Terrain editor

[gillg 4]

Hi everybody, is there or can anyone point me in the direction of a terrain editor tutorial?

I would like to know the in's and out's of this program.

cheers.

[csb 12]

Oh boy, are you asking for it!

 

Go to Major Lee's SF - utilities - Construction School (for suckers )

 

http://www.majorleesaerodrome.net/

 

 

A man goes to a S&M Fair. At a stall he decides to buy a badge which says, "I'm a Masochist".

The stallholder sticks the badge to his shirt but the pin sticks into the man's chest.

"OUCH!!" cries the man........."Err, can I have another one,please"

[gillg 4]

Oh boy, are you asking for it!

 

Why, Is there a simpler way?

i already have looked into the DEM files and USGS sites, it looks pretty involved and technical. I like that challenging stuff.

And thx for the link csb.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

You can follow the discussion at the link below, where Dueces dragged me kicking and wailing through Terrain Editor when I was just starting out. It does work well once you get into it, and there's an updated version. There's alot of little bizzare tricks to get the TE to work, but works very well when you figure it out. If you pursue this, you can add to the TE Learning Thread if you wish, and bump it up a bit on the board.

 

TE Learning Thread ~> http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=8781

[+Deuces 0]

Tools required before entering the black magic that is the Terrain Editor:

1-Case Jack Daniels, black label

3- Bottles Asprin, Excedrin Extra Strength is suggested

1-Piece of thick leather or anything suitable to bite down on to keep you from screaming out loud

1-Large black board to write "What was i thinking" on 1000 times

 

Other than that you should be fine.

[gillg 4]

Well its been a while but i am trying something to get used to the TE.

Is there a way to flatten terrain?

I have read all what Lexx had to say and read the adjoining posts but no one mentions it.

Is this possible even?

[eraser_tr 29]

So you want to flatten whats in the DEM data?

 

Go out to the spot you want to be flat with a shovel, flatten it, then ask the USGS or NASA to get new DEM data

 

I tried out the terrain editor a while ago, and there apparently wasn't a way to directly shape the terrain. It looked like it was limited to purely what was in the DEM or heightmap. I would have continued with it if it wasn't for the areas I wanted to make wind up being split into more than 1 DEM file and have no idea what to do about that.

[+Dave 2,322]

Tools required before entering the black magic that is the Terrain Editor:

1-Case Jack Daniels, black label

3- Bottles Asprin, Excedrin Extra Strength is suggested

1-Piece of thick leather or anything suitable to bite down on to keep you from screaming out loud

1-Large black board to write "What was i thinking" on 1000 times

 

Other than that you should be fine.

 

You forgot the ballpean to hit yourself in the head for even thinking about messing with the editor.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

gillig:: Is there a way to flatten terrain?

 

Its right there in front of you in TE, but if ya bump up the old thread, I'll tell ya there.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

ewwh, if you are talking about flatten specific areas, its not so simple. You can export the heightmap to bmp and edit to taste in a PhotoPaint program. Polak taught me how to do that, and its not easy.

 

You can tone down the height variations across the map by adjusting the height scale in TE when you import the DEM, that's what I though you were asking.

[gillg 4]

Thanks for the reply guys.

OK, i am trying to flatten an area for the old Korea map to add Kunsan AB.

I have a fair idea of where it goes but there are a lot of hills right where (well, there is another targets.ini in the original Korea map and Kunsan's coords are in there) it is going.

 

I tried adjusting the height field but the area is to hilly. Lexx, what is this export as bmp you speak of?

Sounds interesting......

 

Anything i learn Lexx, i will add to the thread.

Edited May 3, 2007 by gillg

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

mmm, if I recall, you Export the heightfield HFD file as a bmp file -- basically a picture. Then you can paint pixels on the picture...the colour defines the height. Then using TE you Import from bmp ... this loads your bmp file as heightfield. Experiment. Try painting a wide single colour stripe on the bmp. After importing it, the TE elevation display will show all the same height in the wide path you painted. Basically, you just cut a wide constant elevation path on the map.

 

Tip, always keep a backup folder of any terrain you are working with. You know why.

