Huge Terrain Creator (HTC) for TSE

#121 I'm having issues with importing into Atlas from HTC. The problem is that I get a bunch of min/max errors, and when I get into the mission then everything is flat, except the river which is like a verticle gash in the terrain.

I'm new to all this so anyone with some hints would be great! I've been lurking the boards trying to find answers but I haven't found the answer.

Here is my .mis file

edited for length

and my main.cs file

edited for length

If you have the same question please ask I'll let you know what I did, or just read further.



Thanks,
Matt

#122 Matt,

It could be your horizontal scale parameter (that's the one you are setting to 3.0 after 2048). You say you are using HTC but the comments in your code also mention L3DT. As far as I remember L3DT sets the horizontal scale to 10 as default. It's so long since I've used HTC that I can't remember if there is a default horizontal scale or if you get a choice. But whatever generator you are using make sure the horizontal scale matches that in your import command.

Also make sure your terrain size matches the size you have in the command (2048 in your example above). The real size of your RAW file must be one pixel greater in both directions (i.e. 2049).


Finally, if you are using L3DT you can open your terrain in the viewer that gets installed with it. From one of the menus in the viewer you can get a tree view of the parameters of the terrain. One of these will tell you the exact ratio to use in the import command where you currently have 2.0/512.0. It's fairly obvious when you see it, I can't remember the exact menu location at the minute.

Cheers,

Dave.

#123 Thanks Dave,

I am not using l3dt, but I didn't see anything else to use to create a texture, and HTC creates a jpg, so I used that command.

HTC also lets me open up the mission, I'll have to take a look at it see if those numbers are in there. (they probably are as well)

Thanks for the insight.

Matt

#124 Ah, is the terrain wierd in HTC or just when you put it into M4.1 of TSE?

#125 HTC hasn't been updated in a very long time. I'm sure there are likely some issues with the latest milestones. When Vincent eventually updates it though it should be nice.

#126 I think I'm running into some of those issues. I decided to use the .chu that was already created by HTC, and am finally able to see the terrain I created in HTC correctly. The terrain from HTC looks good in HTC.

I'm having network issues now though, I think. I'm running a dedicated server, then I connect to it after starting TSE again and going to the console and typining in connect(localhost).

When I do it that way, things show up right, the terrain looks right, but the texture doesn't look so good, I have to find out how to make a better texture.

The big problem is movement, everything is at a snails pace, and if I open up the world editor, everything starts acting like I'm connected to a rubberband that isn't letting me go anywhere. I move, then I'm pulled back, and I can't get anywhere. It's strange.

I've been trying to find something that covers setting up a server and connecting to it, but I haven't found anything step by step. I have learned about connect() and loadMission(), but that's about it.

I saw somewhere that I shouldn't use the same .exe for server and client. Does that mean I should have 2 copies of the TSE directory and start the server from one and the client from another?

Anyone know when Vincent will be finished with the new HTC?

Matt

#127 Well I tried starting the server from one directory of TSE, and the client from a copy for the TSE directory. Nothing changed, it's still rubberbanding.

I'm confused.

#128 Hi Matt,

Sorry, I can't help with the dedicated server thing, my game is single player so I've had no need to go into that area. No idea when Vincent will be finished, I hope it's soon. I can create some great terrain in L3DT, but texturing huge terrains with different climates isn't easy. It will be much easier when we can create small terrains with different climates in L3DT and stitch the world together in HTC.

#129 Hi Vincent,

Any progress reports as yet? Any date for a Beta?

Thanks,

Dave.

#130 I Still have a lot of questions about HTC. Does HTC (next release) generates Atlas files? When will it ready ?

Does HTC generates Atlas Files ?
Short answer : Yes and No
Long Answer :
Atlas2 files uses the following data :
1) HeightMap Data
2) Texture for the whole terrain
3) Shadow Map to allow object lighting depending its position on the terrain
4) Texture Map to allow it (atlas2) to draw up to 4 detail textures.
HTC generate HeightMap Data, Texture Data and ShadowMap datas.
For the texture part HTC doesn't generate an Atlas2 compliant Texture Map. Why? Beacause HTC is build to generate multi-climatic Terrains. So 4 Textures is to weak to support this feature. Instead of, HTC Generate a Texture Map allowing it to support up to 496 Textures (64 Texture fractal channels, minus 2 reserved for internal use, each with up to 8 Textures)

So Yes HTC generates Atlas files. And No, generated Atlas files are not fully compliant with Atlas2 Specs. But I think HTC's Atlas files are better.

When HTC is going to be ready :
Atlas2 isn't finished yet. There is still some bugs in it. So To release the new version of HTC, I Will wait a robust version of Atlas2. I Hope, the robust version of Atlas2 is going to be released with the recently announced MS4.2. After Having the robust version of Atlas2, it will take me a week to release the new version of HTC.

I Hope this answer your questions about HTC and Atlas2.

#131 Cool cool. Though I won't hold my breath waiting for a new version of atlas. There have been what 3 updates in a year and a half, and I think it was said that 4.2 is mostly bug fixes.

#132 Hi Vincent,

Thanks for the update. Sounds great. Can you tell me, if your version supports so many textures, how will we be able to use it in TGEA? Will there be some sort of conversion routine? Or will it work anyway?

Thanks,

Dave.

#133 @Dave : according Brian www.garagegames.com/blogs/5030/11507 :

Quote:What is TGEA? After getting lots of feedback on the TSE name change to Torque Advanced
Technologies, we've decided to change it once more. TSE is now Torque Game Engine
Advanced or TGEA.

I Understand TGEA = TSE. So Yes I think it will work. If I missed something please notify it to me.

Thanks.

#134 Hi Vincent,

No, I wasn't worried about the name change :-)
It's just you mentioned TSE/TGEA didn't support the number of textures you will handle in HTC, so I wondered how it would work as a TSE/TGEA Atlas terrain.

Dave.

#135 @Dave :
You'll need to change some lines in Atlas Code

Vincent

#136 Thanks Vincent. I'm sure the instructions will be in the release notes :-)

#137 I bought HTC Source code and teh download page said I would receive my source code manual within 48 hours. I still havent after a week. This means i cant add it to my project untill I receive that manual. I am not happy.

#138 HTC Source code for MS4 is released.
New HTC forum is here : www.dragonheadstudio.com/phpbb2

HTC Binaries will come next week.

#139 So where do I get the 4.0 source code? Can you email me the link at cbeer1@cogeco.ca?

Thanks

#140 Great work in getting this out Vincent. Very nice.