Tutorial for Visitor3 ?

[kubi 0]

Guys,

Where can we get good (and realistic) satellite maps?

We can have digital elevation maps from here:

ftp://e0srp01u.ecs.nasa.gov/srtm/

GlobalMapper8 can read them and export to many formats.

Maybe satellite maps from google maps?

Is there any other sources?

[DBO_ 0]

Quote[/b] ]My map with same size as his, goes well with 512x512 sized .PNGs

thats not a problem as long as your scale is correct . other wise in game nothing will be where it should . you need a formula where 1meter = 1 pixel this way when in game everything corolates, especially if your using satelites from google and such .

DBO_brick is making a tutorial he did a test video here >> .

site may require some codecs dbo iraq 256 256 test

[Second 0]

@Fasad:

Problem is that usually Visitor seems to ignore some colors. For example:

I have layer mask which has three colors: Grass, stones, rock in this order from west to east direction.

The segmented layer mask has colors in this order grass (red), rock (black), grass (red). so it ignores one color and mixes the remaining two to different order than they should be.

Stones color pattern i used should be closer to stones than grass, altough they are next to each other in legend.PNG so i might messed in that .

Smells like config realted issue... Well if you want to look it here it is (you don't have to if you don like, i like challenges ):

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">class Layers

{

class Rock

{

texture="mallineva\data\skalaj_mco.paa";

material="mallineva\data\rock.rvmat";

};

class stones

{

texture = "mallineva\data\pole1_mco.paa";

material="mallineva\data\stones.rvmat";

};

class Sand

{

texture = "mallineva\data\blato_mco.paa";

material="mallineva\data\sand.rvmat";

};

class Grass

{

texture="mallineva\data\travajih_mco.paa";

material="mallineva\data\grass.rvmat";

};

};

EDIT: Oh there are two different kind rock colors to be used in legend. I used Blue and now testing red. Also replaced stones with sand. We'll see what shows up.

EDIT2: Naah, didn't work. Same thing happened: grass, rock, grass.

EDIT3: I'm going to feed satelite picture as layer mask to that #&¤% visitor ... oh it's ready... Just bare grass

....

[OFman 0]

If you changed .txt from Wilbur to .xyz it doesn't work.

Sure, it works without any problems ( i use Wilbur 1.26 )

On my computer it works in Visitor but when I start buldozer Visitor crashes :/

[Edge 2]

Quote[/b] ]Filenames are just sat.png and mask.png

Use *_LCO.PNG instead. Should help when converting to PAA (must be done manually or using a batch file until binMake.exe is released).

Quote[/b] ]Problem is that usually Visitor seems to ignore some colors.

Judging from what you describe, you seem to expect the cut segments to keep original colours from input file. This does not work like this, Visitor uses RGB values [0,0,0], [255,0,0], [0,255,0], [0,0,255] to replace original content. What colour is assigned to particular surface type in particular segment is decided by Visitor. It may well happen that what you assigned as red, will become blue or green on a segment.

Quote[/b] ]everytime I try to load buldozer for the sampleMap I get this

CSJ, try to convert PNGs in Layers folder to PAAs before you start Buldozer. It is also possible something is wrong in System preferences or Project settings in Visitor, try to check paths.

Quote[/b] ]How Long should it normally take to import the Satellite and Mask?

Depending on the size and resulting number of segments, it may take from 5 to 20 minutes. In case of bigger maps, Visitor seems not to respond.

Since there are several issues emerging for various people in all stages of pipeline so far, maybe it would be better for both you and us to start separate thread for particular issues, e.g. importing satellite imagery in V3 and sat texture editing tips. This thread has started to become really hard to read, which reduces our ability to provide an advice.

[shaki 0]

I have falling FPS, when using my island in Arma. There are 30-35 fps usually, but when load my island fps are 10 max. I loaded island without texture, only terrain, and it had same effect. With what it can be connected?

There are no other bugs with island in game. In Buldozer FPS don't fall.

[Second 0]

Quote[/b] ]Filenames are just sat.png and mask.png

Use *_LCO.PNG instead. Should help when converting to PAA (must be done manually or using a batch file until binMake.exe is released).

Quote[/b] ]Problem is that usually Visitor seems to ignore some colors.

Judging from what you describe, you seem to expect the cut segments to keep original colours from input file. This does not work like this, Visitor uses RGB values [0,0,0], [255,0,0], [0,255,0], [0,0,255] to replace original content. What colour is assigned to particular surface type in particular segment is decided by Visitor. It may well happen that what you assigned as red, will become blue or green on a segment.

Hate to bo so stuborn about this but, i have feeling that .PNG gives somewhat smoother map in-game (or atleast they work)... And by my experience it also works better that way. I mean those files in layer-folder (M_, P_ and S_ files) to be in .PNG form. Altough drawback is that i see white color on buldozer from longer distances.

