Eu terrain update

Europe theater

Moderators: Lone Wolf, Snake Man

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-01-25 00:48:09

Hi all.
I am posting some random pictures taken during new European terrain test.
The pictures are mostly from high altitude, I think we can feel some European "sense" here.
Everything is CATE tiled in this stage, there is not single hand-tile.
I am also preparing last CATE config/mask - for some roads to highways substitution.
But I will see, if I will use it (remember bitmap mode problems/inacurracy)
I have used my old X1 CATE colouring(no snowcaps/rocks...), thats why the snowcaps are so green.
The final result will be fixed of course.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Luk

User avatar
Sherlock
Lt. General
Posts: 1167
Joined: 2006-05-24 22:01:01
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: All, I (try) to edit everything.
Location: Arizona, USA

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Sherlock » 2010-01-25 01:17:41

It looks awesome Luk. Very excellent work! Now for ODS or Iran????!! :)
Sherlock
Victurous te Saluto

User avatar
molnibalage
Colonel
Posts: 344
Joined: 2007-01-13 07:59:02
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Modeling
Location: Hungary

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by molnibalage » 2010-01-25 07:32:59

Can it be used in FF or OF theaters?
Image
Core 2 Duo E7300, Gigabyte EP43, 4 GB RAM (1066MHz), Shappire Radeon HD4850 1GB

ccc
Chief of Staff
Posts: 4857
Joined: 2000-08-06 22:01:01

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by ccc » 2010-01-25 08:17:31

Great job! In the pics..it seems no obvious bugs on CATE-tiled terrain. :D

say, i think the "europe-feeling" mostly counts on dedicated tiles..since you master CATE coding, maybe adding more tile variants?

my humble terrain experience shows.. ( i knew SM has detailed wiki)
- DEM terrain build first.
- use a map bmp, run CATE to tile.
- then generate THR file. use THR file in TacEdit to help obj-linking.

so.. this ongoing terrain update is at 2nd step..right? If you plan to introduce more tile variants (massive workload), then this step will last for a while.

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-01-26 08:54:57

outstanding work mate!!!

btw have you made also new tiles or is it just about the correct placement?
keep them coming!

Polak
Captain
Posts: 188
Joined: 2004-01-01 23:01:01
Location: NEw York City

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Polak » 2010-01-26 11:49:38

Truly monumental project. And it looks very good considering that all tiles were placed auto. Even rivers are in the lowest points of the valleys. I hate when the river runs higher than road tiles. :lol: Great job.

User avatar
arabianjules
Recruit
Posts: 30
Joined: 2005-02-06 23:01:01
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Modeling
Location: Oxfordshire
Contact:

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by arabianjules » 2010-01-26 16:07:46

Good to see, keep up the great work!
AMD 64 3500+ {AGP} 2GB ram, X1950 512mb ATi, LG 22" TFT, Thrustmaster hotas.X

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-01-26 18:01:07

hi all,
thanks for comments.
It looks awesome Luk. Very excellent work! Now for ODS or Iran????!!
:D he he... I would be happy I have time for it. But seriously - I can imagine, I will create X1 update map for mentioned theaters in quite near future.
It should look fine for desert scenarios. But we would substitute that dark brown mountain areas by something less agressive first...
The problem is, I have some fresh architectural/civil eng. tenders, so I will be snowed under "real life work" some next months :?
Can it be used in FF or OF theaters?
I am sure the terrain format is also usable for FF + OF. But I did never test X1 colouring in mentioned subversions (in case it is not visible -still no huge problem IMHO).

The main problem are used tiles. This is about "politics" a little bit. It is something what broked my passion in last years. Then I did decision to use AF (hitiles) tile codeing (the most complete set IMHO). But I alive how problematic this decision is.
I think Tom D. Wälti has given permition to use some low-ress version of his tiles in Panama theater. In case somebody "diplomatically clever" will negotiate something similar for EU, it would be fine.
I think Panama is for FF/AF/OF - in that case it should have both PCX + DDS maps..????
I firstly thaught, we will distribute it with slightly changed standard AF textureZIP(+ user can change to any season hitiles at home). But this is still AF only approach ( :( ).
BTW - even pure/default AF texture ZIP/Bin - although compatibile- it is still problematic. I have tested it. It strongly narrows down the number of possibly used variation tiles. Some tiles have different numbers, some tiles are missing.

