Lexx_Luthor

Basher, those are some interesting experiments. Thanks. Need MORE! Also consider that after a certain Patch some time ago, each AI aircraft type can be defined with restricted AI visual ability out their AI cockpits. I have not experimented with this yet, but I see it in the ini files, so I don't know if these values even work yet in the game. As we are forced to use visual means to roughly approximate BVR, this visual restriction on AI might be an extra method. For example, say restricting visuals to the front to simulate narrow radar cones. Stuff like that. I'll be interested in stuff like this soon.

I've been wanting to do a true fireworks display. That would be an interesting wrestling match with the ini files. Say your side (well...you) win a campaign, you land at home base and see a massive fireworks celebration (just for you). Total cornball, but the technical challenge may prove irresistable.

Missed communication? Brain32:: GreyCap:: Brain is correct. GreyCap is correct. How? An example may be better than my attempts at bloaviating. In the ground shooter games, you can see mountains and clouds maybe 30 miles away. In the ship combat sims, you can see mountains and clouds maybe 30 miles away. In the combat flight The Sims, you can see mountains and clouds maybe....30 miles away What is needed is modelling the Earth in full detail AS SEEN FROM HIGH ABOVE -- which means the detail seen from aircraft replace the detail seen from the ground -- less but more at the same time. Also, the same attention paid to cloud types and behavior as the ground combat sim developers give buildings, trees, gullies, streams, etc... These have never been done before by a stock published sim that I know of. Since I avoid most combat flight The Sims like a plague, I'm not entirely sure though.

Right. Lacking the proper 3-way transition tile, the TE fills in with something else...usually the first tile type listed. This error seems to get extended in long lines as you find in your screenshot. Good to know -- if TE lacks a needed 2-way transition, the primary is not even plotted. I had this happen a few days ago but I guessed I might be missing a 2-way and I was right. It was the *last* thing I thought of. I hope an advanced TE would automatically generate 3-way transition tiles for two reasons. In some ways, they are more simple than 2-way transitions. A 3-way transition can be nicely approximated with a tile divided into a long rectangle (the primary tile type) and two blocks (the second and third "transition to" tile types). The main problem with 3-ways is there are potentially so many needed. I once derived (I think) a formula for unrestricted tile population growth, and the 3-ways explode in number astronomically, far more than even 2-ways. By unrestricted I mean no trying to keep tile types away from each other. I look for opportunities of this to avoid some 3-way requirements.

umm no, I don't have WOI.

Ballons in WOI?! Balloons are a primary feature of classical era strategic air warfare. Anybody want to make some stratospheric recon balloons?

Looks like you might be missing a set of 3-way transition tiles, or they are not defined or referenced properly. That happens to me. You have 4 terrain types here: forest, sea, city, and field. In this tight a space, you may need to 3way all four types, which could get rather involved.

Okay, for now, use water=0 in your Texturelist so you see the bmp tiles, just like any other terrain tile. You won't have water sun reflections though. This requires tga. I don't yet know how to construct a tga for this. Others here will help. Can the old tga's work if you referenced them?

