Project WOEMAC: Dev Diary 11/30/2011

[Guest Pfunk]

I was so proud of myself. I had all the editing done in Photoshop, the Terrain Editor had tiled everything correctly -or so it appeared- and it was time this morning for the first flight test.

 

Yeah, that didn't work.

 

Oh, it rendered a terrain all right. Apparently, the Terrain Editor doesn't like it when you attempt to make a terrain based solely on an edited bitmap, even one the TE exported. It flips the Y-axis backwards.

 

The game liked it even less. It went so far as to reach for the default GermanyCE .HFD and .TFD files, just to confuse the hell out of me.

 

So, unless someone can tell me how to properly edit a .bmp file so that when you import it into the TE to make a terrain out of it, I'm stuck with what the TE will render for me. Back to the drawing board.

Edited December 1, 2011 by Pfunk

[+PureBlue]

TE can export/import both Tile and height maps. Which one are you working on? (screenshots would help)

I use both bitmaps for tweaking. But do most/all of the tiling in TE.

 

Remember these files are 8bits and they should be imported back as such.

 

Also if you're playing with the height map, check these settings in terraineditor.ini:

[bitmapExport]

HeightScale=14

 

[bitmapImport]

HeightScale=14

 

you have to calculate the numbers from the highest peak in your terrain. 8 bits gives only 256 levels of height. I have the highest peak 14x256 meters..

If not carefull with these, the terrain and high mountains will be squashed when importing back...

[Guest Pfunk]

Already working on backup Plan B.

 

I call it "Starting from Scratch".

[+PureBlue]

Plan C, D and E were exactly the same for me

i'd keep learning new stuff and going back, but every time the processes got quicker .

[Wrench]

If not carefull with these, the terrain and high mountains will be squashed when importing back...

 

that might explain some of the 'mesas' I've just noticed in Costa Rica/Honduras -- but, as they're just jungle, that won't be a problem for the Players

[Guest Pfunk]

I saved them as 8-bit files, PS-CS3 wouldn't let me do anything else. The TE would see it, let me tile it. I could save it to an .HFD file. The wierd thing was the Y-axis flipping in the TE.

 

You put it in the game, and the game it so confused by it, it reaches for the GermanyCE.HFD file and you don't recognize anything.

 

Oh, well.

[Guest Pfunk]

Area around Yalta

 

 

The Putrid Sea (I'm not kidding, that's what it's called)

 

 

 

 

The Caucasus Mountains along the Abhkazian coastline.

 

[EricJ]

Looking nice...

[+Dave]

Looking good P!!!!!!

[Guest Pfunk]

Distances are now at 85% scale, using Baltika's instructions. I got it to work. Let's see how long it takes now before the engine or the transmission shells out on me.

 

The Dnieper and Don Rivers are fully scaled and tiled. The Sivash Sea (the Putrid Sea I was talking about) is now also fully tiled (you can actually see it where on the original terrain, it wasn't even rendered.

 

The Kerch Straits leading into the Sea of Azov are actually full-scale now. I don't know how the hell I did it, either.

[+Baltika]

Good work

[Guest Pfunk]

Tiling of the target areas is going well. I am on #44 of 68 TargetAreas. Once this is done, I'll take a good look at the coastlines.

[Guest Pfunk]

Well, now the real work of making it all look real -or at least interesting to look at- begins. The tileset.

 

I will be doing a custom tileset for one really good reason. It'll be mine. One thing that really, REALLY irritated me about the first Black Sea was that I had to depend on someone else's tileset to make it look right and that didn't sit well with me at all. I gave CA_Stary the proper credit for using his tileset for the Black Sea, but it still felt like I was borrowing something from someone who shouldn't have had to lend it in the first place.

 

I need to thank a few people, though. Or at least give the rest of the community someone to blame when it goes awry.

 

"Deuces" - when I first wanted to do a terrain, he gave me all kinds of help, including giving me online tutorials from his website showing me how to operate the Terrain Editor. Everything I know how to do in the TE comes from him.

 

Kevin "Wrench" Stein - perhaps one of the greatest artists in terrain making. If Deuces showed me how to use the tools, Kevin tried to show me how not to destroy things with them. A hard taskmaster, Kevin has forgotten more about terrain making than I know. Wanna know the greatest compliment you can get from "The Wrench"? "Hey! That looks....okay..."

 

"CA_Stary" - a true artist and when I say that, I mean someone who knows how to get the most aesthetics out of a 24-bit .bmp file. This guy really is an artist in the same way that the guys who designed the Aston Martin DB9 are artists. It just looks right, and it's something that no one else can replicate.

 

So, here is the first of my repainted tiles, an industrial area for cities. I really didn't like sprinkling stuff all over cities, it never looks right, so you'll have an industrial park to load up with targets to kill. All you mission editor freaks, you'll like this.

 

I plan on completely repainting each tile I use. The city tiles are next on my list.

 

 

[Guest Pfunk]

 

Don't be scared by the big empty circles, they'll get textured when I resize and sharpen up the tiles. I just had to have some centre-pivot irrigation. That, and I knocked down some fences. Little farms are okay in Bavaria, but have you seen the size of the farms in the Ukraine? There's a reason they called it the breadbasket of the Soviet Union.

[Wrench]

nicely done! could have used some of those in SoCal and Libya!!

[Guest Pfunk]

[AGOSTINO]

Please, what is the key, for Cam Pos with the " X " cross ??

Edited August 8, 2011 by Wrench
PLEASE do not reply with pictures still attached!!!

[+SkateZilla]

open options.ini and change Debug=False to Debug=True

 

it might be Different in SF2 than it was in SF1

[Wrench]

Nope, exactly the same throughout the entire series, includind FE

 

Agnostino: haven't seen this in the 1stGen KB, I take it??

 

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

[AGOSTINO]

open options.ini and change Debug=False to Debug=True

 

it might be Different in SF2 than it was in SF1

 

 

Nope, exactly the same throughout the entire series, includind FE

 

Agnostino: haven't seen this in the 1stGen KB, I take it??

 

http://combatace.com...r-target-areas/

 

Fantastic!!!!!

 

 

Thank you infinitely!!!!

[Guest Pfunk]

 

 

 

 

 

[+Brain32]

Nice one, keep it alive

[EricJ]

[Guest Pfunk]

Update: 60% of Targetization is completed. 78 TargetAreas total. Multiple targets in each area. At least one SAM site in every TargetArea.

 

This terrain will be geared for post-fall of Communism-era gameplay, with deadlier anti-air defenses in mind. Possible Christmas release at this rate.

[EricJ]