CATE tips

[T_Rex]

Ok, first - sorry to start a whole new topic on this, but I think I posted to much (hopefully) funny stuff in the "Questions about CATE" thread. Plus, I thought a new thread where people just posted tips would be a good idea.

For instance, as I get used to CATE, I'm wondering if it's better to try to do everything in one CATE .conf or if its better to try a couple runs - 1 to get the basic tiles down, another to go from a BMP to change just certain areas, then another for features, etc. This might be a good place for people to post how they use it so we can learn from each other.

So, as a first "tip" (subject to debate, of course), I found its better to use the DEM2L .tga, converted to .bmp, as the pic to use when having CATE do the color rules. When I'm trying to figure out what colors go where, the DEM2L generated .tga has a better representation of the physical geography, IMHO.

Ok, teeny tiny tip there, but that's all I have to offer at this point.

Thanks,
T

[Skyfire76]

One of the most important thing to know is that cities, even if they are defined in TDF files like rivers and roads, are considered by CATE as being a terrain type.

So, cities tiling should be the first thing you should do on a plain new theater.

Other than that, when it will be available on download page, read the full example in the ReadMe file of version 4.00.

Regards.

[Skyfire76]

Another tip (this one is for SnakeMan) : if you want to tile Villages or SAM sites, you can do it, you just have to cheat with CATE

Do as if your villages or SAM sites were Airbases, and define them in the conf file as Airbases. That's all.

Regards.

[Skyfire76]

Another one : due to some limitation in CATE, there's a small problem when tiling cities. The ReadMe and conf file example say that you should write something like this when tiling cities :

[TerrainFeatures: Default]
City=321
[EndTerrainFeatures default]

[TerrainFeatures: Forest]
TerrainType=1
TerrainTiles=(68)
City=490
[EndTerrainFeatures forest]

but in fact, this should look like this :

[TerrainFeatures: Default]
City=321
[EndTerrainFeatures default]

[TerrainFeatures: Forest]
TerrainType=1
TerrainTiles=(68,490)
City=490
[EndTerrainFeatures forest]

The idea is that when you specify certain tiles for specific terrain types, you should list the city tile in the terrain tiles list, otherwise CATE will only tile the default city tile for every city.

Unfortunately, I don't think I will correct this, since it would require to rewrite the code for finding "cities paths", shared with the one for rivers and roads (because information comes from the same kind of files : the TDF files).

Regards.

[87th_striker]

Hi There...

Can someone post me a direct link for the files I need to run Cate as per directions in Readme.doc ? I run Windows 2k,and hope it will run, even if win 98 is stated.

Quote:
Just create a folder somewhere on your hard disk, and put all CATE files in this folder. You’ll need to have all Visual Basic 6 runtime files (Comdlg32.ocx included) installed on your Win98 PC for CATE to run. These files are not provided with CATE, but you’ll have no problem finding them on several web sites.

[Skyfire76]

You can always try (download VB runfiles for Win2K), but I can't guarantee this will work.

Regards.

[87th_striker]

Skyfire, I guess those files needed are also french versions ?? CATE asks for a file called VB6FR.DLL . I never found any file with that name in the downloads from MS. Could you make an international version for win2k or XP of Cate with some help from.... Julian or others ?

[Snake Man]

quote:Originally posted by 87th_striker:
CATE asks for a file called VB6FR.DLL

I run english win98se, it does not ask that file in my system.

What language do you run on the wk2y?

PMC TFW
Snake Man

[87th_striker]

English...

[Skyfire76]

quote:Originally posted by 87th_striker:
Skyfire, I guess those files needed are also french versions ?? CATE asks for a file called VB6FR.DLL . I never found any file with that name in the downloads from MS. Could you make an international version for win2k or XP of Cate with some help from.... Julian or others ?

I do not really understand why there is a specific french version DLL asked ...

Anyway, drop me a Private Message here with your email, and I'll send you that file by email. With a little luck, this could work ( I do not have many hopes, though).

When I'll be done with CATE, I'll make the source code available, so that anyone with VB 6 will be able to compile it for whatever OS. But not yet ...

Regards.

[87th_striker]

Skyfire
Your mail here is blocked, so mail me at: striker@87th.org

[Quicksilver]

Striker, do a search on Google for "Visual Basic 6 Runtime files", for a installation pack named "VBRun60sp5.exe", containing some files needed to run any programs running on Visual Basic, such as CATE. I had the same problem as you, and installing this small pack solved it.

[Snake Man]

[AirbasesDef]
AirbaseDef=1 0 -1 1 1 (01_19,02_20,20_02,32_14,34_16,36_18)
AirbaseDef=2 -1 0 1 1 (08_26,11_29,12_30,21_03,26_08,30_12)
AirbaseDef=3 0 -1 2 1 (05_23,23_05)
[EndAirbases]

[TerrainFeatures: Default]
Airbase=1 HI (1908,1909,1906,1907,1904,1905)
Airbase=2 HI (1913,1914,1915,1910,1911,1912)
Airbase=3 HI (1932,1933,382,1929,1930,1931,382,1927,1928)
[EndTerrainFeatures Default]

Thats ODS airbase CATE config file. The airbase=3 type is for 23_05 airbase which you can look up from the CATE airbases page here but basically its like this:

oOO
XOO
OOo

The X is the coord tile, O's are the other tiles and o's are the non airbase tiles but which need to be used with CATE.

Anyways, wonder if anyone has made complete Falcon AirbaseDef layout configuration file yet?

PMC TFW
Snake Man