We Need a *NEW* Tutorial!

[person915 11]

They should be. The crash happens a little over halfway through. I'll post a picture of the Layers folder with what it gets to. It looks like it has trouble with the Sat Mask but I wouldn't know why. It's literally just a 2560p x 2560p picture of pure black (though now I changed it to red (255, 0, 0) to see if it made a difference, which it doesn't). I'll also post more details on the project in a little while once I get a few other things out of the way, so thank you for looking at them when I do, and I won't expect that much of a quick answer since I'm the one who's complicating this by posting the details later.

---------- Post added at 18:25 ---------- Previous post was at 16:26 ----------

Ok, here's a picture of my P:\

http://i.imgur.com/seW5mqB.png (231 kB)

Of my P:\TUT_IslandName_data\

http://i.imgur.com/Y2kRXeD.png (182 kB)

Of the .rvmat file to go with the _co and _nopx in the P:\TUT_IslandName_data\

http://i.imgur.com/OrdoNG7.png (256 kB)

Of my P:\TUT_IslandName_data\Layers\

http://i.imgur.com/VzC4qVw.png (456 kB)

Of my P:\TUT_IslandName\source\

http://i.imgur.com/HOvNqN9.png (213 kB)

Of the Layers.cfg file in my P:\TUT_IslandName\source\

http://i.imgur.com/qMnX5bz.png (205 kB)

I think it may be the .rvmat, since I think I remember doing something with it in Bushlurker's tutorial when I did it before, but in Mondkalb's you just copy-paste some text into a notepad file, rename it etcetc.rvmat with the file specification as "All Files .*". Here's the tutorial link for reference: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Mondkalb's_Terrain_Tutorial which is also in the 3rd (?) post in this thread.

Other than the .rvmat, my file structure could be wrong in where I put the files, possibly. Also, the files and folders are nearly all lower-cased because they were originally upper and/or lower-cased, but I wanted to see if lower-casing them would change anything, which it did not, atleast in the positive direction.

All in all, I'm just shooting ideas as to what I think it may be based on my past mistakes but I really don't have any proof at all that it may be those things. Oh! and here's a picture of Visitor 3 crashing in case it rings any bells:

http://i.imgur.com/G20W17v.png (211 kB)

I'm sure the state on the loading bar at which it crashes is significant for something, especially because that means that stage in the process is problematic for it, but that stage needs to be identified before it can be remedied.

[jakerod 254]

For the rvmat, scroll to the bottom and then take the picture. The two paths at the bottom are what are important.

Your surfacemaplegend should be mapLegend and then the line about it in the layers.cfg should also be changed to the correct filename. I don't know if this is important or not it just the way I have it named and have traditionally seen it named.

As much data from tools > project parameters and project preferences would be helpful too. Those can cause issues.

[Sealife 22]

Hmm

The numbers in your visitor screen dont add up unless its the zoom , looks like 1400 x 2400 ?

Maybe you have imported xyz and not saved to pew before trying to create the sat mask ?

Also what is your settings for the satbase ?

[m1lkm8n 411]

Open your ground rvmat with a text editor so we can see that one please

Also don't know if it makes a difference but traditionally the mask and sat are just called mask_lco and sat_lco

Edited February 12, 2014 by M1lkm8n

[person915 11]

It's just the zoom on visitor, I can zoom out to 2560m x 2560m on the heightmap. It was saved as a .pew before trying to do any of that. I do not know what a satbase is. Replies to others when I do some more investigating based on feedback.

---------- Post added at 21:44 ---------- Previous post was at 21:25 ----------

After looking at the .rvmat I found the two paths that I had no clue were in there and renamed them appropriately... but it still doesn't work. Still crashes, same place, same time. Here's the updated .rvmat, though:

http://i.imgur.com/EZ9U4We.png (259 kB)

Just in case the problem was the heightmap, I made another in L3DT, exported it as .xyz, imported it into Visitor 3, and generated a new "Sat_Map" to go along with it, and made sure to save them both over the old files. Still doesn't work.

Here are my project preferences:

http://i.imgur.com/CbuEcxE.png (195 kB)

and the parameters:

http://i.imgur.com/GA8TY83.png (212 kB)

I also renamed SurfaceMapLegend to MapLegend and edited the Layers.cfg accordingly, which didn't stop the crash. I renamed my lco's to Mask_LCO and Sat_LCO, which didn't stop the crash either. I do appreciate answers even if they don't work, because if they don't FIX the problem, they're probably HELPING it (get better), just not all the way all at once.

My Mask and Sat are both PNG's, as is the MapLegend. This is Visitor's native format, isn't it? That's what the tutorial said but if not that may be the reason for the crash. If it's not it must be some stupid little thing that's so small and under the radar I have no idea to look for it, and I'll feel incredibly stupid when I find it.... I still do appreciate the help though, amazing community support.

---------- Post added at 21:51 ---------- Previous post was at 21:44 ----------

Aha! L3DT is sneaky! It was secretly setting the export size of the generated texture map to 256p x 256p each time I exported it. I knew it was something small and overlooked. I have no idea why it would do that, considering the ratio in L3DT was set to 1:1 and the entire map was 2560m x 2560m with 1m=1px... just something to look out for, I guess.

