Alternate TFD Terrain Tilemap editor/viewer

[+Stary 2,426]

 

gerwin, this is getting beter and better! any chances of other objects placement preview in the future?

[Wrench 9,460]

that runway's not centered .....

 

ducks and runs.............................

 

 

superbly done gerwin!!!

[+Julhelm 266]

Looking real cool. A feature I think would be neat is if we could make prefabs out of placed objects which can then be placed themselves in order to rapidly cut down on the amount of time it takes to place targets all over the map.

[+Stary 2,426]

if we could make prefabs out of placed objects which can then be placed themselves

 

something I was thinking about for a loong time, sort of library thread where various predefined targetareas could be uploaded by terain/taregareas modders (Wrench, Eburger I'm looking at you!)

[Wrench 9,460]

they already exist ....

 

they're called (insertterrainname)_target.ini & (insertterrainname)_types.ini

 

from pretty much any terrain I've done

[+Stary 2,426]

hehehe I know, I was thinking about library with preview pictures etc, and yes Kevin, 99% would be extracted from your _target.ini files

[+gerwin 449]

V0.65 is up

Runways are drawn much better now.

Runway Icons look different from other targetareas.

Minor Target indicators and labels are now turned off by default,

to show them press M or L. For Minor Target labels you have to be fully zoomed in.

[krfrge 742]

This is super!

 

Thanks so much Gerwin.

 

KRFRGE

[+gerwin 449]

It is getting better still:

 

v0.66 added alternate targets tag display, using tab: All off -- target dot only -- dot+name label -- dot+entry no. label -- dot+offset X/Y

v0.66 added a lick of blue paint to the interface.

v0.70 adds basic Heightmap (.HFD) display and editing. Allowing me to flatten these sunken runways in VietnamSEA (Kien An / Bai Thoung).

use D to copy the tile height values to clipboard, F to paste it on another tile. Note that there are 4x4=16 heightmap values per tile.

[Bossco82 11]

Gerwin, this is absolutely excellent. All I need is this and some better multicore support and all my Thirdwire based dreams will be answered. Awesome work many thanks!

[+gerwin 449]

v0.71 Added displaying the heightmap .HFD at all zoom levels. with rainbow-like colors. Toggle between the two viewmodes with the m key.

v0.72 Added height labels at full zoom. Added some basic support for editing the heightmap with the same keys/functions as editing the tilemap.

So the effect of the R,T, pgup/pgdn keys differ according to the viewmode: tiles or height.

 

Tweaking a heightmap is currently far from perfect. It was never intended to be a HFDtool anyways.

[hurc 21]

v0.71 Added displaying the heightmap .HFD at all zoom levels. with rainbow-like colors. Toggle between the two viewmodes with the m key.

v0.72 Added height labels at full zoom. Added some basic support for editing the heightmap with the same keys/functions as editing the tilemap.

So the effect of the R,T, pgup/pgdn keys differ according to the viewmode: tiles or height.

 

Tweaking a heightmap is currently far from perfect. It was never intended to be a HFDtool anyways.

This is a great tool! Thanks for your work on it!

 

Is it able to "Flatten" a tile for an airfield placement ?

 

Hurc

[jadgbomber 6]

Thanks you Gerwin about that impressive tool!!

 

currently I´m starting a new terrain based on West Mediterranean and TFDTOOL suits very well to check how good are placed the tiles and objects. the problem I have now is when i made small adjustments on coastal tiles (as example) like rotation, change of map,etc...i dont know how to save these changes on the .TFD file, - checking the help you have included pressing F1 i saw the commands F5,F6,F7 & F8 to export tile data as a bitmap, i´ve tried that, then I chose in TE the option "Import tile map from bitmap" but nothing happens. My terrain is 3000x3000km size, so that i supposed that importing the largest bitmap created with F8(6000x6000px) would work, but i haven´t see changes.

Please show me the way to save these changes!

 

many many thanks you in advance for your creation!!!

JaBo

 

PD:-excuse me about my poor english, isn´t my native language.

[+gerwin 449]

Please show me the way to save these changes!

If you made any changes to either the Tilemap TFD or the Heightmap HFD you just have to exit the program (hit ESC, or click the close button top right) and the program will then ask you if you want to save the changes to the Tilemap TFD and/or the Heightmap HFD. Click 'yes'.

If you did not make any changes it will not ask about saving.

 

The export buttons are just a small bonus, there is no particular use for the exported images (yet).

 

Is it able to "Flatten" a tile for an airfield placement ?

Since v0.73 it is very easy to do so with pgup/pgdn keys in height mode (lower tile to zero-flat first, then raise to desired height.) it is also possible with cut/paste (D/F keys).

Edited November 18, 2011 by gerwin

[+gerwin 449]

v0.75 is up.

-Proper documentation file.

-Can now export the water bitmap for the SF2 mission editor.

-Tweaked Heightmap palette.

-Heightmap can be adjusted at its native resolution.

 

DESCRIPTION

This tool will allow you to explore most aspects of terrains for the

Third Wire Productions "Strike Fighters" flight simulator series.

- The terrain TileMap with textures.

- The terrain HeightMap.

- The terrain Target placement. (no editing)

This tool has some basic editing functions, concerning the TileMap

and the HeightMap, which affect just one tile at a time.

 

USAGE

When running TFDtool you will first see a file selector to point to a TFD file,

instead you can also run TFDtool with the TFD path+filename as a parameter.

The allowed TFD size is limited to 2000x2000 tiles, which equals 4000x4000km.