There is also another approach - to collect some free hi-tiles texture-zip + replenish it with some new texture sets. But it is something I like to avoid. Mind you - to paint a texture is not problem for me, but texture bin/paths edits...it is another/next pandora-box oppening :mrgreen: . We need working campaign. It is the main task now. So we should use something allready tested.
And why I need to replenish it? It is because, the cityrivers are missing in free ZIPs. But I can be wrong. In case you will show me some complete free ZIP(...slopes-called trees,rocks, snow, highways, cityrivers), I can modify configs.

I have also tested different seasons. It also narrowed down the number of variations. I can say, hi-tiles textures are not seamless at all. In case of "slopes", there are only the "trees" tiles (1239 + surrounding tiles -named trees in TV) seamless to forrest in winter.
here an exaple of this tileset. I hope you can recognize it in this lores image (located nearby some lower mountains in Slovakia)
Image

say, i think the "europe-feeling" mostly counts on dedicated tiles..since you master CATE coding, maybe adding more tile variants?
As I wrote above. Despite I have some thaughts and tips for new textures, I will rather finish CATE tiled terrain and then focus on hand fixes/updates + working campaigns.
I know I will rue rest of my life, I did not added at least 1 tile variation for each straight river direction. But I mast learn to live with it. :mrgreen:
BTW - I have small tip, I have learned during hand-tiling. In case of very long and straight river segment , there is a possibility to lower repeating pattern.
It is possible to add a little affluent there and there. Or to make small forret, etc. Some of the "effects" would be probably possible to add automaticaly (Phoenixs ATAP program ?). I will do it probably by hand (ATAP just for some additional coast variations - but I did not test it yet).

my humble terrain experience shows.. ( i knew SM has detailed wiki)
- DEM terrain build first.
- use a map bmp, run CATE to tile.
- then generate THR file. use THR file in TacEdit to help obj-linking.

so.. this ongoing terrain update is at 2nd step..right? If you plan to introduce more tile variants (massive workload), then this step will last for a while.
I have realized during the last year, that the best way to mod F4 for me - is to work on terrain + CAM at the same time. So I am updating my thr all the time. I can place the objective in terview + fix /create the road imediately (just ALT-TAB switching).
btw have you made also new tiles or is it just about the correct placement?
keep them coming!
Its just about tiling.
Truly monumental project. And it looks very good considering that all tiles were placed auto. Even rivers are in the lowest points of the valleys. I hate when the river runs higher than road tiles.
I also hate "roller coaster" rivers in theaters. Bu I can not to do many in it. I have just hided hill top rivers (ice border) under the rocky tiles and some other buggy rivers under the lake tiles. But I can not influence other river features.
I use the original PMC road-river tdf data file for features. I just replenished it with Kaliningrad area (previously missed).

I have some idea, how to make all rivers nice. But I need to discovere, how to update terrain highs from external highmap file.
It is theoretically doable with older BaldEagle's utilities. But I can not work with them. These utils must be setted according to some registry/active theater? entries etc. to work...(not very friendly for users such me :? )

But what about BAZT utils? There is a DAT file for hi-res high map. There should be some easy way, how to convert DEM geotiff or another DEM highmap to useable file already discovered! Perhaps Photoshop can save it as well setted raw, which is just lately renamed to DAT ??!!!
Imagine it - dedicated greyscale image for all leveling changes! Help please.
I can see also the next advantage of such solution. I will explain it.
Pure SRTM data update is not good choice in my opinion. It is because of F4 1,5 square mile nature. SRTM can never match Falcon patterns + there are some aditionals object placement problems, radar cover files etc. But what about "quasi SRTM" terrain? There is a free util in internet, it can count erosion for bitmap. So in case u will take default L2 resolution map with fixed river patterns, you can make high resolution terrain just for Falcon world (it did not match the real world of course, but who care about 300-800 m inaccuracy, appearance is important here).

