The A2A Simulations Community

I'm going to establish a discussion here about everything and anything terrain, and keep it visible on the first page.

WOOT! I'm going to take advantage of the mods kindly stickying of this post to put right here at the top, a pointer to the >>> Terrain Editing Tutorial <<< !!! You too can be a mudmover!
EDIT: Well, it used to be a sticky, anyway. Now it's just linked out of a sticky. I guess
I'll just have to make frequent updates to keep it on the front page...

First topic, my current work on the terrain. I have decided it may be useful as well as interesting, to show what I'm up to with terrain editing. Perhaps it will inspire others to get involved... I am working on improving the detail and accuracy of the Purbeck region, including the Old Harry Rocks, and as I have been working I've found I've had to expand the scope of the project to encompass the whole of Poole Harbour, to include some important items left off by the Rowan mappers.

Here is a short summary of the progress, in land-use code (pcx) images, starting with the original Rowan version:



After about a month of research, collecting a great mass of pictures of the region, and lots of maps, both period and current, plus satellite imagery, I started to edit. I first started editing a much smaller area, but as I bumped into the edges of the region, and found lots of Rowan errors and omissions, I kept expanding the scope as I proceeded. Here are the steps, first July 7th representing about a week and a half of actual file editing:



Now july 21st



and here is where I'm up to now (compare with the Rowan map at top)



There is a huge amount yet to do. I am still adjusting the edges of the map to merge well with the existing terrain, but I'm convinced that I won't expand the edit region any further, as it is just too large a project. Almost all the initial work involved correcting and detailing the shoreline, and immediately associated regions. I have only just begun to venture inland, first correcting the rivers, main roads and rail, and adding creeks. Next I will detail the land use regions, adding in the woods. Finally, in regions not sufficiently detailed, I will add contour lines in fake colour, and a connecting gridwork, with lots of white dots, to provide points for the heightmap to be anchored on.

When all is done on the pcx, I will commence trial compilations using a new heightmap generated from SRTM height data. As always, mtt2, the terrain compilation tool, will make a boneheaded mess of the height topography I've intended, so it will require several iterations to edit the gridding sufficiently for mtt2 to behave sensibly. During this period, I will be making frequent reference to the ground based photo collection I've amassed, to ensure the hills and cliffs look right from ground level.

Good luck PV!

Unfortunately modding the BoB terrain is a mind numbing task and I seriously admire those with the tenacity to stick at it and produce results.

It would be really nice if we could get more landscape modders (or modders in general) interested enough to volunteer their services as the BDG has just too few of them and we are all so very busy on our respective tasks we have no time to help out on 'other' work .

_________________
Larry
E8400 Core2Duo 3 Ghz, 4 Gb DDR2 PC6400 RAM, GTX460 (1 Gb), Realtek HD O/B audio, XP Pro (SP3)
Saitek X52 HOTAS, Saitek Yoke/Throttle, Saitek Rudder Pedals, TIR 5 Pro, LG 22" WS LCD, B-K Gamer

WHOA!!!!!! I think I'm having a sixties flashback! Those colours, they're, they're, I think I just lost my train of thought! Now, where was I going with this?????? I gotta go lay down!!!
FWIW,
Good Hunting!

Second topic: I currently use gimp, so I'm available for advice to anyone struggling with it, as the help documentation is rather spotty. However, there are other folk out there, using other image editors.

When I work on a terrain, I build a stack of layers, and set them to semi-transparent, so I can simply trace the features that are needed onto the terrain. Here is an example of my stack for editing the city of Calais:



Question: for those who use Paintshop Pro, what is the procedure for generating such a stack? I would like to assist a modder who uses that package.

Yes, good idea to make this more public. There's a ton of work plodding along behind the scenes and it's a shame that people aren't aware. Apart from anything else, feedback is always motivating (generally ).

In addition to PV's underlying terrain 'foundation' work, the textures in the Summer Terrain update are under more revision. Current thinking is to take a few more of them from the BoBII default of 512x512 .dds (BoBI was 256x256) up to 1024x1024. This improves the look of things low down. The downside *may* be that old graphics cards suffer. That said, each 1024x1024 file is a mere 512k, so it's only around 18M for the terrain even if *all* of them are 1024x1024 and presently there are only a few. We are now in the days where 128M graphics cards are entry level, so this may be a complete non-issue. Testing will tell....

