Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Terrain Editor => Topic started by: bustr on February 07, 2019, 02:50:43 PM
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If I'm not seeking to modify any of the files for new effects but, instead, create my own tile set from all of the tile sets Hitech posted. As long as I follow Easycor's instructions for setting up all the file groups to be seen by the TE in proper order, the files for each tile set group are not created in some way to only work with each other?
There looks to be a few bmp files that would work better in a terrain theme as exposed rock mountain sides for locations in the Euro set or Med set, both are very limited for available rock face tiles. On all of my terrains, I used for the most part about 6 of the 16 tiles to do 98% of the painting through blending for effects. I suspect I will have to experiment in replacing one tree and clutter type for another since Pacific island fauna does not grow all over Scandinavia and the same in turn for other geographic regions. The Pac tile set is the best general theme tile set of the three default MA sets. European mountains and rock is not all dolomite nor are Med and African mountains all made of sand stone.
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If I'm not seeking to modify any of the files for new effects but, instead, create my own tile set from all of the tile sets Hitech posted. As long as I follow Easycor's instructions for setting up all the file groups to be seen by the TE in proper order, the files for each tile set group are not created in some way to only work with each other?
I'm not sure if I am parsing your question correctly.
However, if you are suggesting merely substituting textures from another terrset, as far as I know, if they are the same size (508 vs 1016), and you update the atlas and catlas txt files accordingly, it should work. If you are asking how the transition blending works, it is a function of the textures order in the atlas and the order in which you lay them down in the terrain editor. See Easyscor's terrain manual starting page 29. http://ahghelp.hitechcreations.com/help/uploads/images/terredit/AH3%20Terrain%20Editors.pdf (http://ahghelp.hitechcreations.com/help/uploads/images/terredit/AH3%20Terrain%20Editors.pdf)]
The tricky part will be the SWA file associated with the texture name. If you are substituting a Pac texture into a Euro terrset, you could end up with palm trees in Germany. :O
If you rename the texture to the Euro name, the SWA objects might not line up well with the contents of the texture. Or you could use a blank SWA or edit a new one.
Is that what you were asking?
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There are some rock tiles that didn't end up in the default tile sets. After my three terrain building experience, they were sorely needed. After finding the unused tiles in the default tile downloads from Hitech, I'm a little miffed. I spent two years asking for tiles like them.....
Yes, to make my version of the Euro tile set reshuffled using those rock tiles, I may need to change what trees and clutter is associated to them. I'm thinking about turning the 4 villages on the 2x2 tile into 4 1x1 or maybe only 2 1x1 since we now have view only road paths. The rock tiles I found would work well doing granite features like you find on Svalbard island. Scandinavia and much of Europe is not made of dolomite which is the only rock tile in the current Euro tile set. And the rift valley in east africa is not made totally of sand stone since it's an area shaped by the resultant volcanic activity created by tectonic plates pulling apart. There is much more granite, lava, and limestone in the Med area and African than sand stone.
I want to shuffle the decks so to say with what my experience helped me conclude about the topographical themes I created. Since Waffle's tiles are so far trouble free in the MA, I want to avoid as much as I can introducing problems with custom work. I'm used to blowing up the terrain editor with the things I test.. :lol
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If you need to edit or create a SWA, note that there is some folder goofiness you have to work around. See Easyscor's solution here:
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,395162.msg5242454.html#msg5242454 (https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,395162.msg5242454.html#msg5242454)
:salute
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Thanks, it's easier than poking tigers with a willow switch to check gender..... :O
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Check with HiTech first before you start working on custom tiles. While we have no issue with them in the SEA and AvA I am not sure he will allow custom tileset in the MA.
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Right now all I want is to experiment with the cliff.bmp and craters.bmp from the 1016 atlas. I spent two years wishing for a stone tile like cliff and it had always been there in terrset02. So I'm using 02 on my test terrain to see how it drives. I never liked the textured dolomite I was limited to with BowlMA but, it was the only textured rock available. After three terrains I have a good idea about blending of tiles and how many of the 508 tiles you actually paint with versus the transitions make half the 508 not worth using. The Med tileset, the upper 8 508 are not worth using unless you choose only them to do the terrain. The transitions are horrendous while Atlas 1 Type 18 is a sandstone scrub tree pattern that I ended up using as a strata level across all of the valley walls, and to break up repeating patterns.
There is a 1016 called mountain with interesting textures and why I was musing splitting some of the 1016 into quarters for use as 508. The farm lands and village 1016 work better as 1016 for the boarder transition effects when painted with mixed 508. But, a single village from the 1016 as a 508 would allow more granular placement in a theme. As I said, using what Hitech has sanctioned already works better if I can mix\match and I mostly never used more than 6 or so of the 508 tiles due to the boarder transition issues. That leads back to a wish for a universal transition tile to clean up transitions. And Atlas 1 Type 18 always works that way but, the design on that 1016 was not often a good design to see on the boarder between two dissimilar level 508 like laying type 6 down on type 15.
The tile pallets from the Terrsets remind me of art contests where you are given a limited pallet of color pencils and an hour to crank something out. If you pull up Oceania and riftval offline and fly around in CMeye you will see what I'm getting at.
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In terrset02 from the download the atlas1 file shows the following:
atlas,C:\art\ah2\stdtexnew\atlas\terrset02
1024,ImageSize
4,ChannelCnt
2,rows
2,cols
../1016/farm1.bmp
../1016/village.bmp
../1016/craters.bmp
../1016/cliff.bmp
My project path to it is: C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\oflintrn\terrset00
And this is the change I've made.
atlas
1024,ImageSize
4,ChannelCnt
2,rows
2,cols
../1016/farm1.bmp
../1016/village.bmp
../1016/mountain.bmp
../1016/cliff.bmp
I followed Easyscore's instructions from the sticky for creating folder structures and filling them.
https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,387747.0.html
Along with the path changes to atlas0 and atlas1. To see trees on the tiles I had to add a second spdtree\swa and fill that swa with swa files.
C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\oflintrn\terrset00\spdtree\swa\spdtree\swa
Back to atlas1 and my change.
I replaced craters.bmp with mountain.bmp out of the 1016 folder. I copied all of the files for both craters.bmp and mountain.bmp into the oflintrn\tersset00\texsrc folder. When I run a build in the TE of this terrain oflintrn it shows the custom tiles being recognized.
When I open the TE to this project I have no way to access these tiles. The tileset I modified is the WW1 terrset02 by swaping craters.bmp with mountain.bmp.
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I'm not exactly sure of your problem, but let me point out a few things I did to get mine working.
1. I copied ALL bitmaps for the terrset02 to the texsrc folder. Not jsut the ones I was replacing.
2. I changed the paths in the atlas text files to be relative to where the atlas files resided. So mine looked like:
atlas,
512,ImageSize
4,ChannelCnt
4,rows
4,cols
texsrc\sand.bmp
texsrc\dunes.bmp
texsrc\dryscrub.bmp
texsrc\drygrass.bmp
texsrc\erosiongrass.bmp
texsrc\grass1.bmp
texsrc\decidforest.bmp
texsrc\grassfeild0.bmp
texsrc\grassfeilds.bmp
texsrc\roughgrass.bmp
texsrc\pineforest.bmp
texsrc\highmeadow.bmp
texsrc\urban.bmp
texsrc\rock.bmp
texsrc\rocksnow.bmp
texsrc\snow.bmp
*If I didn't have one of the bitmaps the atlas referenced in the texsrc folder, or I didn't have the paths defined properly, the the TE just reverted back to the standard tiles.
Let me know if I can help further. I'm happy to pay forward the help I received.
:salute
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BTW. The problem I found was that doing it like the above adds 80mb to the terrain res file. :confused:
If you find a way to just use the one texture you are replacing, please let me know. I replaced two textures and like the results, but can't swallow the 80mb file size increase!
:salute
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Sometimes being literal gets me in trouble...
Your path
texsrc\urban.bmp
My path
../1016/mountain.bmp
Meh......gurglesnort. Lets see what happens with a little notepading.
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So my atlas txts live in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterr\terrset02
I have all my bitmaps under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterr\terrset02\texsrc
My written swa are in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterr\terrset02\spdtree\swa
The one I open to edit has to go in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterr\terrset02\spdtree\swa\spdtree\swa
BTW, make sure your swa file is not marked read-only. The OE will lie and act like it saves, but it actually won't in that case.
:salute
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They is all marked read only, in both swa, gotta uncheck all that. And I reset the relative paths in the atlas0 and atlas1 sitting in terrset00, still no joy. Running a TE build recognizes the path to terrset00 but I still don't get craters.bmp replaced by mountain.bmp and I copied every bitmap over from terrset02 like you recommended. Should the build show more path when --Creating set ah3terr/oflinter/terrset00-- or is it seeing enough for the TE to know the folder structure and files are the tile set to be used?
The object editor shows me the tiles and trees:
C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\oflintrn\terrset00\spdtree\swa\dryscrub.swa
ah3terr
-------oflinter
stdshape
terrset00
spdtree
swa
spdtree
swa
texsrc
texsrc
atlas,
512,ImageSize
4,ChannelCnt
4,rows
4,cols
texsrc\sand.bmp
texsrc\dunes.bmp
texsrc\dryscrub.bmp
texsrc\drygrass.bmp
texsrc\erosiongrass.bmp
texsrc\grass1.bmp
texsrc\decidforest.bmp
texsrc\grassfeild0.bmp
texsrc\grassfeilds.bmp
texsrc\roughgrass.bmp
texsrc\pineforest.bmp
texsrc\highmeadow.bmp
texsrc\rockgrass.bmp
texsrc\rock.bmp
texsrc\rocksnow.bmp
texsrc\snow.bmp
atlas,
1024,ImageSize
4,ChannelCnt
2,rows
2,cols
texsrc\farm1.bmp
texsrc\village.bmp
texsrc\mountain.bmp
texsrc\cliff.bmp
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For the moment, lets worry about the swa later. It shouldn't effect you seeing the proper bitmaps.
You atlas look about right.
Did you also edit catlas0 and catlas1?
I had edited mine with local paths too. I can't remeber if that was needed, but might be worth a try. Mine:
atlas,
512,ImageSize
1,ChannelCnt
4,rows
4,cols
texsrc\sandClutter.bmp
texsrc\dunesClutter.bmp
texsrc\dryscrubClutter.bmp
texsrc\drygrassClutter.bmp
texsrc\erosiongrassClutter.bmp
texsrc\grass1Clutter.bmp
texsrc\decidforestClutter.bmp
texsrc\grassfeild0Clutter.bmp
texsrc\grassfeildsClutter.bmp
texsrc\roughgrassClutter.bmp
texsrc\pineforestClutter.bmp
texsrc\highmeadowClutter.bmp
texsrc\rockgrassClutter.bmp
texsrc\rockClutter.bmp
texsrc\rocksnowClutter.bmp
texsrc\snowClutter.bmp
atlas,
1024,ImageSize
1,ChannelCnt
2,rows
2,cols
texsrc\farm1clutter.bmp
texsrc\villageclutter.bmp
texsrc\cratersclutter.bmp
texsrc\cliffclutter.bmp
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Oh, and you only need to change the read-only attribute on the swa file that you need to write to. Unless you just want to do them all.
