.....Tiles.

[+SidDogg]

Hello, all!

 

Feels like I'm more serious than normal

 

Received some aid for my terrain already, it is AWESOME, appreciate it.

 

I was measuring distances in the TFDViewer against real maps. Quite accurate

 

I realized I could step up my tile game even HIGHER, if I had the know-how...

 

so i searched on line. there are websites with tutorials out there...

 

the way most explained, despite the fact that i was good at math in school...

 

..i'm not really into all the UberCalculus sh*t.

 

but umm....I know there IS Ace caliber tiling expertise up in here.

 

so I must inquire.

 

how WOULD I go about making a terrain tile in a image program? from scratch?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Wrench]

welll.................

it kinda sorta depends on what kind of tile you wanna make. Is it a transition tile (sea/land, farm/mountain, etc) or a regular kind?

 

it's all done with layers...lots and lots of layers depending what the finished result requires (then, of course, if it's a city...adding the TOD buildings, which can only be done in the TE)

 

it's not really all that hard; as a skinner you should be used to multiple layers.

i should have, either archived or floating around somewhere various psds for tiles I've had to make.

 

anyway, ask your questions, I'll do my best to answer!

Edited December 22, 2011 by Wrench

[+Wrench]

oh, and btw, STAY AWAY FROM THE ISRAELME TILESET!!!! they really and truely suck

[+SidDogg]

LOL...okay okay okay

 

Well, check it out.

 

I DO understand most camouflage skins are made of layers and all...

 

but for example... a hilly or a rocky/mountainous tile.

 

i notice the 3D visual effect given off by the "shadows".

 

how would i start one of those?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[liamp51]

oh, and btw, STAY AWAY FROM THE ISRAELME TILESET!!!! they really and truely suck

 

[+Wrench]

oh, sure...ask about the one tile type I haven't really worked with!!

 

the only mountain types I've done are the snow to jungle/rock (VeitnamJR-Snow 25/50/75) for the Andes on the Panama map

[+SidDogg]

...oh, im sorry

 

...well, how about a farm tile?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Wrench]

ok, let's narrow it down... which tile set are you using for Japan? (for the KAW terrain, we used the 'germanyce' named set, but the tiles were custom made by Stary) Germany or Vietnam (I used vietnam for the WW2 'okinawa)

 

it is a farm/city, farm/river, farm/river/city, farm/jungle, etc.

 

once i know the tile set, I can answer better

[+SidDogg]

...no jungles in japan

 

lots of forest

 

i already use GermanyCE for it...

 

i will name them in that format.

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Wrench]

well, not so much 'jungle', it how the tiles are named by TK

 

series tile name:

 

GermanyG* = grass/farmland

GermanyJ* = forest (ie: jungle)

GermanyC* = city

GermanyR* = 'rock' (or plains/grasslands)

GermanyA* = alpine, snow covered

GermanyS* = sea (includes sea/land transitions)

Germany **Riv = river tiles

 

don't forget, Stary's beautiful 4-season set for the final version (depending on where the snow falls in Japan -- it'll look funny in Kokura)

Edited December 22, 2011 by Wrench

[+SidDogg]

alright, so i know the tile types...

 

so how would i start a farm tile from scratch?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Wrench]

what exactly to be done? just replace an existing or create a new one for a specific use?

 

for instace, on the MidWest map, I needed new farm & city river tiles (as the original river was too small)

 

I took a germanyce RivS, RivT, C-RivS, C-RivT, and create a psd with them as the underlying layer (bottom layer is the sea tile, for it's matching water)

 

the example below is a city-river-farm tarnsition

 

i started with a sea the bottom, duplicated it. the dropped the germany tile on top, then the ISME city/farm tile on top of that. Then, lower the opacity of the city layer to see the river and using a small eraser tool (soft round 5) and follow the river banks and erase the ISme city parts that cover them. Since the germansea is a different color, I then erase the middle section of the river on THAT tile, leaving the banks their sandy/brown color. (repaint as necessary).

Bring the opacity back to normal on the city tile, to see how they match. Do this back and forth until the river looks like it should. The flatten the layers and save as whatever name fits

 

since this has water, it'll need a tga, but that's for anothr time

 

what kind of farm tile are you tring to create?

Edited December 22, 2011 by Wrench

[+SidDogg]

Basically types that inter-mix with city tiles.

 

I will need transitions also, but mainly around here, a number of people still grow their food, even around urban areas...

 

that whole layer thing seems nifty

 

i know how the terrain mixes...i guess i was just thinking about manually painting it

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Baltika]

Hi SD,

 

I'm no expert, but I have built a new tileset from scratch for Iceland Terrain.

