Visitor 3 Quick Tutorial

[G_H_Play_AKA_BOSS 0]

Your pbl is named wrong. It needs to be terrain.pbl, same as the png file

Does it now? LOL my apologies, I seem to recall having named my .pbl something different from the png and it still worked, if that's not the case I'm sorry.

-edit-

Right, I did a quick test and I can confirm that the .pbl does NOT need to be named the same as the height map image.

well i can see it but when trying to import it does some thing, but still blank screen & no map ( islannd ) lol.

I cant see where im maybe going wrong although im pretty thorough but i must be missing some thing out.

Just wondered should there be any thing in the data folder at this time lol.

Also can the pew be in the same sub folder ( terrain ) as the png & pbl's ?.

Ps im also sorry if this is bugging you guys,but it's the only way i know how & cheers for your help so far nice one im getting some where lol.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h13/genhorseplay/4.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h13/genhorseplay/jtffghrtjtyjrh.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h13/genhorseplay/terrain2.jpg

if any one as some screenies of what it should look like that may help.

Plus here is the DL link for what i have done plz can you have a look & see if some thing is wrong & plz over look the crude map as will spend much more time if can get this right lol.

http://rapidshare.com/files/61596663/Terrain.rar

[DBO_ 0]

in your pbl . open with notepad you will see

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">minHeight=-0.000000;

maxHeight=0.000000;

you need to either adjust that and see what happens

try - 120 and 200 for example and see if you get a result. but something is wrong if you have exported that greyscale and ended up with that .pbl.

[opteryx 1562]

Yeah damn, why didn't I see that?

Remember maxHeight is absolute white and minHeight is absolute black.

-edit-

I will try and update the tutorial a bit on this part when I get the time and energy, wish I could write a more elaborate one, but it's a real pain in the ass, plus I'm not particularly proficient with Visitor and it surroundings yet.

[whereisbeef 0]

Have you ever encountered this problem while trying to import your sat map, mask and config?

I have the P drive and every thing is set up correctly. I even tried to re-map it and that did not work either.

[opteryx 1562]

Have you ever encountered this problem while trying to import your sat map, mask and config?

img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/coutie/errorv3.jpg[/img]

I have the P drive and every thing is set up correctly. I even tried to re-map it and that did not work either.

Yeah, long time ago, I think it's (guess what?) an error in the paths.. even a slight error can cause a full crash. Go over the paths very carefully to check for minor errors.

I might be wrong though, but it's most likely a bad path somewhere.

[whereisbeef 0]

Ok, I have fixed that error, just a missing };, and now my visitor is crashing when I try to import. I know you said it is probably an error with the paths but I have been going over everything for a couple hours now and I am 100% sure it is not an error with the paths.

[opteryx 1562]

Right, could you post your project settings?

[whereisbeef 0]

Don't know where to find that, but I followed your tutorial to the dot.

[Jeppen 0]

Check your Tools -> project parameters and Tools -> Project Preferences.

Sometimes mine disappears after i close Visitor 3.

(mostly because i always forget to save my work, since i'm still in a testing/learning phase)

Project Parameters: Set the image size to the same as your sat map size

(2048 if you followed the tutorial to the dot as you said, because your actual sat image is 2048x2048 pxls right??)

(Also, make sure your Mask image is 2048x2048 pxls too)

Project Preferences: in the top line where it says "Folder Textures" write: MyMap\Data

(I'm not sure if this is case sensitive or not, either way, check the big/small letters and match them to the actual folder names on P:\

If this is not working, then you can be sure it's a path error.

This is from my trial&error experiance.

Hope it helps!

-J-

[whereisbeef 0]

They are all correct. And I don't think it's cap sensitive because when I hit ok and re-open it it's just in lower case. All sat and mask are 2048x2048 and textures are 512x512.

[opteryx 1562]

Quote[/b] ] textures are 512x512.

That might be the problem, did you make your own detail textures or use those from Sara/Rahmadi? The default ArmA detail textures are 1024 x 1024 px.

If I ever mentioned you should use 512 x 512 detail tex's in the tut I might have made a mistake.

[whereisbeef 0]

Well, I could not find them in the sara.pbo for some reason so I just used the ones from the rahmadi that BIS released. They are all 512x512.

[opteryx 1562]

Yes I just check, you are correct, Rahmadi tex's are 512px. Hmm I'm not really sure now.

I will make quick test to see if I get some similar errors.

-edit-

Well, I took all the tex's from Porto and rescaled them to 512 x 512 px (interesting to note that one already was 512), and used the same settings, worked fine for me.

Here's the result: LINK

[whereisbeef 0]

Strange. I didn't change anything but now it goes halfway and crashes. Here are my settings:

[Planck 1]

Using your settings as shown in your image:

512 X 512

20

10240 X 10240

then using the calculator and inputting the image size for 1 meter resolution: 10240, I get a recommended satellite grid size of 24.

I have no idea how you got 120 for your example.

Planck

[whereisbeef 0]

That is what I get when creating a new map, with all the settings in the tutorial. Is that some how wrong?

[Rommel 2]

Got up to the "This is where you'll most likely make a mistake, and requires trial error" part.

Bulldozer crashes, and I was going so well too .

Any idea where to go from here?

