Terrain Editor Installation

[+Piecemeal]

I feel like a total greenback asking this; but ........... how and where do I install the Terrain Editor?

 

I've just downloaded the newer version and I'd like to try out some terrain editing with the Madagascar terrain I have in SF2

[Wrench]

greenback??? that's the nickname for U$ dollars! So, are you a 1,5,10 or 20???

 

I put mine in C/ProgramFiles/Terrain Editors. You can actually put them anywhere, and can have as many installs as you want (I've got 8 for the various terrains I'm working on)

 

BTW, the madacascar terrain used Desert tile naming conventions, so you shouldn't use the WoV/WoE/WoI editor, as that'll screw things up. You can, however, import the other tiles INTO the desert editor; just be advised the 'place objects' function for adding trees and building may not work properly. Max size for the tiles in the desert editor is 256x, and even then sometimes the entire tile won't load that section of the editor.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+Piecemeal]

greenback??? that's the nickname for U$ dollars! So, are you a 1,5,10 or 20???

 

wrench

kevin stein

 

 

Sorry Wrench; I meant to say GREENHORN!

That's what happens when you're homebound on a Saturday night and not drinking for reasons of my current prescription. My missus is just gone out. That is just soooo damn unfair

 

Thank for the info on the TE installation. Will give that a go now

[+Piecemeal]

Ummmmm....... can I ask another question?

How does it work? Is there a Forum here at CA where users are shown how it's operated?

[Wrench]

not really, but Gepard's tutorials on map creation are a big help.

 

Unfortunately, it's kinda hit or miss. Meaning, lots of "hair pulling and jumping about" (to quote Merlin from "Excaliber" You don't own any firearms, right?)

 

Fortunatley, Mad is pretty much set, other than your 'sea hills' issue; that'll be taken care of by the "Adjust Sea Level" function

 

Remember, too, ALL the sea sea/land transition (and if you add rivers, them too) will need new alpha channels to activate the water effects. I have 'newer' ones around here somewheres...if you want them to experiment with or whatever.

 

Also, =and MOST important=, after adjusting whatever, retiling,flattening,etc, and moving the newly created TFD & HFD into the AE terrain folder MAKE BACKUP COPIES OF THE ORIGINALS!!!! Easiest way I found, was rename them with numbers; 1-AE.TFD, 2-AE.TFD, etc-same for the HFD. Then, move them into a /storage folder withing the AE terrain folder. Allows for easy reversion, if you mess something up. BTW, keep the first copy (original) backed up as well, just rename a copy of those ori-AE.TFD and ori-AE-HFD, so you ALWAYS have your zero starting point (albeit with any changes you'd have made on later versions)

 

DOn't forget you'll have to recreate the AEcitylist.ini, as there isn't one. I usually include mine with my terrain uploads, or use a stock one as a guide. VERY IMPORTANT to have that.

 

Another thing, a lot of those odd inis floating around in the AE terrain folder, that have names matching tiles? THOSE are generated by the TE when createing new TODs, and usually aren't included in a terrain up/download (they stay in the TE). With luck (of which I've had none with!), you can import them, and see where the trees, buildings and etc are. Again, KEEP COPIES OF THE ORIGINAL TODs!!! (expecially the M15 base TOD, as that one is VERY cool)

 

wrench

kevin stein

 

edit: soon, you'll discover why those of us that work on Terrains, are quite mad!!

Edited March 27, 2010 by Wrench

[+Piecemeal]

Remember, too, ALL the sea sea/land transition (and if you add rivers, them too) will need new alpha channels to activate the water effects. I have 'newer' ones around here somewheres...if you want them to experiment with or whatever.

 

 

Sea level transition? Alpha channels? TFDs? HFDs? I'm lost already!!

If you have anything that might be of value to my forthcoming (and now much dreaded) quest, I'd be grateful. Send me a PM on that

 

It's just that I'm finding all the glitches on AE a little too distracting at this stage. It's making the job of object placement very difficult for me in certain areas and if there can be anything done about it, I'd like to at least try and get them fixed

 

Wish me luck; and a lot of patience. Cheers bud

Edited March 27, 2010 by Piecemeal

[Wrench]

Something else I forgot to mention ... there's NOT an AE_Texturelist.ini, so that too will need creation. Meaning: there's several unique tiles to AE, and the DesertTexturelist.ini won't have them, so when you open the HFD in the TE, and go to "View Texture Tiles", there'll be blank spots or other oddities. Reimporting them really isn't a big deal (well, if you've done it before ... ), but it may mean regenerating the AE_Data.ini, as that lists the tiles in the order they appear in the texturelist ini, and how they're 'sorted' in the TFD.