 

Brain32 or Stary are probably the guys to talk to, if you can't get hold of MajorLee or Deuces, and of course Wrench has done a huge amount of terrain work, so, I'm just a beginner in that company.

 

But, first thing, work out what image manipulation software you want to use. Lots of people use photoshop, I use gimp and PAINT.NET because they are free and, between them, they have functionality to do everything you want to, including adding alpha channels etc for sea tiles and se-to-land trnasitions. gimp also has stacks of plug-ins for image manipulation to give all sorts of tecture effects on your tiles to increase the ground "noise" which improves low-level flight.

 

Then, find an image source. This depends on what part of the world you are re-creating. Google earth is great. Browse around on a high details setting, and use the save image function to save lots of jpegs or bmps of fields from japan or wherever.

 

then, crop your raw images to create a likely looking set of field tiles. Terrain tiles are obviously square, stock terrains are 256x256, some of the beautiful custom sets are much higher res. Brain32 suggested working on your tile in 1024x1024 then resizing to 512x512 for the final cut to save texture memory. you'll just have to go with what feels best to you.

 

So you have a lot of square bmps with pictures of fields on them. Put them in TE and you'll get a patchwork quilt of squares.

 

The real artwork - and it seems to me it is an artform - is to make the tiles seamless with all the other tiles of the same type whichever way they are rotated. That's tough. There are a few online tutorials around to teach it, gimp has a function which automates the process, but if you use it you'll get an endlessly repeating pattern, which of course is to be avoided at all costs.

 

Try this for a start:-

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3028/tiled_terrain.php?print=1

 

See how you get on. I have found (after many false starts) that it is probably easier to create a new terrain set from scratch then work on converting an exisitng one. Of course, if you do that, you lose compatability with exisitng terrains which use any of the stock tilesets. But, as Stary can tell you, it's a lot of work to repaint every terrain tile (and all the transitions) in an existing tileset.

 

Hope that gives you some idea of where to start.

 

After one seamless tile type, you create a new tile type, eg forests or whatever. then, you have to create all the combinations of transition tiles between each of the tile types. It gets to be a lot of painting very fast the larger the number of unique tile types.

 

Good luck, hope that gives you a starting point.

 

Slainthe,

 

Baltika

[+Wrench]

what city, so I can see it in Google Earth, and get a better idear? (done a lot of work on the Home Island, both for Korea and WW2 Okinawa -which uses the vientam tiles)

[+SidDogg]

hmmm......okay

 

all has been considered.

 

(WILL be back with more questions )

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+SidDogg]

ALRIGHTY, FOLKS!!!!!

 

Been making HUGE headway on this thing, despite aforementioned difficulties...

 

NOW! The next question I have is.....

 

...How MANY tiles CAN a TE TextureList Hold?

 

I've made a BUNCH of my own Transition, Road and River tiles from the stock set for now.

 

They look good, but when I attempt to add them all to the TextureList in TE... it just stopped at a certain point, and the list refuses to take on any more

 

...has anyone else run into this issue?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+SidDogg]

...Alright, alright, alright.

 

I may have spoken too soon.

 

It seems some tiles may not be saved right...

 

I'm on it

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Wrench]

how MANY are you using??

 

the most I've done/used, iirc, is around 200. In theory, like all things TW, 3digit max should go to 999 (like in types and targets listings)

 

I assume you're using the WoV/WoE TE???

[+SidDogg]

how MANY are you using??

 

the most I've done/used, iirc, is around 200. In theory, like all things TW, 3digit max should go to 999 (like in types and targets listings)

 

I assume you're using the WoV/WoE TE???

 

Da good ole WoE/SF2E...

 

...It looks like it's gonna be upwards of 200.

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+SidDogg]

Hello, All!

 

Made all of my tiles! Just working out bugs...

 

...which beings me to the next question.

 

...how DO i get good river tiles???

 

I made them, but then in-game, instead of just the river portion, the ENTIRE tile REFLECTS light, like a water shader...

 

...as if the whole tile were water.

 

Perhaps folks here have SUCCESSFILLY made their own river tiles from scratch?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Wrench]

I'm betting your alpha channed dosen't look like this....

[+SidDogg]

.....neaux, nought reeley.

 

how might i begin going about that?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+Wrench]

paint brush, and black paint everywhere but the river itself

 

albeit without the picture (don't know where it went...)

this'll be of some help:

 

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

 

in other words, use a alpha off the SEA1 or SEA2 (since youre VnSEA tiling) and paint around it

Edited January 7, 2012 by Wrench

[+SidDogg]

so, basically, PS is the only program that can do it?

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg