but remember this increases the size of you finish .RES file.

5) Delete these 2 City....  files.

6) Since this is a test, resize your CITY.bmp sketch to one of those sizes.  It must be renamed CITY.bmp and placed into your texsrc folder.

7) Open your CITY.bmp and colour it all pure black and then save it as CITY_a.bmp to the same texsrc folder.

8) REMEMBER!!!  .bmp files must be 256 color, if they are 24 bit your TE will crash.

9) While in the Object mode of the TE , select and place the CITY shape.

10) You'll now see your City sketch.

Note!  All .bmp's that are placed in the texsrc folder override the default bmp's of the same name.

Pokie

[pokie]

Made an error!!!!!!

7) Open your CITY.bmp and colour it all pure black and then save it as CITY_a.bmp to the same texsrc folder.

Should have said Pure White

Pokie