Road Painter tool (development thread)

[bravo 6 0]

Very nice tool and very useful!

Thank you! :)

[cctoide 0]

Does anyone happen to have the zip files for the initial version and the camtest version of this tool? I'm getting started on my road laying and the camtest version would be really useful since I'm working on fictional terrain, and I get the feeling I'll need the X/Y coordinates from the first version eventually.

The dropbox link for the camtest version seems to be dead, and I can't find anything for the initial version. Thanks in advance.

[bushlurker 45]

Hi cctoide

HERE's both versions in the original download packages

B

[cctoide 0]

Thanks, Bushlurker. :)

And obviously, thanks to HJ for making this tool.

[bad benson 1733]

would it be possible to add other objects and make it possible to export them into a txt like mask mapper does? i would love to use the mission editor with that cam to place my objects.

[Homer Johnston 0]

would it be possible to add other objects and make it possible to export them into a txt like mask mapper does? i would love to use the mission editor with that cam to place my objects.

theoretically yes; it's just a matter of spending the time to code it... the only exception would be that you can't scale the size of objects in-game, as you can do in Visitor.

[minimalaco 30]

once the program creates the file in p: to /roadpainter. that I do with all those numbers that appear?

somebody can explain to me? the truth never I knew like creating ways, and nose where to add all those numbers that the tool gives me.

[shezan74 11]

would it be possible to add other objects and make it possible to export them into a txt like mask mapper does? i would love to use the mission editor with that cam to place my objects.

I'm working on a feature that converts sqm files to V3 importable format on World Tools.

I'm actually testing it with Bad Benson.

[icebreakr 3107]

That would be great for importing bases & various templates :) bunch of ppl want to help with maps, but they usually know only how to deal with in-game editor. V3 remains a "big bad monster" :)

[bushlurker 45]

V3 remains a "big bad monster"

Quote of the week! :D

Aye... not so much a bad monster as an unpredictable one - to be approached only by Experienced Terrain Tamers...

I had a classic Visitor "incident" just last night - I've been placing custom (snap-together) wall sections for a couple of days - last night I started up Visitor to carry on where I'd left off... I placed a new wall section - about 10cm from the section it was supposed to snap to - twitched it so it would jump in to place - would it? no way! - pieces would snap OK, but they wanted to snap to other wall pieces in like the next village - 2km away or more! Every time I placed a wall section then tried to move it it would just vanish - leap kilometers to snap to some other wall section miles away - completely ignoring wall sections 2 feet away! - Completely uncontrollable! I had no idea what was happening... removed the snap points from all the models - they still long-range snapped... spent hours fighting it... to no avail...

Eventually, I replaced that .pew file with the one from the night befores backup - instantly everything is back to normal - walls snap to the next nearest section, not to random sections miles away - the monster was all sweetness & light again...

Unreal... some sort of .pew corruption I guess - cost me the evening and a few grey hairs, that one....

The Power of the Backup!!! Lest we forget!!!

Anyway - pardon the Visitor rant - you know what it's like - every now and then you have to unload the frustration ;)

Back on topic... this sounds deeply handy, Shezan! - like IceB says, I've had one or two offers of help if it could be done with the main editor... the main drawback was importing... a bit of additional configging and it should be possible to just provide helpers with a editor-placeable custom models addon (if your project uses one), and see what they come up with...

Looking forward to seeing how this works out!

B

Edited September 21, 2010 by Bushlurker

[shezan74 11]

Looking forward to seeing how this works out!

B

Check on World Tools 1.6 topic.

About backup, did you tried SaveMyProject application? it saved my ass a lot of times with his constant 10-minutes backups...

[Robster 11]

Hola mis guachas!

Actually we have gone troughout the whole rough experience and still keeping alive... but noobs :butbut:

We have defined our road network yet, thus we can place some road pieces on our map (terminators, straight and curves parts).

We understand that key parts must be settle down within Visitor3 (V3) and...

At this very moment we assume that RPT (a finest app BTW) comes in handy just to fill the gaps between key parts previously displayed into V3 but... (yes, there's always a "but" in our case)

We don't know HOW TO MANAGE THE DATA derived from the Road Painter Tool app (RPT).

And a little help would be nice...

1.- Do we have to enter the resulting coordinates X,Y "manually" within Visitor3?

2.- Can we import to V3 info related to X and Y road placement positions automatically?

3.- Is there some special feature within V3 dealing with outcoming RPT files?

Don't laugh at us and be polite pleeease...

Eso era no mah. Chabela! y no me webeen por el inglés XSM :)

Edited September 30, 2010 by Robster

[mugaben 10]

Hi guys. Im creating my first map, and somehow I managed to make this road import work :D

Only thing is, its only the roads that gets in, not the start/end road-fade thingy.

How/where do i find those road endings?

Thanks for a great utility! Cant imagine how time consuming the other method must be.

EDIT: Found it :j:

Edited October 2, 2010 by MugAben

[tupolov 520]

So, I've been playing around with HOMJ's RoadPainter, created an initial road, exported the road to a text file, placed a key part in Visitor.. now what do I do? I tried the import objects script, without success (data format error). How do we import the road created in RoadPainter into Visitor?

Thanks!

Tup

[bushlurker 45]

Hi Tup...

