Monster Terrain tool
-
I know that you know what you’re doing, just tried to understand what might have happened.
The thing is that if you’re sure after the operation:
- everything looked ok in TE
AND - you saved all files (TE should have provided a warning that terrain and/or bin file is not saved when exiting)
AND - deleted the 5 files in terrain folder (just to make sure)
AND - everything looked ok in TE after you reloaded the terrain
and still got the porked terrain in Falcon, then something is very wrong with TE.
One way to reproduce something like this is to repeat the operation, save the bin file (but not the terrain file), delete the 5 files in terrain folder, and open Falcon. In Falcon, terrain should be porked, but everything looks ok in TE, until next time you reload the theater. Then you should have the same picture in TE.
This is happening of course, because bin file and terrain file end up to have different tile offsets.
- everything looked ok in TE
-
@lazystone:
… Anyway, I made some corrections so hopefully it won’t happen again.Cheers,
LS -
I dont know what exactly happend. I cant replicate it anymore, thus i can not re-confirm. So, i assume it was my own human error somewhere.
Regardless, all is working fine and im finished with my job. It is way better than anything before and YET i know it can be done EVEN better - especially with the new 3D options in TE.
But for THIS STEP i will wait till someone comes out with phantastic tiles, because then it will make more sense to rework the whole thing incl. texture.bin and sets, areas and pathes.For now… you guys can soon enjoy this (close on the DMZ).
The whole theater is done incl. china and russia … The high mountains in the north are fun for dogfights
-
Monster, i encountered another strange appearance.
IF if do 2 things:
- select all tiles in L0 (two points) or in L2, and elevate all tiles by x1.2
- OR if i “Make .elv file from laoded terrain” with the same x1.2 or any factor
the result (cross-checked as raw) look like the picture on the RIGHT (bugged).
IF i dont use multiplicators and just “Make an .elv file” (x1.00) OR just extract terrain components with ModTerrain GUI, the Theater.e0 or the Make-elv.elv looks like on the LEFT (correct).
I can replicate this every time i do it. Mind you: The results i am getting in TE and in 3D BMS are totally ok and what i aimed for, but the e0/elv (as raw) just looks strange.
The cirlce seems to appear around my “point for gravity”, which i choosed for the natural river decline from top mountains towards the sea. For example, Rivers can have 280-0 MSL…from land-in towards coast. Dont ask, how i accomplished that without using TE :wfish:Can this happen because of Alpha channel pre-edits? , because it appears, that TE does it only wrong (well not really wrong as result, just wicked as .raw) on the alpha channel mutliplications, which i had also edited. Maybe 0 values in the alpha channel ( N x 0 = 0).
Which brings me to the next quesiton: Can i merge the 2 channels to one channel (the other black) actually containing ONE accurate global data, and how?
EDIT: further experiments
I tried using x 1.01, which worked. Using 1.1 did not. It appears (i know, strange) as if there would be a max allowed altitude limitation and the “bug” appears at 8000feet + areas.
At least one is led to think so.
Multiplicator 0.8 works aswell. Then again, this does not happen in stock korea - even if i use x5.00, but stock korea has not edited alpha channels as i have.Long story short, my elv data as .RAW looks “wicked”, but in 3D and in TE everything is absolutly perfect from L0-L5 (i did ALL by coherent mirrored descendants of L0 and xx0. L0-L5 and xx0-xx5 files).
Dev Note incl. in the 4.0 install. -
I really can’t think a reason why this circle appears, but I’m not surprised. This raw representation in Photoshop is useless to come to any conclusions. Of course it has something to do with your previous edits, and nothing to do with elevation multiplication.
Take a look here: http://docs.sakgiok.gr/tutorials:elv_files_and_photoshop
I explain in depth what you’re seeing in Photoshop and why you shouldn’t work with 8bits. And I answer your second question as well.
-
Take a look here: http://docs.sakgiok.gr/tutorials:elv…_and_photoshop
Hi Sakis,
Is the above the only recent add to documentation, or are there any more? I was trying to find something about “Optimization of Bin” and “File Tools” but could not. I guess good docs for new TE features (which you always have) take as much time as programming new features themselves. I wish to find some more time to keep up with your impressive new adds to TE. -
Yeah Ted, you’re right. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to update documentation but I’ll have to do it eventually.
-
Excellent Post Monster, thanks. The thing is, i have full accurate results in 3D, but looking at a raw like that was a bit “scary” and made me think a second, that
i screwed something up, but i didnt. Results ingame are just perfect, just the the file as raw seems “unlogic” visually -
Do not blame yourself for the lack of time is the main reason things are not progressing at the paste we would like them to. I said that many times and I say this again, your TE is the example of work done with utmost dedication and high professional level. Really good things take time and thats that!
-
I agree and i am gratefull. Your tool and the works done from all of us here… will make it possible to design a korea (or others) unlike any before, hopefully :). And its a pleasure to work together and to see the fruits growing here.
-
did someone tested “negative elevations” in the sim?
what is the purpose of this feature if it does not work inside simulator?
I can imagine it would be cool to use it for steeper areas…for example coastline with only 200ft high is almost flat in 1km resolution - If I would be able to make negative sea vertex -3000 and it would be covered by separated sea-plane - there would be nice “Dover cliff” with L2 possible
…but perhaps it is just for editing purposes - when manipulating complex highmaps containing seabed data…BTW Thanks for new version!
-the fastest elevation speed change 320ft/s is still much slower, then default one in previous version - may I ask for one additional faster rate (similar to previous one) in next version please? -
-the fastest elevation speed change 320ft/s is still much slower, then default one in previous version - may I ask for one additional faster rate (similar to previous one) in next version please?
Try shifting it, (shift+320 ft/s)
-
Try shifting it, (shift+320 ft/s)
you are right Canister -just forgot I used shift before! …current rates are ok…sorry Monster
-
did someone tested “negative elevations” in the sim?
what is the purpose of this feature if it does not work inside simulator?
I can imagine it would be cool to use it for steeper areas…for example coastline with only 200ft high is almost flat in 1km resolution - If I would be able to make negative sea vertex -3000 and it would be covered by separated sea-plane - there would be nice “Dover cliff” with L2 possible
…but perhaps it is just for editing purposes - when manipulating complex highmaps containing seabed data…BTW Thanks for new version!
-the fastest elevation speed change 320ft/s is still much slower, then default one in previous version - may I ask for one additional faster rate (similar to previous one) in next version please?Carefull with negative elevation data. Altitude Radar, Barometric Altitude indication, Terrain following ability …etc etc. There is no such thing as neg. alt. unless you wanna dive and go submarine
-
Well, negative elevations exist in real life, Netherlands is known for having a lot of land below sea level. Not sure how it’s implemented in Falcon though. Some test should be made.
-
One can try out, but i would crosscheck the side-effects aswell ( Altitude Radar (minus?), Barometric Altitude indicator, Terrain following ability …etc etc. ) …in Falcon Terms.
-
Monster,
the bugfixes regarding the bugs I’ve posted in post# 206 are working well in 3.5.6.
… great job.… and another bug report.
When I try to load a huge feature file (Road.tdf in my case)I get an error:
“ERROR number 6 Overflow”Then the OK button does not close the error message,
so I have to close the TE tab, which results in a further error:
“Run-tme eror ‘401’:
Can’t show non-modal form when modal form is displayed”Clicking OK results in another error:
“Run-time error ‘52’:
Bad file name or number”Then TE is finally closed and I can restart again.
I’ve also tried to split that huge *.tdf, and each split file loads fine
when loaded single, but as soon as I try to load both split files,
then I got that error again.… and a feature request.
Would it be possible to edit the *.tdf in TE and save back as *.tdf?-
moving each type of feature separately.
(actually the “move Features” section moves all features) -
select part(s) of feature by directly clicking (ctrl for multible selections)
or a selection frame to move or delete those selected parts -
save as *.tdf
This way we could reduce the river features for example
and use the resulting *.tdf for autotiling in TV or CATE,
before we use TE for finetune.Even more welcome would be a feature- autotiling according to *.shp in TE.
In case of roads and rivers,- define tilenumber of originally tile (without road/river)
- define which tiles to use for straight vertically/horizontally, curve, crossing, etc.
- load *.shp
- start autotiling.
Also welcome would be a *.shp to *.tdf (or to *.e00) parser, though,
because river features are to many and we can’t easilly edit *.e00.
Additionally to me it seems the *.e00 (or the Dem2Terrain converted *.tdf)
don’t match the geo data exactly, which results in rivers on mountains, etc.BUT I would be already happy with 1), 2) and 3).
Thank’s for reading.
Cheers,
LS -
-
Well, negative elevations exist in real life, Netherlands is known for having a lot of land below sea level. Not sure how it’s implemented in Falcon though.
Min elevation of Dem2Terrain converted theaters is 0, so Netherlands is mostly water.
I think everyone who has ever worked on a EU theater has lifted that area manually.Cheers,
LS -
-
I see a “bug” when saving .thr the program goes directly into the correct folder, the same for the .mea file.
The problem is that saving the .mea will “change the default” folder to save the .thr and you have to reset that manually in order to save the .thr
I know it’s not a bug, but it can save a couple of seconds :mrgreen: