Working with tga files ?

[Panama Red 22]

I have started converting some of the different Verdun terrain files to work with the Cambrai terrain (to improve the Cambrai's terrain looks) , but have run into a little bit of a problem and need some help please.

 

My problem is that I am not a great "painter" by any stretch of the imagination, but can "cut & paste" with the best of them. I have found all the varoius files that need to be converted from the modded Verdun terrain over to the Cambrai terrain and most of the are .bmp's (and are easy to "cut & paste" the correct parts into the new .bmp's). The problem that I am having, is that you can not do this with the required .tga files and have them look correct in the game (they have alpha channels with I've never worked with).

 

I have Paint Shop Pro X2 as my paint program, but I never used it enough to have figured all the pieces and parts of the program beyond basic painting and "cut & paste". As a result, can some one tell me a way to "cut & paste" parts of one .tga to another .tga, or can you tell me a very good turtorial that I can use to accomplish this ???

[+Laton 4]

Not up on TGA's but p10oppys Decal tutorial (Stickied at the top of the main forum page) my be a good place to start as it deals with TGA files.

Edited June 9, 2009 by Laton

[OlPaint01 0]

Hello Panama Red

 

Have you approached Gepard or B Bandy RFC. Both these excellent terrain modders have released the recent Vogesen Section terrain set and the Rhine River mod for it? They might be able to provide you with incites to the .tga file handling. I think the targa formatted files add rivers and trees and some scenery structures to the landscape. When I attempted to build the missing interfacing tiles using copy&paste method to construct a complete superset of tiles, I was frustrated with trying to blend the edges of the two adjacent tiles to make a seamless match. Also the color and hue was difficult to manage for the different season sets. Unfortunately, I lost all my previous attempts to build a complete set of seasonal tiles for all the terrains - Flanders, Cambria, Verdun, and Vogesen - were lost when my hard drive crashed late last year. I would sure welcome your contributions to the community to make a visually pleasing landscape to fly over.

 

OlPaint01

[Panama Red 22]

OlPaint01:

The reason that I am trying to do this, is because you said that you had lost your attempt due to your HD crash, as a result, I was going to make an attempt to fill in the missing tiles as a contribution to the community. Unfortunately, it is a little harder that I anticipated at this point. I will PM Gepard and B Brandy RFC and see if they can enlighten me as to what I need to do.

 

Thanks;

Panama Red

[OlPaint01 0]

Panama Red,

 

Thank you for taking up the fallen banner... I am right in the middle of completing my A+ certification studies so RL has a hard grip on any of my spare time. But I would very much like to contribute to the effort you continue. I was just on the verge of understanding the workings of the Terrain Editor when I lost my files.

 

Several folks have expressed the opinion that photo realistic landscape is not worth the effort. I disagree. Edward's Flanders Terrain is stunning. IMHO, it really contributes to the game immersion.

 

OlPaint01

Edited June 10, 2009 by OlPaint01

[Bandy 3]

PanamaR. I sent a PM, but here is the same text.

 

I think I know the TGA problem you are talking about with the river tiles, and perhaps coast tiles as well. Correct me if wrong, but Edward's Flanders terrain does not have complete TGA files for the coast, so you get patchy water animation...

 

I do not have the perfect answer, but I managed to modify winter Cambrai and Vogesen tiles that provided the correct water animation as well as the mask for the surrounding "ground" painting (so the water animation does not show through there).

 

What I did (and you will have to play with this a bit to get it to work for you...) is to:

 

1) take the stock 3rd Wire Cambrai river tile you want to modify and open it in an image adjustment program that supports layers and alpha channels (Photoshop I use, Gimp (is a free download), but don't know if the program you mentioned supports these features).

 

2) add your "painted" ground tile as a layer over the top of the existing tile. It can be any regular ground tile you choose, but try to choose one that accommodates where the river will be. Image size and resolution must match original and the tile you choose to overlay.

 

3) Change the opacity of your tile layer so you can see the edge of the river. Then simply erase your paint where you want the river to show through. Make sure the edge is feathered a bit so that there is a good transition.

 

4) Make your layer 100% opacity again, and copy and paste some "tree texture" from other tiles so there are some trees along the river (which also hides any mistakes of lining up river tiles). I've also found that adding a drop shadow along the river shore can give some nice 3D effect from the air. ALL this erasing, painting, drop shadow etc. happens on your layer, LEAVE THE STOCK TILE LAYER ALONE.

 

5) Save it as a TGA file and try it out in game. River tiles are a real *pain* to get the shorelines lined up just right. I had to go through the procedure several times (!) to make sure no seams showed up. Take screen shots in game of mistakes to correct in your image program. Trial and error. It takes longer than you expect!!! But I was a terrain tile noob when I started.

 

6) if it doesn't work the first time, try it again with a different TGA file, or fiddle with the basic procedure above, such as merging layers first and then saving as TGA.

 

I never did figure out exactly what to do, but managed to work around by manipulating a stock tile with my painted layer over top of it, then saving. If you haven't already, download my Cambrai and Vogesen winter tiles from CombatAce, open them up in your image program and have a good look at what I did to get some ideas.

 

Good luck!

 

PS: if you continue to have problems PM me again, and we'll arrange something so I can help a bit more.

Edited June 10, 2009 by B Bandy RFC