Importing terrain in the middle of work

[Bartchie 10]

What is going to happen when I'll import terrain from configured .png after importing satellite+mask files and making some roads ? I want to fix some few things in my terrain and I wonder about objects Y position is it going to stick with terrain when I change the terrain ?

I'm asking for it because I decided FIRST to place roads and THEN prepare terrain (smoothing) for them in another program kinda Wilbur for example.

I realise that roads may stick with terrain but objects like trees, buildings and others may have a problems :/ Is it possible to give my way a go ?

[icebreakr 3105]

Well, usually it works. But when you use a lot of objects (such as trees) be ready to wait for couple of hours or run it when you go to sleep :)

I usually copy all the objects to clipboard, delete them, import terrain changes and paste back the objects. Of course do this with lots of backup files and do proper checkup if everything is okay.

Hope that helped.

[Homer Johnston 0]

it will also go way slower if you have buldozer open... I don't know if anything bad will happen if you don't have buldozer open, though. Like Ice said... should work, just make sure you back up your work

[beton 2]

I have used icebreakers method too. Its the fastest way...i know.

[bushlurker 45]

Same basic procedure here - with an extra mention of the BACKUP!

I do this back-and-forth from Visitor to terrain edit and back quite a lot... I've never had buldozer open while importing, I don't think, so not sure how that affects things...

Usually takes around an hour for re-import for me... Objects and roads are generally happy, though "absolute-height" objects may need adjusting...

B

[Homer Johnston 0]

IIRC (it's been a year since I did this) if you have buldozer open when you import a heightmap, it will update the terrain and object heights as it goes. It looks really cool watching your heightmap change in real-time, but it works really, really slow :p

[Bartchie 10]

Thank you soooo much, guys. I don't have any trees because I want to place them at the end. Just couple of buildings for test and some bigger road networks. Now I know I can smooth my roads in Wilbur. It's actually very logical, I'm thinking about satellite image splitted to textures - grid of terrain is same as it was, just a height of vertices are changing and that's why it's possible to do it. Great, thank you very much again for informations.

[icebreakr 3105]

Here is the fastest way to update terrain:

1. load up your project

2. save as a new instance: myisland1.pew

3. ctrl-a to select all objects

4. press Delete to erase them

5. press Project > import terrain from picture

6. press CTRL-Z (or click first option from Edit menu) to get your objects/roads back ;)

7. save project

8. done :)

Screw that, that "Undo" corrupted my project (Panthera), I'm making a rescue out of backups (5 hour work)... laters. Always use copy/paste with new instances of files.

Edited April 1, 2010 by IceBreakr

[commander1985 10]

Copy\Paste???

Guys use the Export\Import Script within Visitor 3 :)

Well that works great for me^^

[beton 2]

But for a complete roadnetwork the copy paste method works nice... you can copy it from one to another map or from a backup to a newer map. You just have to define the roads you want to use before, otherwise visitor will reject them.

[icebreakr 3105]

Copy\Paste???

Guys use the Export\Import Script within Visitor 3 :)

Well that works great for me^^

Never use that crappy scripts guys, it destroys the size (defaults to 100!) and rotation of the trees!

[commander1985 10]

@Beton

Yep thats right.

@IceBreakr

Oh really? Never looked at that Oo

[icebreakr 3105]

Best solution so far is:

1. Make backup of the map, export terrain and edit the heights.

2. ctrl-A to select all objects and ctrl-C to copy them to memory clipboard

3. delete all objects (del key) and save map as "map_empty.pew"

4. import new terrain, check how it looks and import couple of times to fix the errors.

5. paste the objects back with "Paste absolute" option from menu.

6. save map and test if everything works, especially check bridges and roads twice.

[Bartchie 10]

Okay I guess I can't do what I wanted to do :(

The problem is that Wilbur doesn't have an option to make some layer with the roadmap :( Anybody know about some other tools similiar to Wilbur with the abilities of making some 50% visible and locked layer ? Especially with "terrain painting" just like in Wilbur. That could be last step with fast automation for use to prepare terrain for roads.