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Do I need to give a full address in the atlas and catlas files like:
C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\oflintrn\terrset00\texsrc\mountain.bmp
Take a look in the 1016 folder at the mountain.bmp files and see if you can find something wrong with using that to replace craters.bmp with them. I even made a mountainclutter.bmp renaming a copy of the cliffclutter.bmp in case the TE is expecting to see a xxxclutter.bmp for atlas file paths.
Running a build still sees the path to oflintrn\terrset00 but, not the tiles. Any chance Win7 is the problem here? You and Easyscore probably are on Win10.
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I am on Windows 10, but I can't imagine that being a problem.
So when you open your terrain in the TE you are not seeing your mountain bmp in the texture pallet on the right?
I can't remember if I tried absolute paths. I remember I had a lot of trouble with paths trying to do it a different way. I finally broke down and did it EXACTLY like Easyscor said and it worked.
I do know if a single entry in the atlas or catlas are wrong, it will bail and just load the default built-in terrset images.
I would double check every entry in the atlas/catlas and manually verify you see that file under you texsrc folder.
I'll try the same change on my terrain tonight to see if there is some other problem.
:salute
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OK. Copied your atlas entries exactly and this is what I got. Is this what you were trying to do?
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=396124.0;attach=31302)
I guess the catlas and details files don't matter unless you want to change them. I just copied the 508 and 1016 into my texsrc folder. I changed the catlas but didn't copy over any of the detail files.
It's a little confusing an whether you are trying to modify terrset00 or terrset02. I set my map to terset00 and made your modifications.
Dumb question: You do have your terrain tileset set to the terrset you are trying to modify right? If you are trying to modify terrset00, then in the TE your terrain is set to the terrset00 tileset right?
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Here is my sample terr to compare. Just unzip to your ah3terr folder.
However I cleared out the terrset00\texsrc folder for size. Copy you 508/1016 images back in terrset00\texsrc and you should get what I got when opening it in the TE.
:salute
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I'll keep working on it.
I was just offline doing some gunnery training with the P38 and realized why I never used the WW1 tileset for the MA. In the hanger the object groups are not in place for the MA feilds I'm using offline. You don't see fuel selection objects, just a miniature house you move through the selection squares. The ammo boxes are from the WW1 hanger. Wonder if that is doing something to this. I wanted the 1016 cliff.bmp and mountain.bmp available so I could get away from using that 508 rock.bmp which is dolomite with pines on it.
ffffRaaappppsweeee, stinkypooohs.....I'll shift to the EUsummer terrain set 00 and do the 1016 tile replacement inside of that. Maybe it's the object sets. I started out with the WW1 set becasue it had almost all of the Eu terrset00 tiles with craters and cliff 1016 which made great mountain painting selections.
And yes exactly what I'm trying to do in your screen captures. That removes the crater circles at the merge boarder for the 1016 cliff tile and makes a clean transition. Take a look at BowlMA offline and look at how bad the transition is around the white textured rock.bmp 508 tile I used for mountains. The 1016 mountain.bmp by itself would have made a great transition tile. Or even the cliff.bmp 1016 and only give up one 1016 farmland tile. Considering how little of at least 2 grass\tree 508 tiles I used, I'm wondering if I can clip off a 1x1 quad corner from one of the 1016 farmland tiles and use that sparingly for farm settings as a 508.
I repainted the center tank combat crater on an old test copy of BowlMA with the WW1 tileset to get at the 1016 cliff.bmp, it looks a lot better.
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Just downloaded and will get back to you, hope this works, thank you.
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I was not choosing the correct default tileset from the menu in the terrain editor, then making the 508 and 1016 swaps. I tried a 508 swap at a higher level next to the rock.bmp and it does not play nice visually when I paint with it. Otherwise the transition or merge I wanted with the cliff.bmp edges works now.
That mesa top is 800ft under the drones so you can practice with the wirble. Thank you for helping me get this squared away... :salute
(https://i.postimg.cc/FRfbXqRW/tileset01.jpg)
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:aok
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I was able to get a Pac tile to work in the Euro tileset. It's a red brown volvanic rock with no cluttertile that only has texture. It adds dimension with it's contrast to use it with the cliff and mountain tiles. I updated an old version of the tank combat crater from BowlMA to show how it enhances the rock structures.
Updated oflinter wirbel mesa and other rock structures.
(https://i.postimg.cc/4xVBfWgW/tileset02.jpg)
Updated tank combat crater from BowlMA back up version.
(https://i.postimg.cc/FKxpc11c/tileset03.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/LX6TVRZW/tileset04.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/HLm3VbWd/tileset05.jpg)
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Looks nice.
How much did your terrain res file size increase?
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The offline training terrain 80kb and the BowlMA backup version 132kb. The additional rock texture and contrast is worth it where large topographical formations are concerned. After three terrains this is what I found lacking the most for creating large scale themes. A mono rock palette is a bite to not look like AH2 when you create mountains. I'll have to paint some of the mega rock structures on bowl now to see how this works out. I've got some massive mountain ranges and I think the rocksnow tile I replaced with the brown rock tile can be duplicated by percentage blending of the cliff 1016, snow 508, and the green and white rock 508 tiles. That way I can add lower elevation nuance with the brown rock tile like you see in the tank crater.
I think I need to move the red rock tile below the white rock tile in the palette order to get rid of a white transition line. This is kind of fun.
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The offline training terrain 80kb and the BowlMA backup version 132kb.
Kb or Mb?
Mine jumped 80mb because basically you are building a whole terrset replacement. If your res only increased 80kb I need to look close at why mine got so big!
:confused:
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Sorry,
Original oflin res was 250kb now 80,000kb. Bowlma original 51,000kb now 132,000kb. I was thinking in bmp tiles while not thinking in numbers...sorry.
Here is BowlMA after I shifted the red rock tile below the white dolomite with trees tiles. It removed a white boarder transition line and did a one for one swap across the whole terrain. Now I have volcanic rock like I originally wanted and it all needs some tweaking with the addition rock tiles like I did with the tank combat crater. And I have clean up where I removed farm tiles for rock tiles.
(https://i.postimg.cc/7ZCBTxyY/tileset06.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/q7yjjjRP/tileset07.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/PxHKcYvP/tileset08.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/7ZpK3px1/tileset09.jpg)
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Sorry,
Original oflin res was 250kb now 80,000kb. Bowlma original 51,000kb now 132,000kb. I was thinking in bmp tiles while not thinking in numbers...sorry.
OK. That's what I got. That is a 80 megabyte increase in size. 80mb isn't as big a deal as it used to be, but I'd be curious if HT would spit his coffee on his monitor in regards to a MA terrain.
Let me know if you ever find a way to get that smaller.
:salute
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I'm going to put back in a 1016 farm tile and keep a single 1016 rock tile and see if the merge transition is effected too much by that. If not, I can live with one less 1016 farm tile and design with only two farm tiles. Then I see if Hitech is interested, since one major theme problem that jumped out after two years was rock effects and how much only a single rock tile limited your presentation. I could have used the brown volcanic rock when I was painting riftval since rift valley's are volcanic and I put in all those volcanoes which is another result of two plates pulling apart.
You do not use all of the 16 - 508 tiles painting a terrain, you blend effects dictated by the merge boarders mostly. And in the Med tileset there is room for the brown rock 508 tile.
I will take a look also at placing only the files targeted in the texsrc folder by the atlas files. It could end up like your problem which requires all of the 508 and 1016 files from all terrsets to make it work.
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I will take a look also at placing only the files targeted in the texsrc folder by the atlas files. It could end up like your problem which requires all of the 508 and 1016 files from all terrsets to make it work.
I tried various stuff like that but couldn't get it to work. I finally suspected it was like a all or nothing thing. It seems if you want to alter a single texture you need an entire new terrset. It will cost you 80 meg whether you change one texture or all of them.
If you find out differently, let me know.
:salute
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While I've been experimenting with this the best change to the Eu terrset00 to get brown rock and gray rock, it was the mountain.bmp and cliff.bmp in the top two 1016 and the pacrock1.bmp in the 508. I might give up a tree and clutter tile to nest a pacrock1 lower down to remove more of the bad transition line by having only one pacrock1 in the top row of the 508 palette.
Testing that palette with oflinter at the tank shooting ranges I had an idea. If Hitech will allow this terrset remix for the MA, I want to do a terrain that uses the rockgrass.bmp as the base tile that I first paint the whole world with. It has all the sparseness of trees and long open views for tank shooting I'm once again hearing as random VOX complaints in the MA. Seems the less talented tankers are being chewed up by the growing numbers of tank monsters who have gotten used to the trees and clutter. They want to see farther in more open venues without thinking how someone like Dr7 will sit 2 miles away and vulch the spawn. While the vbase and field defenders will see them coming from 2 miles away. Still, micro hills and gully's can alleviate some of that like I did with riftval. The rockgrass 508 looks really good applied over micro hills and gully's.
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where are you placing the bmps for the tile? Check the stdshape folder, if the source bmps are getting built into that folder and added to the terrain, they should NOT be. This may be where a bunch of your size is comming from.
HiTech
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where are you placing the bmps for the tile? Check the stdshape folder, if the source bmps are getting built into that folder and added to the terrain, they should NOT be. This may be where a bunch of your size is comming from.
HiTech
Interesting. I figured it was like the fmod. You either needed to replace the hole thing or nothing.
So would you only put in the atlas txt files the one image you are replacing?
I guess the issue ie we have no example to work from. The only example we had was the winter terrain GhostDancer sent which was obviously changing everything.
It would be awesome if we could override only one or two tiles out of the terrset!
Bustr figure it out and document the process! I'll give ya a dollar!
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Interesting. I figured it was like the fmod. You either needed to replace the hole thing or nothing.
So would you only put in the atlas txt files the one image you are replacing?
I guess the issue ie we have no example to work from. The only example we had was the winter terrain GhostDancer sent which was obviously changing everything.
It would be awesome if we could override only one or two tiles out of the terrset!
Bustr figure it out and document the process! I'll give ya a dollar!
that would be nice!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I'm already changing out 508 and moving them around to improve the merge borders. I've repeated grass1 on three of the 508 palette rows to improve transitions. I'm trying to use existing tiles to achieve a real world look while the primary tile for around spawns and feilds was created sparse on trees by Waffle. When I get what I want, then I'll test removing all the bmp files that are not listed in the atlas files.