[gillg 4]

mmm, if I recall, you Export the heightfield HFD file as a bmp file -- basically a picture. Then you can paint pixels on the picture...the colour defines the height. Then using TE you Import from bmp ... this loads your bmp file as heightfield. Experiment. Try painting a wide single colour stripe on the bmp. After importing it, the TE elevation display will show all the same height in the wide path you painted. Basically, you just cut a wide constant elevation path on the map.

 

Tip, always keep a backup folder of any terrain you are working with. You know why.

 

Cheers mate, will do.

 

But right now i am of to work, so i will try when i get back.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Cheers mate, will do.

 

But right now i am of to work, so i will try when i get back.

Yough Man I just got off from work. Later

[gillg 4]

Well Lexx, it worked.

 

I opened the HFD file with TE, exported the HFD as a bmp, opened it with photoshop, selected the area i wanted flat with the Lasso tool, colored it in the same green as the map (found out this gave a height of 70m) then changed that to black (10m height) saved this HFD file and voila!!!!!

Instant flat terrain.

 

BLOODY BEAUTIFUL!

 

All i did then was add Kunsan AB to the citylist and targets list, copied one of the other airfields list underneath my new Kunsan entry, changed a few things around so trees don't get in the way and there you go.

One new airbase.

Lexx, thanks for the great tips mate. Like i said earlier.......

 

BLOODY BEAUTIFUL!

 

cheers.

 

Should this be added to the knowledge base or something?

[eraser_tr 29]

So I went back to trying to use the terrain editor.

 

WTF its not importing my DEM data. I pick the Latitude/Longitude it reads the file, then the file select box pops up again looking for a different lat/long. Closing that, the first data doesn't exist(after checking view->heightfield)

[gillg 4]

So I went back to trying to use the terrain editor.

 

WTF its not importing my DEM data. I pick the Latitude/Longitude it reads the file, then the file select box pops up again looking for a different lat/long. Closing that, the first data doesn't exist(after checking view->heightfield)

 

Sorry eraser, i have only delved into modifying existing terrain so far. Although if this workd out, i will probably start looking at other terrains and maybe try to make some of my own.

[+Deuces 0]

So I went back to trying to use the terrain editor.

 

WTF its not importing my DEM data. I pick the Latitude/Longitude it reads the file, then the file select box pops up again looking for a different lat/long. Closing that, the first data doesn't exist(after checking view->heightfield)

eraser_tr-It will look for an adjoining DEM file if your terrain happens to fall into two DEM areas. when the second box pops up, note the file it is looking for and download that also. It will work just fine. I've had it request up to 3 DEM's for certain areas depending on Lat/Long specified.

[+Deuces 0]

Well Lexx, it worked.

 

I opened the HFD file with TE, exported the HFD as a bmp, opened it with photoshop, selected the area i wanted flat with the Lasso tool, colored it in the same green as the map (found out this gave a height of 70m) then changed that to black (10m height) saved this HFD file and voila!!!!!

Instant flat terrain.

 

BLOODY BEAUTIFUL!

 

All i did then was add Kunsan AB to the citylist and targets list, copied one of the other airfields list underneath my new Kunsan entry, changed a few things around so trees don't get in the way and there you go.

One new airbase.

Lexx, thanks for the great tips mate. Like i said earlier.......

 

BLOODY BEAUTIFUL!

 

cheers.

 

Should this be added to the knowledge base or something?

 

One thing that is pretty important for Photoshop editing and forgive me as this is redundant.

Load the terrain palette.act as your color palette so you have the correct colors for the TE to read the heights. Paint using these colors and as you can see the colors represent differing changes in height.

 

[eraser_tr 29]

Thanks I'll see if that helps. I wish this thing would be more wysiwyg, or at least a little more clear. Like have it load the entire DEM file, and you could crop it like an image in photoshop to the area you want to cover. Or explain what the lat/lon you enter corresponds with.

 

The majorlee tutorial could use some specifics for creating a brand new terrain, how to set things up in the beginning.

[+Dave 2,322]

And eraser when you get a chance run into a wall 5 times with your head...it will make using the TE make more sense...... LOL

[Guest Saganuay82]

I made a map with a bmp as an experiment once. Just clicked the color grabber and started drawing shapes. Very interesting flying along and meeting a wall at 2-3000 ft or higher that ran for 100 nms.

 

One thing to remember, once you begin hand tiling, never ever hit auto tile again unless you have backed it up and you know which one it is.