On second quote:

No. i mean i get wrong soil-types on map. Where should be grass is rock instead and where should be rock has grass instead and so on.

Most likely i've been doing wrong with this:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">class Legend

{

picture="mallineva\source\Legend.png";

class Colors

{

/// color names should correspond to surface layer names

snow[]={{255,255,255}};

grass2[]={{0,0,0}};

grass[]={{0,255,131},{255,255,0}};

sand[]={{0,255,0}};

rock[]={{0,255,255},{121,255,0}};

}

};

I'm now doing some testings with it and seems that i'm getting hang of it. I didn't have appropriate layer and legend classes defined. So i might had rock in layer classes while it was gone in legend classes (i love this)

EDIT: Problem solved. I had same color white {0,0,0} for two types: Snow and Mud in my configs (i had this color used in layer mask). So it left them both out and filled the space with grass.

This will take some thinking from many, i would believe. I'm not good at explaining this to anyone but in finnish.

[luki 53]

Ah it works fine. *hgt -> *dem -> *.ter -> *.txt -> rename *.xyz load in visitor. Test map rahmadi Texes

Time to generate 455 rvmats and pngs 2mins on a core2E6600 2 gig ram.

[MehMan 0]

How can you convert .hgts to dem?

[luki 53]

With the tool "3DEM"

3dem

mfg Sgt.Ace

[Chip360 0]

So larger maps freeze up in Visitor? I have described my sizes above... do you think it should be working?

Oh also, said my sat_Lco and my sat should be 5120x5120 (not 512x512) in photoshop right? I got confused.. is it supposed to be 5120 after my 512x512 textures are multiplied by 10? or Hould I just set it to be 5120 x 5120 in Photoshop?

Edit: To simplify, should I take my 2048x2048 pixel maps and open them in photoshop to change them to 5120 x 5120 pixels? or 512x512 pixels?

Edit2: Also, for my two sat images, say I have a mountain range, should there be shadows from the mountains on the textures? (In geocontrol you can generate the coloring with "relief", where a stronger setting will generate shadows on the land, and a smaller will generate little to none. Im just wondering what I should do...)

[luki 53]

TerGridSize 512x512

TerCellSize 10

Caluclator 5120

sat + mask = 5120x5120pix

[Chip360 0]

TerGridSize 512x512

TerCellSize 10

Caluclator 5120

sat + mask = 5120x5120pix

Ok, Ill go edit my textures in photoshop to be 5120x5120 then, thankyou.

Oh, and from above:

Quote[/b] ]Edit2: Also, for my two sat images, say I have a mountain range, should there be shadows from the mountains on the textures? (In geocontrol you can generate the coloring with "relief", where a stronger setting will generate shadows on the land, and a smaller will generate little to none. Im just wondering what I should do...)

and does channel bit size of the image matter?

[csj 0]

Quote[/b] ]Since there are several issues emerging for various people in all stages of pipeline so far, maybe it would be better for both you and us to start separate thread for particular issues,

This has been the case from the start and this whole thread is totally confusing and I am actually worse off now then 30 min's after I loaded V3. Atleast then I could get a map in game.

Now I can't even view it in buldozer without a CTD

[Chip360 0]

OK, something MUST be wrong. Are you sure the image size of your satellite texture should be 5120x5120 (Before being multiplied by 10 or whatever) ??!?! My new Sat_Lco is 71 mb! Is that normal? And there is NO way that one of those pixels equates to 1 km in game, my map isnt that large i believe!

Edit: I can take all my mask and satellite problems to another thread I suppose, where we can focus on helping people like me getting their textures on..

Edit 2: Ok, I saved my Sat_Lco as a png a second time and this time its only 31 mb and my sat.bmp is like 75 mb... something just seems off...

[Second 0]

Chip360. You can use 512x512 pictures too (like those sample picture in Visitor manual's link to textures and layers)

Don't make it alchemy. Just press that calculator button after terrain grid size and terrain cell size are set to what you want and then feed the size of satelite picture and look that calculated and proposed values matches. If not, then try with different values with terrain grid size and terrain cell size.

[Chip360 0]

Tankyou second :P

What about converting all those sat/mask png files into paa format? will V3 have a function for that, or does it already have it?

I created a batch file called png2paa with the following inside:

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">START Pal2Pace %1

I then added it to the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer :

Tools/Folder Options/File Types

Select PNG and click the Advanced button, create a new action and give it a name (I called mine png2paa) then point it towards the batch file (I saved my batch file in the Windows folder).

Then copy Pal2PacE.exe and ijl15.dll into your Layers folder from the TexView2 folder.

Now when you select one/some or all the PNG files and right-click on them you should see png2paa in the menu, click it and all the files should convert.

I use vista and there isnt a "file types" section in my folder options.... I cant get any further than that step. Someone know how to add the right click context thing for Vista?

If its impossible, does someone mind pasting/uploading their batch file (the one with the zillion entries to convert all the textures...) ?