I think this 508 tile will do the job while I won't have to spend weeks blending. I just micro hill\gully the terrain for 4 miles around the town and field along with this tile. You can see how I've shifted the pine forest tile to get rid of that dark green transition boarder along with replacing some tiles with the grass. If I keep my mountains below 10k as a summer map, don't have to worry about snow, and the brown rock sits above all the transitions. I'm finding tank players are not enthusiastic about the village tile or farmland tile since it creates too many places to get ambushed while they feel claustrophobic trying to drive through those areas. Even though they wanted things like that all through AH2. What most want in practice, is some form of the AH2 crater to see the enemy from miles away and not have to expose themselves to ambushes. Closest AH3 map with that is buzzsaw the spawn in above the field at A2.
(https://i.postimg.cc/ry0Yz5xt/tileset10.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/NFHNVwBx/tileset11.jpg)
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Just created a new terrain myterr and followed the folder structure getting my custom arrangement of 508 and 1016 tiles.
ah3terr
-------myterr
stdshape
terrset00
spdtree
swa
texsrc
texsrc
I opened myterr to the default Eu summer terrset00, then closed it. Then I created the folder structure and copied into terrset00 only the following:
atlas0.txt
atlas1.txt
catlas0.txt
catlas1.txt
objdet.txt
terrdet.txt
Then I opened atlas0 and atlas1 and copied into terrset00\texsrc all of the bmp files related to the listings in these two text files.
ATLAS0
atlas,
512,ImageSize
4,ChannelCnt
4,rows
4,cols
texsrc\sand.bmp
texsrc\dunes.bmp
texsrc\dryscrub.bmp
texsrc\drygrass.bmp
texsrc\erosiongrass.bmp
texsrc\grass1.bmp
texsrc\decidforest.bmp
texsrc\grassfeild0.bmp
texsrc\grassfeilds.bmp
texsrc\grass1.bmp
texsrc\roughgrass.bmp
texsrc\grass1.bmp
texsrc\rockgrass.bmp
texsrc\grass1.bmp
texsrc\pineforest.bmp
texsrc\pacrock1.bmp
ATLAS1
atlas,
1024,ImageSize
4,ChannelCnt
2,rows
2,cols
texsrc\farm1.bmp
texsrc\village.bmp
texsrc\mountain.bmp
texsrc\cliff.bmp
The next time I opened myterr, I had my custom palette And the terrain editor generated all the additional files and folders needed.
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Can someone explain the relationship between the large textures and the small textures?
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Except for the obvious difference in size, they are the same. Both cover a 2 mile x 2 mile portion of the terrain. The 1016's with their associated supporting bitmaps allow reasonably sized "roads" or "paths through the woods" and much more detail then the 508s.
Hope that helps.
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Just created a new terrain myterr and followed the folder structure getting my custom arrangement of 508 and 1016 tiles.
Right. But that is the process that give you the +80 meg increase right?
Hitech seems to be implying there is a way of doing it that would that would only increase it by the size of your modified bitmap. I was never able to find a way to make that work. I could only do it with the full terrset replacement like GhostDancer showed me with his Winter terrain and Easyscor described.
If there was a way to only swap out a single bitmap of the terrset ( 4meg instead of 80meg), that would be a huge win.
Easyscor, has anyone ever done that?
:salute
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Here is something I threw together this morning on myterr to test res file size with a custom palette. The file myterr.res is 77,307kb, my other test terrains this size using the default terrsets are about 250kb.
The tallest peak is 3,000ft, mountains are sloppy in reality so using the Raise\Lower tool following preset ridge lines is moments of time. Then the Smooth Catmul to simulate millions of years of weathering and Raise\Lower to pull up rock formations you want prominent. You quickly define a watershed and maybe some touch up with the bulldozer and smoothing tool. By the end of riftval I discovered this was the fastest way to throw in features that didn't require the extensive 3D structure and planning like those grand canyons in the back of each country on riftval.
I may have to give up one more tree\clutter tile so I can place in another grass1 to create a cleaner transition. This rock formation, painting\tweeking and laying down the objects was about an hour and you can see the land square is 1 sector on purpose since I wanted to see how long it takes me to doodle one sector. Another thing riftval taught me was to plan every square mile of topography related to objects so it becomes simple doodling following a blueprint.
(https://i.postimg.cc/85nkRqZm/tileset12.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/VspLdPrY/tileset13.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/tJZq22fQ/tileset14.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/GtWcNvwB/tileset15.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/TwPYWRJP/tileset16.jpg)
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I'm going through all this becasue I like the random ruggedness of the topo map below. I just don't want to do snow capped ginormouse mountains and granite craggs like this place is in real life. But, I need the gray and brown rock tiles with tiles from the Euro Summer tileset. I just want the land mass outlines so I can blueprint a 2048x2048 and make all the bases fit into three roughly even regions. Nothing will be taller than 7,000ft if that, so I don't have to worry about snow. 5,000ft will probably work fine.
(https://i.postimg.cc/j2qhn38T/tileset17.jpg)
The more I zoom in I get a structural lesson in mountain reagion water sheds and how I've not been random enough building my mountains. The only way I'll get this random is by doodling in following ridge line guides I draw on the map.bmp and not trying to be neat and tidy. More like a case of beer and a long weekend. I'll have to do a global paint in rock and work down hill from there.
(https://i.postimg.cc/nV64JzxZ/tileset18.jpg)
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If there was a way to only swap out a single bitmap of the terrset ( 4meg instead of 80meg), that would be a huge win.
Easyscor, has anyone ever done that?
Short answer: No.
From the beginning, and it's still true as far as I know, it's an all or nothing system. For the MA, I recommend following the documented rules.
Custom winter terrsets in the AvA and SEA are adding 70 to 80 MB to the .res size. Compare that to the .res sizes for the default terrsets included by the game, 160 MB to 350 MB.
It might not be obvious, but if the terrset in question is that great, then creating and submitting a completely original terrset for inclusion in the game might be another way to keep your terrain sizes down for the MA. Terrset05 anyone?
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Better question, if I'm mixing around Hitech's tiles and not adding anything new, for 80mb added to the end result for the MA, will he allow that kind of customization packaged in an MA terrain in rotation? I'm not sure it makes for a terrset05 since I'm reusing grass1 in each 508 row to eliminate a lot of horrible merge lines all over the terrain. Not sure future terrain builders would understand why so many grass tiles.
I still need to look at if one more grass1 tile swapped in for a tree tile is necessary to get the transitions I want or, a resorting of tiles. The part of the world I'm looking at has limited environment zones and any farming is covered by the farm2, grassfeild0 and grassfeilds tiles. You can see in the screen captures having three stone tiles makes more realistic visuals when painting rock topography. The volcanic and granite formations in northern Norway are dark rock and gray rock. The brown rock makes good visual contrast inside the game.
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Short answer: No.
From the beginning, and it's still true as far as I know, it's an all or nothing system. For the MA, I recommend following the documented rules.
Custom winter terrsets in the AvA and SEA are adding 70 to 80 MB to the .res size. Compare that to the .res sizes for the default terrsets included by the game, 160 MB to 350 MB.
It might not be obvious, but if the terrset in question is that great, then creating and submitting a completely original terrset for inclusion in the game might be another way to keep your terrain sizes down for the MA. Terrset05 anyone?
That's what I thought. I tried different ways to do it but didn't succeed. It's just that Hitech's comment seemed like it suggested it might be possible:
where are you placing the bmps for the tile? Check the stdshape folder, if the source bmps are getting built into that folder and added to the terrain, they should NOT be. This may be where a bunch of your size is comming from.
HiTech
That may have just been miscommunication.
I just wanted Bustr to realize that before he put too much work into it just to have Hitech respond: "80 meg!!!! Are you MAD?!?!?" :D
On the other hand, if there was a way to do it, that would be very useful to know and to document.
:salute
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Use scissors.....
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Still need to see if Hitech responds, I'm not creating new tiles, just using his reshuffled for a purpose. Being able to shuffle existing tiles allows for changing the same old same old which gives the customer something new to look at. After all in the MA they get up and personal with the themes and eventually it leads to boredom. And it's a quick way to give them "new".
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Here is an example of resorting and using the grass1 bitmap to make transitions less stark except in the most obvious if you are trying to mix from the lowest 508 against the highest. Otherwise keeping the tiles and environment by elevation in mind the real klunker is the pine tree 508 and where the brown rock is concerned, you plan to use the 1016 rock tiles to ease the transition and add visual nuance.
(https://i.postimg.cc/yYr6F28N/tileset19.jpg)
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And a fjord and tile transition test to see how the mountain dark tile looks and transitions look on it. Here I'm keeping everything below 3,000ft.
(https://i.postimg.cc/HsPZd9BK/tileset20.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Sx2ZsYPK/tileset21.jpg)
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Awww, man....
This gets addictive, I cleaned up the far side of the fjord and the mountain tile lines really lends itself to guiding mountain touch up shaping with the bulldozer tool. Touched up with the lighter stone near the water to make it less dark if you were sailing by it.
OK, from my last two years experience, this remix may make a reasonable terrset05 if the issue of all the extra grass1 is documented for why they are in place. As is I can do the Svalbard island inspired odd shaped terrain I'm thinking about.
(https://i.postimg.cc/q7ZDMXJg/tileset22.jpg)
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After looking at some photos from Svalbard, this needed to be a little more aggressive in how water cut everything.
(https://i.postimg.cc/s2GbkcBP/tileset24.jpg)
This island in real life looks like it's been cut with miles wide troughs which are lined with water cuts over dark granite and basalt formations several thousand feet high. You can see one of those huge troughs in this topo map.
(https://i.postimg.cc/j2qhn38T/tileset17.jpg)
You can kind of see why I resorted the 508 and 1016 tiles the way I did.
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6d/24/cf/6d24cf790c22d48c290cf431fb459dcd.jpg)
(http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/voringfoss-waterfall-near-eidfjord-hordaland-norway-scandinavia-picture-id165559759?s=612x612)
(https://c8.alamy.com/comp/EG8KYH/fiord-and-mountains-EG8KYH.jpg)
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Now all I need is to know from Hitech if I can use my custom tile mix or if he wants to turn it into terrset05. Then I'll produce a RAW file and be on my way.
Blueprint map for fjordma, 10x10 \ 2048x2048.
(https://i.postimg.cc/jSpXsnZr/tileset26.jpg)
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I hope it all works out Bustr :rock
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In this chicken or the egg scenario, I've got to sit down and map the general water ways off the peaks to give myself an idea of laying out feilds. So it becomes similar to sketching leaf veins in art class, just one ginormous leaf with very tiny little veins rooting off the major backbone veins. I can probably set the backbone veins to 5,000ft in the RAW file and wing the rest off that. On the real Svalbard island, the tallest peaks, and only a few, don't quite reach 5,000ft. So I can have some fun sculpting and not worry about blowing too much away. Setting the land blocks other than the mountain backbones to popup all 1,000ft will solve many shore line issues. Since on this kind of topography, it's majority cliffs and mountain side walls that slope right down into the water. Very little flat land in large areas other than in runoff basins and river mouths but, there are flat heights due to the nature of the lava and rock types and how they erode. And it's all black rock for the most part so I just elevation paint black rock from -1000 to 6000ft after I import the RAW file.