Thats an easy one... once you've placed the keypart in visitor - doubleclick it... now, depending on the keypart type, you'll have "Modify dir A", "Modify dir B", etc buttons - obviously, you know which direction you want the road to be going in - if its a terminator keypart there'll only be one possible direction to extend the road from... so click the one you want and yet another window will pop up... the "Modify Road" panel... in here you'll see buttons both for importing and exporting that particular road section... these are the ones you use...

Homers tool doesn't entirely replace the need to know how the built-in Visitor road tool works... you'll probably use that basic "place keypart/manually add road parts" Visitor tool a lot - particularly for short or urban roads... best think of Homers tool more as a hi-speed "Big Sections" maker...

B

Edited December 22, 2010 by Bushlurker

[tupolov 520]

Awesome thanks Bushlurker.

For some reason my key parts/roads are not showing in visitor (although do show up in Buldozer!) Also it appears not all the road sections are joined up and there are gaps in the road. Is this what you guys see too?

Cheers,

Tup

EDIT: this was due to replacing the roads2 objects with those dePBO'd rather than those provided by BIS Tools. Have reinstalled Tools and now the road shows in visitor

Edited December 24, 2010 by Tupolov

[Chill xl 10]

For my map ToraBora i've just learned how to make roads and also picked up this road generator, a very great tool! Much easier to get a nice road network down then to single click and see where it ends...

My map has alot of ridges, hills, dips and slopes, some of them really suited to lay down a road on or alongside. However its kinda hard to see the elevation in the generator with the top-down perspective, i tought it might be handy to be able to view the map from an angle.

[bushlurker 45]

Hi Chill...

ToraBora's looking great so far!!

Theres a couple of different versions of Homers road tool - one has the top-down view only, but has precise coordinate keypart placement, the other has proper 360 degree all-angles viewing and rotation - just what you're looking for... but theres no keypart actual coordinate entry... most times that's OK - visually lining keyparts up is good enough, and the variable viewing angle makes for far better road placement...

You'll see occasional "debug/keypress reporting" showing up onscreen while you use it... watch out for that - if you happen to have an "active cursor" in something like the "export filename" slot, then start pressing direction keys you may not get the filename you intended! ;) - no big deal though...

All of these versions were working towards a megaversion Homer will no doubt return one day and surprise us with ;)... meantime - try both Betas and use whichever one seems best for the road in question...

Probably best to read right thru this thread - theres discussion on each of the versions as they came out... not sure if all the links to the different versions are still active - you can get them from the resources & tutorials section of my wee website if they aren't...

B

Edited December 29, 2010 by Bushlurker

[Chill xl 10]

Tnx Bush,

Cant really find the other beta but thats no problem, i'm using the hans and gretel method and that works good too. I'm acurately putting objects as waypoints on the map placed in Buldozer and use these a a visual reference for the roadpainter tool.

[bushlurker 45]

Try this link

First rar is "HOMJ_Road_Painter_v0-1" - probably the one you're using so you know how it works now...

In the second rarfile...

Rename the "RoadPainter_v11_CAMTEST.Utes" mission folder to "RoadPainter_v11_CAMTEST.ToraBora"

Use the readme, the @HOMJ and the RoadPainter.exe from the v0-1 version as before...

PS - this "Camtest" version kicked in around post #75 if you want to check back thru this thread...

B

Edited December 30, 2010 by Bushlurker

[Chill xl 10]

Tnx again for the helpfullness! Haven't yet got too it to try the other one, but the top-down painter was already very great.

[dougboy101 0]

What would be REALLY Cool and uber high end, would be the ability for a standalone app to import a shapefile of roads, and export as roadpainter currently does. so a minimal amount of work is done in visitor for a massive amount of roads! thanks for the awesome tool all the same, youve saved dozens of people hundreds of hours at a guesstimation

[bigshotking 11]

Hmmmmm I wonder when it might be possible to finish MY map, all that I need to do is make ROADS!!!! But because BI won't release the MLODS I CAN'T MAKE THE ROADS WORK!!!!! I can only place them down manually 1 by 1.... I'm going to be here for months....

(My map is being made for OA, so that you don't need CO)

[minimalaco 30]

how to spend this tool with the roads of OA?

[wattgaz 0]

It is great work indeed !

I have a request (I guess it's only a GUI trick if I understand well your editor mod )=

I am doing : Hautes-Pyrénées full scale island

and so, I make only REAL roads, so I'd like to bypass completely Visitor3 roadtool to use only Shezan74's WorldTools to import DIRECTY the roads as objects to Visitor, after using your excellent painter tool.

Can you or someone enough skilled make available the "save" option on your editor-mission to save road parts as objects in a mission SQM ? ( I wont use "smooth roads" script cause it's real terrain and I fine-tune all tricky places by myself)

Thanks a lot anyway, because with the size on my project It's just too much for using Visitor roads only! :)

EDIT 2:

Unfortunately the export of roads coords to visitor is somehow messed.

i.e. it create "stairs" in turning sections (visible only in buldozer), and moves a little straight parts. :mad:

It seems that road placement coordinates system differs only for road objects between Visitor and ArmA Editor, all other objects import perfectly...

I don't have time and skills to dig more.

Edited May 1, 2011 by wattgaz