Just a short conclusion:
1.we should discuss used texture zip (but Tom's agreement is the best way :wink: lores as deffault, high res at home for hi-tiles owner )

2. I need to finish BMP for whole map, then make 2 missing BMP passes - 1st for highways, 2nd for river lowering (in case we will fail to handle that mentioned external highmap)
I will be very happy to have some fixed CATE version for it, but it is for another topic...

3.configure ATAP program and replenish terrain with some complex patterns

4. Hand out areas for particular campaigns, then place real used ABs + squads and some important objectives by hand there. Then to fix linking + adjust some values by hand (acceleration/deceleration of units). Mind you, despite of CATE unpredictability I still preffer this program for most things, but in case you will place AB by CATE, you should also connect it to road system.

I hope you can understand me, I can not find proper words sometimes.
Luk

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-01-27 10:23:34

Luk, Please check your PMs and get on TS!!!

have to talk with you!!!

and mate get a copy of OF and FF5.3! THAT is the future!!

many things speak for FF and OF...
especially FF with the ability to fly many many planes with different cockpits!!!

I'm getting excited here!


regards

Stef

User avatar
molnibalage
Colonel
Posts: 344
Joined: 2007-01-13 07:59:02
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Modeling
Location: Hungary

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by molnibalage » 2010-01-27 12:18:39

I agree. There is no sense to make anything for AF. It is dead. Never will be upgraded.
Image
Core 2 Duo E7300, Gigabyte EP43, 4 GB RAM (1066MHz), Shappire Radeon HD4850 1GB

User avatar
RingoSurf
2nd Lt
Posts: 76
Joined: 2007-11-21 07:00:25
Location: italy

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by RingoSurf » 2010-01-27 15:13:33

molnibalage said:
.....There is no sense to make anything for AF. It is dead.....
no, I don't agree !!! :(

User avatar
Sherlock
Lt. General
Posts: 1167
Joined: 2006-05-24 22:01:01
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: All, I (try) to edit everything.
Location: Arizona, USA

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Sherlock » 2010-01-28 02:30:27

molnibalage wrote:I agree. There is no sense to make anything for AF. It is dead. Never will be upgraded.
I disagree. I still fly AF as do those at MV's as well as the 69th VFW (and others). I know this for a fact. AF is still alive and well.
Sherlock
Victurous te Saluto

User avatar
molnibalage
Colonel
Posts: 344
Joined: 2007-01-13 07:59:02
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Modeling
Location: Hungary

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by molnibalage » 2010-01-28 13:11:48

I'm not talking about communities around AF. I'm talking about its developing. Won't get any fix or updates. You can do anything but AF is grounded as level as exist now. You can fly only F-16Cs, never will get new campaigns, ect..
Image
Core 2 Duo E7300, Gigabyte EP43, 4 GB RAM (1066MHz), Shappire Radeon HD4850 1GB

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-01-28 15:22:13

Gentlemen, we should not discuss our Falcon flavours here.

but one point that really speaks for FF5/OF is the ability to fly all the different jets....

anyways we should not bother about that atm..


now the big question is what needs to be done to get that running in FF5 and OF?

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-01-28 19:35:23

This is from Panama readme (it looks, this ver. is AF only :? ):

Code: Select all

Panama Theater for F4: Allied Force

Version 1.0
===========
This version of Panama Theater ships with a slimmed-down version of Tom Wälti's Summer season HiTilesAF. Please be aware the packaged texture.zip will NOT work in other theaters due to the fact only the tiles used in Panama have been packaged. If you try to use the file in the Balkans or Korea theater, CTDs and/or severe graphic anomolies will occur.

