Runtiles

[Epic]

SM

I used the runtiles V1.1 with success when I added a few tiles to an existing texture.zip. I tried creating a 512 texture.zip from scratch and to see if I could get it to work I started with 9 tiles. I updated my runtiles.bat with the one modified for 512 tiles.

When I run runtiles.bat I get the following error:

Code: Select all

creating 512 H tiles...
creating 256 M tiles...
creating 128 L tiles...
creating 16 T tiles...
File not found "c:\temp\htiles\h*.pcx"
File no found "h*.pcx"
...Etc

Any ideas what I am doing wrong? I followed the Creating 512 Tiles by Kinggeorge. I am using Paint Shop Pro X2 to make the tiles from google earth tiles.

Thanks,

Epic

[Snake Man]

Well do you have that directory it says it cant find?

And do you run 4dos.com also?

[Epic]

SM

I have all the files in c:\temp directory. The 512 runtiles.bat file contains commands to create htiles,ltiles,mtiles,and ttiles directories.

When I create the directories, run 4dos.com, and then the 512 runtiles.bat it gives an access denied error when trying to create the directories and then the same file not found errors.

Is there any chance it has something to do with my palette file? I put all my tiles onto a tile, decreased the colours to 256, saved the palette, then opened all my tiles individually, decreased colours to 256 and then loaded the palette as per tutorial.

Here is the 512 runtiles.bat file:

Code: Select all

@echo off
md htiles
md mtiles
md ltiles
md ttiles
echo creating 512 H tiles...
for %x in (h*.pcx) do alchemy -Q ---f -p -Xb512 -Yb512 %x htiles\%x >nul
echo creating 256 M tiles...
for %x in (h*.pcx) do alchemy -Q ---f -p -Xb256 -Yb256 %x mtiles\%x >nul
echo creating 128 L tiles...
for %x in (h*.pcx) do alchemy -Q ---f -p -Xb128 -Yb128 %x ltiles\%x >nul
echo creating 16 T tiles...
for %x in (h*.pcx) do alchemy -Q -fxfartile.pcx -p -Xb16 -Yb16 %x ttiles\%x >nul
cd htiles
move h*.pcx ..    >nul
cd ../mtiles
ren h*.pcx m*.pcx >nul
move m*.pcx ..    >nul
cd ../ltiles
ren h*.pcx l*.pcx >nul
move l*.pcx ..    >nul
cd ../ttiles
ren h*.pcx t*.pcx >nul
move t*.pcx ..    >nul
cd ..
rd htiles
rd mtiles
rd ltiles
rd ttiles
echo zipping it up...
pkzip texture.zip h*.pcx m*.pcx l*.pcx t*.pcx >nul
move texture.zip e:\falcon4\terrdata\korea\texture
del h*.pcx m*.pcx l*.pcx t*.pcx >nul
echo done!

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Epic

[Malc]

If you are using the alchemy.exe supplied in the runtiles package, it will (okay, used to...) process 640*480 max images, so this might be your problem.

[Epic]

SM

After creating the directories myself I tried manually running the first line using alchemy and this is the error that I got.


Do I need a different version of alchemy.exe for this to work? In the 512 Runtiles.rar file that I downloaded from the link in the WIKI there was just a new runtiles.bat file.

Epic

[Epic]

Malc

Sorry, missed your post. I must have been creating my reply when you posted. Do you know of any other freeware program that would work for me and is simple to use? I found links here in the forums, but they are dead.

Thanks,

Epic

[Malc]

Epic,

I once had a full version of Image Alchemy I found on a torrent site, but lost it when my HD crashed last year. Typically, I can't find the torrent now.

Not sure about other programs which do the same thing though. That said, I have a feeling Thumbs might include the option to resize images as a batch job. This would let you resize 512 to 256, then use the runtiles to finish off including the T tiles with the common palette bit?

Not sure mate, been ages since I did this stuff now...

Let us know how you get on!

Malc

[Epic]

Malc

Thanks for the advice. For now, I re-did the tiles as 256. I was just trying to add some R/L sat images of a particular air weapons range and the existing tiles were 256 anyways.

