My way to create a terrain LESSON 3

[+Gepard 11,295]

LESSON 3: Basic Terrain

 

In the last lesson we got all the neccessary files to get TE working. We

have the tileset, the texturelist and the downloaded high data DEN file,

in the case of Kashmir terrain the file e060n40.tar

This file is packed, we must unpack it. I use the tool WinRAR for it.

 

Now we are ready for start working with the TE. At the end of this

lesson, we will be able to fly for the first time over the basics of the

new terrain.

 

Okay, lets go.

 

Step 1: Open the Terraineditor.

Step 2: In the left upper corner you find the "File" Click on it and then

click on "New"

A Dialog Window is opening.

I set following entries for Kashmir terrain

 

Terrain Map Size 1000 km

Texture Tile resolution 2000 m

Heigh Field Resolution 500 m

 

( REMARK: You can change the Terrain Map Size freely without

problems. I think 1000 - 1500 km large terrain are the optimum. You

can make it smaller or bigger, but i think 1000 km is a good mix

between size and density of targets.

Texture Tile resolution tells us the size of each terrain texture tile on the

map. 2000 m means, that on single texturetile on the map covers a

square of 2 x 2 km. This is the standard setting for SFP1, WOE and

WOV. The WWI sim FE use 500 meters. But if you try 500m in the

Jet sims, you will seen that the fps rate is dropping down dramaticaly.

The reason is, that the visibility range of FE is much lower than in

SFP1,WOV or WOE. If you use the FE settings, at the moment the

computers are to slow to handle it. I had tried it and got a unplayable

fps rate of 5 or 6.)

 

-Now click on OK.

 

Step 3:

-Click on Edit

-Then on Import DEM

The next Dialog window is opening.

 

You see, that we will now have to use a map, to get the Longitude and

 

Latitude informtion.

 

For Kashmir i set :

 

Longitude 64 E

Latitude 36 N

Map Scale 100%

Height Scale 110%

 

(REMARK: Let the Map Scale at 100%.. The Heigh Scale you can

change. I use 110%, what means, the mountains are approx 10%

higher than in reality, because the TE has a function to smooth the

terrain and smoothing the terrain cost approx 10% of the high, so that

after smoothing the mountains should have their normal high.)

 

-Click OK

 

Then a new window is opening and ask for the location of the

unpacked high data DEM file. Open the file and the TE will create the

high data field. You will see, that the TE screen now becomes greenish.

 

Step 4:

- Click "View"

- Click "Set Zoom Level 100%"

and now you has a full view over the terrain.

- Check out, wheter the terrain covers the wished area of the world.

If not, then go back to Step 3 and readjust the Longitude and Latitude

entries.

 

Step 5:

-Click TextureList

-Click Open TextureList (If you has forgotten where it is, you should

find it in folder Terrain/Kashmir/Texturelist)

-click View

- click View Texture Tile

The area becomes dark, nearly black

If you zoom in you will see, that the entiere area is covered with tiles.

 

But the tiles does not fit with the terrain

 

Step 6:

- Click Edit

- Click Autotexture

And voila it looks much better. We have snow at he mountains,

 

Wood, farmland, grasland and water.

(The only problem is, that there are a lot of "Street tiles" which should

not be there. There TK's texturelist as a failure. This we must correct

now in Step 7)

 

Step 7:

- click Texturelist

- click Edit Texture Map list

A dialog window is opening. It shows all available texturetiles.

-Look for entries with "Road" in the name. Double click

Next dialog window is opening

-Look for "Random Factor" set it to 0

- OK

- Look for the next "Road" file etc pp.

- If you has done it with all files close the dialog box.

- click TextureList

- click Save Texture List

- Redo Step 6

You will see a more satisfying looking terrain.

 

Step 8:

- click File

- click Save as

save it as Kashmir

- Ok

 

Step 9:

Open Kashmir folder with Windows explorer and copy the files

 

Kashmir.hfd and Kashmir.tfd into backup folder.

hfd is the height data field

tfd is the texture of the terrain.

Backup is neccessary, because the TE has no "Undo" function. If you

make a mistake during terrain building you has now access to the

"virgin" terrain files.

 

Step 10:

In this step we will create 2 provisional airbases for test reasons (One

for each side.). Only to see how the terrain looks.

The position of the airfields is choosen at free will.

 

-Open file Kashmir_targets.ini

- delete all lines

- make following entries:

 

[TargetArea001]

Name=India AFB

Position=500000.000000,785000.000000

Radius=5656.854492

ActiveYear=0

Location=2

Alignment=ENEMY

AirfieldDataFile=desert_airfield1.ini

NumSquadrons=3

Target[001].Type=Runway1

Target[001].Offset=0.00,0.00

Target[001].Heading=0

 

[TargetArea002]

Name=Pakistan AFB

Position=250000.000000,280000.000000

Radius=9899.495117

ActiveYear=0

Location=4

Alignment=FRIENDLY

AirfieldDataFile=desert_airfield1.ini

NumSquadrons=5

Target[001].Type=Runway1

Target[001].Offset=0,0

Target[001].Heading=60

 

- save it

 

Step 11:

-Start WOE

-choose single mission screen

-choose Recon mission

-and now take off to the first flight over the new terrain

(the best is to start in the air, not on the runway)

 

How to fill the terrain with targets, airfields etc i will show you in

 

LESSON 4.

[gillg 4]

Gepard, awesome work buddy. Just a friendly reminder to place the appropriate CAT file location in the Kashmir.ini file.

e.g. CatFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE.cat, to enable the terrain to work

can'y wait for the next installment

[+Gepard 11,295]

The TE dialog box demand:

 

Enter the top-left coordinates of the map