Below is my field layout dilemma which will require mapping mountain spines and runoff water ways. I'm planning two fleets per country and exposing the HQ\strat to gratuitous destruction in the red ring area. The blue ring is a 6 sector diameter which I've found with my last three terrains to be the effective combat area to keep players at each other. With two CV per country, aside form targeting the HQ and some strats, I can see salting the outer area defined by the red circle with bases for ship to shore field captures. Before I can even go there, I have to topographically profile the place. At least I have topographical profile maps of the real Svalbard island that detail everything so I can understand how to create the ridge lines that all the fjords tiny to huge are paired with. An interesting note, the center of Svalbard where several deep fjords meet like you see here, it's all flat runoff cut about 4 miles wide at each mouth gently sloping up to 100ft then inland as deep water cuts with small rivers off a glacier. I don't want to do the glaciers that cover the central inland of the east and west lobes. No one puts airfields on glaciers. I probably should make sure a task group can steam up near the ends of those central large fjords, I'll have to test what the minimum width is that a task group can turn around on it's own line in patrol mode. Don't need to get CV's stuck in there even though steaming up into one will make them sitting ducks to bombers. It may well not be possible thinking about the max range you can launch LVT. Meh, won't know until I reach that stage....
(https://i.postimg.cc/Y9wMZGq9/tileset27.jpg)
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I've been angsting over how to start the topo profile for the core of the ridge systems. I realized looking at this topo map from Svalbard it looks like the canyon system I put in the back feilds of the three countries on riftval to fill space. Since most shores are in the 250-300m elevation range, I just do a general 1000ft base land mass while defining the mountain ridge lines with a 1 mile wide 5000ft ribbon defined by the runoff scallops that create the areas on the real Svalbard low enough to build towns and airfields with road systems. The terrain editor has a tool that will rapidly lift the land on the sides of the 5000ft ribbon the same way I created the canyons on riftval.
First I define where I want my water to run, then I run the main ridge ribbons for the runoff scallops to feed the low level miles wide river runs to the ocean. Then I place fields and adjust the waterways and 5000ft spine ribbons to make it all fit. Then I create a grayscale file to convert to RAW and import into the terrain editor. Then I 3D finger paint clay into canyons, mountains and table tops of ultra hard dark rock.
(https://i.postimg.cc/y85byTRR/tileset28.jpg)
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I've mapped all the high ridge lines and glacier melt water cut bottoms. The light gray ribbons are 5000ft while the blue water cuts are 100ft and the gray land mass will be 1000ft. From there after it is imported I carve the rest in between. Rocks like this have sharp cleavage as they weather so ridge lines are sharp while everything else is edges.
Now all I have to do is map feilds based on the blue water cut areas and knowing there are shores that can extend out about 2 miles from the cliff bases.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Bn94vP5c/tileset29.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Vkq10sDy/tileset30.jpg)
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I finally gave up and added in an 8pixel = 1mile grid layer to help me locate feilds. The red grid is a 19x19mile grid. Irregular land masses don't lend themselves to easy field locating to avoid long time consuming flights. That's why I use a 19x19mile grid when locating feilds. But now I've thrown in random 5000ft ridge lines to stir the pot.
(https://i.postimg.cc/CxMrQdhs/tileset31.jpg)
Six sector blue circle, 25 and 19 mile red circles in the center.
(https://i.postimg.cc/pL0cbxyb/tileset32.jpg)
At least now I can see 19 miles better in relationship to all the glacier water cut low areas I can place a field object down flat on.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mZ8HSrns/tileset33.jpg)
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Was taking a look at a Svalbard tourist travel site at photos of the island. No trees, only grasses and arctic flowering plants. My island will be around the same latitude as Iceland so I can work in a few trees. But, the geo formations will be like Svalbard.
Another formation test after looking at tourism photos. The ridge line is 5000ft.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Gp2FhPWH/tileset34.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/g0TvwXp4/tileset35.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/nr8BkyCD/tileset36.jpg)
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A random shape terrain does not lend itself to even field placements and at least one country will end up with more long flights than the others. The screen capture of a 2048x2048 blurred some of the field placement markers but, each country has 28 location markers with two ports per country. The band defined by the two blue rings will host most of the combat between 30 fields. You will be able to sneak CV's up close to HQ and there is no place to hide the strats. At least now I can generate the import file for the terrain editor to start this show on the road with all the feilds mapped.
(https://i.postimg.cc/W1XrPt1N/tileset37.jpg)
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Just noticed the import raw file has gone from rotate 90 to the right to flip vertical before saving as RAW.
Ready to start carving mountains and fjords.
(https://i.postimg.cc/sgNLQWcK/tileset38.jpg)
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My goal here is for a sparsity of trees for the tank combat players. I cannot control the numbers of trees on objects like vbases and air feilds. Nor can I control the number on the village tile if I don't want to remove houses.
The screen shots are a concept for a small tank town where the center is a 1x1mile village while the uplands ring is about 1.5mile out from the village center. I'm using a very sparse tree tile as the core of painting anywhere tank combat will take place. So on this terrain you will have to catch a tree yourself and force it to hang you up. The top gallery is a 4000yd shot in a panther to long range sniper to the other side. Right now the spawn placements and vbases are so I can drive the local offline and tweak it. I have to get on with building the mountain ranges, and how this is painted will will be redone when I use the global painting tool to define strata and growth elevation for different plants.
The object in the center of the AH2 craterma tank town was a 1x1mile like this village tile. Each vbase will have one spawn that will drop you in the edge of that village randomly. The rest of the time outside in the open. The rest of the spawns up near the edge of the top gallery 1.5mile out from the village center. At least you will have a few trees with hills and gully's to hide behind while the nearest airfield is 1.5 sectors away. I had a serious request to do a terrain with only grass for the tank combat areas recently by a very frustrated longtime player.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Ls574n4p/tileset45.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/xCb4Hhbp/tileset47.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/MH2rY576/tileset48.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/k5HH2qDt/tileset49.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/3NXffG1g/tileset50.jpg)
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My goal here is for a sparsity of trees for the tank combat players. I cannot control the numbers of trees on objects like vbases and air feilds. Nor can I control the number on the village tile if I don't want to remove houses.
I think you might could if you want to edit the corresponding swa file. Do you have the download for all the standard swa?
[Edit] Nevermind. I forgot this was for MA. Rules, rules, rules. :D
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Where will the bar be?
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That's why you spawn into the edge of the village and fight everyone else to find it. The Swedish bikini team agreed to hide in it and reward the winner with beer and Swedish bikini charm. Can't help it if Waffle didn't hang a sign outside the tavern like he did for Roy's in the 4x4 tank town object. You will just have to visit every single house in the village to find them.
The rockgrass.bmp tile has just enough trees so I don't hear whines about no place to hide from spawn campers wile leaving room to see for miles. And I've over painted the village with it as much as I can to eliminate some of the heavy trees on that tile while keeping all the buildings. Otherwise that village will be a kill box no one will want to spawn into. Greebo accomplished the same kind of safe cover from the highland sniper spots with the numbers and size of the factory buildings he placed on his 1x1 in the center of the AH2 tank combat crater on craterma.
Now won't this be worth inspecting every single building to find the tavern?
(https://partingglassblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/swedish20bikini20team20poster.jpg?w=490)
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It's all or nothing, but I need to know what texture names are ending up in stdshape folder. Only atlas0 ,atlas0_nep, atlas1_hdr, atlas1_nep should end up at textures in the folder.
Each atlas component should NOT end up in the stdshape folder.
HiTech
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It's all or nothing, but I need to know what texture names are ending up in stdshape folder. Only atlas0 ,atlas0_nep, atlas1_hdr, atlas1_nep should end up at textures in the folder.
Each atlas component should NOT end up in the stdshape folder.
HiTech
No, on my terrain they are NOT ending up in the stdshape folder. Infact, I don't see atlas0 atlas1 stuff in the stdshape folder. At least not with that name. I do see the atlas _nep.htx and htx under:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterr\terrset02
but not in stdshape.
My terrain works and I see my custom texture. It jsut adds 80mb. ;)
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This is why I'm only shuffling Hitech's bitmap files to create my palette. The two unused rock texture bitmaps are all I ever wanted.
By the way, even when I placed in the terrset00\texsrc folder only the bitmaps referenced by the atlas files. The first time I did a build, ALL of the bitmaps were placed in the terrset00\texsrc folder from the 508 and 1016 folders automatically.
I didn't want to do anything that made my work questionable for MA use. Now I've got rock tiles made by Waffle that work for my Svalbard style theme. And there is no sand on Svalbard, beaches made of rocks the size of your fist and the same for all the talus slopes and erosion skirts around the base of all the mountains and canyons. The real island is in the arctic circle so only has grass. Mine is down offshore from Norway about midway down the country so it can have trees while looking like Svalbard.
Just realized I have to place a few islands in that fjord that runs up to the tank town so some genius dosen't park a task group on top of it and kill all the GVing fun. When I mapped out the feilds, I drew a 1.5 sector diameter ring around the tank town and didn't place any feilds inside of that. Not much but many players won't fly 1.5 sectors to try and find GV's to harass.
(https://i.postimg.cc/CLhZwDyQ/tileset52.jpg)
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Being sloppy and random while knowing mountains are cut by water and have common main runoff channels helps speed up throwing down mountains quickly. No right way, while random is truly hard to achieve since we like order and patterns when we look at things. Unconsciously if we are not careful we will inject those things.
An hours work, have to constantly, globally, set at least three colors down for contrast to actually see the mountains becasue they are that dark gray color. Blew away all the painting for tank town, but, that will be a finishing task right after I define the illusion of water runoffs in the bottom of all the glacier runways after laying doing all the feilds and doing the micro terrain around them. Those tallest peaks are 5,000ft, but, the overall impression in perspective makes them look much lower.
(https://i.postimg.cc/WbYYhSxF/tileset53.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/htJyxTqC/tileset54.jpg)
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You've seen one mountain you have seen them all........
(https://i.postimg.cc/02xW9c2q/tileset55.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/650Hqny4/tileset56.jpg)
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When my brain can't take mountain building and detailing anymore, I play with the paint scheme for the terrain. I'm going to rely on the global angle paint and elevation paint tools on this one. I'm creating topographical elevations that will show off those tools quite well and save me weeks of hand detail work.
Also. forgot, after you cut in your canyons and valleys, run the erosion tool against it all and clean it up. If you are creating exposed rock mountains versus grass or tree covered, you have to visit every ridge line and pull them up to a sharp spine. Even then some vegetation will grow right up the slopes below 7,000ft. I want contrast with color so I have pine forests up to about 2500ft.
(https://i.postimg.cc/GtrcYHnS/tileset57.jpg)
I think I've got the trees sparse enough for tank combat furballing across that tiny depression with the single village. Especially If I place a spawn for each country with the random spawn circles converging in the center of the village tile. Then drop in two more up at this level close to each other so no one has to drive very far to fight.
