Stary

very funny

lol, sorry Shotgun, I was typing fast

yes, then the mesh is displayed the way you mapped it in Max -I plan some Il2 style layered forests in my test island (which will be available with Max source files for modders) if you do use l_ prefix then the textures are shader based, with rocky one on vertical surfaces, kinda like the old Terrain Editor aurotexturing worked there at least two other types of surface (grass and black lava rock) in NA map I wasn't yet able to put onto my map @Icarus, no no trees for now, just modified Iceland_Dirt1.jpg texture, BUT the tree page back is mesh created in Max, automatically placed by engine, the entry for trees is in IcelandNA_data.ini: [TreeMesh] Filename=iceland_trees.LOD Shader=iceland_Trees.fx MeshSize=1000.0 // was 4000.0 MeshCount=500 //was 2 MaxVisibleHeight=10000.0 Fubar, these are parts taken from Baltika's Philippines islands heightmap...

standard 80000 by default Dave, haven't pushed them back myself yet

I use modified ones as you can see, but there's ugly thing related to the way the are blending together

here's test mesh I put together, please note that if the mesh doesn't show on a radar screen there is 100% chance it's not collidable... strange, isn't it? (ok, given the way radar operates... not)

yeah, sorry, I put the w_ and l_ parts in the edited post, haven't seen yours

SZ, from as I start to understand the format, Iceland is made of 266 LODs listed in IcelandNA_Data.ini, I'm trying to duplicate the effect in a test map I work on: as you can see, bigger islands are split into smaller sub-parts to allow the exporter do it's work, meshes above ~5000 polys crashes Max then you can put them onto map via terrain's _data.ini [Mesh001] Filename=isle1.LOD Position=261100.172,271084.313 [Mesh002] Filename=isle2.LOD Position=252828.125,279347.0 [Mesh003] Filename=isle3.LOD Position=259179.703,288790.063 [Mesh004] Filename=isle4.LOD Position=239328.656,290607.469 [Mesh005] Filename=isle5.LOD Position=233773.359,284218.406 [Mesh006] Filename=isle6a.LOD Position=206838.703,277648.031 [Mesh007] Filename=isle6b.LOD Position=210830.828,265988.063 etc water is globally made as planar mesh, in my map's case 500x500 kilometers, added via this line in _data.ini: [DefaultMesh] Filename=test_water.LOD <- the name of the water mesh texturing is done automatically via shaders I guess, making own blablabla_Detail_Map.bmp has no impact in my case, even when kept as Iceland_Detail_map.bmp edit; further info: the animated sea close to the camera is automatically created as a locked (?) distance from the camera previously I tried making whole map as [DefaultMesh] object, but to my suprise the mesh (sea plus those individual parts linked to it) started to repeat all over the terrain like a enormous 3D tile, kind of like in Novalogic's voxel terrains if you remember those making the individual parts as well, individual LODs and listing them in terrain's _Data.ini makes them having collisionmesh by themselfes, not allways working for me now, but you don't have to create COL files (which would be pointless repetation of the same meshes in the end) IMPORTANT: as per IcelandNA_data.ini, the global water mesh must have w_ prefix in Max for the mesh, like "w_test_water", and landmasses have to be named with l_ prefic, like "l_isle5", how you name the exported LOD isn't that important it seems -that prefix decides which shader (sea/land etc) use with the part (or node as we would call it)

Kevin, that's why keeping OLD (release date) installs somewhere is the key! You can install, for example SF2Europe 2009 release and extract the files from cat archives using 3rd party extractor, as I did yesterday

Umut, in my test terrain, I extracted full GermanyCE into it to work on familiar objects but BEWARE! you have to use older installation GermanyCE.cat and older cat extractor!!! I used Gerwin's one and Dec2010 install GermanyCE.cat, new cat extractor from TW prevents even older terrain Cat files from extracting fully!

We'll crack it finally, even if that means making 3rd party full Cat extractor... I discovered we can have automatically placed trees on terrain water this title WILL give me schizophrenia, I tell you that!

Nice discovery -iceland engine supports automatic trees placement, here's my tree mesh in lod format placed automatically definable via _Data.ini

very untrue, as a lot models had none historically...

Thing I'd love to see but suppose is not going to happen Canturion seems he locked BIG part of terrain cat (some 90%...) and .fx files specifically to prevent us from making comparable (or, as community proved through the past years) better 3rd party terrains in the future. Smells like DLC terrains. And then downfall of the series, IMO. SF was allways about modding, the man should have understand that years ago...

(rant on) the more time I spend with NA the more I am suprised he didn't locked the new engine in a crypt 300 ft under Parani desert. Or the whole title. (rant off) it's got potential, but... we need the IcelandNA.cat FULLY opened

cracking the b**ch new terrain format is: Still lots of issues, I'll post some of my notes WHEN I decide I'm up to something btw, have 3-4 fps at that scene on unlimited edit: from what I learned so far based on making custom iceland_detailmap.bmp, and as Jules was hinting to earlier, seems we're limited to... (dramatic drums here) 4 ground textures

+4 Grinch!!!

you can export HFD data from Terrain Editor as green to orange bitmap and use it in MAX to create mesh displacement, been there done that, texturing is the completely other thing as now it's apparently shader based. When I'll be back home I want to test few ideas myself regarding texturing

That makes two of us, all the cracking the new stuff excitement frustration aside. Ale, TK released the CAT extractor yesterday (but it doesn't "see" and do not extract LOD files)

I'm in the other home, but back in the first place I'll concentrate on cracking the terrain format... that after this weekend I guess

Su-7 BMK cockpit uploaded by Kukulino (where are you brother!?) based on Su-15 Flagon one, early 2008 upload

I thought the NA one is detailed (mesh wise)

can't find it Icarus

5000? not 50000? Hmmm must check.The worst thing I'll have access to only XP/Dx9 old system next days, geeez talk about bad luck!

yes but max crashes on export, reason unknown, I tried to keep around 20000 polys per part edit: of course when things are getting really interesting I have to go out for few days will be back around Sunday, have fun guys!