Scenery Tools available! [Old / For FC2]

[Almazi]

probably not

[spooks2k1]

I've been following all the advice and info in this thread and managed to get my first terrain into the game, but I have a problem with the plugins, they have stopped exporting the .lsa2 correctly. I now only get a small 256kb file when I export. This happens when using both the debug and release versions of the plugins. I have re-installed both the plugins and Max numerous times but nothing seems to fix my problem.

I was wondering If this happens to you guys and If so is there a way to fix it?

I discovered I can successfully export the mesh "before" i apply the displace and optimize modifiers, so something happens during that process that seems to be breaking the plugin export.

 

Thanks for this thread and all the tutorials, but until I can fix this problem i cant continue, I'm stuck and could do with some advice.

 

spooks

[luckybob9]

Did it ever work before applying the modifiers?

[spooks2k1]

Yeah, I didn't have a problem before. I've made a small section of the Helmand Province, and couldn't wait to get the terrain ingame so I processed one section of the map exported to lsa2 assembled and ran it. I've been experimenting with textures and noise settings for a day or so.

I came back to max to grab some more mesh and it flat down refuses to export, you can tell it hasn't worked, the progress bar just zip's along, whereas before it took a good few seconds to process.

I've noticed when I close max now it spits up the Eagle3dmaxPlugin.ini in notepad, I don't remember that happening before.

 

I can load the template from the wiki & apply the maps (I get an error message otherwise) then export with no problem, but after I apply the displace & optimize the export stops working.

[spooks2k1]

Until I can fix the .lsa2 export I'm concentrating on the textures and have hit a small problem with exporting from global mapper.

My question is, What controls the image size and resolution output from global mapper ? It seems no matter what resolution image I use (as described in the tutorials), I always end up with small resolution hi textures, after converting and resizing I'm always at 512x512.

What method do I need to use to end up with 1024x1024 hi textures ?

Is it the DEM that restricts the image size output, or the scale settings in global mapper.

 

thanks

spooks

 

 

Never mind I've worked that one out ;)

Edited June 20, 2011 by spooks2k1
Solved Problem

[spooks2k1]

Ha Ha ....go figure, if you overwrite the land.lsa2 it exports wrong, If you export to a fresh empty "working" folder it exports fine, (I think), either way exporting is up and running again :D

I should have paid more attention to your video luckybob9 it's all there :thumbup:

[luckybob9]

Im not sure what you mean. There is no real such thing as overwriting it. Even though windows says it is overwriting it, you are injecting more data into it. Problems can occur when you try to inject pieces that already exist i suppose. But when exporting multiple files since they can become so big, you overwrite it and the tools inject more data.

[spooks2k1]

I'm not sure what I mean either :D I'm very new to this.

 

I didn't realise that it was injecting rather than overwriting :doh:, that's good info, now I understand a little more about the process, onwards and upwards. :pilotfly:

thanks

 

spooks

[luckybob9]

The reason for is because since Max likes to crash when files are large, you can split the information between multiple files and then just inject it.

[spooks2k1]

Ok I see what you mean, it sounds like a similar concept to X-Ref, as a max user, a process you've gotta be familiar with ;)

[spooks2k1]

I've just noticed when I'm low level flying 100ft above the ground my altimeter is displaying +4000, I'm wondering If I've goofed up somewhere along the creation / scale process or this can be easily fixed.?

[aaron886]

Hm, good catch! I'm interested in the answer to that one as well, for future reference.

[spooks2k1]

Does anyone here use ASTER GDEMS ?

 

I have a problem in GM, but I'm not sure if it's a GM issue of a DEM one.

I have 12 GDEM tiles loaded and am using the Modify Layer Position to adjust textures, but where the grid intersects the tiles (if you have the grid on), or where the DEMS meet, there seems to be a bit of an overlap.

 

You can see it when a texture overlaps the intersection of 2 dems, I toggle the texture on and off and there is a definite contracting of the dems underneath, so the dem on the right side is perfectly aligned with the texture but the dem on the left side is slightly out, or vise verse.

 

Has anyone noticed this ?

 

btw Aster GDEMS are 30m resolution, you get quite a few craters with them but other than that they are pretty high quality, worth a look.

 

http://www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp/search.jsp

 

 

EDIT

 

It's not the Dems it seems GM handles it's graphics in blocks If you zoom in close you can see the image shifting slightly when you toggle the layer on and off, It's only apparent when using hill shading, I've been staring at this thing for two long, time for a break.

