Monster Terrain tool
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Only starting from Photoshop CS2 it included 16bit format manipulation features. I do remember reading an article about it here:
http://www.terrainmap.com/
go to articles.
It is a lots of information contained here, but some of you may find helpful and interesting. -
As a heads up….
New version 3.4.5 has an ability to load background map into Terrain preview which makes now terrain editing much more precise as long as background map is properly coordinated with DEM outline (not too hard).
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@RAM22:
Messing with ITO2 still…… Fix the missing paths!!!;)
RAM22
He will get it eventually……just need to explain it…ala AB Level’s…
Dave
Thank’s Monster,Can’t wait to see what the new Objective Lab has in store…
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Thanks guys,
@demer, I probably should not say this :D, but I’m looking into units right now, so that’s why I rearranged the controls in Objective window, to make room for the units controls.
Right now, some bug fixing is necessary so don’t expect anything big in the next update.
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Now to the question I wanted to ask all and particulary Lukas, who on the other forum suggested using RAW merger of L2 and O2 files. I would like to explore potential of hand editing heightmap for the purpose of the river and road valleys and possibly other uses. So the question is how the merger of L2 and O2 can be accomplished?
I just realized - i did not reply to this demand at all.
On the 2nd page of this thread, there is a setting for elevation raw import:
http://tactical.nekromantix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=22353&start=40@Luk:
I tried to export 256seg L2 file elevation to external file.
It worked fine, I have got raw “theater.e2” file. I renamed it and imported into the Photoshop as 1 channel, 16-bit, 0-header 4096x4096 image. I did some changes etc. I saved the result as raw file again (the same settings). It is exactly the same in size as previously exported “e2” file (33 554 432). I changed the extension to “raw” then.Note: when working with highmap I had to use windows bit order to get clear result (MAC order produced messy result), but when working with tile information raw, I had to use MAC bit order (window bit order was messy).
There is also Monster’s reply howto set command line parameters for import (if graphical UI not used). I used to have problems to run full program, because of registry settings. With fully funkcional program the e2 import is pretty easy.
Luk
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There is also Monster’s reply howto set command line parameters for import (if graphical UI not used). I used to have problems to run full program, because of registry settings. With fully funkcional program the e2 import is pretty easy.
Hi Luk,
exactly… thanks to Monster’s TE now there is very easy way to export hightmap. Thanks for remembering my question.I shall only add that height maps are sometime very important to register properly other maps in Terrain Preview window. (this is JUST in connection and in regards to this newly added in 3.4.5 feature of having pictures in Terrain Preview).
When there are only landmasses around and no clear outline of sea or ocean shorelines, then only river valleys and lakes from height map could be a only good visual reference, according to which, you can coordinate or register properly other maps. It is all coming together nicely!Please do not hesitate to ask if interested and what I have said above is maybe unclear.
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Thanks guys,
@demer, I probably should not say this :D, but I’m looking into units right now, so that’s why I rearranged the controls in Objective window, to make room for the units controls.
Right now, some bug fixing is necessary so don’t expect anything big in the next update.
:woohoo:
Thank’s Bro’……!!!
demer
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Already new version 3.4.6 available !:headb:
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What is the purpose and intent of this change???
*Two proposed values were added next to the spotted field in Objective details.
Setting the first value in the spotted field indicates that the objective is spotted
and setting the second value indicates the objective is identified as well. These values
are derived from the team the objective belongs to.RAM22
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Geraki,
can you change topic name “Monter” to “Monster”? call attention to each visit :wfish:
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Monter is good, like Monterage, you know???
RAM22
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Thanks 611-eagle, actually I just noticed that my callsign was misspelled
@RAM
I looked into the values that “Spotted” field should have for an objective to be spotted by the enemy and I found out that it wasn’t a simple case of 0-1 value (or true-false). The value depends on the team the objective belongs to and there is a special value if the the objective is identified as well (besides spotted).
Normally the spotted value (along with the spotted time) is set by Falcon during the mission, but maybe someone wants to set it manually in a TE or campaign.I’m not sure about these values we probably will start some testing about this, it would be great if a coder could confirm this (or tell me it’s wrong) and give us some guidance. The formula I used is:
Spotted: Spotted=0x1 << TeamNumber Identified: Spotted=0x1 << (TeamNumber+8)
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In campaign the spotted value and the spotted time should not be set in the base campaign file. The code does that after the game starts. I don’t see any reason why you would want to have objectives or units spotted prior to the start of a campaign. It would be like exposing your objectives or units to the enemy before the war begins, when it’s the job of the OPFOR to do that with their assets.