[commander1985 10]

What about Photoshop? If you mean editing Heightmap with terrain painting then forget what i said^^ Well i usually use about 4 different applications to do my stuff. (Photoshop, Wilbur, Paint, L3DT Pro)

[Homer Johnston 0]

A long time ago I spent many hours trying to find a way to do this. Photoshop seems to have trouble working with 16 bit images, but I think it is possible in the more recent versions if you know how. I think L3DT will allow you to place BMP overlays and edit the terrain in 3D, but the trial/free version is a bit limited, and I found it a bit hard to use.

I guess this is why BIS developed the smoothroads script... it doesn't do what you need? We badly need a Visitor scripting command-reference. :(

If only Buldozer could modify terrain vertices in 0.01m increments instead of 1m and 5m :(

[prowler.wolf 0]

I agree Buldozer has a lot of wasted potential for terrain editing

[Bartchie 10]

I guess this is why BIS developed the smoothroads script... it doesn't do what you need? We badly need a Visitor scripting command-reference. :(

Yeah but it's taking very long time to do especially when I have long road network :(

Using only a photoshop is not enough because I need to edit terrain using brushes like in Buldozer. It would be great if Buldozer support layer maps but it's not (as far as I know) :(

[shezan74 11]

About road smoothing there is someone that is using this script?

I've used it on some part of my island but i wasn't so happy about the result (i've experienced a lot of spikes on my roadside on mountain side areas.

I must admit i have used the default parameters...

[beton 2]

I´m using the script, but you have to make shure that the roadparts are not too long. Otherwise the script will hang.

You also have to save before and check after the script. The ugly spikes have to be edited by hand afterwards.

meanwhile i mostly use the "relative height" option since it seems to give the best results...

---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 AM ----------

What about Photoshop? If you mean editing Heightmap with terrain painting then forget what i said^^ Well i usually use about 4 different applications to do my stuff. (Photoshop, Wilbur, Paint, L3DT Pro)

Maybe it could be done in Photoshop or any other like gimp. You might use the exported roads to create a mask and blur that area... have not tested that yet. This might at least give you a good tendecy which could be refined in vistor then..

[shezan74 11]

I´m using the script, but you have to make shure that the roadparts are not too long. Otherwise the script will hang.

You also have to save before and check after the script. The ugly spikes have to be edited by hand afterwards.

meanwhile i mostly use the "relative height" option since it seems to give the best results...

---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 AM ----------

Maybe it could be done in Photoshop or any other like gimp. You might use the exported roads to create a mask and blur that area... have not tested that yet. This might at least give you a good tendecy which could be refined in vistor then..

Yep... photoshopping could be a nice idea but i'm using a procedure that maybe is not so good, that prevents further editing in photoshop:

1) i will define the island on my heightmap bmp (wilbur or something like)

2) import the heightmap on V3

3) doing terrain smoothing using V3 features

4) placing roads

By making terrain smoothing i'm changing the original BMP image, creating something unique into my Visitor3 project.

So making blur on original bmp and reimport it into V3 means i must apply a terrain smoothing on Visitor again to have correct degradation to sea, with unexpected effects on my road blur.

Except the possibility there is a way to export back a bmp from Visitor3 terrain... but i was unable to find this feature...

[beton 2]

U can use the "export terrain into picture" from visitor... you will get a new .png file and a new .pbl file.

I never used v3 smoothing options since it took ages of calculating, how do you do that?

[shezan74 11]

Mmmh i don't have particular troubles in smoothing...

When i've loaded my image i will go to View -> panel of object -> Terrain vertices

From Edit Menu i will "select All" then Change Height and Erosion functions become available

From Change Height i take note of world altitudes and sea depth, then i will run an Erosion cycle that does the smoothing.

At the end my mountains are something like plains, but on Change Height function i will set my height delta's again.

by the way i NEVER saw the export terrain will produce a PNG file too!!!! GREAT :D