Tom has very kindly agreed to let me use the HiTilesAF in Panama because I have no artistic skills at all. In return, it gives Tom an ideal outlet to let current non-users see just how good the HiTilesAF really are. I firmly believe after seeing them in action, you'll agree they are worth every penny spent and I urge you to support Tom fully by purchasing them from the HiTiles website - http://www.hitiles.com

Also, bear in mind while admiring the view, the supplied HiTilesAF in Panama Theater are only 128 x 128 in size - the full package images are 256 x 256, and look even better!

HiTilesAF are copyright (c) 2002-2005 Thomas D Wälti. Please respect this copyright and do not use the packaged tiles for any purpose other than the supplied. 
I have checked texture.zip file. It is quite small ( :) ). In confrontation with above posted stage of Eu terrain, it only miss snow tiles (highways lately).
I have configured snow-rock and also snow-forrest tiles for CATE, but snow-forrest are not very beautiful in winter version, so I did not used them in Alpian landscape, Just in Scandinavia, but I can miss them fully)
I can make my own snow tiles + transitions and own highway tiles. But mentioned approach would be
agains this readme note:

Code: Select all

 In return, it gives Tom an ideal outlet to let current non-users see just how good the HiTilesAF really are. I firmly believe after seeing them in action, you'll agree they are worth every penny spent
It is possible, that Tom will not like to see, somebody is mixing his work with something else.
Perhaps Tom will give us the compliance to use also his snow and highway tiles, because of mentioned. In case hi will have feeling,
the set is too complete, we can miss another widely used tileset in Korea/Balkan - for example Makia or some slope set etc...
This is the solution for AF version - some light texture set and terrain compatibile with payware hitiles. It would be interesting even for Tom.

The compatibility with FF, OF:
I guess, there is also FF/OF version of the theater (toonces is moding FF and he talked somewhere also about Panama).
I guess this version is also compatibile with AF version terrain (so must bee also texture.zip file).
You can send me FF/OF version texture.zip and I can check it.
Perheps there are also some free rock, snow +snow/rock and higway tiles already finishad over internet.
Or we can use that new ones, I will do for AF...etc ????

Luk
I will stop flood the forum with my test images, but some last here..
here are few images from lower altitude - unfinished X1 is very markable here
For other season therrain, it is possible just change the *.map file, not the terrain (already tested)
Image
Image

you can see road features placed over rock of course..
Image
All images taken in 3D flight have correct haze and horizont.
But I also use ACMI mode for testing (its because I can not still remember shortcut for hover/test mode).
In all ACMI screenshots, the horizont is not good...
Image

User avatar
Sherlock
Lt. General
Posts: 1167
Joined: 2006-05-24 22:01:01
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: All, I (try) to edit everything.
Location: Arizona, USA

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Sherlock » 2010-01-29 02:00:20

molnibalage wrote:I'm not talking about communities around AF. I'm talking about its developing. Won't get any fix or updates. You can do anything but AF is grounded as level as exist now. You can fly only F-16Cs, never will get new campaigns, ect..
Not true. I've done several new campaigns for AF using SP4.2 cam file. Works great. And I think we may be on the verge of breaking the other aircraft cockpit in AF problem. More to come on that later as things develop.
Sherlock
Victurous te Saluto

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-01-29 12:40:29

Sherlock wrote:
molnibalage wrote:I'm not talking about communities around AF. I'm talking about its developing. Won't get any fix or updates. You can do anything but AF is grounded as level as exist now. You can fly only F-16Cs, never will get new campaigns, ect..
Not true. I've done several new campaigns for AF using SP4.2 cam file. Works great. And I think we may be on the verge of breaking the other aircraft cockpit in AF problem. More to come on that later as things develop.

Gents again, that is not the point of interest atm!!!



Luk: could you send me your files over, i want to try to get them working with FF5! just for testing..

thanks in advance!!!

Stef

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-01-30 08:56:59

What texture.zip/bin file do you want to use?
I have also FF5 instalation here...
Luk

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-01-30 12:52:49

please standard Tiles OR FF FreeTiles OR HiTiles AF...that is what i have..
it's up to you.

thank you mate.
Luk wrote:What texture.zip/bin file do you want to use?
I have also FF5 instalation here...
Luk

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-01-30 12:59:59

please standard Tiles OR FF FreeTiles OR HiTiles AF...that is what i have..
Have you got HiTiles AF also in *.DDS version? Is it official release?