I attempted too way much -- sorry. I eliminated the Alpine 3-way mess and ALL Alpine related tiles, and cleaned out some bugs in the simple version of the Texturelist. Only the terrain tiles needed by the simple version are included in the download. Total tiles number 71 now. New (partial) Texturlist below... For some inspiration: B-52s climbing out from Thule in Greenland, heading...south...to the Soviet Union, several hours away. Partial Texturelist... [TerrainData] TerrainTileSize=2000.000000 ....need to change this to 4000 HeightScale=100.000000 [TextureTypeList] TypeName001=Sea TypeName002=Tundra TypeName003=Taiga TypeName004=MountA TypeName005=MountB TypeName006=Glacier TypeName007=Desert TypeName008=Baikal [sea] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=0 MaxAltitude=0 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=1 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=0 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=0 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=0 ExcludeMinY=0 ExcludeMaxY=0 [Tundra] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=1 MaxAltitude=699 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=0 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=0 RandomFactor=1 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=1 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=6000 ExcludeMinY=0 ExcludeMaxY=3000 [Taiga] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=1 MaxAltitude=699 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=0 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=1 RandomFactor=5 GroupingFactor=50 ExclusionRegion=1 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=6000 ExcludeMinY=3400 ExcludeMaxY=6000 [MountA] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=700 MaxAltitude=5499 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=0 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=1 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=1 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=6000 ExcludeMinY=3700 ExcludeMaxY=6000 [MountB] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=5500 MaxAltitude=9999 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=0 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=0 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=1 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=6000 ExcludeMinY=3700 ExcludeMaxY=6000 [Glacier] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=400 MaxAltitude=9999 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=0 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=1 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=1 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=6000 ExcludeMinY=0 ExcludeMaxY=3700 [Desert] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=700 MaxAltitude=1400 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=1 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=6 Priority=2 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=1 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=6000 ExcludeMinY=1320 ExcludeMaxY=6000 [baikal] Water=0 UseAutoPlacement=1 CheckAltitude=1 MinAltitude=455 MaxAltitude=456 CheckCity=0 MinCityDistance=0 MaxCityDistance=0 CheckSlope=1 MinSlope=0 MaxSlope=0 Priority=2 RandomFactor=100 GroupingFactor=0 ExclusionRegion=1 ExcludeMinX=0 ExcludeMaxX=2900 ExcludeMinY=0 ExcludeMaxY=6000 [TextureMapList] Filename001=Sea.bmp Filename002=Tundra.bmp Filename003=Tundra-Sea25.bmp Filename004=Tundra-Sea50.bmp Filename005=Tundra-Sea75.bmp Filename006=Taiga.bmp Filename007=Taiga-Sea25.bmp Filename008=Taiga-Sea50.bmp Filename009=Taiga-Sea75.bmp Filename010=Taiga-Tundra25.bmp Filename011=Taiga-Tundra50.bmp Filename012=Taiga-Tundra75.bmp Filename013=MountA.bmp Filename014=MountA-Tundra25.bmp Filename015=MountA-Tundra50.bmp Filename016=MountA-Tundra75.bmp Filename017=MountA-Taiga25.bmp Filename018=MountA-Taiga50.bmp Filename019=MountA-Taiga75.bmp Filename020=MountB.bmp Filename021=MountB-MountA25.bmp Filename022=MountB-MountA50.bmp Filename023=MountB-MountA75.bmp Filename024=Glacier.bmp Filename025=Glacier-Sea25.bmp Filename026=Glacier-Sea50.bmp Filename027=Glacier-Sea75.bmp Filename028=Glacier-Tundra25.bmp Filename029=Glacier-Tundra50.bmp Filename030=Glacier-Tundra75.bmp Filename031=Desert.bmp Filename032=Desert-Sea25.bmp Filename033=Desert-Sea50.bmp Filename034=Desert-Sea75.bmp Filename035=Desert-Taiga25.bmp Filename036=Desert-Taiga50.bmp Filename037=Desert-Taiga75.bmp Filename038=Desert-MountA25.bmp Filename039=Desert-MountA50.bmp Filename040=Desert-MountA75.bmp Filename041=Baikal.bmp Filename042=Baikal-Taiga25.bmp Filename043=Baikal-Taiga50.bmp Filename044=Baikal-Taiga75.bmp Filename045=Baikal-MountA25.bmp Filename046=Baikal-MountA50.bmp Filename047=Baikal-MountA75.bmp Filename048=Sea-Tundra-Taiga.bmp Filename049=Sea-Taiga-Tundra.bmp Filename050=Tundra-Sea-Taiga.bmp Filename051=Tundra-Taiga-Sea.bmp Filename052=Taiga-Sea-Tundra.bmp Filename053=Taiga-Tundra-Sea.bmp Filename054=Sea-Tundra-Glacier.bmp Filename055=Sea-Glacier-Tundra.bmp Filename056=Tundra-Sea-Glacier.bmp Filename057=Tundra-Glacier-Sea.bmp Filename058=Glacier-Sea-Tundra.bmp Filename059=Glacier-Tundra-Sea.bmp Filename060=Taiga-MountA-Desert.bmp Filename061=Taiga-Desert-MountA.bmp Filename062=MountA-Taiga-Desert.bmp Filename063=MountA-Desert-Taiga.bmp Filename064=Desert-Taiga-MountA.bmp Filename065=Desert-MountA-Taiga.bmp Filename066=Taiga-MountA-Baikal.bmp Filename067=Taiga-Baikal-MountA.bmp Filename068=MountA-Taiga-Baikal.bmp Filename069=MountA-Baikal-Taiga.bmp Filename070=Baikal-Taiga-MountA.bmp Filename071=Baikal-MountA-Taiga.bmp

Pf, your water tiles (water=1), are they tga files? Poast a sample water section out of your terrain's _DATA file. I have not developed tga tiles for my terrain yet. I just have the boring bmp, no sun reflections. I don't know much about this aspect.

Oh yea, eraser, I dunno. I never tried the TE way of making texture list. I always built it up in the text file, copy pasting and editing. Now I'm pulling my hair over a new problem that popped up for me. Can't figure it out. -- EDIT ... ughh I didn't have a 2-way transition. Now it works. Never would have guessed it, the two tiles didn't seem to meet anywhere.

You won't have to. I dreaded the same thing, long ago. I didn't have to. I ended up being able to autotexture lakes everywhere I wanted across Mongolia, up to over 2000m altitude.

