Defining how to add a foliage layer on islands (to paint new spots of grass)

[d3rt13n 5]

No youtube movies can be found regarding workbench. Here is a short how to guide on changing an island's climate from 'arctic' to temperate. In this case Isolus.

 

Changing the islands coordinates on the world map has not been resolved yet. This is a guide to change the climate of an Island, and also add new static buildings, trees etc... This does not involve creating new islands and changing the height map, but you could do that as well.

 

 

2a) When flying around on isolus ingame, there are snowflakes flying around even in clear weather. Where can I switch them off in Workbench ? (I found a way to solve this)

 

Solved:

 

- start workbench

- In workbench go to island editor F11and load Isolus.ent from the world folder

- when the island is loaded you will see a list on the left with 5 tabs you can select (In Map, Selected, Create, Layers and Spawnlayers)

- Select In Map (which is selected by default) and click on Class to sort the list of entities on the island by class

- Go all the way to the bottom and you will see

 

World(1) none world none

 

select that entry

 

In the entity selection property window you will find the following settings when you scroll down:

 

weathereffect1val and weathereffect2val

 

- set all values (x,y,z) to 0 and the flying snow effect is gone.

 

Do NOT delete world none world none since it contains scripts that the game needs, just change the values above. That is all.

 

2b) Also on the hud, there is an ice-cristal graphic representation, how can I change this to temperate or remove it ?

 

screenshot before:

 

 

screenshot after:

 

 

Solved:

 

Setting Isolus' climate from 4 (arctic) to 2 (temperate) removes the ICE graphic from the hud. This needs to be changed in the file scripts/base/main/island.xml

 

From this

<Row ID="1">
		<NAME>islandIsolus</NAME>
		<Title>Isolus</Title>
		<WorldFile>worlds/Isolus.ent</WorldFile>
		<Model>7948</Model>
		<Production>1.2</Production>
		<Resources>90</Resources>
		<ImageSet>set:cc_island image:Isolus</ImageSet>
		<MaterialSatellite>obj/islands/Isolus</MaterialSatellite>
		<MaterialAlpha>obj/Islands/Isolus_outline</MaterialAlpha>
		<MapMult>0.75</MapMult>
		<Climate>4</Climate>
		<AreaExtent>0.71</AreaExtent>
	</Row>

To this

<Row ID="1">
		<NAME>islandIsolus</NAME>
		<Title>Isolus</Title>
		<WorldFile>worlds/Isolus.ent</WorldFile>
		<Model>7948</Model>
		<Production>1.2</Production>
		<Resources>90</Resources>
		<ImageSet>set:cc_island image:Isolus</ImageSet>
		<MaterialSatellite>obj/islands/Isolus</MaterialSatellite>
		<MaterialAlpha>obj/Islands/Isolus_outline</MaterialAlpha>
		<MapMult>0.75</MapMult>
		<Climate>2</Climate>
		<AreaExtent>0.71</AreaExtent>
	</Row>

This will also change the island from 'arctic' to 'temperate' in the island info screen.

 

All the other info is in post #2

[d3rt13n 5]

I have found all necessary steps to swap Island climates from one to another. Just for the record here is how to:

 

In this example we will change the climate of Isolus from Arctic to Temperate:

 

- After unpacking all files, make a backup of the island file you are going to change for safekeeping. I chose Isolus as a test, so I saved worlds/Isolus and worlds/isolus.ent to a folder named BAK -

 

- Load up two instances of Workbench, and set it to Game editor after it loads, (shortcut key F11).

- In one instance load the map you wish to change the climate on. For example Isolus, (which has an arctic climate) (Load Map - wolds - isolus)

- In the other instance load up an island whose climate you wish to mimic, say for example evergreen, which is temperate. (Load Map - wolds - evergreen)

 

- When both maps are opened in their respective workbench instances, click on the 'class' tab under 'ENTITIES' IN MAP. Then scroll all the way down till you see the following entity (at the very bottom is a screenshot on how that should look):

 

1) Changing the world entity settings:

 

world  -      none  -    World    -        none

 

Copy all values relevant from the temperate map into the Arctic one.  -  This means: weatherforecast, windforecast, weathereffect1, weathereffect1int etc...all the way down to the ocean values: oceannice and oceanstorm. Make sure there are values that reference to arctic settings in the new map anymore. All the values can be copied safely from the Evergreen map into the Isolus map.

 

2) Setting the skydome color to temperate. On the second menu bar find the drop down menu setting 'icelands_C' or 'Icelands' and set it to 'Temperate_C' or 'Temperate', it is found next to the sun/cloud icon.

 

3) Then comes the time to change the supertexture.

 

Above the terrain representation in 3d, there are 5 icons, choose the 3rd one with is 'edit layers of terrain'. On the right side you will see two windows one above the other, they both have a smiley with funny teeth in them.

The first one reads: Available Materials (this is basically a list of all the materials that are available for creating terrains)

The second one reads: No Material selected (this is a list of the materials that the currently loaded island uses)

 

We are now going to swap out the arctic materials for temperate ones:

 

In the no material selected list, double click the first material in the 'no material selected' window with the 1 next to it. It should say something like 1) terrain\icelands\ice.

A grey window opens with a number of choices:

 

Layers Operations

Layers Generator

Remove whole layer

Replace Layer Material

Replace default layer

Show Layer coverage

 

Choose the Replace Layer Material option and From the drop down list, select something appropriate to replace that layer with. I chose the Terrain\temperate\dirt

 

Do this for all layers, and use your good judgement on what layer to replace what with:

 

Here are my choices:

 

-1)terrain\temperate\dirt

-2)terrain\temperate\grass

-3)terrain\temperate\rock_vertical

-4)terrain\temperate\woodmulch

-5)terrain\temperate\mud

-6)terrain\temperate\path

-7)terrain\icelands\icewall

 

Now click on the grey area just below the 5 icons (in between persp> and grid :16u), to focus on the 3D view in the center. Press the B key and make yourself a cup of tea, creating the supertexture is going to take a while.

 

You can see the different layers by color when pressing the 'E' key. Press the 'E' key again to view the ingame texture again.

 

- The texture should have changed dramatically, but that is not enough for a complete conversion as the island looks a bit naked.

- Click on Terrain->compile->Layers and Materials to make the grass grow

 

Now save your file and make another backup.

 

After that, change out the snowy trees with trees of your choice.

 

Additionally , here are a few tips and warnings to observe:

 

- To select entities (trees, buildings, boulders etc), make sure that the 'select + manipulation with entity' icon (the cross with the arrows at each end) is selected.

- In the left side list, you can swap between 'selected' and  'In map' entities by clicking the appropriate tab.

- To declutter the map, you can also hide all entities you do not wish to edit in the 3D view by switching off layers in the 'layers' tab. I kept all trees and trees PT set to on, all the other stuff off.

- To move in the 3D perspective view, select that view and click the spacebar. Then use the WSAD keys to move about, the W and Z make you hover up and down and the mouse-wheel sets the cameras movement speed.

- Next to Persp (just above the 3D window) there is an arrow icon pointing to the right. Click on that arrow and change the view to top. With the top view selected you can easily select trees by drag select, and change them out to different (temperate) ones by clicking on the model entry and changing it for a different one.

- Do not use 'Save Map As' but just save the map, since this might CTD Workbench. That is the reason why I make different backups.

- To duplicate an entityn (in perspective view) use CTRL-C (copy) and then CTRL-Q (paste-special) which will copy that same entity at exactly the same spot the original is located. Use the XYZ arrows to move the new entity about.

- You can paint extra trees on the map using the 'paint using brush from entities' icon.

 

Good Luck !