Luk

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-01-30 14:59:01

Luk wrote:
please standard Tiles OR FF FreeTiles OR HiTiles AF...that is what i have..
Have you got HiTiles AF also in *.DDS version? Is it official release?

Luk
yes i have converted my HiTilesAF in DDS to use it in FF5.

what do you mean by "official release"?


thanks for collaboration mate!

best regards

Stef

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-02-01 10:31:15

Code: Select all

what do you mean by "official release"?
I mean - whether it is possible to buy them also in DDS version.
If not, it is not the solution for us, I think.
Then we must to collect another free texture.zip (including above mentioned tiles - snow, rock, highways).

I have checked Izrael theater texture.zip on Saturday - there are all needed rock+snow tiles already done.
I am almost confident, there is also some frre version of highway tiles around the internet (or inside some free texture.zip).
In case of emergency, I can do some new highways tiles. But I will probably need your(FFdevelopers) help with
compatibile texture.zip/bin creation. Perhaps it is not so dificult to handle that perl scripts. But I know, nothing works the way
you expect while modding Falcon :mrgreen:. I have some real-life responsibilities and I dont want to steep in some next
field of Falcon world at the moment.

Perhaps my English is worse, then I thing.
In conclusion - I want to use some texture.zip, compatibile with AF hitiles (it is tested, nice seasons). I hope, we will get Tom's blessing
to use some light version of his tiles for AF version. But I am not "sure" about other versions, because the user
can not update to full tiles later (I cant see some benefit for Tom IMHO) .
From this point of view, the FF/OF version is a complication for us at the moment.
So I expect some positive acess from you, FF developers (Stef, Molni). Of course, during the process, we can decide
to use our new bin/zip for all versions in both pcx/dds version (we dont need Tom's compliance then).

Luk

User avatar
molnibalage
Colonel
Posts: 344
Joined: 2007-01-13 07:59:02
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Modeling
Location: Hungary

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by molnibalage » 2010-02-01 17:17:23

Are you saying that is possible to make campaigns and import to in AF if I make it them using SP4.2?

In this case I consider to make a new Korean campaign and a big realism MOD for AF.

I think modeling values of AF is a bad joke. Too many system represents the 'holy weapon' category...:(
Image
Core 2 Duo E7300, Gigabyte EP43, 4 GB RAM (1066MHz), Shappire Radeon HD4850 1GB

Snake Man
Commander-In-Chief
Posts: 9338
Joined: 2000-07-31 22:01:01
Gaming Interests: ArmA, ArmA 2, Falcon 4.0 and OFP.
Editing Interests: All, I (try) to edit everything.
Location: PMC
Contact:

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Snake Man » 2010-02-02 09:26:44

molnibalage wrote:Are you saying that is possible to make campaigns and import to in AF if I make it them using SP4.2?
I have been making campaigns for AF since 2007... I don't understand your question at all in that regard... or don't you even realize that PMC theaters come with campaigns for all F4 versions?
PMC Tactical Forum New User Registration please read new info here.

PMC since 1984

Editing knowledge, visit PMC Editing Wiki
The leading, most detailed and comprehensive modification made for the Vietnam War - Vietnam: The Experience homepage
View our videos in PMC Youtube channel

PMC Tactical forum Advanced Search is power.

"ALPHA BLACK TO PAPA BEAR. ALL RUSSIANS ARE TOAST. OVER."

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-02-02 09:57:18

@Luk:

we (FF) got the permission to use Toms Free HiTiles for FF5.x!

check first post bottom..
http://freefalcon.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16572

can't we use that one???



I think Molni is also referring to the DB...not only recreating a campaign...
Snake Man wrote: I don't understand your question at all in that regard... or don't you even realize that PMC theaters come with campaigns for all F4 versions?
yes, but the truth is that not a single one is working properly.
- completley weird placement of units
- non functional trigger files

SM we both discussed it already to death... TCL scripts are not the best way to create a campaign... sure it is the fastest way...but sure not the best. that is proven by many many ppl.

