drift501 1 Posted February 27, 2012 Hello. 1. I have just finished making a terrain in L3DT, imported it into visitor and converted it into a pew. I also have texture and texture attribute files. What do I do with these? 2. Do I place everything like towns, trees etc. in buldozer? 3. How do I make the in-game map with all the town names and green for forest edges? If you can help eother by answering one of these questions in this thread or linking me to a thread answering my question would be appreciated. Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
max power 21 Posted February 27, 2012 Here is the manual for visitor 3 :) http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Visitor_3_Manual Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
[aps]gnat 28 Posted February 27, 2012 Hi drift501 1. Replace the normal BIS tiles (sitting in the Data subdirectory of your project) with the tiles pulled from L3DT 2. Don't have to, but any item that needs to be placed accurately vs other objects (roads, pavement, buildings etc), you'll have to use Buldozer to enact that. 3. a) Town names are defined in the config b) ? Think this is manually placed items. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Robster 11 Posted February 27, 2012 At this thread there are some stickies tutorials to help you find out any general question you may have... anyways I guess you know a lot since import some L3DT files into Visitor3 is a big deal yet... You have to place objects manually or import them using some fancy custom made apps for A2... try with Danielle Pistollato's World Tools for massive placement of trees and other stuff... you might try with avenue script for placing electric poles besides roads and the like... just like you might see them in clafghan beta version ... for roads you could use Homer Jonston's Road Painter... it saves a lot of pain ;) To assign names you have to select one of the tools in the list... can't remember which one... but there you have to read wiki... isn't big deal... just remember that you have to manage your list of names as UTF-8 codification to be able to see special characters for non-english language... I recommend you to use Notepad++ for this purposes... The way forests are displayed is defined into config.cpp belonging to your island... it's a tricky process to know every detail around island config... I recommend you to read CCTOIDE's explanations Saludos washon! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bushlurker 46 Posted February 27, 2012 (edited) Hi drift.... You've discovered L3DT then? Great! It's one of the handiest tools around and can save loads of time since it generates "texture" and "attribute" layers which match your heightmap... In Visitor terms these are called "Satellite" and "Mask" layers.... They're imported into Visitor using a "control config" (Layers.cfg), which assigns different close-up "ground texture sets" to the different colours of the "mask"... This results, for example, in the proper "grass" texture (with clutter) at ground level, while the "Satellite layer" overlays to give an "overall grassy view" of the area at greater distances, or when flying overhead, when you're too far away to see the individual ground textures... Of course, that "surfaces mask image" and the "overall satellite view image" therefore have to match each other... as you've discovered, L3DT will generate pretty good - and perfectly matching - images which you can use pretty much straight away... There's a couple of other "control files" - cfgClutter, cfgSurfaces - which further define these individual closeup "under your feet" surfaces... Then there's an "overall config file" - this defines a whole load of stuff, from the name of your terrain in-game to airport runway positions, grid sizes.... just about everything else you can think of..... You should really have this whole structure in place, working and tested in-game before you start thinking about placing vegetation, objects or even roads... I'd suggest you take a look at My Beginners Terrain Guide for this initial working structure stage. It comes with a complete set of source files, including all these "control configs" I've mentioned, plus some basic ground texture sets and of course, a heightmap, plus matching Satellite & Mask layers (these last two will be immediately familiar since they're Texture and Attribute files derived directly from L3DT - just like yours)... There's an introductory beginners "setting things up" section you might want to briefly skim thru - just to make sure you're all set up correctly with a properly configured "P:\ drive", etc... After that, it basically steps through all the files one by one... at each stage it explains what the files do, where they go, and what bits you need to change... If you follow through right to the end, you'll find yourself with a completely repathed and restructured set of Sample files, which will binarize correctly and work nicely in game! At that stage you have your own guaranteed working structure! Delete the old heightmap, Satellite and Mask layers - substitute your own L3DT ones, and you're almost ready with a working terrain! Along the way you'll learn a little about the different config files and what they do, and the whole process will be much more understandable... What this tutorial doesn't cover is - all the rest!... Placing roads, objects, vegetation... when you get to that stage there's a couple of other tutorials worth taking a look at... Mondkalb's Terrain Tutorial, for example, is worth a look... Don't rush ahead! It's really important that you get this basic structure and files in place and working first... get the basic landscape with it's core ground textures and overall sat layer working and in-game... Then you have a solid base to start adding features and objects to... Don't be intimidated! There's a lot of stuff to take in at first, but there's no genius-level coding involved, no Leonardo-level art skills required... your biggest asset will be simple patience... Take your time - worth thru the tutorial - see all the little individual pieces fit together to produce a working terrain - then all you need to do is substitute your own pieces, and your terrain will work too! Good luck!!! B Edited February 28, 2012 by Bushlurker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
drift501 1 Posted February 28, 2012 Thanks all. I got a terrain working using all your tips and mondkalbs tutorial. Now I need to replace heightmap, sat map etc. into visotor, set up the configs (looks easy now thanks to these tutorials) and see what it looks like ingame. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