You may need a Cat extractor to get the file out of a terrain Cat-archive.

 

The program will try to load additional resources, which are optional:

-The xxxx.HFD HeightMap that goes with the TFD file, in the same folder as the TFD.

-The xxxx_data.ini that goes with the TFD file, in the same folder as the TFD. no Unicode!

-BMP and TGA files that are referenced in xxxx_data.ini, in the same folder as the TFD.

-The xxxx_targets.ini that goes with the TFD file, in the same folder as the TFD. no Unicode!

Maximum 512 targetareas with 512 targets per targetarea.

 

CONTROLS

Like it or not, but TFDtool is almost entirely controlled with the keyboard.

The navigation keys work like this:

 

ARROWS - Pan view and select a tile. Information on the status bar will be updated.

+/- - Zoom view.

M - Toggle view mode between TileMap and HeightMap.

TAB - Normally this key toggles the target display options:

Hide/Show target symbols, and three label styles: Target Name, ID number, Offset X,Y

when viewing the HeightMap fully zoomed in TAB selects an individual HeightMap unit.

ESC - Exit program, but will first ask for saving the TFD/HFD if changes have been made.

F1 - Show small info Dialog.

L-SHIFT - Slows down the program while pressed.

 

Editing keys only work when zoomed in such that a black rectangle is shown around the selected

tile. In TileMap mode the editing controls are:

 

C - Copy selected tile texture to clipboard.

V - Paste clipboard texture to selected tile.

R - Rotate selected tile.

T - Toggle Tag value of selected tile (Tag value function is unknown...).

PGUP - Increase tile texture of selected tile.

PGDN - Decrease tile texture of selected tile.

 

In HeightMap mode the editing controls are:

 

D - Copy selected tile HeightMap values to clipboard.

F - Paste clipboard HeightMap values to selected tile.

R - Rotate HeightMap values of selected tile.

T - Toggle increase/decrease amount between 10 and 12.

PGUP - Increase HeightMap values of selected tile*.

PGDN - Decrease HeightMap values of selected tile*.

 

*When fully zoomed in to the HeightMap the PGUP and PGDN keys only

effect the individual HeightMap unit, as selectable with TAB.

 

Finally the export keys:

 

F5 - Export Data Bitmap. Ordinary BMP file containing the tilemap in the R channel,

Rotation in G, and Tag in B. No real use for this yet.

F6 - Export Texture Bitmap 1x, 1 pixel per tile.

F7 - Export Texture Bitmap 2x, 2x2 pixels per tile.

F8 - Export Texture Bitmap 4x, 4x4 pixels per tile.

F9 - Export Water Bitmap, as required for the game's build in mission editor. To allow

for vehicles vs. ships to be placed properly. (Based on HasWater=2 tile value)

CONFIGURATION

Required program files: TFDtool.exe + TFDtool1.dat + TFDtool2.dat + alleg42.dll

 

Configure TFDtool with the file TFDtool.ini in the program folder, containing 5 lines:

[Display]

Screen-Width=768 // preferably use multiples of 256

Screen-Height=536 // preferably use multiples of 256 + 24

Fullscreen=0

Enable_Targets=1 // set to 0 to disable loading the targets file.

[Wrench 9,460]

dude, you a MACHINE!!

 

fraking excellent work, brother!!

[krfrge 742]

Gerwin,

 

Simply amazing. Thanks so very much.

 

KRFRGE

[+Crusader 2,050]

[+gerwin 449]

dude, you a MACHINE!!

? Does not compute..

 

v0.76 tiny update.

Height to grayscale export, height increment autodetect, better key handling.

[jadgbomber 6]

hi Gerwin,

 

 

I have a strange issue since version 0.74. As you can see in the capture attached, now I only see coloured tiles on coast, while the inner ones are always B&W and seems mixed or bad represented, hovewer, the height map is all OK. I didn´t any change on my machine or terrain, and reinstalled v0.72 and works well again.

 

 

 

Can you suggest anything to solve it?

 

thks!

JaBo

[Icarus999 70]

hi Gerwin,

 

 

I have a strange issue since version 0.74. As you can see in the capture attached, now I only see coloured tiles on coast, while the inner ones are always B&W and seems mixed or bad represented, hovewer, the height map is all OK. I didn´t any change on my machine or terrain, and reinstalled v0.72 and works well again.

 

 

 

 

Can you suggest anything to solve it?

 

thks!

JaBo

 

Yep I noticed the same issue last night.

[+Brain32 265]

I cured that resizing the textures back to 256x256

[+gerwin 449]

hi Gerwin,

 

I have a strange issue since version 0.74. As you can see in the capture attached, now I only see coloured tiles on coast, while the inner ones are always B&W and seems mixed or bad represented, hovewer, the height map is all OK. I didn´t any change on my machine or terrain, and reinstalled v0.72 and works well again.

 

Can you suggest anything to solve it?

 

Thanks for reporting this so clearly, it helped me to find the cause quickly.

Please try v0.77.

 

PS: I uploaded a newer version, but still v0.77, build time 21:48. This one can run properly at 1024x794.

Edited November 22, 2011 by gerwin

[+gerwin 449]

v0.78

-Releases the CPU when nothing is happening

-Print Screen Key now functional

-Tweaked heightmap palette a little

[jadgbomber 6]

Thanks you Gerwin, now its works perfectly, as a suggestion if possible, add a button to save current map without exiting.

 

greetings,

JaBo