[m1lkm8n 411]

So is it fixed?

Make sure you mask_lco is rgb 8 bit.

[person915 11]

Can you guys find anything wrong with my updated .cfg? Visitor 3 doesn't like it; says it has an error loading P:\pathname\Layers.cfg

http://i.imgur.com/g8rGmWQ.png (204 kB)

I made sure the pathname matched the actual directory, case sensitive and all, but that didn't work.

I made a new mask_lco for the map so I tried to update the .cfg to handle it, but apparently I've done something wrong....

Right, I need to take a break... I forgot some of the quotations on multiple lines. Mistakes that are all part of making these things as inexperienced as I am, I guess. I got it fixed. And thanks M1lkm8n, it worked when I exported it from Paint.Net as 32-bit, but I re-exported it as 8-bit just to be sure. Noted for this time and next.

---------- Post added at 23:28 ---------- Previous post was at 22:58 ----------

Alright, here really is an enigma. I'm getting that visitor crash again, but my picture sizes are correct (and so are my file types), I've checked many times now, so it's not the same thing. The Layers.cfg loads correctly, and I can select the Sat and Mask fine, but it crashes 3/4 of the way through it like before, but like I said, it's a different issue. The problem has to be A) an issue with the .rvmats as per each terrain type B) and issue with the layers.cfg code somewhere C) conflicts with the MapLegend

As for A, I've checked the .rvmat directories, and selected each file appropriate for the .rvmat manually. For B, it very could be that. I'm not that good at writing code especially since I don't know whatever language this is in. For C, I changed the Mask_LCO's colors based on those listed in the MapLegend. I used the color picker to select the colors on the MapLegend and replaced them with the colors on my previous Mask_LCO, but based it on which color was listed as what, so for instance the blue-ish green goes where the grass would be on the mask, because the color is listed as grass on the MapLegend.

Here's my new new* .cfg

http://i.imgur.com/omNcAaa.png (302 kB)

and my Source folder:

http://i.imgur.com/xBXFKIU.png (248 kB)

Edited February 12, 2014 by person915

[jakerod 254]

[/color]Aha! L3DT is sneaky! It was secretly setting the export size of the generated texture map to 256p x 256p each time I exported it. I knew it was something small and overlooked. I have no idea why it would do that, considering the ratio in L3DT was set to 1:1 and the entire map was 2560m x 2560m with 1m=1px... just something to look out for, I guess.

Interesting. Another problem with L3DT sometimes is that it will change your heightmap to say 1023 x 1023 and the cell size to 8.01 or something. Keep a look out on that one. Normally though that only happens when importing a terrain and it is very noticeable when you import it into visitor because it will look oddly shaped. Glad you found the problem though.

You have a missing semi-colon on the second to last }. Not sure that is the problem though.

[person915 11]

Interesting. Another problem with L3DT sometimes is that it will change your heightmap to say 1023 x 1023 and the cell size to 8.01 or something. Keep a look out on that one. Normally though that only happens when importing a terrain and it is very noticeable when you import it into visitor because it will look oddly shaped. Glad you found the problem though.

You have a missing semi-colon on the second to last }. Not sure that is the problem though.

Sadly, no, it still crashes with the added semi-colon....

[bushlurker 46]

The layers.cfg shouldn't be referencing the "_co" textures... - in the older days that would have been the place where you pathed to the "_mco" texture, but since individual groundtexture mco's are no longer in use (but the system still expects them) you can either use "dummy" _mco textures - and refer to them in layers.cfg, or you can use a simple set of parameters, like this...

class sand
 {
   texture=#(rgb,1,1,1)color(0.5,0.5,0.5,1,cdt);
   material= "grmrl_yutz_data\grmrl_yutz_sand.rvmat";
};

That in itself is unlikely to be causing a crash though....

the Visitor log might hold a clue - you - should - find that in Visitors own install directory in your tools folder... worth a look...

* edit

Usually, the number one cause of a crash on importing is when someone has been using indexed colour on their mask and forgot to switch back to RGB... From the looks of previous posts, png format has been mentioned already, but I guess it's always worth checking again... the format should be 24 bit RGB (8 bits per channel, R-G-B = three channels = 24 bit) - a "standard" .png picture file basically - and "no interlace" if you get offered that at the saving stage...

B

Edited February 13, 2014 by Bushlurker

[person915 11]

the format should be 24 bit RGB (8 bits per channel, R-G-B = three channels = 24 bit) - a "standard" .png picture file basically - and "no interlace" if you get offered that at the saving stage...

B

That was it. When someone told me that the RGB should be 8-bit, I didn't know they meant 8-bit EACH. 8*3=24, so 24-bit. That was it. Thanks

[ZeroG 23]

As soon as the new V4 is released, I'm sure I will find the time to create some tutorial with a package of working source files for anyone to start with. I expect the Veterans here to help/review :D