User avatar
molnibalage
Colonel
Posts: 344
Joined: 2007-01-13 07:59:02
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Modeling
Location: Hungary

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by molnibalage » 2010-02-02 10:33:48

Snake Man wrote:
molnibalage wrote:Are you saying that is possible to make campaigns and import to in AF if I make it them using SP4.2?
I have been making campaigns for AF since 2007... I don't understand your question at all in that regard... or don't you even realize that PMC theaters come with campaigns for all F4 versions?
For which theater? Do we have a campaign with Korea that is not a bad joke concerning on SAM positions or AC inventory on both sides?

@Stefan

Yes, I thought about the DB too.
Image
Core 2 Duo E7300, Gigabyte EP43, 4 GB RAM (1066MHz), Shappire Radeon HD4850 1GB

Snake Man
Commander-In-Chief
Posts: 9338
Joined: 2000-07-31 22:01:01
Gaming Interests: ArmA, ArmA 2, Falcon 4.0 and OFP.
Editing Interests: All, I (try) to edit everything.
Location: PMC
Contact:

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Snake Man » 2010-02-02 13:11:48

For which theater?
All of them.

Anyways, now lets get back on the topic; European terrain update.
PMC Tactical Forum New User Registration please read new info here.

PMC since 1984

Editing knowledge, visit PMC Editing Wiki
The leading, most detailed and comprehensive modification made for the Vietnam War - Vietnam: The Experience homepage
View our videos in PMC Youtube channel

PMC Tactical forum Advanced Search is power.

"ALPHA BLACK TO PAPA BEAR. ALL RUSSIANS ARE TOAST. OVER."

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-02-02 21:22:18

we (FF) got the permission to use Toms Free HiTiles for FF5.x!

check first post bottom..
http://freefalcon.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16572

can't we use that one???
Yes, of course, we can use that free HiTiles set (it is based on original F4). But we must replenish it with previously mentioned(snow, rock, highways..) tilesets first.

But it looks, there is some painless way for "mainstream user", howto update the terrain by payware AF hitiles.
In this case we would have a chance to get Tom's permission to use "identical" light AF texture.zip for both versions AF+FF(OF?).
It would be theoreticaly preferable for Tom, then some 256x256resolution free set - there is not so strong motivation for upgrade.

Perhaps we would try to get some preliminary agreement from Tom.

Luk

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-02-02 22:23:31

Luk wrote:
we (FF) got the permission to use Toms Free HiTiles for FF5.x!

check first post bottom..
http://freefalcon.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16572

can't we use that one???
Yes, of course, we can use that free HiTiles set (it is based on original F4). But we must replenish it with previously mentioned(snow, rock, highways..) tilesets first.

But it looks, there is some painless way for "mainstream user", howto update the terrain by payware AF hitiles.
In this case we would have a chance to get Tom's permission to use "identical" light AF texture.zip for both versions AF+FF(OF?).
It would be theoreticaly preferable for Tom, then some 256x256resolution free set - there is not so strong motivation for upgrade.

Perhaps we would try to get some preliminary agreement from Tom.

Luk

Ok, i see.

Will you contact Tom?

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-02-03 16:32:28

Ok, i see.
Will you contact Tom?
Yes, I will send him an email.
Luk

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-02-03 20:47:48

Luk wrote:
Ok, i see.
Will you contact Tom?
Yes, I will send him an email.
Luk
roger great!

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-02-05 17:39:13

We have it! :D

Tom has answered me very nicely.

Code: Select all

 ....As an avid drinker of the original czech Budweiser
 and with one of my
 best friends originally from CZ, I'm glad to help ;-)
 (I even met two Falcon fans once in Prague :-)
He also told me, he can make mentioned texture.bin/zip edits. It is great. It will be much safer, when done by expert.