It should be blank at the campaign start which means it is Not spotted
Once it is spotted then the code fills in the appropriate Spotted variable and the time of the spot
Exactly what the Spotted value/variable is, is most likely an ID of some sort of the unit or asset that spotted the objective or unit, what the entire make up of the variable is as in this case 16448, I don’t know, I’d have to ask BaldEagle if he has any idea.
If people want to mess with it in a TE, I could possibly understand that but it really should not be messed with in the base campaign files. Although you do see throughout the history of Falcon base campaign files with these fields filled in, that is because people have used Save Day or Auto Save files for the base campaign files and that is incorrect to do that.
Hope you understand what I’m saying.
RAM22
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I agree with you basically but I’m just saying, as a programmer, I don’t care if anybody will ever use it or not. The reason I put it in the program is, if somebody wants to use it, at least to put a value that will be parsed by Falcon as spotted/identified.
Although normally in a TE or campaign you wouldn’t touch that and (as you said) let the AI do their jobs, I can think of a couple of instances that you might want to use it for certain objectives. Let’s say to simulate spies and intelligence, so some objectives far inside enemy territory are spotted right away and a hit is planned there.
I don’t know if its usable or not, or any of my thoughts are going to work inside Falcon. I’ll keep looking into this and see if it leads to something. A lot of other things are coming into play with this, for instance, there is a “Has Satellites” flag that influences spotted, and especially units, have a defined time (depends on how they are moving - wheeled, foot etc) that after this time is passed, they become un-spotted again.
So, I agree with RAM, don’t mess with it unless it’s for testing, or you tested something and went as you wanted.
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Yeah, in TE I could see something like what you’re talking about, but with the Spotted variable an unknown then it would be almost impossible to enter something that would be logical.
In the pic above showing the Battalion that is Spotted and has a spot time, the campaign time is 1101 on day 1. The spot time is 1037 and there is a Spotted variable listed. Now other than being some type of ID of who spotted the battalion I would think it is also a time stamp(something??).
In this pic of another battalion you can see it was spotted at 0725 which was 3 and a half hours ago and there is no longer a variable in the spotted field so the unit being spotted has timed out.
I read somewhere, can’t remember where, how long the spotted time lasts, I’ll have to look it up again. For some reason I can’t get Visual Studio running right now and cant search the code(No not BMS code, FF). Might have to reinstall it on another system.
LOL about Spies, reminds me of the game Stratego.:)
RAM22
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Nice job mate.
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What I’ve found out is that the exact value is not important, Falcon just checks for a specific bit (the position of the bit to check depends on the team the entity belongs to), if it is 1 then the entity is spotted. Then another bit is checked (team number +8) to check if the unit is identified as well. So for team #2, any value bigger than 4 will mean that it’s spotted and if the value is bigger than 1024 then the entity is identified as well. That’s why I don’t believe that any other value can be stored there, since there are 8 teams in Falcon and all the bits for this value are used for something.
Anyway, this really doesn’t have any real meaning, since I don’t have BMS code, so everything could have changed. Testing is the only way to go from here.
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Here maybe this will help:
private:
CampaignTime spotTime; // Last time this entity was spotted
short spotted; // Bitwise array of spotting data, by team
volatile short base_flags; // Various user flags
short camp_id; // Unique campaign id
Control owner; // Controlling CountryThough I completely agree with RAM, when it come’s to .cam file’s,we should Zero them and let the Manager’s handle it.
Some may wan’t to manipulate them in a .tac so we may want to chase it down……demer
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Hi Monster,
First of all, compliments for this great tool and your efforts.
I have a question about the Tile Lab. Is there a maximum amount of tiles that can be covered by the Tile Lab, or a max resolution of the image to use. Í ask, because I try to cover an area of about 30x10 tiles and use an image of 15k x 6k pixels. When I save the tiles, all I get as output are the original tiles already in place and not the new graphics with the overlayed image. I already tried with different file formats like .dds/.jpg/.png but that does not help. I’ve used the Tile lab on smaller areas where it worked fine.Cheers,
Danny