EDIT:

Also noticed this:

Quote[/b] ]

class pisekplaz

{

texture = "MyMap\data\pisekplaz_mco.png";

material="Sakakah\data\pisekplaz.rvmat";

}

Quote[/b] ]"Sakakah\

In your tutorial, fixed it, re - did all the .PAA conversions and what not just to be sure, still hasnt fixed the crash, but just pointed it out.

No cookie .

[opteryx 1562]

Yarr, thanks for the heads up.

Did you let it auto convert png to paa first time running buldozer?

The method described in the tut is outdated...

[Rommel 2]

Hi guys i get this error stage 10.

#Step 10: Now we're going to go back to Project parameters again to edit the Texture Layers ( I don't know why but you can't do this when creating a new project..). Go to Tools--->Project parameters, here you'll see the same box as you saw moments ago, but this time you can edit the Texture Layers. Beneath the title "Texture Layers" there there's a small white box with a text that says "Base (active), click on that text and on it's right hand side there's a buttons which says Edit. Press edit and in the texture Size selector choose 50.0 x 50.0 m. Press "OK" and "OK" back in the Project parameters box again.

[imghttp://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h13/genhorseplay/untitled7-1.jpg[/img]

I also had this error, so I just changed the Texture size selector to 40 x 40?

Would this be why its not working?

(Sorry for double post.)

Quote[/b] ]

Yarr, thanks for the heads up.

Did you let it auto convert png to paa first time running buldozer?

The method described in the tut is outdated...

What do you mean auto - convert?

[opteryx 1562]

Hi guys i get this error stage 10.

img]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h13/genhorseplay/untitled7-1.jpg[/img]

I also had this error, so I just changed the Texture size selector to 40 x 40?

Would this be why its not working?

That error is completely generic and doesn't say much.

After what action did the error occur?

What do you mean auto - convert?

First time you run Buldozer (in RC3) your sat/mask is automatically converted to paa.

[Rommel 2]

Oh, no, they're still .PNGs, was bout to convert them out of curiousity. (Sat + Mask)

Quote[/b] ]After what action did the error occur?

The error for the texture size happened in the same sequence as noted in his, I believe it was once i pushed ok - ok, then tried importing the terrain.pbl.

Worked a beaut once I changed it to 40x40.

The recent error happens while it tries to load surface textures in Bulldozer, and is relatively instant, but does the initiative loading beforehand fine.

[Rommel 2]

I had a squizz at the M_001_000_LCO.png files, and they all seem to black and red parts of the mask I made, (all green is now red, and yellow now black).

Rather then me constantly posting on here (don't want to hijack the thread with my issues .

Could I grab someone who knows the nuts and bolts of this program and map making such as Opteryx's, msn?

Edit:

Tried converting the .png file to a 16 bit colour file, just crashed visitor when trying to import.

EDIT:

I just left all the sat and mask textures as .pngs (didnt convert the whole 100,000 of em to .paa, and started bulldozer, it started this funky converting resources, but then it crashed about 2 seconds in.

I think i know what you mean by auto convert now.

I managed to snap off a print-screen just before it crashes, so you know where it gets up to in the conversion.

EDIT:

Please don't mind the crash window roller coaster... (Frustration release was needed, it filled the need.)

EDIT:

Fat Lot that "Sakakah" did, removed it and replaced with MyMap and everything works perfect (I removed it before, but it didnt save?)

My rant on Bulldozer crashes is over for now. Sorry for double posting ^^.

EDIT: Rants back, not about crashes though, why is it that the textures appear a rocky type texture, until you get close and they come up as sand and grass etc?

EDIT:

Pic for reference, not a rocky type texture, more like snow.

[mechastalin 0]

I have a problem with my island, I imported the satellite maps and everything, I re used the satellite texture from Rahmadi as mine was causing crashes, and my mask was just a simple flat green image so that the whole island would be a grass texture, but not in Visitor the island shows up black and ingame it shows up white, any ideas?

Edit: Could this be caused by not converting the textures to PAA?

[Allie 0]

The textures (closeup ones, the ones from ramadi) in your data folder have to be changed to PAA format, then in the same data folder you have to change the paths inside each RVMAT file for each textures. (path itself ! and the PNG to PAA)

Then inside your source folder you have the LAYER.cfg file, inside here you have to change the PNG into PAA in the paths too.

(Then after importing the sat and mask into visitor you have to change all those new created PNG to PAA to and inside ALL the RVMAT files change PNG to PAA.

I know Visitor will convert them all for you upon first connecting to bulldozer, so you do not have to do it manually)!!!!!!!!!!

I still do it manually because its much quicker then when visitor does it.

(I use ULTRA EDIT for changing stuff in couple hundred files at once.)

Hope this helps.

Allie

[opteryx 1562]

I think somewhere in this tutorial I mentioned to not change the paths inside the layer RVMAT's, this apparently is something you're going to have to do (as Allie described) after all if you want it MP compatible, seems like the servers runs out of mem looking for png's that aren't there.

As for me knowing the ins and outs of Visitor...... NOT TRUE!

I wish! I'm still struggling with this wretched program...

PS: Can't help anyone on MSN, tomorrow I'm outta my apartment, won't be online for a long time...

-edit-

Quote[/b] ]Fat Lot that "Sakakah" did, removed it and replaced with MyMap and everything works perfect (I removed it before, but it didnt save?)

Yeah I'm sure there's plenty of errors and outdated stuff in the tutorial, gonna try and update it when time grants me permission.