(https://i.postimg.cc/tTFqYFwx/tileset58.jpg)
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I've got about 3 hours of creativity then, I'm just pushing mush around that the next day I'll look at and have to redo it. So at the end I'll keep playing with the global painting tools becasue in seconds I can blow away what I don't like and try again. And If I need to just over paint all the rock formation areas in gray while I'm building them, it's fun later running the global paint and seeing what appears in the new work.
I've got the global elevations worked out but to fully reveal the rock slopes you have to run a global angle paint. If I run in grass to 3800 and pine trees 680 to 3500. I can uncover rock slopes setting the global angle tool for slopes 22-90 degrees. Looks good and I can touch up around feilds instead of hand paint which was a bite with riftval. I've still got about 90% of the terrain left to build glacier cut mountain ranges on. Doing this at the start helps adjust the overall look of the mountains so I can settle on a standard finishing technique globally to all mountain ranges. These sharp spine ranges work well with the gray rock tile.
Since you can set percentages of fill for the paint brush and it works with the global paint function. I need to experiment with that low elevation for the pine tree band at 680 and see if I can 25-50% a transition band onto it to make it look more natural.
Here are the results of 22-90 degrees.
(https://i.postimg.cc/B6SFXjzM/tileset59.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/fL89XwnZ/tileset60.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/NFLrkWBX/tileset61.jpg)
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Now I'm testing a sparser tree layout and placing spawns directly on that 1x1mile village. What looks sparse from inside the terrain editor can actually be very crowded when you test it by driving a tank through it.
Hmmmm.....need to put out some tank drones offline to see how the GVDAR looks from the air. This setup should make it useless so tankers can furball with their map location simply covered in red.
(https://i.postimg.cc/brbGhr1y/tileset62.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/44hHtLqD/tileset63.jpg)
Much more open tree space across that bowl and up in the galleries.
(https://i.postimg.cc/yY4gThzk/tileset64.jpg)
Becasue of the spawn randomizer inside of that spawn ring in the first two screen captures, you drop in the village safe or, the snipers in the gallery have some fun at your expense. Once in the village, those are all the old trees tankers hate because you can shut down and disappear in them. And I watch all the time in those villages players drive past each other lost one road over. A storch will get eaten alive flying down in there.
(https://i.postimg.cc/28Qq9qzT/tileset65.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/T3TKzR1x/tileset66.jpg)
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Looking good............
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Mountains, the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving.
Today's 4 hours of work.
(https://i.postimg.cc/rFVJZ1SF/tileset68.jpg)
You can see from yesterday how much I can do in 4 hours.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mD8qsvvh/tileset67.jpg)
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By now from the second map screen shot in the last post you have noticed the arena has 2 CV task groups per country. What is to keep players from being gamey and driving task groups outside of the arena to hide them or get around behind where the HQ's will be?
A 5ft high, 1.5mile wide curb just outside the 10x10 arena boarder area. Oh, because uneven shaped terrain are always unfair in some way to each country, one country, yes, you can park a task group behind the HQ.
Mabel, how do you keep all the rubber duckies in the pond......
(https://i.postimg.cc/8C6pzxxz/tileset69.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/1t19nJZc/tileset70.jpg)
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Morning tank town testing, what a difference the scale of range makes in a tank versus an airplane. For planes you just plop down some big high blobs and call them mountains. Slap on some paint, and you can't tell how big or the details from the air. With tanks, .25, .75 and 1.0 mile is a lot of ground and detail.
I had to drop a tiny vbase in place of the central village so the terrain editor would give me the measurement ring and offline allow me to see the GVDAR when I populated all 6 drone slots with tanks. I thought 1.75 miles out from the center would make a good spawn distance for quick action. From the screen shots you can see it places you on top of the sniper gallery ready to go. I need to pull the spawn out to about 2.25mile so the possibility of a spawn battle has a buffer away from the sniper gallery. When this thing goes live the village will be back in the center. Today is just testing and I needed a way to measure miles from the center of the village.
(https://i.postimg.cc/y8WQcK1s/tileset71.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/mZw8nkhT/tileset72.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/wjPWkrMJ/tileset73.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/GpyXgjTf/tileset74.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/c4LXGW8w/tileset75.jpg)
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Moved the spawns 2.5 from the village center and I like it. Everyone is equally screwed but, the sniper gallery has to be driven to instead of being dropped down in your lazy boy to single finger salute the village.
All of those large ravines will be micro terrained much more before I release this. The village bowl is micro terrain finished so I could get the sniper gallery's right. If I left those huge ravines as is, the spawns would be death traps that no one would want to play in those areas. You can see the problems with 500 vertical feet and spawn camping. The land here is 600ft with the ravine bottoms at 100ft. That is a lot of vertical material to work with micro terraining for tanks.
(https://i.postimg.cc/HLn2QQbr/tileset76.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/KYW5QR5J/tileset77.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/YCp8Sc9f/tileset78.jpg)
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See if you can guess how I made this quick example look like this. I captured the image in the TE to show the height of the cliff at 400 ft.
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=396124.0;attach=31393)
From closer to the top edge
(https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=396124.0;attach=31395)
I've been doing some objects and new texture work lately. The example was done entirely in the TE, and when in a terrain for release, I'd change the textures and make the cliffs much more interesting, all in the TE of course.
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I do the same thing with the elevation then bulldozer tool running on the N\S axis and the smallest dia brush. The diagonals like SW or NE will give you teeth that don't respond well becasue of the polygon size. Mostly it ends up looking like concrete embankments or the hoover dam, so you micro terrain them to look like gully's which allows adjustment of the relative elevation over distance for GV's. The Smooth Catmul tool helps immensely at that acting as weathering. Until you reach 660ft your walls have a slight angle so it's still how you present it near where tanks will be playing.
I like your very clean clutter line demarcation, are you doing something for D-Day or, a custom port design?
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Some time in the future I have to do the finish micro terrain on this wonderland of channels for tanks to furball in while keeping the base elevation in the channels. I'll have to do a logical visual extension up the glacier cut valley. Once I do the finishing work here, I'll leave place holder dots and blow out the objects so I can lay down objects in the number order I establish across the three countries. Even the rock tile I illuminated the channels with will be replaced with grass and trees in favor of the tanks.
(https://i.postimg.cc/NFNJg9SV/tileset79.jpg)
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I like your very clean clutter line demarcation,
The whole point of my post right there. Keep guessing. :aok
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Pick a fight with someone else. I like what I'm doing and having fun doing it. I'm not interested in this game out of you, I have this to finish.
(https://i.postimg.cc/k51V9WyK/tileset80.jpg)
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I know how much a portion of players dislike the low light and nighttime in the MA these days. Still the shadows look good on these mountain ranges in low light. Even with the angle and elevation global paint tools, I will still have to touch up ridges that slip in between. They get about 95% of what I want done.
(https://i.postimg.cc/zDyNGvWC/tileset81.jpg)
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Pick a fight with someone else. I like what I'm doing and having fun doing it. I'm not interested in this game out of you, I have this to finish.
ROFL
There's a little of that, but it's on topic with the first two pages of this thread. I'm sure there are others who appreciate the significance of the images and will be attempting to solve the riddle. I've explained to my granddaughters that knowing something is possible is sometimes all you need to know to figure it out. It seems to work for us.
:cheers:
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ROFL
There's a little of that, but it's on topic with the first two pages of this thread. I'm sure there are others who appreciate the significance of the images and will be attempting to solve the riddle. I've explained to my granddaughters that knowing something is possible is sometimes all you need to know to figure it out. It seems to work for us.
:cheers:
I’m confused at what we’re guessing it.
How you made the sharp drop off, or are you got the sharp clutter demarcation line?
I’ve seen in the past posts where someone stated that the clutter will not populate on surfaces at greater than 45° angle.
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Sorry. As you know, the tiles/textures bleed into each other and the further up in the shader list, the worse it is unless you merge with the other atlas. The problem is that there is only so much you can do to affect the bleed using the default Atlas. Separately, the clutter is always present unless the terrain slopes more then 45 degrees.
Take the case of any cliff dropping into the sea. Dover and the Seven Sisters come to mind but it applies to any condition were there SHOULD be a sharp break at the cliff edge. It's a cliff for crying out loud. Having any 'green', 'farm', etc. texture sliding over the edge from the 'flat'; or the opposite, the rock face extending 'horizontal' beyond the edge, isn't good, at least imo.
It kills the clutter back of the edge and shows the cliff face rock instead of the 'green' you'd expect from the undisturbed soil on the ground's surface above. The clutter should also come right out to the edge.
I really thought bustr was on to it with his clutter comment, just needed a little more thought to work it out. Apparently not.
Anyway, what's your guess as to how to achieve it?
:cheers:
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I'm not interested in having a grasshopper yoda moment with you when you can just tell me what you think is a better way to mix tiles. Find another grasshopper, I don't do that myself to people, I just tell them what I know and let the chips fall where they will.
I already have another tile rearrangement I'm testing since I'm using very few tiles in the palette for this terrain. That's why I keep blowing away the global paint with every new mountain range and reapply it so I can keep watching how it blends in each new range. I already have a problem with the lower elevation meeting lines with the pine forest that shows up above 10,000ft looking down at it. It disappears as you get closer but, there are enough high alt players, they will see it. It probably dosen't matter in the long run, I saw it becasue I'm looking for it and things like it which are fixed with a tile reshuffle.
If your goal was not to start a fight or shut down my posting about my terrain by jamming it with your position, like I said, find another grasshopper to yoda over.
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I'm not feeling motivated today to whack out some long mountain range. But, you have to do something every day to keep things moving forward. So I'm working out more of the tank town pit in terms of less or more cover and seeing if I can drop in a few village houses in convenient places. In the screen shots you will see how I used grass to remove trees from those water cuts and other areas. Even with no grass these trees no longer trap tanks instead give great ambush spots if you don't look ahead and around frequently.
Places me in the no win position of one group complaining it's too open and you can't get near the center village area becasue the lazyboy single finger salute players long range anything that moves from safety. While if I put back in a few trees the lazyboy players will complain that I'm giving the tank aces too many advantages to ambush them. Derp...... :rolleyes:
Here is the bowl with trees removed in the low areas which turns them into kill boxes from the high gallery.
(https://i.postimg.cc/vZwBbBW0/tileset83.jpg)
Here are the trees back and the target is at 4000yds which is an easy sniper shot. It's a small amount of trees but, when you drive it, what looks like small open grass lanes between clumps is actually a long time for a tank to be exposed to a sniper with elevation.
(https://i.postimg.cc/cJsLtbkY/tileset84.jpg)
Village center is about 2500yds and tanks disappear in there and become reverse snipers up to the gallery. If they can make it to the village.
(https://i.postimg.cc/cL7JHSh0/tileset85.jpg)
Just not feeling the rock building after doing this over the weekend.
