Black textures in buldozer

[Moulder 1]

So I'm creating a new map from scratch to develop an idea I have but I've run in to some problems after a few days of looking at tutorials, wikis and endless lines of code examples I just can't get the textures to load properly in buldozer (Arma3) via Visitor.

I'll detail everything I have done as much as possible;

1. I created a heightmap which was a pain but now it works as indented in Visitor and also shows properly in buldozer.
   
2. I unpacked and unwrapped all the Arma 3 configs and textures and moved all the needed files to P:.
   
3. Created the rvmats based on what I could find here "guidewise"
   
4. Imported the heightmap in to Visitor3
   
5. Setup the texture folder in Visitor3
   
6. Imported my layers with Sat and Mask-Lco.png
   
7. Converted the Mask and Sat grids generated to paa
   
8. Connected to buldozer
   

This took a fair amount of trial and error but when I load buldozer now I don't get any errors (had a lot of can't load errors before fixing the layers.cfg och rvmats) but I still get only this

Here is a rundown of my files and folders etc :

P:/BFSE

- bfse.pew

P:/BFSE/data

- (all nopx, mco, co and rvmats)

ambient[] = {0.9,0.9,0.9,1};
diffuse[] = {0.9,0.9,0.9,1};
forcedDiffuse[] = {0.02,0.02,0.02,1};
specular[] = {0.0,0.0,0.0,0};
specularPower = 1; // specular interpolator must be enabled
emmisive[] = {0,0,0,0};

PixelShaderID = "NormalMapDiffuse";
VertexShaderID = "NormalMapDiffuseAlpha";

class Stage1
{ // normal map
texture="BFSE\data\BFSE_gdt_grass_green_nopx.paa";
uvSource="tex";
class uvTransform
{
	aside[] = {10,0,0};
	up[] = {0,10,0};
	dir[] = {0,0,10};
	pos[] = {0,0,0};
};
};

class Stage2
{
texture="BFSE\data\BFSE_gdt_grass_green_co.paa";
uvSource="tex";
class uvTransform
{
	aside[] = {10,0,0};
	up[] = {0,10,0};
	dir[] = {0,0,10};
	pos[] = {0,0,0};
};
};

(all rvmats are more or less identical to that one)

co and nopx from Arma3 extraction

mco from someone here who had them generated 2-3MB/each

rvmats as above

P:/BFSE/data/layers

- (all the layers files and rvmats)

P:/BFSE/Source

- Layers.cfg

class Layers
{
class BFSE_strforest_pine
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_strforest_pine_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_strforest_pine.rvmat";
};

class BFSE_gdt_grass_green
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_grass_green_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_grass_green.rvmat";
};

class BFSE_strgreengrass
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_strgreengrass_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_strgreengrass.rvmat";
};

class BFSE_gdt_strdrygrass
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strdrygrass_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strdrygrass.rvmat";
};


class BFSE_gdt_strdirt
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strdirt_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strdirt.rvmat";
};

class BFSE_gdt_strseabed
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strseabed_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strseabed.rvmat";
};

class BFSE_strthistles
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_strthistles_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_strthistles.rvmat";
};


class BFSE_gdt_strrocky
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strrocky_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strrocky.rvmat";
};

class BFSE_gdt_strbeach
{
	texture = "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strbeach_mco.paa";
	material= "BFSE\Data\BFSE_gdt_strbeach.rvmat";
};

};


class Legend
{
picture="BFSE\Source\mapLegend.png";
class Colors
{
	BFSE_gdt_strforest_pine[]={{0,75,0}};  	
	BFSE_gdt_grass_green[]={{90,145,0}}; 	
	BFSE_gdt_strgreengrass[]={{190,145,0}};		
	BFSE_gdt_strdrygrass[]={{110,190,0}};	
	BFSE_gdt_strdirt[]={{250,200,90}};		
	BFSE_gdt_strseabed[]={{100,110,100}};			
	BFSE_gdt_strthistles[]={{150,160,150}};		
	BFSE_gdt_strrocky[]={{215,215,150}};	
	BFSE_gdt_strbeach[]={{74,74,74}};		

};

};

- mapLegend.png

- SatLco.png (5120x5120)

- MaskLco.png (5120x5120, have one 4 color version and one 9 color version, tried both)

P:/BFSE/Source/Terrain

- Terrain.bmp (5120x5120)

- Terrain.png (2048x2048)

- Terrain.pbl

[spoiler=Terrain.pbl][pre]class cfg

{

PNGfilename="Terrain.png";

squareSize=60.000000;

originX=0;

originY=0;

minHeight=-155;

maxHeight=500;

};[/pre]

P:/BFSE/a3 (auto generated with the script from Pbodll site)

Like I said, I don't get any errors on loading the map in buldozer but it still just shows as above without textures or alphas, I've also "cloned" my ArmaWork in to my Arma3 folder and have a3 and a3_bin extracted etc.

Any help would be great, I must be missing something but not sure what >_< since I don't get any error and have almost gone blind staring at the screen trying to find something that is "off" compared to how other people do it I'm at my wits end.

solutions I've tried so far;

1. Rename all files etc to lowercase only

2. A multitude of different sizes on all the different images used

3. Changed shaders in the rvmats files

4. Using the original mapLegend.png and altering colors to match on mask

5. Variance in mapsize

6. making all the _mco paa to png and using those instead

So far no luck, it's still that black texture only, if I redirect the texture folder in Visitor3 the ground turns untextured white meaning it is textured just black :(

[m1lkm8n 410]

Are your project folder, a3 folder copied over to your a3 directory? (Just Saw you did that.) but Also after converting png to paa you need to then copy those files into the project folder in the a3 directory as well.

Being so because when you launch a3 as buldozer it thinks the arma3 directory is your p drive.

Also and I'm not entirely sure about this one but I would grab the maplegend.png out of one of the bis sample tutorial islands because I think it's supposed to be a gradient.

Edited April 11, 2013 by M1lkm8n

[Moulder 1]

Ah so I need to have a bfse folder in the a3 folder?

[m1lkm8n 410]

Ah so I need to have a bfse folder in the a3 folder?

Yes if that's you project folder. And every time you change any of the ground textures and convert to paa you need to copy the layers folder into the project folder in the a3 directory are well

[Moulder 1]

Yes if that's you project folder. And every time you change any of the ground textures and convert to paa you need to copy the layers folder into the project folder in the a3 directory are well

Ok really can't get it working, tried putting layers folder in every a3 folder I have

in the;

arma3\a3

arma3\bfse\a3

P:\bfse\a3

P:\a3

Nothing :/

[m1lkm8n 410]

No the layers folder is in your p:/bfse/data/layers

But when you convert the pngs inside that folder to paa you then need to copy the layers folder to your arma 3 directory so it would be something like this

E:/steam/common/arma3/bfse/data/layers

You basically need to mirror your project folder in your p drive in your arma 3 directory. They must be the same.

Also in visitor make sure your texture path is correct.

P:/bfse/data

Edited April 11, 2013 by M1lkm8n

[Moulder 1]

Oh yeah done both those things, has become so frustrated that I cleaned everything out and is beginning from scratch and hopefully it was an error on my part that I wont repeat again that resulted in this behavior.

[bushlurker 45]

Technically, maplegend.png is supposed to contain "every possible colour" - not just the ones you're using in "layers.cfg"...

There's no need to make your own - just reuse the "multicolour spectrum" one you'll find included in every tutorial, or grab the image off this page.

Ignore the little "surface types labels" - you can use any colour you like for any surface, and with the proper full-spectrum maplegend graphic, you can bet that whatever colours you use, they'll be on that image somewhere - and that's all that matters...

PS...

Your stated mapsizes above won't allow for a very detailed buldozer view anyway...

2048x2048 heightmap with 60m per cell?? = 122.8km x 122.8km final terrain!

That's huge!.. It's roughly equivalent to 144 Lingors or Dualas in a 12x12 grid!

It'll take you a decade to dress it with objects! and it's also lower fidelity than the 2001-era Operation Flashpoint terrains!

Are you sure that's what you want to make? Nobody else has attempted such a huge terrain before... and this is your first go? in a new engine? without proper tools and no established procedure yet???

Worse still - overlaying that with a 5120x5120 Sat layer means that each pixel of your sat image is being stretched to cover an area of 24x24 meters! Your sat layer will appear grossly magnified in buldozer...

Normal resolution would be more like 1 pixel per meter - but for a terrain this size that would require a 122880x122880 pixel image, which simply isn't practical without some serious techie cheating, and would result in a roughly 10GB final terrain...

Your basic structure and procedure above sounds good - it's very likely that it's the weird sizing of stuff which is causing you unnecessary complications.

It's probably best to stick with a basic "default demo size" terrain to start with until you've ironed out any structural difficulties with the A3 stuff... Get a default-sized dummy terrain working reliably first - both in Visitor/buldozer, and in-game, then you can start working on your actual real terrain, safe in the knowledge the underlying mechanics are sound...

I'd suggest something like...

1024 x 1024 heightmap - 5 meter spacing = 5.12km

a 5120 x 5120 Mask & Sat = 1 meter/pixel

Base Texture Layer size 40m x 40m

You could grab the source files for this tutorial - all you'd need would be the heightmap, Sat & Mask (they'll be 10240x10240 - just resize them to 5120x5120 so you're a standard by-the-book size) and you're ready to go.

B

Edited April 14, 2013 by Bushlurker