Edited June 21, 2011 by spooks2k1

[spooks2k1]

In the Hi-res template for the LOD0 the Material is set to Surface&Noise,

I thought LOD2 had the surface and noise parameter, do all the land meshes require the Surface&Noise material?

[luckybob9]

It is very hard to find high enough resolution imagery to be useful without any kind of noise layer. even 1meter resolution gets grainy up close

[spooks2k1]

It is very hard to find high enough resolution imagery to be useful without any kind of noise layer. even 1meter resolution gets grainy up close

 

Yeah, I made 1024x1024 res, but to be honest the difference wasn't that much especially up close. ~I was going to try 2048x2048 but that would be a huge increase in file size, obviously this is why we have the noise layers.

 

What I was asking was should both the LOD0 and LOD2 materials be exported with Surface&Noise?

In the BASIC_SURFACE_LOD2.max from the wiki the mesh has,

material = Surface

semantic = Land

Is this because it's viewed from 80km ? and the noise is not needed ?

 

Also from the wiki in the CreateLand_TestVideo.avi the

 

noiseTex = Noise_e3.dds

is removed from the object properties.

 

Is this an old entry and no longer used ? I find no trace of Noise_e3.dds in my fc2 installation. only NOISE_MOUNT.BMP and NOISE_SMALL.BMP

 

Sorry for all the questions, I'm getting there, just trying to speed up the process :D

 

thanks

 

spooks

[luckybob9]

It should not matter. It is just easier to select all pieces and make the change at once. Noise shows through at a certain distance defined in a config file. So you are right, it should not be necessary. That entry in the video is outdated. It has no effect

[spooks2k1]

Cool, I hope this isn't a dumb question but I've come across many different references to LODS. This thread has mention of 4 LODS, 4, 3, 2 & 1

From my reading the wiki there are only 2 main LODS, the main mesh and the mesh viewed at 80km. Although the example Max files are named LOD01 and LOD02,

It's very confusing, could you clarify? maybe they are referring to the rivers and objects as LODs ?

[Almazi]

Noise_e3.dds - its old. it is no longer used

 

about LODs

in land 3 LODs

- "level = 0" - land mesh+other data (onlay and other)

- "level = 1" - land Mesh

- "level = 2" - simplified land mesh

 

this baseline data. in fact possible to draw on "level = 1" or "level = 2" onlay objects

so in the land only three LODs

 

in 3ds max

user definitions LOD_0 of surface mesh - "level = 01" - in 3ds max its ONE model

user definitions LOD_1 of surface mesh - "level = 2"

 

 

"level = 012345" only in map onlay data. (superficial *.sup)

 

LOD - this is for 3ds max and users.

level - a level rendering of the land in game

:)

Edited June 23, 2011 by Almazi

[spooks2k1]

Thanks Almazi that's cleared up the confusion.

 

There is no information on exporting the LOD01 mesh on the wiki, and there is no LOD0 scene in the LandMax file.

 

As I'm becoming aware of the amount of work involved in terrain making, I've got to ask If/When will the new dev tools be available?

Is there any point in me continuing with this? the process I am using now to make terrain is old and "unsupported". a lot of the guys here are holding back development for the new tools.

 

I'm enjoying this, but I can't see the point in continuing if there are new plugins to be released sometime soon.

Is there a definite decision on the new format/plugins?

 

Thanks

 

spooks

[spooks2k1]

I need to ask if these settings are still relevant when exporting, or is this just an example ? also why are the x and y axis different ? It seems strange to offset the axis.

 

X-axis: 14.8108583098429 meters

Y-axis: 14.9636061226812 meters

 

thanks

 

spooks

[Almazi]

New tools are not available

actual examples to look at the wiki

x and y axis different - this is normal

[spooks2k1]

OK but I can't help noticing that the "Always Generate Square Pixels" is checked, doesn't that over ride the X / Y settings ?

 

If I re-export and select "Use Last Exported Sample Spacing" both the X and Y are set to the X-axis. which means the last time it exported it ignored the Y setting and used the X axis for both. ?

Edited June 23, 2011 by spooks2k1

[spooks2k1]

I'm not trying to be a smart arse, but it doesn't matter how different the X and Y are, exporting with 'Force Square Pixels' checked always uses the smaller of the Axis in both the X and Y

 

The wiki is wrong.

 

I'm being pedantic here, it's just that when I want to half the scale to double the size of the output, it seems unnecessary work to input co-ordinates that don't really matter.

 

So as far as scale goes, I can't see those values having any impact on the end result, surely it's the proportion that matters (square in this case) not the scale.

[luckybob9]

I would just export it as whatever the default native resolution is, and do a batch resize in photo to get your desired size. That is what i did