Non-standard size theaters

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-06-22 17:03:31

Just was wondering if anyone has experimented around with non-standard size theaters. Specifically, something in between a 64x64 and a 128x128 size. Observations? Is it even possible to get something like this to run in Falcon?

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2007-06-22 18:46:23

Hmm good question. I'm confused with the OFP restriction of power of two, so you can only have 32x32, 64x64, 128x128 ... etc sized islands, is it same for Falcon, I really cant remember.

We know for a fact that we can do 64, 128 and 256 theaters. 512 is not very suitable because of the insane campmap sizes etc. However someone could try it for the hell of it. Hmm how large that would be? having Kuwait and London on same map? Heh.

Anyways, I dont know... but my best quess is that F4 is like OFP, power of two... meaning 32, 64, 128, 256 theaters possible, but not like 100x59 or similar.

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-06-22 19:45:38

I'm going to give it a try and see if I can get it to run. What's really bugging me is that there is NO weather in 128x128 theaters for Allied Force. But there is weather in the 64x64 theaters. I'm wondering if I make a smaller theater than 128x128 but larger than 64x64 if there will be weather effects in it....

T_Rex · Post by **T_Rex** » 2007-06-23 02:11:41

Make sure it is square - like 48x48 or something.

I think this was tried at one point, and didn't work. But that would've been a LONG time ago.

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-06-23 06:24:43

T_Rex wrote:Make sure it is square - like 48x48 or something.

I think this was tried at one point, and didn't work. But that would've been a LONG time ago.

Thanks T_Rex!

I'm going to do this but only on a "as time permits" basis....which means it going to take a while.... a long while ! :/

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-07-18 01:36:40

Well, I finally got around to trying this today.

I tried to make a 96x96 segment theater.

DEM2Terrain had no problems making the L2 and O2 as well as the other associated files.

The problem came in with Pathmaker not able to make the correct size .thr file and TacEdit not able to display the objectives correctly in relation to the actual terrain size. It appeared to think it was a 64x64 segment theater in TacEdit and it only displayed the lower-left 64x64 segments.

Oh, well.... it was worth the try. If anyone has a workaround for the pathmaker .thr problem I'd like to hear about it. Thanks.

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2007-07-18 05:24:24

Did you configure TheaterMaker's ini file?

Did you change the Tacedit theater size?

Zaggy · Post by **Zaggy** » 2007-07-18 11:58:36

We know you can change the resolution of the terrain. Widowmaker did it with his 250m L2 terrain (iceland, wasnt it?)...

So the question is, are there limits on the terrain resolution?

Therefore you could do something like have a 128x128 theater with an 800m L2 instead of 1000m L2... So suddenly 2048x2048Km comes down to 1638.4x1638.4Km.

I dont know what values you can use tho... And of course, tiles would need to be scaled to 800m res!

On the flip side, you could make a HUGE theater if you went the other way... 256 or 512 theater with a 2Km L2 (and a 500m L0, still better than the original with the 1Km L2, L1 and L0)... 512 at 2Km is of course 16384x16384Kms!!!

I dare someone to do that!!!

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-07-18 15:48:57

Snake Man wrote:Did you configure TheaterMaker's ini file?

Did you change the Tacedit theater size?

hehe...no!

thanks! That will help....

ranger822 · Post by **ranger822** » 2007-07-18 20:37:52

If you rescale the terrain - dont you need to rescale the models (runways, buildings, vehicles, aircraft, etc?) If so, that would probably not be a doable project unless you can batch convert models to the new scale.

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-07-18 22:42:10

ranger822 wrote:If you rescale the terrain - dont you need to rescale the models (runways, buildings, vehicles, aircraft, etc?) If so, that would probably not be a doable project unless you can batch convert models to the new scale.

Although Zaggy was tallking about rescaling the terrain, that is not what I am attempting. I am only attempting to make a theater size in between 64x64 and 128x128. No rescaling on my part is involved here.

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-07-18 23:53:09

Well,

Thanks to Snake Man's timely reminder to reset the size of the theater in TacEdit, this exercise in a non-standard size theater is a SUCCESS!!!

I made a 96x96 segment theater and only tested it in Instant action mode, but it works (at least in Allied Force).

The funny thing is that it crashed to desktop in just about exactly the same place on the map (southern Caspian Sea Shoreline, center of the Sea) as the 64x64 segment theater I made before. The only thing in common between the two theaters is the texture.bin and texture.zip. And the WinXP error mentions something about an offset 0023 in the event log. I'm going to try another texture.bin/texture.zip pair and see if it still crashes to desktop.

Edit: Oh, BTW, the reason I was doing this theater was to find the point, in theater size, where the weather stops working (i.e., no clouds). There were no clouds in the 96x96 size theater....

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-07-19 19:59:32

I made a 80x80 theater today. No clouds / Weather in that size theater either. Going to try a 72 x 72 next when time permits.

Oh, btw, the 80x80 worked just fine in Instant action mode in Allied Force.

Malc · Post by **Malc** » 2007-07-20 18:26:43

My guess is the weather won't work in a 65 x 65 either...

Sherlock · Post by **Sherlock** » 2007-07-20 18:40:10

Malc wrote:My guess is the weather won't work in a 65 x 65 either...

Yeh, I'm thinking the same thing but I gotta try and prove it to myself (eventually....!)

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2007-08-05 18:44:05

How about trying 65 segment next, so you can skip ahead with the downgrading the numbers like 80, 72 ... etc?

What I mean is, I also believe the limit is hardcored to 64. One of those old 1998 thinkings.

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