AnIm8oR_8

You only need the .PAA files in your 'data' and 'data\layers' folders for textures to be visible in Bulldozer and in-game. These will be packed into your final world.PBO addon. Have you solved your mask_LCO import problem? Feel free to continue with the PM's if you run into any more probs.

A desert textured map would be easier than most. If you are just looking for a quick fix to be rid of the white texture, I would suggest you texture the whole map in pisek_detail_co.PAA, which is in the the BISampleMap download. To do that you would need to create a mask_LCO.PNG image filled completely with the corresponding colour, which I beleive is 255,255,0 (RGB) or 'Yellow', to put it simply. As for your sat_LCO.PNG, you could fill that with several scaled versions of pisek_detail_co.PNG to give your map a temporary satellite texture. Both of these must be the same size, which is your terrain grid size multiplied by your terrain cell size in pixels. E.g. 512x512 grid, 10m cells = 5120x5120px.  (Consider this when choosing the size of your map, as editing huge .PNG images is VERY demanding on your system). Also you will need to enter the size of your two PNG images in the Satellite Grid Calculator in V3's Project Paramaters. Your layers.CFG would then only need this: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> class Layers {  class pisek  {   texture = "ca\<MyIsland>\data\pisek_mco.paa";   material="ca\<MyIsland>\data\pisek.rvmat";  }; }; class Legend {  picture="ca\<MyIsland>\Source\mapLegend.png";  class Colors  {   /// color names should correspond to surface layer names   pisek[]={{255,255,0}};  } }; You would then need to follow the steps I described before to import into Visitor, change .PNG to .PAA and edit .RVMAT's to point to .PAA files. *Make sure V3 Project Preferences, Folder - Textures, is set to Ca\MyIsland\data for export. Detailed texturing of your map should be done very late in your project if you want a realistic looking map, as you will need to edit shadows for trees/buildings etc. and it will be a lot of work. I will post this in the textures thread you started as it may help others. Tonight I hope to complete the Textures part of my tutorial and will send you the link when it is ready. Hopefully this works for now and keeps you busy and happy enough until then. Please let me know if you are still unsure of anything... or if I've confused you more so...

Just posted relevant reply in png. into v3 thread. Might be of some use.

My apoligies plumose 219, if you edited your .PEW file with a text editor or renamed it, it could have become unstable. Have you created your own sat_LCO.PNG (distant textures) and mask_LCO.PNG (close/ground textures) and imported them into visitor or used pre-made ones? Below is an image of my P:\Ca\MyIsland\source folder with images I made in GIMP 2. Note that my mask_LCO.PNG is all one colour to get a single texture over the whole map (got sick of the white and didn't want to spend too long editing images). Both sat and mask images are 5120x5120px for a 512x512 map with 10m cells and weigh in at 46MB and 87MB respectively. I also used the textures and .RVMATS from BISampleMap and put in P:\Ca\MyIsland\data folder but only used one at first (travajih). I then imported my sat_LCO.PNG, layers.CFG and mask_LCO.PNG into Visitor which chops up the sat image and extracts to my P:\Ca\MyIsland\data\layers folder. From there I changed all .PNG's to .PAA using Pal2Pac batch file command and edited all the RVMAT's accordingly using Notepad++ I then opened my project again in V3, entered Bulldozer and textures were visible. Don't know if this is any help as I'm not too sure how you've set up your folder structures and Visitor parameters. P.S. I will be releasing part of a Noob tutorial soon that will take you step-by-step through making and texturing your own maps.

To all the Noobs out there, I have been helped by many in these forums and it is my duty to help those who follow, so I am in the process of writing a Newbie tutorial. However, writing a tutorial is a tedious process (especially whilst creating my own maps), so if people could tell me the main areas they're having trouble getting their head around, I can focus on those and hopefully release a noob-torial alot earlier than if I were to explain every detail step-by-step. The worst thing would be to spend hours writing a tutorial, only to find someone has already released one moments before. I still plan to release a full, in-depth tute one day soon, but would like to put something out there to at least get people started and update it from there. One of the biggest headaches is Satellite maps and Visitors new texturing techniques, which will be in the tute, but are not 'required' to get started. Any feedback would be greatly aprecciated. "The beast is conquerable, make V3 your friend!"

The .PEW is your project/world file, an extension of Visitor, or how V3 saves your project. The problem wouldn't be there. Are your textures showing in Bulldozer and not in-game, or neither?

@ plumose 219, To get textures into Visitor you need to convert all of your .PNG's to .PAA's in your P:\Ca\<MyIsland>\data\layers folder. You also need to change the text in your RVMAT's from .PNG to .PAA ( I use notepad++ to do this to hundreds of files at a time).

Much of what you asked is detailed in the Tutorial for Visitor3 ? thread, although the thread got a bit out control, so you will have to read carefully through it from page 1. I, along with many others are working on a tutorial for Noobs, and there are many popping up all over the place. Also, the BI Wiki/Manual is getting updated as more and more people are figuring out the nuts and bolts of visitor. Programs I use: Vistor 3 MicroDEM - Converts DEM (digital elevation maps) to grayscale Terragen - Terrain editing and manipulation program (import to Visitor) Notepad++ - Text editor for editing multiple text documents GIMP 2 - Free image editor TexView2 - BIS official tool (including pal2pac) Structure: P:\Ca\MyIsland\ P:\Ca\MyIsland\data - Textures (layers/scenes) P:\Ca\MyIsland\source - Satellite.png, mask.png, maplegend.png, layers config and MyIsland.PEW My advice to you is to read the relevant threads and BI documentation and start with the basics (don't worry too much about satellite masks etc. for now). There is much to get your head around at first, but once you get started it gets a lot easier! If after all that reading you still have questions, post them here and I will do my best to answer them simply and swiftly. I have only just conquered the beast myself so I know were your coming from and found these forums extremely useful. Best of luck. If you get to this stage, your laughing!

Thanks for the updates Edge, appreciate your work! Many more questions to come but will wait for the updated manual. I think we've all got enough info so far to keep us busy (and patient) enough.