_________________
"Ah yes, Michael (Parkinson)," Bader replied, "But these particular Fockers were Messerschmitts..."

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Bumping my request for PaintshopPro layer stack commands... (In gimp, one simply opens the "layers dialog" window, and clicks on "create new layer", or even simpler, drags a layer from the layer dialog of one image into the image window of another image.)

Well, In photoshop that is how it is done. However, many times I find myself using vectors and work paths (also can be layered and overlaid onto an indexed image ). There are minor annoyances with PS that I've found ways around by means of work paths. For instance, I will create, with the pen tool, a vector path for my roads, rivers, outline etc. Now I can do all kinds of things along those paths, stroke, stroke at specific intervals (Use this to place white pixels along a path), jiggle as I approach a tile seam and so on. One of my goals is to get us support for vectors so that we can do away with painting at pixel level especially as this relates to lines , but that's probably a long ways off.

OK, the work supporting the summerterrain release is done, and I'm back to the Purbeck project, so time for another progress pic. Doesn't look like a lot has changed, but there's a lot of adjustments being made which are too small to see here - the original image is 4352x4096. Beginning to mark out the woods along the Purbeck Hills, and tidy up the road and rail lines to make way for Corfe Castle hill. Lots more work needs to be done around the periphery, replacing the fanciful Rowan roads and rivers with the real thing...

PV - Hope you get on well with this, as I know the Purbecks well.
I live in Poole and my wife comes from the purbecks.
I fly my RC gliders there very often and so BOB with accurate Purbecks will be most welcome.
Thanks for the effort and all strength to your elbow!

Thanks for the encouraging words. I will persist as ever, until the task is completed. It usually takes a while...

Anyway, seems like a good time for a new update pic. I am throwing away fanciful roads, rivers, and villages, and replacing with the real thing. And I'm delineating the Purbeck hills, both via the wilds and woods, and field types, and with fake lines to anchor the heightmap. I am about 3/4 across. Corfe Castle hill is planted. Most recently I have been planting a missing creek perversely named Luckford Lake. That's Dorset, I guess. Lakes are called Puddles. And Lake either means a stream or a bay in the ocean. Here's where we're at today:



The eastern edge needs more work, as does the bottom of Swanage. When the landuse placement is done, it's time to start tidying up the white dots at the seams between the 256-pixel tiles. That's a ways down the line yet, though.

OK, time for another update. I believe I have completed the artwork editing. The new land use is all in place. Here is the result:
The next phase is all of a "bookkeeping" nature, going over the entire drawing to alter and repair lines so that mtt2 will accept them. The first pass will involve the seams of the image - every 256 pixels is a tile boundary, and every line crossing it must have a white dot at that point. And no line may travel along that border, even for two pixels, so diagonal lines must all be tweaked to cross the boundaries at a steep angle, out three or four pixels to each side of the boundary. This work will take about two weeks of a couple of hours per day. When that is complete, the first trial compilations into mtt2 will begin. Those will inevitably result in huge numbers of errors, so the process must be done in stages, a chunk of the image at a time, and each point of mtt2's objections must be located and solved. That can really take a long time. When I get to that point, I think I will post some examples of errors and their repairs.

Those who know realize the amount of work that is PV, cheers for the time.

We certainly do .

I for one fully appreciate all the long hours PV puts in on the terrain. It looks like a very tedious and repetitive task and I certainly don't envy him one bit.

Keep up the good work PV and know that your efforts ARE fully appreciated.

~S~

_________________
Larry
E8400 Core2Duo 3 Ghz, 4 Gb DDR2 PC6400 RAM, GTX460 (1 Gb), Realtek HD O/B audio, XP Pro (SP3)
Saitek X52 HOTAS, Saitek Yoke/Throttle, Saitek Rudder Pedals, TIR 5 Pro, LG 22" WS LCD, B-K Gamer

Excellent stuff, PV.

_________________
"Ah yes, Michael (Parkinson)," Bader replied, "But these particular Fockers were Messerschmitts..."

Intel Core I7 920 @3.57GHz
GA-EX58-UD3R Mobo
8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz)
ATI HD4870 1024M
Win 7 Home
Saitek X52 Pro

Looks good!