Now I am just struggling with my fartiles after I build the terrain. Water surrounding my jet and purple tiles outside of that.

Do you remember if after creating the file with 1 tile from each set and creating a palette (used to create fartile.pal) if you have to apply this palette to the new tiles you are introducing? I did this and didn't like what it did to the tiles, so I tried without and I am having fartiles issues I believe.

Epic

[Malc]

Malc

Now I am just struggling with my fartiles after I build the terrain. Water surrounding my jet and purple tiles outside of that.

Epic

Epic,

What I do remember is that every time a new sets of tiles is added, the xfartile.pcx needs to be updated to include one image from the set, and a new palette spawned from the updated xfartile.pcx.

What you describe definitely sounds like a fartile palette issue. Whenever a new set is introduced, the palette has to be remade to include the new set. Ideally you want to strive to ensure all sets are created before the fartiles.pal is made.

HTH!

Malc

[Epic]

Malc

Thanks, that definitely helps me focus where to look for problems. At first, I added a few transition tiles, but using an original terrain type tile and clone brushing that texture onto an already existing transition tile, keeping the last 3 digits of the filename the same. I created an xfartile.pcx file and a new-fartiles.pal and created the l,m,t files. I built the terrain and it worked great.

Then I realized that there were more transition tiles that needed to be made and I added them and did the process over. I think I messed up my xfartile.pcx file and I haven't gotten the terrain in sim to look right since.

I ran a test and created a texture.bin and a texture.zip consisting of only my new GE tiles and they seemed to work fine in the sim.

My next step is to redo my xfartile.pcx file from scratch a tile from all the original sets and all my new sets. Then make a new fartile.pal for the \texture directory and create new l,m,t tiles with the new "new-fartiles.pal".

One question. When I save the palette as a microsoft *.pal file, the mkpal.pl perl script errors and says not a PSP palette. So I have been saving my palette as a PSP palette and renaming the file extension to .pal. Does this make sense? I think the old JASC Paint Shop Pro must have saved with the file extension of .pal and my Paint Shop Pro X2 saves with a PSPpalette extension.

Thanks,

Epic

[Sherlock]

Epic,
check your PMs.

[Malc]

Malc
One question. When I save the palette as a microsoft *.pal file, the mkpal.pl perl script errors and says not a PSP palette. So I have been saving my palette as a PSP palette and renaming the file extension to .pal. Does this make sense? I think the old JASC Paint Shop Pro must have saved with the file extension of .pal and my Paint Shop Pro X2 saves with a PSPpalette extension.

Thanks,

Epic

A PSP palette as needed by runtiles.bat is incredibly basic. Save your palette, and check for the following using Notepad...

Code: Select all

JASC-PAL
0100
256

Followed by a list of 256 different 3 number entries, e.g.

Code: Select all

0 24 41
0 33 33
0 41 41
...
...
...

I use PSP6 for just about everything, and always had good results. I'm not up to speed with recent versions, but if your generated palette follows the above example, you're on to a winner!

Keep us informed!

PS - with regards to original tiles, if there are any sets of them you don't use then don't include the sets in your xfartile.pcx cos when you reduce the image to 256 colors you obviously lose alot of colors and this can have a detrimental effect on white especially, which is important if you are using snowcaps for mountains, etc.

PPS - In your new custom tiles, make sure the last four colours (index 252-255) are not used cos unplanned use will look totally shite at night (but I bet you already know about this). If not, it doesn't matter which colour you make them, but white is always a good bet, as it helps with the snow thing again. Indeed, when you reduce the number of colours, rather than making it 256, make it 252 instead and the last four indexes will be kept unused!

Footnote! When did PSP sell out to Corel! Gee, I am out of date here!

[Malc]

Epic,
check your PMs.

Yah, boo, sucks... PMs don't share the knowledge Sherlock!

[Epic]

Malc

Thanks for all the info. I checked my palette and it is the right format as you demonstrated above. Now that won't distract me I won't be wondering if it is right when I am trying to track down the problem.

