Alternate TFD Terrain Tilemap editor/viewer

[+Sundowner 4,515]

[+Stary 2,426]

gerwin,

 

seeing as "new" (hehehe...) engine seems to be a NOGO for custom terrains making for now, your work is MOST needed and appreciated!

[+gerwin 449]

Good, In a way it is nice that the classic TFD terrains are still going strong compared to the new terrain-type.

 

I uploaded a new version v0.82.

 

- B key pastes copied tiles as a 3x3 wide area.

- Left-Shift+R reloads the targets.ini file.

- Height values when fully zoomed in are now drawn op top of airfields instead of below them.

- Left-Shift+TAB now cycles backwards through height values when fully zoomed in.

 

There were some more procedures, which I used to create that IcelandNA terrain from scratch.

But they were just quick hacks, and I cannot really see how they are gonna help anyone in their current form.

So I removed them from the program for now.

 

Note that TFDtool takes command line parameters, you can make a windows shortcut, and paste the path to the

TFD file behind it. For example:

"D:\TFDtool.exe D:\IcelandNA\ICELANDNA.TFD"

Then when you start the shortcut, it will load up the terrain immediately.

 

Well, that is that. I did intend to decrease my time on SF stuff for a little while, IcelandNA took quite a while too.

[+PureBlue 71]

I've been tinkering with the ODS terrain, using the newer hirez tiles. This tool absolutely makes it more fun and easier to move around tiles, insert city/farm stuff and find target areas. Thanks for another nice update gerwin

[+Stary 2,426]

gerwin,

 

I was wondering the other day (well, loong time ago) if it would be possible to somehow convert standard 2000meters x 2000meters tiling all stock and 3rd party SF terrains use to 1000m x 1000m WITHOUT resizing the map of course, sort of smart auto-texturing/converting (one 2km x 2km tile holds 4 1km x 1km ones of course)

 

this way we could gain more detail as a whole lot more objects seems to fit on 1x1 km tile and the tiling could gain in detail.

 

just a thought of course and yes I suppose answer is no

[+gerwin 449]

According to some posts here, that is how the First Eagles terrain works right?

So if the game supports it, it is technically possible. Yet I have not seen any such terrain for SF2.

 

Me, I find the current resolutions just fine, and find the artwork quality of much greater importance: The painting, hiding the square patterns, and especially the color choice. The stock terrains could have looked quite a bit better if only they got the colors right.

 

I do see the problem with shorelines, roads and rivers. They are never exactly where you want them in relation to the heightmap. One can create and add alternate tiles that fit the spot better, but then one needs transitions too, and new TOD's, and new heightmap _hm.bmp's. So it is a lot of work. (That is why I am reluctant to add roads and rivers to IcelandNA.)

With enough custom tiles things can look quite nice though. Like the suez canal port in IsrealME.

 

As I like short loading times I stick to small tiles too. Looking forward to the arrival of my solid state disk. Did anyone else notice certain SSD prices decreased about 20% past days :)

Edited April 28, 2012 by gerwin

[+Stary 2,426]

denser tileset resolution would help, I'll elaborate on it later

[10107 768]

Hi Gerwin, have you revisited this with anymore updates? Its a great tool for modding the old Korea terrain.

[+gerwin 449]

Hi Gerwin, have you revisited this with anymore updates? Its a great tool for modding the old Korea terrain.

No, it is still the same thing.

I case of updates, it will be notified here.

[10107 768]

OK, thanks. Love the B function.

[Icarus999 70]

Hey Gerwin pardon my terrain building noobness ... I read through this thread and played with the tool to gain an understanding of it. Sorry if I'm asking a stupid question here, but can this tool allow Me to import a modified (repainted) and renamed tile, insert it in a chosen location (in place of the original)and then create a new TFD file? My repainted tile looks great in the location I want to place It, but I do not want it to pop up in other locations throughout the map because it would look odd. My solution is to rename it and place it by hand in the spots that i want it.

[+gerwin 449]

Icarus,

If you want to replace every occurence of a tile with a new tile-image, just replace the tile-image, you don't really need any tool for that.

