Author Topic: Editing swa files???  (Read 334 times)

Offline CptTrips

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Editing swa files???
« on: October 24, 2018, 12:55:57 AM »
Has anyone successfully edit the swa file for a terrain texture?
If so, can you point me to any tips?

The OE will let me open tile files, but when I attempt to open a swa, the view is just blank.
It does appear to have loaded any object. 

Thanks in advance.
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Offline Easyscor

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Re: Editing swa files???
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2018, 02:58:57 AM »
Has anyone successfully edit the swa file for a terrain texture?
Yes
If so, can you point me to any tips?
?
The OE will let me open tile files, but when I attempt to open a swa, the view is just blank.
It does appear to have loaded any object. 
It doesen't work that way.
Thanks in advance.

"Yes" meaning look at ghostdancers' winter tiles on blacksea winter and the .swa revisions I've made using his tiles for avaetow. I love ghostdancers' for that terrain, much better than the default winter. Don't get me wrong here, the default winter is what I'd want for a Finland winter war.

Open your tile/texture.
Set a single "tree" and save. You need this to create the .swa file and possibly the path.
Close.
Reopen the tile or texture.
Carry on.

Oh, and if you don't have the proper terrset selected before you start you're SOL.
Lots of problems if you don't have the correct terrset selected BEFORE your start. I'm hoping for a patch to fix it but I haven't checked lately.

And I don't know what editing a .swa file means in this context. The swa files are provided along with the terrset/object files.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2018, 03:14:55 AM by Easyscor »
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Offline Easyscor

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Re: Editing swa files???
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2018, 03:15:47 AM »
Any interest in joining the AvA staff for terrain building?
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Offline CptTrips

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Re: Editing swa files???
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2018, 09:19:49 AM »
I’m probably just missing something easy. It always seems easy after you figured out what you were doing wrong. :D

So, as a first step I thought I could just open one of the existing SWA, like for the WWI craters texture, and then just edit it by moving objects around and seeing how that worked.  But when I open that one it doesn’t show the craters texture and it doesn’t show any objects placed in the view. It is just blank blue and if I zoom out and try and select there are just no object there.  I do have objects in the drop-down list and I can place them in the in the empty blue scene but without the texture showing I have no idea where I would be placing them.

So if I decide just to create my own from scratch I do new, and then on the tile properties dialogue I pick the display texture and the train set and hit OK, but then I just get the blue seen again.

 :bhead :bhead
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Offline CptTrips

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Re: Editing swa files???
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2018, 09:24:01 AM »
Any interest in joining the AvA staff for terrain building?

Maybe someday, when I’ve learned how to do it. :O
Right now my knowledge level is low, and my frustration level is high. :furious
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Offline CptTrips

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Re: Editing swa files???
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2018, 06:18:10 PM »
I think I am making progress now.  I was being stubborn on how I wanted to organize my folder.  I had gotten it working for the texture, but something about it was confusing the swa creation.   :furious

It still seems like you ought to be able to modify an existing swa.  What if you only needed to do a small change?

In my particular case, starting from scratch won’t be a problem. I guess it was just a matter of principle.  :D
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Offline Easyscor

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Re: Editing swa files???
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2018, 11:48:27 PM »
I'll write this for everyone starting from the beginning.

For the purpose of this basic discussion, you are expected to have a working terrain using the ETO summer terrset00. Hereafter called myterrain.

Download the terrsets zip file: http://dload.hitechcreations.com/dales/terrsettextures.zip
Download the trees & sq tile zip file: https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=387747.0;attach=27732
And you might as well download the detail zip file: http://dload.hitechcreations.com/objectdetail.zip
This file contains textures for cracked mud, asphalt, brick and concrete etc.

Use Windows Explorer to view and copy files, or extract the folder with a utility such as WinZip or 7-Zip.
The extracted files and folders will hereafter be called the download.

From the download, copy the folder terrset00 into your folder myterrain. It contains nothing but text files and a dot scc file.
Open the file atlas0.txt. now and read the first line to understand what follows.

The line is the directory path the TE and OE will use: atlas,C:\art\ah2\stdtexnew\atlas\terrset00

Of course now that you see it, you know that path won't work and the fix is simple.
Make the path local. Edit the line to read: atlas
without the comma or any path at all and save.
The path will now default to the myterrain project & terrset00.

Repeat for:
atlas1.txt

and optionally for these if you intend to replace or modify them. Otherwise, they can be deleted. The textures for these atlas can be found by following the hinted paths in the atlases.
catlas0.txt   (atlas required for the grayscale ground clutter textures)
catlas1.txt   (atlas required for the grayscale ground clutter textures)
objdet.txt
terrdet.txt.
Serious work beyond simple modifications to the diffuse textures should include all the atlases & named textures.

This completes the path changes, now moving on to the textures.

Inside the terrset00 folder, add a new texsrc folder to hold the terrain textures.
C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterrain\terrset00\texsrc\

You could copy the entire 1016 and 508 folders into the new texsrc folder but this will create a massive terrain due to too many textures. Instead, use only the textures called for in atlas0 and atlas1 etc.

In the download folder, find and open the 1016 folder.
This folder contains every 'large' 1016 x 1016 texture used in every current terrset used in the game.

You must copy all the textures needed to fulfill those called for in the atlas1.txt file so it may be helpful to have the text file open while you do this. For initial experimenting, you can if you wish, copy over only the diffuse textures and the TE will use the supporting default textures, _n, etc. If you will be making changes to the supporting textures, _n, xxclutter, reflections etc., for your modified diffuse texture, be sure to include the atlas(es).

Rinse and repeat for the 504 x 504 textures.

Included in the basic download is a 'detail' folder with some of the textures called for in the secondary atlases.  If you decide to modify the textures you will need both the atlas, which overrides the default, and the textures. The same principle applies to sq. tile objects as well.


The directory for myterrain:
C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterrain\
myterrain
...terrset00 folder
........texsrc folder
............texture bitmaps
........spdtree folder
............swa folder
................swa files
............swaobj folder (swb files)
...atlases

Trees

In your terrain, myterrain, create a folder named spdtree inside the terrset00 folder.
C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterrain\terrset00\spdtree

In the second download listed above, navigate into the terrset00 folder.
C:\...\tilesswa.zip\tilesswa\swa\terrset00\swa

Copy the entire swa folder.
Paste the swa folder inside the spdtree folder just created.
C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High III\ah3terr\myterrain\terrset00\spdtree\swa

Open the OE.
Select New.
A Properties window appears.
Leave unchecked "Is Square Tile Object", this will be for a terrain tile.
In the Active TerrSet box, select Europe Summer (terrset00.res)
Click OK and continue.

Select Open Terrain Tile
Browse to your texture in myterrain\texture00\texsrc
The default trees should appear, if not, save, close the OE and reopen it.
If problems continue, confirm the dot swa files were not deleted in the save.

Remember to clear the cache files if your changes don't display.
The OE creates the swa file.
The TE creates the swb file.
The TE can not display the trees until the swb file is created and the show trees box is ticked.

The editors are a moving target and your mileage may vary.
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Offline CptTrips

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Re: Editing swa files???
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2018, 12:06:27 AM »
Good stuff.   :salute


Btw,  do you know of any info on the OE, specifically clarification on all the little parameters you can set on under “edit tree”?
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