Here is the range. I still haven't transitioned the outer tiles to forest yet, I wanted to make sure I can get it to work before I took the time to do that. Right now I just wanted to get the range in the sim so I can see if I have the right scale and see if there is any way it will look OK with the original tiles.


Epic

[Sherlock]

Epic,
check your PMs.

Yah, boo, sucks... PMs don't share the knowledge Sherlock!

No knowledge to share Malc...

I just got his email to send him the retail Alchemy so he could crunch larger tiles with runtiles.

[Malc]

I just got his email to send him the retail Alchemy so he could crunch larger tiles with runtiles.

:thumbs: Can I have a copy too please?!

[Sherlock]

I just got his email to send him the retail Alchemy so he could crunch larger tiles with runtiles.

:thumbs: Can I have a copy too please?!

send me email addy via PM...

[Epic]

Guys

I am still having no luck with my suspected fartile problem.

The steps I have taken so far.

1. I created new transition tiles with clone brush and original terrain and transition tiles.
2. I created brand new tiles with GE images.
3. I took all the tiles from a given set and copied them into a pcx file. I decreased the colours to 252. Then I saved a palette for each set and added the following night time colours from the texture tutorial to indexes 252-256:

position 252 will turn to colour 115,171,155 (RGB values)
position 253 will turn to colour 183,127,183 (RGB values)
position 254 will turn to colour 171,179,139 (RGB values)
position 255 will turn to colour 171,171,171 (RGB values)

4. Then I re-opened each tile in a given set individually and applied the new palette and re-saved.
5. I converted the texture.bin to a text file and used it as a guide to copy the first tile from each set as they were listed in the texture.bin to a pcx file. I decreased the colours to 252 and then saved the palette. Then I added the night colours as indicated above to the indexes 252-256. then I saved the palette as new-fartiles.pcx and the pcx file as xfartile.pcx.
6. From new-fartiles.pal I made my fartiles.pal.
7. With the xfartiles.pcx and the new-fartiles.pal I used runtiles to create my new l,m, and t files.
8. I created a new texture.bin
9. I added all original tiles and my new h,l,m, and t files to a texture.zip.
10. I ran the 3 terrain building utilities.

After all this I still have the same problem with a square of ocean surrounding my jet and purple tiles in the distance.

I did run a test with just my new GE tiles in its own set and it seemed to work well. This leads me to believe that it is a palette problem I am having combining the original tiles with the new tiles I have made.

I even tried excluding the GE tiles and only using the new transition tiles that I created, which in theory shouldn't need a new palette (?) because they are all original colours from the existing terrain copied from one tile to another.

Any ideas here? I am going to start pulling my hair out here. At this point I couldn't care less what the tiles look like at night, I just want to solve my fartile problem and get it working. From there I can start making small adjustments and fiddle with it to keep it working.

Thanks,

Epic

[Malc]

Post a couple pics of the errors please?

[Epic]

Just in the midst of re-building terrain with the new-fartile.pal and fartiles.pal set to 252 colours. As soon as its done I can get a shot and post.

[Phoenix711]

Even the new Alchemy (512) can't process files greater from some size. I don't know the exact size, just wanted to share. Gives your error, h* not found.

What I do is,

Make 512 tiles, resize copies to 256, rename them to H*, move them to Runtiles dir and run runtiles.bat.

That works. After finished, delete H tiles under runtiles dir and use remaining M, L and T tiles, with the original H tiles.

And, IMO, dont change your xfartilex.pcx between any operation. Just use the same for everything. Because, if you do change the xfartilex.pcx, some T tiles may be differently merged then others. And thats a problem.

[Epic]

Malc

Here is what the latest screen shot. It is not what I was seeing before with the symetrical square of ocean tiles surrounded by purple tiles, but its still a major problem.

And, IMO, dont change your xfartilex.pcx between any operation. Just use the same for everything. Because, if you do change the xfartilex.pcx, some T tiles may be differently merged then others. And thats a problem

I assumed that anytime I made a change to a palette I would have to update the set and subsequently its entry in the xfartile.pcx. Is this not true? BTW, after I make any changes to Htiles I remake the l,m, and t tiles to reflect changes.

