Terrain editor Help

[+ordway]

Well, I'm new to the TE. So I downloaded an African DEM file and it only contains 70% of the area I need. Is there a way to merge DEM files so that I get the whole area I need?

 

PS I have read the posts here on the TE and Major Lees' tutorial is not there since his site went down.

[+Wrench]

I'm kinda in the same boat too....

 

My Southern California rebuild (nearly done!) needs flattening for some target areas, and some of the terrain features (unwanted "hills" along the coastlines, etc) fixed, and possible retiling. Although I can live with the tiles as they are

 

I've also picked up another partialy finished terrain for Texas/Mexico that needs EXTENSIVE work on flattening and retiling.

 

Do any of our Terrain Gurus wish to share detailed tutorials??? All the ones over at SimHQ are long lost in the defective archive #2

 

I can lay out targets all day long...I just can't fix terrains!!

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+Wrench]

Oh, something I forgot....

 

in creating planning maps, using Kreelin's generator, how come the cities never show up??? I have the "show cities" box checked...

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+ordway]

Oh, something I forgot....

 

in creating planning maps, using Kreelin's generator, how come the cities never show up??? I have the "show cities" box checked...

 

Wrench

kevin stein

 

I'm having the same problem with flattening out mountains in an Angola terrain...they are too high. Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Lexx_Luthor]

ordway, you can make larger 1500km maps by following the instructions on page 2 of this ThudWire thread...and with the latest TE, there are no longer restrictions on combining a square of 4 adjacent DEM files.

 

~> http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p...asc&start=0

Edited February 6, 2008 by Lexx_Luthor

[+ordway]

ordway, you can make larger 1500km maps by following the instructions on page 2 of this ThudWire thread...and with the latest TE, there are no longer restrictions on combining a square of 4 adjacent DEM files.

 

~> http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p...asc&start=0

 

 

Thanks Lexx. I had to go to start on a completely different option after starting because I could not figure this out a few days ago.

 

Whew, our community *really* needs a complete TE tutorial. This is he_ _ for an enthusiastic beginner to keep hitting brick walls. Kind of discouraging sometimes.

 

Thanks.

[Lexx_Luthor]

Ya yehas yough! On that ThudWire thread's first page is a link to my personal TE learning thread, czech it out. Deuces dragged me kicking and screaming through it all. I made it. Thanks Deuces!!

Edited February 6, 2008 by Lexx_Luthor

[+ordway]

Ya yehas yough! On that ThudWire thread's first page is a link to my personal TE learning thread, czech it out. Deuces dragged me kicking and screaming through it all. I made it. Thanks Deuces!!

 

 

THUD!!!!! Heheheh

[+Gepard]

Ordway, I would use a completly different approach to merge the 2 neigbouring DEM files.

 

Step 1 you has already done. Import the (left, western)DEM file into TE

 

You will find the heigh data visible as green and the water as blue. The right, eastern region is also blue, what means, no heigh data available.

 

Step 2 Use "Export heigh map as bitmap" function of file directory of TE and save the picture as west.bmp

 

Step 3 Newstart of TE and import the right, eastern DEM

 

Step 4 is the same as Step 2, but save it under west.bmp.

 

Step 5 open the 2 bmp files with a paint program like PaintShopPro. Then copy the green (height data) part of the east.bmp into the empty part of the west.bmp. Save the merged file.

 

Step 6 Use "Import Heigh map from bitmap" function to import the merged bmp file.

 

Its a little bit difficult to explane it in english. German i would prefer, but i hope it was clear enough. If not ask again.

[+Wrench]

Ok...rereading the threads in the other forums....

 

How DOES one get the texturelist???? If that's all I need for flattening SoCal....plus the tile bmps in the TE folder!! - that was never covered!!!

 

We REALLLLYY need a detailed turorial for this stuff...

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+Brain32]

Well you get texture lists with terrain editor for all 3 default terrains/tilesets, however if the creator of the terrain expanded the tileset - then you are in trouble and only cure is his original texturelist he used when tiling the terrain...

 

However I don't see how this could help you flatten the terrain, I never did that but if I was to try I would probably declare the area I want flattened as an airfield and use "Level airfields" command from TE. However, since I never tried it I'm not sure if that would work

[+ordway]

Ordway, I would use a completly different approach to merge the 2 neigbouring DEM files.

 

Whoa, now THAT's an interesting way! Thanks. I think I understand it.

[+Wrench]

Part of the problem (other than my thickheadednes....) was I had the original 2003 version!!!

 

Went and got the new one, extracted all the desert tiles, coverted the tgas to bmps, put them in the TE folder,...went to load the stock terrain....

 

and nothing happened!!! excepting the damn editor crashing. No progress bar, I can open the heightfield thingy (the green/blue mapish do=hicky). But nothing else seems to work.

 

I've got 3 maps sitting here; Modern Darwin (one backup copy that works...thank the Great Maker i was smart enough to do that!!!), SoCal, and ASW...

 

Me thinks I'm going to take a deep breath, forget about learning the TE, and just stick to target placements. I"ll let you guys handle the rest.

The thing that really makes me mad, is that I can't even begin to think of profanity scathing enough for how I feel!!!

 

Well, I better finish the hangar screen for the Karuy nightfighter somebody must be waiting for...and skin the pontoons on the FloatFires....at least I can do that!!!!

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[+ordway]

I've got 3 maps sitting here; Modern Darwin (one backup copy that works...thank the Great Maker i was smart enough to do that!!!), SoCal, and ASW...

 

Me thinks I'm going to take a deep breath, forget about learning the TE, and just stick to target placements. I"ll let you guys handle the rest.

The thing that really makes me mad, is that I can't even begin to think of profanity scathing enough for how I feel!!!

 

 

I personally know that it is frustrating as heck. I feel that I'm really good with computers and programs...and TE stymies me alot.

 

You must also convert all the BMP terrain tiles to 256x 256 from 512x512 to get TE to work... isn't that right ???? Did you do this if it was necessary?

 

Someone with knowlege, please comment.

[+Gepard]

The best is to make a subfolder into the terrain folder.

In this folder you should place the texturelist.ini and all terraintiles.

all tiles must have 256x256 pixel

all tga files must be converted to bmp files to get TE running

Then you has all to run the TE.

 

 

A major problem of TE is, that terrains which are created with old version of TE you cant autotile with the new version of TE and vice versa. For such terrains i use the old version of TE for autotiling and the new version for the rest of the job.

[+ordway]

I am retiling someone else's coastline. I am only retiling the land part of it. When I am finished retiling a coastline tile, do I need to alpha channel it or save as a TGA format because it is a coastline tile because it has already been alpha channeled by the first person a long time ago?

Edited February 8, 2008 by ordway

[+Gepard]

For the TE there is no need for tga files. Only in the game you need the TGA. TE is working only with bmp files. Dont use the _hm.bmp files. These are for additionally heigh data for the tile. You can create hills on the tiles which are not connected wih the terrain.

[+ordway]

For the TE there is no need for tga files. Only in the game you need the TGA. TE is working only with bmp files. Dont use the _hm.bmp files. These are for additionally height data for the tile. You can create hills on the tiles which are not connected wih the terrain.

 

Thanks, good info. So to be more clear for me, I do not need for the game to make changes to TGA files because I am not changing the water on the coastal tiles, only the land.