importing terrain from wrptool back into visitor

[fasad]

heyas,
i'm working on an island using a combination of wrptool + visitor.


i've textured the terrain in visitor, then added roads and towns in wrptool. as part of this process i've altered the terrain. i would like to get the modified terrain back into visitor for further rule based texture work. the only info i need to be able to import is the height data, nothing else.

can this be done?

cheers all : )

[fasad]

ahh, managed it. not a very obvious process : )
for anyone else who wants to do the same:

- binarize the wrp created wrptool. using the old oct 11th version of binarize. no config.cpp was used, just the world.wrp + all used textures (though these aren't actually needed) + objects. choose *not* to overwrite the wrpfile at the end. update - binarize seems not to work unless there is at least one object on the island.
- create new world in visitor, matching dimensions.
- connect to bulldozer.
- reload bulldozer.
- visitor, import the binarized wrp.
- buldozer will crash or exit with an error.
- in visitor, disconnect from buldozer, then connect to it. re-load. the terrain should load slowly (~1 min on p4-3ghz).
- save it as a pew. all the objects + textures are somehow corrupted, probbably due to folder setup, but i don't need this info anyway.
- open the original pew with properly set up textures + rules. select all terrain from new pew, copy and paste terrain.
- re-texture the terrain, update buldozer, then export it as a different wrp.
- in wrptool, import the textures!!

now, why am i trying to do this? i'm doing a 512x512 map, that's ~260,000 textures. visitors texture placement rules are a much better tool for applying textures than doing them 1 by 1 in wrptool.

[Gnat]

Thx for the info fasad

BTW, I've never used Visitor, when you say "rules" what is it?
Does Visitor allow auto application of textures based on terrain profile? Like cliffs and beaches ?

[fasad]

hey

yes, visitor allows you to define "terrain" types. you can set up textures to apply based on altitude and slope. it can also automatically apply "patch" variation textures at defined percentages.

i set up different ~7 terrains types based on altitude, so that you have rocks occuring at a slight slope angle near the sea, brown grass on less steep slopes as altitude increases, then snow, etc. it takes a hour to set them up and tweak but then 1 mouse click can texture an entire island.

it is much easier to apply single unique textures (such as runways, farms and parks) afterwards in wrptool.

[Gnat]

Cool, nice feature. Maybe one day it could be added to WrpTool ....but then again, we can't even get the latest version

[fasad]

definately. the tool should be quite easy to code, but without the ability to automatically create transitions textures you'd still need to work in visitor.

it does seem odd that the latest wrptool is not public.. with only ~10-100 active users of the program, closed development doesn't make much sense to me.