I forgot to mention the ideas for Texturelist came from the biomes. World Biomes ~> http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/world_biomes.htm kct:: It would take very roughly about maybe close to 6 hours to cross the map. Say two hours in NGHENGO's WB-70 ..... "W" for WIP. Shucks it may need the space to turn around at Mach 3. On the other hand, the PVO player would enjoy industry standard "combat flight sim" mission time, which is one good thing about the often limited endurance of Soviet interceptors under afterburner, Tu-128 excepted (two in WIP the last we heard). Setup with realistic fuel consumption, this sim is unique in offereing the greatest challenge in managing fuel in afterburner with classical jets, an age when both cars and missiles sported huge fins. According to Bill Gunsten, the Su-7 had about 6 minutes flying time in afterburner at low level.

Yeps. Another form of gap is slope gap...a gap in slope checking. TileA and TileB have the same altitude ranges, but TileA slopes 0-5 and TileB slopes 7-90. There is no tile checking for slope 6. I assume these are degrees. Any combination of slope and altitude gaps must be watched for. Another tip: Priority=N with N=0,1,2,3... In case of equal definitions (not just altitude), the higher priority tile will be used instead of a lower priority tile. I see no limits on priority definition within the non-negative integers. Say TileA has Priority=N and TileB has Priority=(N+M), M=0,1,2,3.... If N+M > N, TileB will be used instead of TileA (ie...M > 0). In English: You can have priority gaps, but they don't matter. Just what number is greater than another, no matter by how much. Pf, it seems in the other thread you got this working right?

mmm, I do sea with min and max both zero. I'm not sure it matters if the detail spans multiple meter ranges. pf, do you have 3-way transitions with sea? A number of things can cause what looks like sea tile contamination there. Another is lack of definition of tile placement. If TE can't find a defined tile it uses the first one listed, and that may be sea in your case. I'll take a closer look later tonight.

Targets are way in the future. It may be helpful to recall that 36 standard SF maps fit into this thing.

A better view of blank tiles, including transition tiles. Beyond the Yak is the big "island" poking out into Lake Baikal. This island in particular, and Lake Baikal in general, I use as a standard for getting results I want. I had to hand tile the island and land bridge to get it right. The double size height map scale and tile size cause this requirement for hand tiling (takes about 10 seconds). The Auto Transition tiling takes care of the rest. ...altitude about 4 to 6 kilometers...

Kinda long. Maybe better with B-70. I uploaded it, Terrain section, but the field is "white" so I don't know if it took.

Here is what I'm currently using... [Day] : : SkyColor=0.0,0.18,0.27 ** As far as I know, the best thing you can do is look for a compromise between normal and dark blues until you find something you would like to stay with. I have not done so yet! I'm going through one of my dark phases. Its a cyclic thing for me.

Sounds like an interesting project you are working on! Here are some pics, not quite 600,000 feet ~> http://www.incredible-adventures.com/migs/...e-of-space.html

File Name: The Six Million Meter Map (fix TextureList) File Submitter: Lexx_Luthor File Submitted: 23 April 2008 File Category: Terrains Currrently correct Texturlist file. Download includes only the tiles needed for "simple" version without complications of the Alpine biome attempted earlier. 6000km in size and purely experimental, this map is the beginning of a long term terrain project that hopefully may generate some interest in classical era strategic air warfare. USE REQUIREMENT: Be complete Master of the Terrain Editor (TE)....well the map could be used in the game as-is to experiment with, and a few example SAC and PVO airfields are located in interesting locations although some (x > 2400km) don't show up correctly in KMD which was not made for this type of oversize map. As far as I know, TE by itself can generate a maximum size map of 4800km with four GTOPO30 DEM files. This map is made of several pasted smaller maps, thus allowing a larger size. The included terrain tiles (4km size) are development blanks -- solid colours -- which are required for visibility at full zoomed out views in Terrain Editor. Included are a working Texturelist file and only the needed 71 tile blanks. Both Texturelist and the CityList filenames begin with "0" -- a zero -- so they appear first in the tiny TE open file box. A 6000 pixel import map is included. But most simple is to just "open" the HFD file (called "Baikal"), or one may import the 6000 pixel bmp file. If importing, use this in TE ini file... [bitmapImport] HeightScale=41.5 MinLandHeight=1 Before importing, in the TE choose File-New and use the following values... Terrain Map Size 6000 Texture Tile Resolution 4000 Height Field Resolution 1000 MANY thanks to Gepard for sharing this tip in the Brain Base terrain tutorials ~> http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showforum=191 The 6000 pixel bmp was developed by importing many GTOPO30 DEM files at 25% height scale, then exporting them each at the TE default's 10, then importing the final cut-n-pasted 6000 pixel bmp at height scale of 41.5. This results in 456m height for Lake Baikal which is my reference, and allows a few Himalaya peaks nearing 8800m. The 4km textures and 1km height field scale are double SF standard, resulting in some loss of terrain detail but the great advantage is a reasonable map size on hard disk and in game loading. A standard detailed map is easily possible, but at four times the size -- a whopping 275MB HFD file. Also, a vastly higher horizon distance can be used without performance loss. I'm currently running 250km horizon distance with an old ATI-9200 video card. Ideas for terrain tileage came from World Biomes website ~> http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/world_biomes.htm Click here to download this file