:D :D :D
Luk

derStef
Banned user
Posts: 696
Joined: 2007-11-14 00:22:45
Gaming Interests: Falcon 4.0
Editing Interests: Terrains
Location: Austria

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by derStef » 2010-02-05 22:47:10

Luk wrote:We have it! :D

Tom has answered me very nicely.

Code: Select all

 ....As an avid drinker of the original czech Budweiser
 and with one of my
 best friends originally from CZ, I'm glad to help ;-)
 (I even met two Falcon fans once in Prague :-)
He also told me, he can make mentioned texture.bin/zip edits. It is great. It will be much safer, when done by expert.

:D :D :D
Luk

NOW THATS G R E A T N E W S!!!!!

we need the CHEEERS SMILEY HEREE!!!!!

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-02-06 00:09:44

Ok, now I can finish tiling.
Luk

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-04-05 19:26:56

I have tiled most of the European terrain. I want to share it and "unlock" CATE finished part for handfixes - if you will accept it of course :).
Can you recommend me some place for 12MB upload please?
Luk

Snake Man
Commander-In-Chief
Posts: 9338
Joined: 2000-07-31 22:01:01
Gaming Interests: ArmA, ArmA 2, Falcon 4.0 and OFP.
Editing Interests: All, I (try) to edit everything.
Location: PMC
Contact:

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Snake Man » 2010-04-05 20:03:11

Of course we accept it :)

12mb hmm no idea, but all those usual places should allow it, if not, use winRAR and packet size of smaller, like 1mb or so. if all else fails, you can email it to me in those small pieces.

Not sure if usual places are sendspace, mediafire, megaupload, filefront etc. I'm really not familiar about those free upload sites, sorry.
PMC Tactical Forum New User Registration please read new info here.

PMC since 1984

Editing knowledge, visit PMC Editing Wiki
The leading, most detailed and comprehensive modification made for the Vietnam War - Vietnam: The Experience homepage
View our videos in PMC Youtube channel

PMC Tactical forum Advanced Search is power.

"ALPHA BLACK TO PAPA BEAR. ALL RUSSIANS ARE TOAST. OVER."

ccc
Chief of Staff
Posts: 4857
Joined: 2000-08-06 22:01:01

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by ccc » 2010-04-06 02:29:15

I have tiled most of the European terrain.
:shock: :shock:

12mb file, you may try Mediafire.
www.mediafire.com

User avatar
Luk
Brig. General
Posts: 455
Joined: 2007-04-23 09:59:36

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Luk » 2010-04-06 22:22:00

Thanks for the tips.

Updated part of EU terrain:

Here is the JPG picture, it shows checker over the picture. This visible checker are particular segments of the theater. So it is 128x128. The red-coloured area is part of the theater "authorized" for handtiling/fixes (we can also "unlock" the rest of France on demand).
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab4/ ... nished.jpg

Just for explanation.
I am the last man to dictate anything. But I will continue CATE tiling in the rest of theater.
I think there is enough space for fine-tuned East/West Germany campaing already now.

I have also another request/plea for to let a part of the terrain for my own fixes :)
This picture shows my area of interest:
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab4/ ... eserve.jpg
Black area is "protected" for my small campaign.
The blue area is another "protected" rectangle. I want to make all Swizz airports by myself - it is something what drove me to Falcon modding some few years ago.
BTW I did some small fixes already yesterday. There are Meiringen AFB tiles placed by hand - near Brienzersee lake and Venice area for example.
Northern red rectangle is the area where I have a lot of hand-fixes/tiled segments already "finished". I did not import them yet. It was made with default AF tiles and although I have fixed some parts already, it is not finished yet. I will start fixing there, so I will give it soon for your northern campaign.
The eastern pink rectangle in Hungary I can share with somebody else, if demanded...

There is a link to the new European L2 file (zip file includes L2,O2 files, and map files - Europe.map default for all seasons excluding winter, there is also one more colourfull version and the 3rd is winter version of map file):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/i5oidiwktmf/Europe.zip
I have added many variations to transitions, I made additional passes - highways, more types of cities etc...