(https://i.postimg.cc/DfD0p5mk/tileset82.jpg)
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Most of the time creating mountains is a peta not for making them the finished items but, laying them out to start from. I use a 1mile wide ribbon to draw in the spines from which I'll pull everything down from with several methods to remove excess media and work the over all shape into a mountain. Unless you are going for mountains above 6000ft, your spine system can be done with 5000ft and 3500ft tall ribbons. The problem is visualizing the watershed and erosion runs while keeping everything as random as possible. Half way through many times I blow parts out and run a totally different spine system to get away from some repeating pattern.
It helps to plot out the field locations or you will create some masterpiece just to blow chunks of it away to allow planes to maneuver easily in the surrounding area. At least I remember why I only 1\2 finished an area that I just blew chinks out of.
Today's mountain spine ribbons setting up the foundation for turning it all into glacier erosion and water cut mountains. I'm using two colors of rock so I can see contrast between 3500 and 5000+.
(https://i.postimg.cc/3R8pBs27/tileset86.jpg)
You can only work an area so far and then you need the next full region of spines defined to that area or, you can end up cutting away previous work to fit a field. On the left side of the glacier cut the work is actually 50% finished waiting on the right side to be laid down. I use the global paint tools to rapidly show me what finished areas look like. That has the draw back of covering up half finished work and making me scratch my head over why it looks so crappy.... :lol
(https://i.postimg.cc/j5MfkMhf/tileset87.jpg)
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I've been experimenting with the question of how to place random houses and buildings all over an area without a tile setup that way or, having to accept a tile that fills a 1x1 with a village. I want to drop a few houses down as a hamlet or even less in the appearance of randomness all over an area of sparse trees. In the AH2 CraterMA crater TT the rim had random barns and small buildings. The real problem is two fold, buildings won't show on very steep slopes, and I'm stuck with a minimum or maximum after I use another tile to paint out the whole village just to use a few houses.
I have to think Waffle probably expected us to do this based on the total area on the 2x2 tile covered with 4 villages. At first look you would think this is a matter of using the percentage setting for the brush to act like an airbrush splattering drops. In practice, I had to brush into likely looking areas with a small solid brush then work with what showed up. In some cases it took using a second tile to brush out too many houses and trees. In others I reshaped that spot of the terrain becasue a few houses made a good hide for tanks. The best starting procedure was painting down a 6mile dia solid dot of village tile. The reducing the brush by 1\8-1\4 mile and painting a tree dot. Then another reduction painting a village dot until the brush was 1mile diameter for the central village. After that, clean up with a tree tile and adjustments to the terrain in micro increments to get buildings to show up.
Here is what I came up with, after flying it to get screen captures in a storch, storches won't last long over all that open area. This is about how open AH2 was for tank terrain and I'm placing the spawns close together around this depression and down in that single village.
(https://i.postimg.cc/V6CXhz8T/tileset88.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/L5FjKG4s/tileset89.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/kX9Wjrh1/tileset90.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/L5kLHvh3/tileset91.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/ZKcp2fGT/tileset92.jpg)
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Well Hush my Mouth and call me a corn dog, did I have an interesting testing session.
One of the biggest complaints about AH3 is by tank players over how much trees hide everything and the game has turned into who can hide the best. It's true due to the nature of the speedtree trees and clutter and the light engine of the new AH3 graphics. I did not believe this until today.
With this new terrain I'm using a tree tile with the trees set very sparse,,,,,,I thought.
My test was by using a super small vbase that I moved around the TT pit, in the center and around the rim to test the spawns ability to let me see tank drones. I wanted to have tank drones in random places so I could see them and shoot at them to test the overall view for seeing tanks. Well, no matter what I did I couldn't see more than a single tank maybe two sometimes from across the rim of the pit, even if I drove across the pit to be inside of 2000-2500. If I spawned in and drove up to the tiny vbase, eventually I would run into a tank at about the point if it was a player shut down listening for me, he would blow me away just when I would first see him 1500-2000.
What I discovered is if a tank is sitting still behind or partially under a few trees, even one in some cases, I could not see the tank even on zoom with German optics. The tank and the tree(s) became a single object visually. To make it worse, just a few feet of elevation on my part caused the tree(s) to cover more of the tank making it just about invisible. If a tank is in the open with only grass around it past 2000 out to 4000, you can see it because there is a visual contrast for the shape. Add a tree(s) and almost any tree branch will look like part of a tank. Not much fun if all you want is some fast tank action and not a lesson in how to out hide other tanks in the trees. The village in the center has three spawns on top of each other but, I left the houses and trees alone. My testing with the drones, pretty much they disappear behind the trees and houses. Get inside of there and you are safe from the sniper gallery while shooting back until you want to get out and run far enough to land your kills... :D
Here is the sparse tree tile I thought would give away tanks by all that space between trees. NOPE, still too many trees.
(https://i.postimg.cc/L5kLHvh3/tileset91.jpg)
With today's testing here is how much I had to remove trees so this TT would be a good tank furball area and not a hide all night boring place as usual.
(https://i.postimg.cc/02DsJfjq/tileset93.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/bvCcjVC1/tileset94.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/pdXb4MZ2/tileset95.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/y8TCL80Q/tileset96.jpg)
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This weekend I killed several birds with one stone.
After working on the pit to remove trees enough to see the drones, I got involved with a question about the T34\85 and it's effectiveness related to being used by the majority of players in the MA. Ranges past 2500 are problematic for most tank guns in the game but, repeated pounding with an 88mm like in a Tiger will eventual kill tanks. We saw this in the AH2 crater TT. Much of the fighting took place 1000-3000 as players scrambled all over Greebo's crater back then.
So to pull data on the AH3 tank cannons 1000-2000 in response to the usage of the T34\85, I also helped myself understand how combat based on the effectiveness of the different rounds may play out in my pit on fjordma. I also wanted to drive on a certain tile to see how it looked and felt which is what I used on my tank gunnery range I put together on Sunday for the gunnery testing data.
In these screen captures the tiger tank is at 2000yds, I came close on my measurements fro the spawn which I set the random radius to zero. It's about 2025yds so I had to creep up with the target set to 2000yds. Minute futzing around in the TT is not worth it.
Using the small vbase object you can setup a gunnery range with drone tanks to shoot at.
(https://i.postimg.cc/FKnHLZxN/tileset97.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/1tn5cqW6/tileset98.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/9M6XxQSk/tileset99.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/YSSS0VYd/tileset100.jpg)
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When you say mountain for many it brings up a image of something tall and pointy covering many miles of area with rock slopes and a snow covered top. OK, even I have that default image in my head. Mountains are shaped by weathering, a few by glacier grinding and the underlying matrix and strata can respond in many ways. One is a very hard slab of granite or basalt may weather from the edges that then spall off in slabs leaving a talus slope angled up to a sheer vertical face at the top of the hard cap of rock. After a glacier melts away it will leave faces that then weather this way becasue they cut the sides of the slab in a similar shape.
Here are some examples from two spots on the terrain. Some times when I throw in the fast foundation shaping I cannot see a traditional wedge shaped mountain cross section in a spot where a glacier was in my mind cutting through for a long time. A useful technique to check your elevation gradients is the global paint tool based on elevations. The bottoms of these glacier cuts are being run from high to low on this terrain so gradient painting quickly shows me where I have to raise or lower the ground.
(https://i.postimg.cc/ncG0pMG4/tileset101.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Jz7Knmp9/tileset102.jpg)
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You gota love this stuff sometimes.....
(https://i.postimg.cc/Kzz6RffX/tileset103.jpg)
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These mountains look fantastic.
Have you considered trying to make an actual glacier with this terrain? Is it even possible to make it look right?
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Look around on Oceania to the north by the HQ, I did one up there. Yes I could have done the glaciers, then when the sun was up everyone would be blinded by the reflection over most of the terrain. This one is after the glaciers melted and it's July with no mountains at the snow level. Nothing above about 5500ft becasue it kills your eyes to work with large areas of snow. The light gray level on the mountains is just a light gray rock tile for contrast. The dark gray rock tile needs some contrast or it is blech fhooy blah humdrum.
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That is all the mountains I can stand for one day.
(https://i.postimg.cc/X7bgL8G9/tileset104.jpg)
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Speaking of glaciers, I put these on Oceania as a joke since New Guinea has a few glaciers. I had to set the arena time to reduce the sun glare enough so the glaciers could bee seen. When the sun is higher, you cannot really see the glaciers becasue of the glare off the snow tile used for snow. Now imagine a whole terrain of that snow as all encompassing top areas of several glaciers as a sheet across my new terrain. You would have to turn down your gamma to play on my new terrain at 12 noon to kill the glare. Those tiny ones were more trouble than they were worth since first you create the finished glacier cut path, then you come back and carefully fill the path back up short of the top. Then you have to blend the edges and not destroy the walls. When I started out to put them there I thought it would take a few minutes. Ended up being about an hour. Those vertical faces were their own POS to make look nice like that.
(https://i.postimg.cc/SxZP40vz/oceania250.jpg)
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Got carried away with how a new idea was panning out for a glacier cut valley. Then as always I ran the global paint tools to get a look at it and I always merge a base layout layer from the blue print png file on top of the map file. Oh, My, I need about 3-4 miles of level ground around that tan colored base marker 1x1 square. If you look around on the map window you will see the yellow dot mapped to that spot.
(https://i.postimg.cc/650q2nDW/tileset105.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/qvvR8gT8/tileset106.jpg)
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Speaking of glaciers, I put these on Oceania as a joke since New Guinea has a few glaciers. I had to set the arena time to reduce the sun glare enough so the glaciers could bee seen. When the sun is higher, you cannot really see the glaciers becasue of the glare off the snow tile used for snow. Now imagine a whole terrain of that snow as all encompassing top areas of several glaciers as a sheet across my new terrain. You would have to turn down your gamma to play on my new terrain at 12 noon to kill the glare. Those tiny ones were more trouble than they were worth since first you create the finished glacier cut path, then you come back and carefully fill the path back up short of the top. Then you have to blend the edges and not destroy the walls. When I started out to put them there I thought it would take a few minutes. Ended up being about an hour. Those vertical faces were their own POS to make look nice like that.
(https://i.postimg.cc/SxZP40vz/oceania250.jpg)
Yeah, I run into the same problem with whites and yellows when skinning. Those shades reflect the "sun" way too much. I have resorted to using colors which look way too dark in GIMP to get colors that look right in the game.
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Had to get all old school on this along with having to cascade those changes to effected mountain ranges. Never a dull moment creating mountain ranges when you have to keep fixed based locations.
The original problem.
(https://i.postimg.cc/qvvR8gT8/tileset106.jpg)
Got all old school and and to do the spine and bulldozer side pulls to the side to flesh out the changes to the original paths.
(https://i.postimg.cc/rpdt2ms1/tileset107.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Zq1vbSv1/tileset108.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/sgHZLSjf/tileset109.jpg)
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There are times I hate the 4x4 city object, becasue planning for it more often makes it act like you are still shoe horning it into the landscape.
(https://i.postimg.cc/t4FLNcVh/tileset110.jpg)
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At least that spot fits nicer now. I'll have to remember how I painted the rock strata on that upthrust mesa since I keep repainting with the global elevation to see how the work looks as I progress through different mountain ranges.