Another thing I was wondering about. The xfartile.pcx file is used for all the colours present in it, right? So including more than one tile per set is ok and better than missing a set right?

I hope you have some ideas of my problem

Thanks in advance,

Epic

[Phoenix711]

AFAIK, if one SET has tiles with different palettes, the first palette is used for all tiles in the set. So, I think you should check something.

1. All tiles in all sets has the same palette. Check set by set.
2. Your shared ocean tile (search pls, I don't remember exactly)
3. Try deleting texture dir (in texture dir), fartiles.dds, fartilesn.dds and fartiles.raw files before running SPTInstall and Seasonswitcher.

AFAIK, you should add one tile from every set you have (assuming all tiles in sets share the same palette) to an image, then convert it to 256 colors and use that as your xfartilex.pcx and fartiles.pal. IMO, you should have a finished texture.zip, and then create your xfartilex.pcx.

BTW, I don't see a reason to change the fartiles.pal (or xfartilex.pcx). I'm using different coloured tiles, some of them has 248 colors used, and with standart xfartilex.pcx (use one of the original T tiles) I have no problem at the distance.

Regards.

Edit: Are you careful for not changing the index of the tiles in the texture.zip by changing the bin file? If you put some set or tiles in between the already used ones, all tiles will show wrong on the terrain after that point. New tiles should be appended to the end of the file always.

[Epic]

Phoenix

1. All tiles in all sets has the same palette. Check set by set.

All my new tile sets have the same palette. I added all tiles in a given set to a pcx file, reduced to 256 colour, reduced to 252 colour palette, and saved the palette. Then I applied the palette from an entire set to each tile in the given set. I assume that all the original tile sets have the same palette. Have you seen differently?

2. Your shared ocean tile (search pls, I don't remember exactly)

I am not sure exactly what this is, but I am assuming that in a 128 segment theater 1,127 needs to be an ocean tile and defined as the first tile in the first set? I verified that the whole segment including 1,127 are ocean tiles. I looked them up and it istile '0' the first tile in the first set. Other than this I am not sure what the shared ocean tile is.

3. Try deleting texture dir (in texture dir), fartiles.dds, fartilesn.dds and fartiles.raw files before running SPTInstall and Seasonswitcher.

Done each time I rebuilt the terrain.

I ran lxnormalfix.exe and seasonswitcher.exe for a second time and the symetrical square of ocean tiles surrounding my jet is still there. I also checked my registry and it is set to the correct theater.

Anyone have any ideas?

Epic

[Phoenix711]

I had the exact same problem.

My resolution was:

In the registry there are two keys.

One: Curtheater
Two: TheaterDir

CurTheater, should be the name of your theater.

TheaterDir should be set to the upper directory of your terrain. Check it, I think this will fix your problem. It did for me.

Edit: While seasonswitcher is running, is it showing the files with the correct directory path in DOS screen?

[Epic]

One: Curtheater
Two: TheaterDir

CurTheater, should be the name of your theater.

TheaterDir should be set to the upper directory of your terrain. Check it, I think this will fix your problem. It did for me.

Both my entries seem to be correct. CurTheater shows my theater name and TheaterDir shows the correct path to terrdata under my theater.

Edit: While seasonswitcher is running, is it showing the files with the correct directory path in DOS screen?

Yes, seasonswitcher is working in the proper path.

I had both of these problems before and when they were resolved like you said my terrain worked fine. Now, it is something different. I think it has something to do with the transition tiles that I made, but I don't understand what or why.

The GE tiles work on their own, I guess the next step is to try and see if the new transition tiles will work on their own. Is this still a fartile problem or something else? I had this problem before when I was first starting. The problems then, were not running lxnormalfix and seasonswitcher and the registry problem.

Anymore ideas?

Thanks,

Epic

Epic

[Epic]

I installed an older version of OF. I was using 4.5 and that is when my problems started. I switched to an old install of OF3? and my terrain installed fine. Original tiles + clone brushed transitions + GE tiles + brand new fartile.pal I generated from the palette of all the tiles.

Thanks for all the help over the last couple weeks guys. When I get it looking acceptable I will post a screen shot. Now the real work begins, tons of tweaking.

Epic