And after I FINALLY get all the darn .png's converted in my texture folder... Do I have to edit my Rvmats or something?

Is there any quick way to do this?

[fasad 1]

If its impossible, does someone mind pasting/uploading their batch file (the one with the zillion entries to convert all the textures...) ?

Copy a the two files (pal2pace.exe and ijl15.dll) into your layers directory.

Open a command prompt in that directory.

type "pal2pace *.png"

And after I FINALLY get all the darn .png's converted in my texture folder... Do I have to edit my Rvmats or something? Is there any quick way to do this?

Yes, you need to change ALL the rvmats in the layers folder to refer to paa files rather than pngs.

Again, a decent text editor can find and replace text in multiple files in one action. Eg :Notepad++

NOW LET'S END THIS THREAD

There will be no more replies in here from me.

[Chip360 0]

NOW LET'S END THIS THREAD

There will be no more replies in here from me.

Ok ok ok ok ok, I was so happy when everything you told me worked, I was going to get my map going and finally show all of you guys a pic with the textures on and YAy! We would have been done... The problem with that is, VISITOR WANTS ME TO SUFFER.  

All textures "loaded" up fine with no errors but:

:? :/ :\ :O      <------ not happy... .

But this shall be my last post in this thread where I request help, or rather, the other one was, technically Im not asking for help, and you arent technically replying to help... Just if you happen to notice something wrong with the picture above, maybe something that seems... idk... missing. Feel free to reply here and let me know...

Edit: Apparently Im not the only one who has noticed something missing from their map:

This Visitor guy seems to absolutely hate me  

Well... I think i start to wait some proper tutorial, because i simply can get those $#% texturethings, satelitethings and other things working.

Also Buldozer hates me. Now it doesn't mock me with error messages anymore. It just gives me white and sometimes partially black island... i think i liked errormessages more. Atleast buldozer spoke to me back then

[csj 0]

Quote[/b] ]CSJ, try to convert PNGs in Layers folder to PAAs before you start Buldozer. It is also possible something is wrong in System preferences or Project settings in Visitor, try to check paths.

Running System: 3.40 GHz, 1.00GB RAM

ArmA installed @

C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA (as per recommended installation)

Visitor3 installed @

C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\Tools\Visitor 3 (as per recommended installation)

CD Drive D:\ (ArmA disk instered)

mapDisk.bat

subst p: "C:\Documents and Settings\admin\My Documents\ArmAWork"

Visitor3

System Preferences...

Real time viewer settings

Path to realtime viewer working dir:

p:\

Command to launch realtime viewer (Buldozer)

C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA\arma.exe -buldozer -window

Bis Sample Map installed @

C:\Documents and Settings\admin\My Documents\ArmAWork\Ca

Project Preferences...

Folder - textures p:\ca\samplemap\data

PNGs in Layers folder converted to PAAs before I started Buldozer.

[Second 0]

@Chip360: If you go very close to soil (press camera against ground) you should see proper textures at close range, longer distances are still shown as white. If you see them then the cure should be this:

-You convert all .PNG to .PAA and change .RVMAT acordingly.

-You also need to reload Buldozer. I mean that you shut it down first (using alt+f4) and then connect again. To me it seems that just using "reload buldozer"-button isn't enough.

It's supprisingly hard to figure all things out at first. But seems that island making is quite easy after all, it just isn't very easy at start.

I agree with Fasad. This thread is growing too big. Soon no one will look at best pages (which are at start of this thread) but jumps to end pages.

This is great thread after all: first pages have almost step-by-step structure in how to make island

[luki 53]

I managed to get my island ingame with good performance (@Second, 512 sat text is very bad for peformance). I will post a step by step of my workflow in my forums .

mfg Sgt.Ace

[Second 0]

I managed to get my island ingame with good performance (@Second, 512 sat text is very bad for peformance). I will post a step by step of my workflow in my forums today.

mfg Sgt.Ace

Okay thanks. I keep that in mind too. This far i haven't noticed it as my maps which are ready are small: only about 1.5x1.5 km.

[Woolridge 0]

I have a problem with Bulozer. I don't Know if it's a problem, or if I need to know a special key for it.

The thing goes with the terrain modifications made with Buldozer.

Let's see an example.

I put this Building in this place using Visitor:

Then, I can move the building anywhere and turn it to the right facing. All the changes are saved when I go back to visitor. No problem.

Then, I have to modify the terrain under the building to avoid this problem:

So, I use the U and J keys which moves the terrain vertex 1meter up and down. (even without having the select arrow and box). And the result is this one:

The problem is, that when I close Buldozer and go back to Visitor 3, the terrain has not been modified in it, and when I connect Buldozer again the Building is again half-buried in ground.

What's Wrong?.

[hund 0]

As for the thread size, yeah it might be defying its purpose a bit. Perhaps a solution would be to make an easy to follow step by step thread and then lock and sticky it, so newcomers could get the hang of it all easier.