Terrain Tile Question

[davokingy]

I'm in the process of tweaking the Desert tileset to my own liking.

I've done the main tiles OK, that was nice and straightforward. But I am having a problem with the tiles that butt up to the sea.

These obviously still look like stock, creating a very ugly transition.

See screenshot

 

 

For the life of me I cannot see any sea/desert BMP tiles in the unpacked Desert terrain cat. The sea/desert BMPs I found are all mono, and look like masks possibly. Do I have to do something fancy with these?

I've had a look through all the TGA files, but none of them look like what I am after, ( they look like semi transparent masks to me).

Is it something in one of the TOD or LOD files? (I haven't figured out how to open these yet!) I doubt it - it was my understanding that the TODs and LODs are for placing objects on the terrain.

 

I'm kind of at a loss here.

 

Can any terrain gurus point me in the right direcion?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited February 25, 2011 by davokingy

[+Baltika]

Hi there,

 

All tiles with water effects are in .TGA format. the layer mask on the TGA allows sea effects to show up on those parts of the tile which are covered by water.

 

Here is Wrench's invaluable guide on how to turn your terrain .bmp file into a TGA file which will be read by the sim:-

 

http://combatace.com/topic/50042-simplified-sealand-transition-tile-creation/

 

 

 

Here's my equally invaluable guide on how to do it if you are using gimp to edit your .bmp files:-

 

http://combatace.com/topic/58802-how-to-create-alpha-channel-for-coastal-tile-in-gimp/

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers,

 

Baltika.

 

 

PS To achieve what you want to, I think you will have to convert the sea & sea/land transition TGA tiles into BMP format, make the changes to the bmp, then re-convert back to TGA format, using the guides above.

 

Bon chance, mon brave!

Edited February 25, 2011 by Baltika

[Wrench]

Actually, you convert all the Sea Sea/Land transition tiles (that's the correct term for "those tiles that butt up against the sea") to BMP, THEN place those bmp INTO the Terrain Editor. This allows the TE to actually have something to place there, when "View Texture Tiles" is selected.

 

The TGAs you leave alone, as those are needed for the game to give the wave effects and other such pelagic things.

 

If you're changing the saturation of the transition tiles, you can work "under the layer" as they say (using the Channels selection panel -this is Photoshop; other may/will be called differently- , leaving the Alpha channel intact, and just re-working the RGB sections

 

The LODS you see in the extracted desert cat are the terrain objects (runways, hangars, warhousee, various and sundry buildings)

 

The TODs are the files 'linked' to the various tiles that create those little buildings and trees. Unfortunately, without the TOD inis supplied from TK, you will NOT be able to open them and "Edit Object Placement". You can open them but then you're into several dozen hours work REBUILDING them scratch -- re-adding all the buildings and trees, as when saved, ALL original placement data will be erased by the creation of a NEW TOD for that tile. Not something I'd advise for non-experienced TE users. (or experienced ones, for that matter!)

 

wrench

kevin stein

Edited February 25, 2011 by Wrench

[davokingy]

If you're changing the saturation of the transition tiles, you can work "under the layer" as they say (using the Channels selection panel -this is Photoshop; other may/will be called differently- , leaving the Alpha channel intact, and just re-working the RGB sections

 

Ah - the penny's dropped.

I've just realised something. I remember having this problem before whilst editing files for Silent Hunter 4.

If I open a file with a layer mask in it, Gimp only actually shows me the layer mask. It doesn't show the texture underneath, and I can't edit it.

I'll take the TGAs into work and do them in Photoshop.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.