I am quite satisfied with the result. But I want to say, there can be some small errors there and there. It is becouse CATE is placeing features (road+rivers) by some complex algoritmus and the result is everytime different. So in case, you will paint a city somewhere to have clean transition for each
road, the resulting road can turn a little bit earlier than before(I have used 2-3 *.thr files for reference). It has nothing to do with my previous
problem(bmp rules). It is just becouse of some additional counts during placements, where the algoritmus tries to clean up features, tries to find the best
way for it etc. European area is very dense, there are a lot of roads/highways/rivers in one place and CATE can count it a little bit different from time to time.
I have also added some new features. Beside Kaliningrad area, there are a few new highways placed in the Czech landscape and the most important is "featured" West-East Germany border. I have found some good tiles for it in the hi-tiles pack (placed in "rivers?" bookmark in TV) and then slightly modified configs.
It is road tile placed in the forrest to farm transition tile. So the resulting "green belt" is just 2 tiles wide (cool!). I have also checked mentioned
"border" tiles with Pathmaker, and they really store road paths(not rivers). So their placement in the rivers bookmark is just a small confusion.
It is also interesting in another aspect. I drew the paths in my CAD application and then exported to the text file. I made few substitutions/replacements in
notepad and used my new features for the first try without any errors. Border/Road feature have quite a lot of place around, so it was placed very
accurately.
The only problem is, I did not checked a winter version of them in time. I saw the problem yesterday(winter test) - forrest is much mor white in this tile
set. So it is not very seamless in winter...
note - I have used lake tiles only, even for sea coast. They are less "repeatable". But I want to make also some true sea cost tiled areas in the future.
Dont worry about it, I will do it as bmp-substitution over final handtiled terrain. i can reverse engeneer it from final thr. I also did not any
high/elevation edits by CATE. I can flattern lakes + lower rivers in the future. I will rather do it with fixed rivers. I have plan to connect most of rivers
in my area of interrest. BTW - I have removed riverinthecities configs. It was very nice somewhere, but there was a lot of strange places too. So I keep only
river-entrance to city and I want to tile it by hand..

What to do now? We can discuss/sort areas of interrest. Then there are perhaps 2 possible ways.

1 - take updated terrain and make Airbase pass over it - then we can have some buggy/fast contemporary theater based on ver. 6 (Airbases about 2 segments
away etc...) + we can work on new version at home.

2 - wait and work. Then release new theater with new *.cams.

I will prefer no 2 - to work and not devaluate it by some unfinished versions...

Luk
P.S. - this is a map of the current stage. You can see highways I have added for example. And also other usefull things. You can use as overlay in tacedit..
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab4/Luk77/MAP.jpg

Snake Man
Commander-In-Chief
Posts: 9338
Joined: 2000-07-31 22:01:01
Gaming Interests: ArmA, ArmA 2, Falcon 4.0 and OFP.
Editing Interests: All, I (try) to edit everything.
Location: PMC
Contact:

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by Snake Man » 2010-04-06 23:35:34

Luk wrote:I have also another request/plea for to let a part of the terrain for my own fixes :)
This picture shows my area of interest:
Black area is "protected" for my small campaign.
If I understand correctly and you are looking for hand tiling help from users and want to reserve these segments for yourself, I don't think there is any problem with that because dunno how many people are willing to do hand tiling.
I cannot download this, maybe its my adblocker or something but there is no download link?
PMC Tactical Forum New User Registration please read new info here.

PMC since 1984

Editing knowledge, visit PMC Editing Wiki
The leading, most detailed and comprehensive modification made for the Vietnam War - Vietnam: The Experience homepage
View our videos in PMC Youtube channel

PMC Tactical forum Advanced Search is power.

"ALPHA BLACK TO PAPA BEAR. ALL RUSSIANS ARE TOAST. OVER."

ccc
Chief of Staff
Posts: 4857
Joined: 2000-08-06 22:01:01

Re: Eu terrain update

Post by ccc » 2010-04-07 04:54:01

the DL link works, i got it. great job. 8-)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests