Theater developmental notes - The Tile's
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@Mr:
The issue will be that tile textures themselves cover only 250m rather than 1km, but with 256px textures we also get around 1px/metre of visual quality too. However it does mean that 250m grids will probably mean totally new tile development will have to take place… unless there would be an elegant way to paste one texture over a few grid squares.
But obviously only ideal for smaller theatres (for now)
With BaZT we’ve still used 1km tiles.Cheers,
LS -
That sounds great.
1km textures (at 512px) with a 250m mesh underneath.
I have been reading that FF offers many more tiles. I’m not sure how much having so many tiles at high res would slow things down, but in theory with the above grid size AND a lot of tiles you could probably start to map whole small countries with almost fully unique ground tiles and a decent res terrain mesh too!
Nice.
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Another thing I’m curious about tiles is how do you guys get G##gle Earth tiles for reference?
To be more exactly:
- which software do you use to get the tiles? (is anybody using “FSEarthTilesV1_0”?)
- and how do you get the right scale? (yeah, I know 1 Tile is 1 km)
- further tips and tricks?
Cheers,
LS -
???
Strange from u to ask such things…
Software’s are there free and pay u choose.
Scale? Yes u know but 1 tile = 1024 pixels… so there is your scale…
Photoshop and Monsters TE. U download - get as detailed Ultra large areas. In photoshop u choose Mask on predefined size guess what 1024. Before that put a rectangle in GE with the measurements… this is your reference. than divide it with this mask to tiles of 1024x1024… Import them with Monsters TE u are done. -
???
Strange from u to ask such things…Yeah, I wanted to know what software the theater devs use to get the tiles
and how they scale them correctly to get reproducible results.It’s no problem to get an area of tiles and put them “nearly correctly” scaled into the sim,
but if you’ll put another area beside, then you’ll need to get the exactly same scale.Cheers,
LS -
Yes I believe this is they way they do it…
Follow the general rule than go with the eye…
U can’t go for real… Real world is not Flat as Falcon world is… So when your tiles are Flat and they represent an area that has elevations inside u get the meaning… Can’t be exactly the same…
So u go nearly correctly. To test it open the theater u want to test with Monsters TE find a city and measure it… (approximately with tiles size and exactly with photoshop) than open Google Earth and measure it see the differences. Same u can do with the whole Country… -
I use Ultimate Maps Downloader. It allows you to capture maps from different sources. It lets you select zoom levels. Also it will combine the seperate textures into one big map which you can cut to pieces later.
http://www.lizard-labs.net/ultimate_maps_downloader.aspxI mainly extract sat images from Bing Maps. On the bing maps site you have an explaination of how to calculate ground resolution. I’ve put this in an excel file and just fill in latitude, zoom factor and required tile texture resolution and excel will calculate the appropriate scale factor which I apply in photoshop.
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Thank’s Ghost,
now that sounds interresting.
I think I’ve already found the explaination of how to calculate ground resolution:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb259689.aspxLook like I’ve to study it well to be able to create an working excel file.
@Arty
you see there are differently possibilities. (like always.)Cheers,
LS -
He forgot 2 major factors… so those calculations are proximity also.
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Another thing I’m curious about tiles is how do you guys get G##gle Earth tiles for reference?
To be more exactly:
- which software do you use to get the tiles? (is anybody using “FSEarthTilesV1_0”?)
- and how do you get the right scale? (yeah, I know 1 Tile is 1 km)
- further tips and tricks?
Cheers,
LSMan, you sure are “curious”….LOL!!!
1. We don’t get tile’s,we make them…… I have yet to find a Tile Store for Falcon tile’s,maybe I should check Home Depot??? Psst…hey,you got any Falcon Tile’s?? Sale’s clerk runs away and call’s 911!!!
2. Scale is determined by the Falcon elevation code and yes 1 tile cover’s 1 km, this is the mesh that is used
to build the wire frame that the tile is rendered over…
3. I’ll stick to tile’s here,because that is the topic…but,be aware that the mesh is NOT the map grid!!!'Kay some comment’s, maybe some insight.
SHE duz’nt care what canvas size you use,you can use 32x32 or 4096x4096 or mix and match. As long as they are divisible by 4 SHE will render them to the 1 km mesh.BUT, here is the caveat and remember this.
SHE use’s List’s to decide where and when she render’s these image’s(I’ve explained this B4,but here we go again).
Now this list is built when you first start the game and I believe it is still held in RAM in BMS…maybe even CPU still(Would like to see it Page Filed if at all possible…hint,hint).This become’s a great drain on resource’s (read FPS) when it come’s to making her render one tile 10K’s time’s as compared to rendering 10K’s tile once.So the bigger the bytes you put on the list,so to speak,the more time it take’s for her to Recall and send to DX to send to your GFX to send to your monitor…Get It???About the Image resolution…she don’t care…she just passe’s that on to DX If DX can handle it and your GFX card can handle it and your monitor can handle it…your 'kewl!!!
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Does SHE wear thongs?
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@theOden:
Does SHE wear thongs?
Yes, Bonedust does!!!;):D
RAM22
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He forgot 2 major factors… so those calculations are proximity also.
???
please explain…1. We don’t get tile’s,we make them……
Sure, sure, … that’s why I’ve said “for reference”.;)
2. Scale is determined by the Falcon elevation code …
so how to use which tools to match the Falcon scale?
atm. there are explained 2 differently ways to do it, Arty’s and Ghost’s way.3. ….but,be aware that the mesh is NOT the map grid!!!
Already known here. (sometimes I read your posts. )
'Kay some comment’s, maybe some insight.
SHE use’s List’s to decide where and when she render’s these image’s…
So the bigger the bytes you put on the list,so to speak,the more time it take’s for her to Recall and send to DX to send to your GFX to send to your monitor…Get It???Thank’s for insight, Dave.
Sounds like the more textures (-sets) are used, AND the bigger the theater, … the longer it takes.
About the Image resolution….she don’t care…she just passe’s that on to DX If DX can handle it and your GFX card can handle it and your monitor can handle it…your 'kewl!!!
Got it.
@RAM22:
Yes, Bonedust does!!!;):D
RAM22
Cheers,
LS -
Lens type. Angle of cam and target area, and height.
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Lens type. Angle of cam and target area, and height.
Uhmm, OK, so you think to get (nearly) correct scaled reproducible results will be impossible?
I think all those texture calculations are proximity to some point, more or less,
but better than to go just “by eye”.
What really counts to me are reproducible results and maybe easier handling of that stuff.Cheers,
LS -
ANYTIME you change ANY data in those two file’s you MUST rebuild your <theater>.thr file against the new data.Get it???
No EGO demer</theater>
We do this with Tacedit? is there a way via Terrain editor?
Edit:Ignore found it in terrain editor
Go to tools first choice… Make THR file… Right?
Re Edit just tried it…
I reverted from water to plain the tileset.
The road bridge river path is there…
I saved the bin
I saved the thrI opened the TE I had made the damn GU’s continue to pass over the river…
Should I redo the damn mission as when I saved it it had the old data?
Does the order of the paths affect? I mean I have to have them one after the other if in the middle I have a bridge or something else? or if a road of 5 parts is stored inside as:
1.first part
2.second
3.forth
4.third
5.fifthAnything else?
Edit again done a new mission same behavior.
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Go to tools first choice… Make THR file… Right?
I’ve not been there yet, but to my understanding the answer is .
Cheers,
LS -
Found this: https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?11845-What-do-we-know-about-campaigns-part-2/page2
Seems it’s unresolved and I struggle for nothing all those days…
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Arty, just a stupid idea from an terrain noob like me.
What if you simply use a plain tile with a road-river-bridge path and a defined water area for the river?
If it works you can paint water/sea texture on it.Cheers,
LS -
Arty, are you sure your theater where you’re working has not L0 ruined?
just for curiosity
cheers
dema