(https://i.postimg.cc/G2Mz5ycw/tileset111.jpg)
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That's a lot better and on the real Svalbard island all the streams are grayish full of glacier slag and fist sized rocks. I'm not sure I want to lay down river objects on this terrain since I would probably have to get into bridges and much more road construction than I want to bother with. Still laying them over that gray rock would give them a grayish look if I lightened the alpha on the river object.
Most players will only fly over this location and given the polygon limitations and brush limitations this is a good illusion. No tank combat will take place here, only the HQ, city and three uncapturable feilds will be on this island. So I don't have to micro terrain the areas around the feilds for GV combat. I doubt anyone will park a CV offshore just to launch an LVT4 and try to take down an uncapturable airfield with 75mm HE or drive all the way to the city. Hmmmm, I think you could drive up that south water cut canyon......
(https://i.postimg.cc/FR1X52nn/tileset112.jpg)
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Just keep grinding away and eventually there won't be anymore mountains to create.
The more mountain ranges and glacier cuts I create, the more I can see a need to tweek the 5k ribbons that define the remaining range spine lines. Shore batteries and PT spawns are going to be murderous on this map.
(https://i.postimg.cc/d10sqJB8/tileset113.jpg)
And how do you keep those 6 rubber duckies inside that 10x10 tub so everyone can find them?
(https://i.postimg.cc/bw2LBbfn/tileset114.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/pdbkbTP6/tileset115.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/9fdbWhMF/tileset116.jpg)
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There are days, then you just keep on nibbling at it.
(https://i.postimg.cc/FstjBkHM/tileset118.jpg)
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Yeppers, just keep nibbling at it........
(https://i.postimg.cc/NMRbF6Jw/tileset119.jpg)
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Around the heal and halfway done with the topography.
(https://i.postimg.cc/kGcsmKZ9/tileset120.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/gkbDzzd7/tileset121.jpg)
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One more pot of coffee and like every morning, wert der ferk did I get myself into this time....................der chocolate moose got loose.....
(https://i.postimg.cc/RhZst9hz/tileset122.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/26w933zw/tileset123.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/dVSmDrPn/tileset124.jpg)
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Sometimes doodling on the workspace with a color that creates a drastic contrast helps show the way to a solution. Also those straight line 5000ft ribbons were throwing me off.
(https://i.postimg.cc/8PNXJBvd/tileset126.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/kXs1x6N0/tileset125.jpg)
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Got der moose back in the corral and voila....
(https://i.postimg.cc/ydhbB0XN/tileset127.jpg)
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Finishing previous segments, then they boarder a new one will introduce the need to doodle to figure out where the water goes. Had to paint in those long tan segments and grade them all the way to the water. Then build the mountains around them to give them a reason to exist in those spots.
Before.
(https://i.postimg.cc/wBQKhxtj/tileset128.jpg)
After.
(https://i.postimg.cc/8csqQhZ7/tileset129.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/PJc0tP72/tileset130.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/T2Hzj4Pg/tileset131.jpg)
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One of the problems with the size of topography in the terrain editor and then in the MA is scale. In my case creating mountain ranges where I'm capping the elevation for most at 5000ft while averaging 2500-3500ft. Some places I pull up the center of a large mountain that anchors several ridge lines between 6000-7000 becasue visually it works better than 5000. Those work visually better as exceptions you randomly come upon.
So this leads to the limitations of the polygon size and how far to run a ridge line out and down to it's terminus at a much lower elevation. For a 5000ft top, on average the longest run is 5 miles. Going farther than 5 miles you create a pattern of bifurcations and branches which adds to the construction time and mapping of the primary canyon runoff grades that you will pull side ridges down to. I have some ten mile runs to fill an odd space and had to branch a lot to create nuance. The polygon size is not friendly for really lonf ridges. If you look at many AH2 era terrains, the builders didn't want to bother with this kind of time consuming detail. So after awhile, they get really stale to play on due to the mono detail.
Well, here again I'm filling a space longer than 10 miles due to adapting for the airfield spacing's. And once again I had to use that tan color to define the primary glacier cut grade area all the ridge lines mirror.
(https://i.postimg.cc/7PWP3zwt/tileset133.jpg)
Before I ran into the heal at that southern end of the main island, I can't believe I wasn't using the tan color to set the glacier cut as my side canyon guide. Or define all the bifurcations and branching of water cuts. Talk about pulling it out of my whatsis. Meh there were times I thought I was trying to quilt a paisley pattern quilt with an embroidery needle and a few chalk marks after a 6-pack. I was getting creatively burnt out by it.
(https://i.postimg.cc/brTBRk2C/tileset134.jpg)
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Had to change a glacier cut course but got it looking like it belongs there. In the last post check the tan areas to see what I rerouted.
(https://i.postimg.cc/CM8Bj9Rd/tileset135.jpg)
It's now obvious the east and north parts of the island glacier cuts will be remapped on the fly.
(https://i.postimg.cc/9fT5xPZP/tileset136.jpg)
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It never ceases to amaze me that what looks random is actually dictated by field placement rules. That's why the ridge line ribbons were always suggestions, and as the work progresses around the island I'm forced to modify the ridge ribbons more frequently with every subsequent section. Just can't escape fractal theory short of making the landmass one large geometric shape 1000ft high and painting the whole thing a single color.
(https://i.postimg.cc/rw4Kdmws/tileset137.jpg)
Still, the polygon mesh is a fractal.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Animated_fractal_mountain.gif)
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This is how "fun" turns into a 4 letter word.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Px2ZYz94/tileset138.jpg)
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The areas around ports are fun to develop. Then I noticed eventually I have a lot of shore battery and PT spawns to map out. It's not nice to lay down a shore battery that can drop 8in rounds on the next airfeild's GV hanger. The minimum distance for airfields is also the maximum range for the 8in. Or goof and make it possible for the shore battery to take each other out.
(https://i.postimg.cc/GhVrjzBp/tileset139.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Z5Nms33x/tileset140.jpg)
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Thought I would end up doing a whole lot of remapping of the ridge ribbons.
(https://i.postimg.cc/wTMCDYFN/tileset141.jpg)
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Definitely a lot easier now.
(https://i.postimg.cc/nLjCCW9Y/tileset142.jpg)
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On the real Svalbard island the equivalent area I'm working on is covered in glaciers with long runs to the ocean.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Kz6H5Pw6/tileset143.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/L5j0QqMn/tileset144.jpg)
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This is getting really Catch-22ish in having to setup the base mountain range building for several valley's across just to get the backs sides of the central tall peaks in place before doing any finishing work on all those valley's themselves..... :rolleyes: And now I've come full circle into the first work I did in March and can't remember why I did some of the features the way I did them while I'm blending the current work into it.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mDrn4Ctq/tileset145.jpg)
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All that to clean up the backside of a mountain.
(https://i.postimg.cc/pLZ2WN26/tileset146.jpg)
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Insane 101.
(https://i.postimg.cc/yYG9945N/tileset147.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/0NybHVh4/tileset148.jpg)
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Couldn't take it anymore and wanted to look at the work up to this point. Still have to finish the west side of the mountain.
(https://i.postimg.cc/hj8BVd00/tileset149.jpg)
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It was pretty while it lasted, now back to the grind.
(https://i.postimg.cc/W3sLbkNB/tileset150.jpg)
A little coastal cliff action. When I lived on Hokkiado island japan, much of the coast was cliffs or a small coastal plain backed by erosion cliffs like this spot.
(https://i.postimg.cc/LXvdq8hn/tileset151.jpg)
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Terrains are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get until you get there.......
(https://i.postimg.cc/MKtyscr9/tileset152.jpg)
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All that to clean up the backside of a mountain.
(https://i.postimg.cc/4dqc9Mwt/tileset153.jpg)
What a mountain back side it is.
(https://i.postimg.cc/ydk9WBhs/tileset154.jpg)
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Now it's all collective backends of the backsides of mountains....
(https://i.postimg.cc/8PLPq494/tileset155.jpg)
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Back to that coastal cliff action.
(https://i.postimg.cc/1zWq8SGJ/tileset156.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/hj6Q003m/tileset157.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/C1zfD2JY/tileset158.jpg)
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After awhile, palm leaves, branch bifurcation, feathers, fur, mold cultures, frost growth, water trickles, molecule chains all look the same. And your brain just wants to unconsciously help.
(https://i.postimg.cc/dtMcxfCN/tileset159.jpg)
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Just had to look at it painted.....still have those 3 valley's on the west side.
(https://i.postimg.cc/N00D6GLZ/tileset160.jpg)
Then I still have those eastern sections....
(https://i.postimg.cc/nLwk08Dr/tileset161.jpg)
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The arrrrrgghhhhs have it, still have those eastern sections.
(https://i.postimg.cc/NjgTrg0T/tileset162.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/gky8JwGm/tileset163.jpg)
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Once more into the breach....
(https://i.postimg.cc/tgLSt1w7/tileset164.jpg)
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Geeezzz, forgot until now I needed a way to keep the CV's out from behind the SW HQ and a place for the strats......Douh!!
(https://i.postimg.cc/2Sphj4sH/tileset165.jpg)
Gotta leave it half finished until I'm laying down this country's strats. Have to account for rail tracks. Yes to the right is a 5ft high 1mile wide picture frame boarder outside of the CBM view port area to keep the task groups in the arena.
(https://i.postimg.cc/BnxDjjsJ/tileset166.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/q74KypMy/tileset167.jpg)
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That thar be some fine whatsis pulling.................... :O
The disks are 8,000ft and about 4-6 miles in diameter so I have generous extra mass to carve and shape. The hardest thing about this is limiting myself to the vertical limitations I preset. The tan valley bottom guides are graded from the top coming off the side of a 5,000ft on average mountain ridge and peak. Then graded down to the water with the sides of the ridge runs graded down to the tan line along the whole run. The cross section would be like an ice cream scoop pulled across the top of a tub of ice cream. Then I start at the top and add on side ridges or cut in further water cuts down the sides. After the 3 previous terrains I've come up with a reasonably fast technique for creating all of that. It's rather simple once you realize how to do it. And you can see that by all the mountains I've put onto this terrain so far.
(https://i.postimg.cc/dVXHbQmr/tileset168.jpg)
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It always amazes me how little vertical room I have to work with once I finish the valley central grade and start working in the side channels.
(https://i.postimg.cc/NFsHRqhJ/tileset169.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/3NtDBSYK/tileset170.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/d0R36Hjz/tileset171.jpg)
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I'm wearing out my shoe horn.................
(https://i.postimg.cc/RZSdNzYY/tileset172.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/DzDPj4zV/tileset173.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/PxwzBfLC/tileset174.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/dV5BCxPV/tileset175.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/fbkvffDj/tileset176.jpg)
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Took a weekend and many pots of coffee to get the NE corner finished.
(https://i.postimg.cc/jjvvXt8p/tileset177.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/nzz2SggC/tileset178.jpg)
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Back into the mountain range stuff.....at least this is the last time on this terrain..weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeee..... :rolleyes:
(https://i.postimg.cc/xT3VtGYB/tileset179.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/zGDZMLGv/tileset180.jpg)
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Mountain prep = scoop it all out like water would.
There really is a grade all the way to the water. You set it up with the bulldozer tool and descending dots of raised surface along the tan lines in the pictures set to gradually lowering elevation. Then you roughly fill out from the ridge lines down to meet it and run a smoothing tool back over to set in the scallop in each ridge line side. Simple, just time consuming as preparation for laying on or cutting in all the side runoffs. I've reached the point where the side runoffs are like freehand adding floral decorations to a cake after it's been prepped and frosted. For me that takes minutes compared to the time spent prepping each valley.
Frankly terrain build is exactly like creating a theme based cake or a giant wedding cake after the foundation is out of the oven and cooled down.
(https://i.postimg.cc/2yrnGWvF/tileset181.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/hj99VsJt/tileset182.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Y2z69XKX/tileset183.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/hvsT5G1F/tileset184.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/ZRk8925Q/tileset185.jpg)
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Prep all done and now for the decorations and sprinkles....
(https://i.postimg.cc/9QBWvqvN/tileset186.jpg)
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Right when I was patting myself on the back for getting half way thru the last bit, I realized I needed to add two glacier cut valleys to make spanning the side cuts easier.
(https://i.postimg.cc/1X4q8Ldx/tileset187.jpg)
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Finally that's done.......
(https://i.postimg.cc/D0JKtNL2/tileset188.jpg)
Almost 3 months to the day I imported the RAW file and popped up the base land mass.
(https://i.postimg.cc/0Nps1zVy/tileset51.jpg)
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Now I get to have some fun.
Building the world is a PintheA and burns you out. It's repetitious, mind numbing, and frustrating becasue the limits of the polygon size makes you constantly compromise on your imagination. It's one giant shoe horn it in and hope you can do something later when you paint it. Now that it is, what it is, I get to lay down all the feilds, play with the micro terrain for the GVs, and doodle on it. And I get to drive around and fly around on it "a lot"....derp.... :rolleyes:
I forgot the HTC crew is the 6 drones in knight land, what a shock when I pulled up on that rise and zoomed in on my target....oopsies Hitech.
The tank town pit on fjordma.
(https://i.postimg.cc/wv93kptR/tileset189.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/prTTgJJ2/tileset190.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/BbV6sPm2/tileset191.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/8kKsLxTs/tileset192.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/V64vGVMG/tileset193.jpg)
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More of the Pit....
(https://i.postimg.cc/tTGvSryx/tileset194.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/26dcP48X/tileset195.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/8c1KDj7k/tileset196.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/0jctNPSY/tileset197.jpg)
And why did I paint all those dry washes with that stone tile? So tanks get to drive on rocks....
(https://i.postimg.cc/Pf4Vyz7C/tileset198.jpg)
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I know what I'm doing for a few days now.....
(https://i.postimg.cc/XvrhjW5S/tileset200.jpg)
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A country a day.....
(https://i.postimg.cc/L6x0T1V3/tileset201.jpg)
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Some of my fun shoe horning in the feilds and towns since the glacier cut valley's are where they are..........
(https://i.postimg.cc/90dcDzWR/tileset202.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/TYxRZj9r/tileset203.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/GhjcrB76/tileset204.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/mZCLXpQL/tileset205.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Dwy7z2R0/tileset206.jpg)
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Laying down bases and strats thankfully doesn't take near as long as creating the world to set them down on.
(https://i.postimg.cc/TPP7DNXq/tileset207.jpg)
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I just want to say really nice work. :aok
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The next step is where I get to spawn to every single field and visually inspect the local area for "whatever"......weeeeeeeeeee. :O
(https://i.postimg.cc/9FnrQYcg/tileset208.jpg)
Since I've been listening to GVers now for three terrains over three years, this is a new feature for my terrains. Almost all feilds have two inbound spawns, a few only one. I'm setting a spawn from the local field out to meet those inbound spawns to get people at each other sooner so they don't spend up to 30 minutes wandering around missing each other in a 3 square mile area. Even with GVDAR they can't find each other... At least with this tile set and the trees tiles I limited this build to, a player will have to work overtime to get hung up in a tree........ :rolleyes:
(https://i.postimg.cc/j5cj0z8X/tileset209.jpg)
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Shoe horning in the train tracks and convoy roads is time consuming, especially with almost 90 locations that has a road or train track laid down when you hit the populate all button. And they all get laid down in a straight line running over mountains and canyons if that is the surrounding features. So you have to visit each one and shoe horn it through the canyons or creatively around the limited flat area near feilds.
Here are some choo choo tracks to strats I shoe horned in.
(https://i.postimg.cc/MGhm3fLT/tileset210.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/9XPY1MYm/tileset211.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/pX2YSHsD/tileset212.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/ydcXMYqT/tileset213.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/1XScshs1/tileset214.jpg)
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I swear, those little Hitech road builders don't let anything stand in their way. This is why I get to visit every single field and strat once I press that create all button.
(https://i.postimg.cc/02Vt9Q3k/tileset215.jpg)
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I swear, I didn't place a nudist colony with an all you can drink for $14.95 in that next valley over.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Gm6YJ89m/tileset216.jpg)
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Weather testing.
(https://i.postimg.cc/jqHxGyL7/tileset217.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/D029VJMr/tileset218.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/B6W3zv3p/tileset219.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/jdRxKC7k/tileset220.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/RFcmxzVB/tileset221.jpg)
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More weather testing.
(https://i.postimg.cc/0yQ9M3ZY/tileset222.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/d0ZvnybD/tileset223.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/6qcNTLvb/tileset224.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/13jspHYL/tileset225.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Bb40qwX1/tileset226.jpg)
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More weather testing.
:aok
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Now I'm doing the last part I really hate.....
I'm visiting every single field, port, strat to check "everything". I have to drive each GV spawn, each PT spawn, each shore battery. Check the GV micro terrain for that "something" effect for "those very picky eaters".... :rofl Then CMEye the whole derned place once over to make sure the trucks are running or the trains. Just the feel and look from the air perspective at each field. And remind myself, when these guys run into the sides of the mountains hiding in the clouds, it's Hitech's fault. I decided this time around I will go with his default alt values for that realism effect, 3000-6660.
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Finished inspecting Country 1 and fixing issues. Now I'm in Country 2 and sometimes things blurr together. There is always some tiny thing like the arc of a shore battery just touches something 21k away that it shouldn't. Or you spawn into a big fat boo boo you fat fingered with the raise hill tool. Or the run on a slope into a valley is just off....
Things I've seen today looking for boo boos.
(https://i.postimg.cc/4x1Zz21N/tileset227.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/6QjXP7Sk/tileset228.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/TwK6vdvp/tileset229.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/q7MrQcmc/tileset230.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/76jyxFqX/tileset231.jpg)
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Finished inspecting Country 2, now first spawn in Country 3.
(https://i.postimg.cc/59CdNbnL/tileset232.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/m2WxPJ5q/tileset233.jpg)
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I'm probably over thinking this and a little paranoid. I'm going to beat this up just a bit longer, then see if Hitech has room in the queue for a new AH3 MA terrain.
(https://i.postimg.cc/g24wZqQQ/tileset234.jpg)
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Five days later and I've only launched a plane from each field in Country 1 and 2. And all the tiny things that didn't look right visually or actual boo boo's with object placements or blending them into uneven elevations. Flying a plane over a field area is different than CMeye mode. I catch fewer of those tiny boo boo's in CMeye than from a fighter 1000 to 3000 feet over the area. I really thought I caught all of it during my CMeye review of the whole terrain a few weeks back...nope. And a big one was making sure on the medium feilds the end of the long runway Waffle blocked with trees is not facing into the optimal take off direction. That is a fat finger for the ages... :lol And that I had cut down all the trees to a mile out with grass. B29's are a pita to get off the ground... :O
So I still have to fly a plane off all the blue country feilds and fix boo boo's.
(https://i.postimg.cc/Hk3r0TQ9/tileset235.jpg)
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Over the last 5 days one thing that ate up 16 hours was the final adjustments to the central tank pit. Once I started driving a corkscrew pattern from the top rim down to visit all of the hamlets while checking the slopes. I found small elevation issues that I spent much of the time in wire frame mode to tweak elevations by a few feet over a mile at a time. I wanted to make sure each hamlet's face to the pit had down slope from the back of the houses so you could use them as cover in your tank. The tops of the high hills with hamlets are about 400ft above the village in the pit center. If I left the hamlet polygons level, you had to expose your tank over the edge to aim down. The buildings on the village tile are set so too steep of a slope, they do not generate but, the trees will. So in wire frame I had to locate the key polygon points that effected the houses and tweak them by a foot or so one step at a time to find the angle they disappeared at, then raise it back up by a foot. Time consuming as heck....Then as I was driving around, I had to rethink tree density for the players who won't just spawn in, find a hamlet and wait to long range people. Those active hunters needed just a bit of help while not making the trees so dense all I'll hear is the usual complaints about Hitech and his trees...... :D
So here is the result of the final two days of tweaking.
(https://i.postimg.cc/LsXnNGDK/tileset236.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/rwqdtDtp/tileset237.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/634TNRFM/tileset238.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/XvzXhx1Z/tileset239.jpg)
Oh! And why is there a spawn behind each vbase? It's from an uncapturable airfield in that vbase's country. That way when the 3am field sneak gremlins decide to screw all of you and take away your fun. That spawn is 500ft above the vbase on the side of a slope. Just spawn in and shut down the field, then take it back and resume your fun in the pit.
(https://i.postimg.cc/zXCbBCvM/tileset240.jpg)
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Well gents, I submitted this to Hitech, hope it's something that he can use and meets his requirements. :salute
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Well gents, I submitted this to Hitech, hope it's something that he can use and meets his requirements. :salute
Good Luck!
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Hitech was kind enough to let me know how swamped he is with some current work and can't look at my new terrain. I have not looked at the terrain in the last two weeks and a few things became evident after taking that long of a break. In a way Hitech is doing me a favor since I can fix several things. I'm not sure when he will be finished with his current tasks, I'll have to wait a while before sending him a PM.
The most important problem for me was the ocean on my clipboard map file. Now I understand why Waffle put so much green in the ocean on my last three terrains. I used an ocean wave photo this time instead of a wave pattern function and converted it for the map. Nice blue shades and highlights all over. Then I discovered if there is any red content in the blues, AH3 throws purple metallic highlights when you incorporate the map file into the build. Then all the PT purple spawn lines disappear and you have a contrast visual mess against the reddish purple.
Once I removed the red and added some green, the map turned out fine. Here is what I had to do....
(https://i.postimg.cc/ZKhzz2xB/tileset243.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/Hs4DYz6S/tileset244.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/7ZHvfzcq/tileset245.jpg)