 

Best/easiest way to do it ... open the deserttexturelist ini, "save as..." AE_TextureList.ini. Then, when opening the AE HFD, while still having the blank spots, you can then add the unique tiles, "save texturelist", "SAVE ALL", exit, and repoen

 

don't forget to convert any tga's to bmp (save as..in PS or Gimp or whatever), to remove the alpha channels, and place all the tile bmps in the MAIN TE folder. I"d reccomend creating an AE only TE (like in my screenie), so it remains unique to only Madagasscar.

 

----

Definations:

 

TFD: holds the tile placement information

 

HFD: Height Field Display (i thnk!), hold the up/down heights above MSL for mountains, valleys, generic ground, etc. If using the TE, View: Height field, it's the green/varying browns/blue that shows the types of terrestrial surfaces. The darker brown to orange, is how far UP, orange being VERY high mountains.

 

Transition Tiles: those that join 2 differing types of terrain, or the transition between them (example: Sea2Desert50.tga, it's half ocean, half land, Desert2Farm75.bmp, etc.)

 

Alpha channel: acts like a 'hold out matte', to allow portions of tile to show or not show, or to have terrain effects in the case of water/ocean/river tiles

 

 

good advice: build in 1st Gen sims first, THEN convert the AE_Data.ini to SF2 type (with the ter***Effect.fx statement) much easier.

 

I"ll put something together over the next few days, btw, there IS an easter egg on Madagasscar

 

wrench

kevin stein

Edited March 27, 2010 by Wrench
fixed defination

[+Piecemeal]

Great stuff. Will be looking forward to this as well. I might also let Dave know about this. It was him that approached me on facelifting AE in the first place.

Edited March 27, 2010 by Piecemeal

[Wrench]

as to 'targetization made easy', are you familiar with this tutorial:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/topic/44621-adding-objects-to-your-target-areas/

 

it's a quick and diry way to get to each target area fast.

 

--

I take you got the packages, what you have is about 8-10 hours work recreating the AE_texturelistini, which matches completly the AE_Data.ini for tile listings, importation and editing of the TFD/HFD, etc and so forth. That 8-10 also included rebulding all the sea sea/land transition tiles as well.

 

From the looks of the maps at the link I PM'd you, it DOES look like some new matching river tiles will be needed. As well as the sea/city/farm, sea/farm/city, sea river mouths (including right, left and center) and other odd transitions.

 

Let me know when you need the help ... I'm not that far away (well, actually on the other side of the Virtual World in Korea, but what the hell, right??)

 

wrench

kevin stein

Edited March 28, 2010 by Wrench

[squid]

(can i kindly ask for a url or exact name of the Terrain Editor you are talking about here? *blink blink*)

[Wrench]

There's 2, actually. One for ONLY SF, as it's desert based (and dates from 04), and the later WoV/WoE/WoI and also usable for FE

 

both are here in the downloads section, most likely under 'Utilities and Editors', and also at 3rd Wire.

 

Now, mind you, these were created LONG before the SF2 series was thought of, but with some small ini edits, terrains generated from them port over with no real issues. For the most part. (this is because the terrain engine is pretty much the same for both series, and also needs MAJOR revamping)

 

like i said above, they're pretty much mutually exclusive, althogh you can import tiles from one to the other. The Desert terrains have some differences from the Wo*/FE versions (more advanced)

 

The TE is probably one of the least user-friendly pieces of software for this series, and has many functions that have NEVER been enabled. However, there's some folks here that can almost get it to sit up and sing the national anthem (albeit, slightly off key...but...)

 

We can only hope that when/if TK finially gets the "SF3" series off the ground, a FULLY functional editor for the newer Terrain Engine will be released

 

Now, if we can just get TK to give us the promised 'single-file NextGen cat extractor....'

 

wrench

kevin stein

[squid]

wow, thanks for the good clarification :D helpful as always

 

 

There's 2, actually. One for ONLY SF, as it's desert based (and dates from 04), and the later WoV/WoE/WoI and also usable for FE

 

both are here in the downloads section, most likely under 'Utilities and Editors'

 

Thats why i asked which one are they refering to here and as "last one" ,

 

 

and also at 3rd Wire.

 

Didnt notice that :) *embarrassed*