Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Terrain Editor => Topic started by: Zixieo on January 19, 2005, 11:51:55 PM

Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Zixieo on January 19, 2005, 11:51:55 PM
how do you do it?:eek:

I been playing on the MA maps and I have noticed that they are extremely huge.  How do you guys randomly set tiles everywhere that are different.  Same goes for the mountains and hills.
Did it take you a year to finish something like that? :eek:  :eek:  :eek:
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: kanttori on January 20, 2005, 03:42:23 AM
I have made four 256 miles x 256 miles maps to the SEA and CT use. I have set all the tiles manually to those terrains. Then I can avoid for ex. that there are not fields on the steep mountain hills and also that the landscape is variable looking.

There is no "random tile generator" in the current TE. Landscape adjusting and coastlines checking are the most laborious work wit the terrains. If you want that the historical terrains are geographical, you must check all the coastlines with the Atlas or real world maps, because the coasts based on the satellite data are not so exact.

I spent on the average 1 month / terrain if you calculate it 40 hours / week. It depends on the map, Pacific Ocean terrains are easier, because they are mostly water... ;)
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Zixieo on January 20, 2005, 03:54:27 AM
oh!:confused:
Ill stick with H2H maps:aok
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: MachNix on January 20, 2005, 10:46:24 AM
I created a Visual Basic program to set the elevations and tile types.

(http://www.wildandfreed.com/ah/stt.jpg)

The program was built to import Terragen ( http://www.planetside.co.uk ) terrains.  The program is shown here just to give HT some ideas of what tools would be helpful in their terrain editor.  Maybe the new editor will have something like this already.

MachNix
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: NHawk on January 20, 2005, 11:01:38 AM
Care to share? :)
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Zixieo on January 20, 2005, 07:02:04 PM
I have terrain gen, but I dont realy like making stuff with it cuz there is no hand work the program does everything for you.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: kanttori on January 21, 2005, 02:11:08 AM
MachNix, that program looks to be a great tool! Is it really working with AH Terrain Editor? I want it! :aok
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Skuzzy on January 21, 2005, 06:59:05 AM
You can set the elevations and tile types with the TE.  

On the Terrain tab, type in the elevation, then right-click on the terrain to set the elevation.  You can set individual vertex points, or groups of vertex points in one click.

Tiles are a drop-down list.  Pick and set it.  In the new TE, you can set the subtype of the tile as well (up to 4 variations per tile).

I am not really seeing anything in that program we do not have.

However, you do bring up one of the nice features of the terrain system.  You can write your own utility programs to do what you need for the terrains.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: NHawk on January 21, 2005, 07:35:33 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Skuzzy
You can set the elevations and tile types with the TE.  

On the Terrain tab, type in the elevation, then right-click on the terrain to set the elevation.  You can set individual vertex points, or groups of vertex points in one click.

Tiles are a drop-down list.  Pick and set it.  In the new TE, you can set the subtype of the tile as well (up to 4 variations per tile).

I am not really seeing anything in that program we do not have.

However, you do bring up one of the nice features of the terrain system.  You can write your own utility programs to do what you need for the terrains.
That utility sets the tile type to the elevation throughout the map all at once. So, say you wanted all rock at all elevations above 10,000 feet, the utility does that across the whole map automatically. That's something the TE doesn't have. :)
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: zmeg on January 21, 2005, 08:01:49 AM
Just rename the xxxx.typ file to xxxx.typ.raw then you can edit it in photoshop.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Zixieo on January 21, 2005, 09:38:23 AM
TerreGen is more of a 3D rendering program like Cinema 4D, Bryce, and 3DMax.

I made this using TerreGen.
(http://img157.exs.cx/img157/7420/zerodesigns2lg.th.jpg) (http://img157.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img157&image=zerodesigns2lg.jpg)
took 5 mins to render that shot.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Skuzzy on January 21, 2005, 10:35:41 AM
So, setting the elevation of all of the same tile type to the same elevation, at one time, is something you would like to see?
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: MachNix on January 21, 2005, 11:07:15 AM
The tool does not set the elevation based on tile type.  It sets the tile type based on elevation.  You still need to set the elevations be either using the tools in TE2 or importing some elevation data.  Once the elevations are set, the above tool will set the tile types for the whole map.

I don't know if anyone is looking to set elevations based on tile type.  If they are, the above tool wont do it.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: NHawk on January 21, 2005, 11:15:03 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Skuzzy
So, setting the elevation of all of the same tile type to the same elevation, at one time, is something you would like to see?
Elevations would already be set, usually by an imported bitmap. The tile type would be set by the elevation.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Skuzzy on January 21, 2005, 11:20:59 AM
Ok, got it.  Tile type set by elevation.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Zixieo on January 21, 2005, 11:46:48 AM
how about getting the weather editor and map making option to work on AH2 first.
:)
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: NUTTZ on January 21, 2005, 06:23:16 PM
No, I personally would like the TE to reconize a joystick correctly. I haven't been able to touch the new TE because my CH products won't work right in the TE.

NUTTZ

Quote
Originally posted by Skuzzy
So, setting the elevation of all of the same tile type to the same elevation, at one time, is something you would like to see?
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: Waffle on January 21, 2005, 08:59:23 PM
yup same here Nuttz - CH a no go in TE.
Title: How in the world!?!?
Post by: BenDover on January 22, 2005, 12:31:12 PM
The joystick problem was what was keeping me from making an updated gvteams map. And that's small, I can imagine how much of a problem it would be for a large map.