 

If you want to add a new tile image only on certain hand picked locations: add the tile-image and manually make a new entry for it in the terrain_data.ini at the bottom of the list (with a unique number).

Now when starting TFDtool you can toggle a tile to your new entry (with pgup/pgdn key IIRC), then as it becomes visible use 'copy/paste' to paint the new tile to locations of choice.

 

Hope that answers your question.

[Icarus999 70]

Thanks, that cleared it up. Such a great and simple to use tool.

[+gerwin 449]

There is an update available, v0.83:

- F1 now shows the entire manual directly (html format).

- Global Mouse X Y coordinates are shown in meters at the bottom right of the screen.

 

Which probably raises the desire to have the mouse coordinates relative to a target area?

My first attempt to add a clickable menu system did not go as smooth as I hoped, it conflicted somehow. I postponed that for now.

[+suhsjake 11]

Which probably raises the desire to have the mouse coordinates relative to a target area?

 

Yes please. Make it easier for us who are lazy and not good with math.

[10107 768]

Hi Gerwin,

 

Any updates to the tool? Awesome bit of work it is.

Edited January 13, 2013 by 10107

[10107 768]

Gerwin,

 

A request based on your last update. You have the position of the mouse cursor being displayed there. Is it possible with the targets showing on the map that you could have a key command to copy the position of the cursor and then we could paste it into the target.ini?

 

If you could ever make this tool to be able to interact with the targets.ini to be able to manipulate it...would almost be the ultimate tool for terrains.

[+gerwin 449]

Progress on this program is not going as I hoped.

It relies on the open-source Allegro 4 game programming library, which I know very well.

But it is now confirmed that even the latest version of the library 4.4.2 is not thread safe on multicore systems, when using the mouse control/cursor.

(e.g. usage of the mouse cursor on a multi-core system gives a risk of crashing the application, and setting process affinity does not prevent it 100%)

 

Allegro 5 should be more reliable, but is quite different and lacks user interface routines AFAIK.

Since nobody seems currently serious in maintaining the Allegro 4 library, this issue will persist until I fix it myself one day.

There are some workarounds, but I don't like working on it when the library is in this state.

[Wrench 9,425]

I'd like to pose a question...

 

is there a way to create a 'stripped down' version, that only create planning maps? Mabye with some switches to 'show airbase' on/off, 'show grid' on/off sort of thing?

 

I ask because, for some reason, the old SFmap created has belly up on my machine since HD got replaced last year. And at time the TFD tool refuses to load some terrains (gives some kind of 'tile name error' or such. -I'll try and catch the error next time, so I can let you know

[+gerwin 449]

OK

If you cannot describe the problem, maybe send me the entire terrain that gives this trouble.

[10107 768]

Yeah Gerwin, your terrain tool is indispensable now. Too bad to hear about the dev software problems. The old sfMap tool, I haven't been able to make that work for a long time. But yours as it is now is working great. The only thing I still wish I could see is drag and drop target placement and manipulation of target areas directly editing the targetdata.ini with your GUI.

[Wrench 9,425]

that's impossible to do, and do CORRECTLY, with being able to read the TODs. You need to know WHERE exactly every single 'solid object' and 'alpha object' resides on each and every tile as to not have you terrain objects wind up inside them.

 

the only things that can be accurately dragged/dropped are airfields, as they use (read: need) a fully 'clear zone' tile for their placement

[+Julhelm 266]

If you can make custom tiles for airfields you can make custom tiles for area targets or urban targets. And don't drop targets on the foliage part of the texture because that probably has alphaobjects on it. Problem solved.

[Centurion-1 1,228]

If a TOD file maker could be made that would be awesome.

 

EDIT: And also, would it be possible to have some kind of "fill" function for TFD editor? Like it replaces all tiles with current tiles that are adjecent, kind of like a paint bucket tool in a painting program?

Edited March 27, 2013 by Centurion-1

[Wrench 9,425]

exactly like the paint bucket tool in the 3W TE ... and it will also need a 'directionality' function, just like the TE. "0", "90", "180", "270" and "Randomize"

otherwise you get 'checkerborading' of the tiles