desert4 terrain fix!

[Spudknocker]

Hey CA!  I have always had trouble with the desert 4 terrain... It's an awesome place to play with all the great airplanes available here on CA but I've always had a lot of crashes and other issues on this particular terrain... While searching for a fix for this issue I found a replacement for the first few entries in the Desert4_Data.ini that were buried wayy back in 2014 forums... 

 

All credit goes to Dave for this fix... Just figured i would share it in case anyone else was having this issue! just copy this and replace whats in your desert 4 data ini! 

 

[TerrainMesh]

TextureThreshold=0.80

LowDetailMeshThreshold=0.50

MedDetailMeshThreshold=0.30

TileToHeightGridRatio=4

RenderMeshVertexCount=6144

RenderMeshIndexCount=8192

SolidObjectVertexCount=6144

SolidObjectIndexCount=8192

AlphaObjectVertexCount=6144

AlphaObjectIndexCount=8192

 

[[HeightField]

DetailScale=1.0

DetailFrequency=1.0

MaxHeight=1000

MinHeight=0

 

[HeightOffset]

LowDetailMesh=-1.5

WaterMesh=0.8

 

[NormalTextureMaterial]

EffectShaderName=terTerrainEffect.fx

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=TRUE

RenderedInOrder=FALSE

AlphaTestEnabled=FALSE

CullMode=CLOCKWISE

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=FALSE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

ZBufferOffset=0.000000

BlendOp=ONE

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=NO_OP

 

[WaterTextureMaterial]

EffectShaderName=terWaterEffect.fx

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=TRUE

RenderedInOrder=FALSE

AlphaTestEnabled=FALSE

CullMode=CLOCKWISE

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=TRUE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

SpecularColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

SpecularPower=10.000000

Reflectivity=0.00000

ZBufferOffset=0.000000

BlendOp=ONE

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=NO_OP

 

[backgroundMaterial]

EffectShaderName=terFarTerrainEffect.fx

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=TRUE

RenderedInOrder=FALSE

AlphaTestEnabled=FALSE

CullMode=CLOCKWISE

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=FALSE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

ZBufferOffset=0.000000

BlendOp=ONE

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=NO_OP

 

[solidObjectTextureMaterial]

EffectShaderName=terSolidObject.fx

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=TRUE

RenderedInOrder=FALSE

AlphaTestEnabled=FALSE

CullMode=CLOCKWISE

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=FALSE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

ZBufferOffset=0.000000

BlendOp=ONE

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=NO_OP

 

[AlphaObjectTextureMaterial]

EffectShaderName=terAlphaObject.fx

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=FALSE

RenderedInOrder=TRUE

AlphaTestEnabled=TRUE

CullMode=NO_CULL

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=FALSE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

ZBufferOffset=2.000000

BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE

[+Wrench]

isn't that pretty much what I wrote back in 2010?

 

http://combatace.com/topic/54856-converting-sfwo-terrains-to-sf2-usage/

 

basiclly, you're adding the shader statements (ter****.fx)

why they (may have) been missing before on this terrain is beyond me.

[Spudknocker]

I believe the issue was actually in the terrain mesh section there were some HUGE numbers in there and I believe that was what was crashing my system 

 

[TerrainMesh]

TextureThreshold=0.80

LowDetailMeshThreshold=0.50

MedDetailMeshThreshold=0.30

TileToHeightGridRatio=4

RenderMeshVertexCount=6144

RenderMeshIndexCount=8192

SolidObjectVertexCount=6144

SolidObjectIndexCount=8192

AlphaObjectVertexCount=6144

AlphaObjectIndexCount=8192

[+Piecemeal]

If I remember correctly the reasons that the numbers were high was cos they were tailored for a high powered system that could handle it (ie: a gaming rig).

[+Wrench]

and...

for the amount of TOD objects

[Spudknocker]

Ah does anyone have a 512 tileset for the desert4 terrain? All my attempts have failed 

or like a toned down version of desert4 that might work better on less powerful systems?

[+Piecemeal]

Ah does anyone have a 512 tileset for the desert4 terrain? All my attempts have failed 

or like a toned down version of desert4 that might work better on less powerful systems?

 

Simple. Just resize the tiles yourself. AFAIK it can be done on any PC using Microsoft Paint.

[+Wrench]

one need to be especially careful with the tgas, as some programs tend to "eat" the alpha channel.

 

I'd try something like Gimp or Paint.not (gimp first) to resize them. Both are free programs

[Spudknocker]

Ya I tried resizing them myself but when I took a look at the TFD editior it showed all these pink holes in the terrain after I converted them to 512 and I made sure that there werent any tiles missing but no bueno 

 

Could I have resized them wrong?  I used GIMP and went to Image-Scale image then exported them as bmps

Edited April 16, 2016 by Spudknocker

[+Wrench]

pink holes means it can't read the tiles. Safe to assume these were sea and/or sea-land transitions?

 

tgas -- the sea, river, and sea-land transition tiles MUST remain as 32-bit tga (RGB + Alpha)

 

make sure you save as.. ***.tga

 

being unfamiliar with either gimp paint.net, I'm guessing that "scale" would be the same as Photoshops "resize".

[Spudknocker]

Yes I assume so Maybe Ill try it again!