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Thread: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

  1. #1
    Opifex
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    Default toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    For those who might not know (and I haven't seen it mentioned here anywhere), toggle_terrain is a command available for modders through the medieval shell command. Press "~" in the campaign map to gain access to the shell.

    toggle_terrain allows you to switch between the various modes of viewing the terrain. All of the terrain .tga files in your /base folder have a 1-to-1 correspondence with each other. This means that the regions file exactly corresponds to the features file, and to the weather file, etc. So what you can do is see those files exactly how they apply in the game.

    The most useful command for me so far was "toggle_terrain region", which allows you to see exactly how the descr_regions.tga file results in province borders in the game. It helped me directly to correct some problems in the teutonic map, and it will take me longer to concretely explain its usefulness than for you to try it out and immediately see its power.

    Other commands, I believe, are toggle_terrain features, which shows exactly how rivers work, how their starting point affects them, etc.

    You can see all of the possible arguments, when you type ?toggle_terrain. I highly suggest you try them all, because you'll be really surprised with what you find. Type toggle_terrain with no argument, to return the game to its normal look.


    "If ye love wealth greater than liberty,
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  2. #2
    Socal_infidel's Avatar PDER Piper
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Quote Originally Posted by SigniferOne View Post
    For those who might not know (and I haven't seen it mentioned here anywhere), toggle_terrain is a command available for modders through the medieval shell command. Press "~" in the campaign map to gain access to the shell.

    toggle_terrain allows you to switch between the various modes of viewing the terrain. All of the terrain .tga files in your /base folder have a 1-to-1 correspondence with each other. This means that the regions file exactly corresponds to the features file, and to the weather file, etc. So what you can do is see those files exactly how they apply in the game.

    The most useful command for me so far was "toggle_terrain region", which allows you to see exactly how the descr_regions.tga file results in province borders in the game. It helped me directly to correct some problems in the teutonic map, and it will take me longer to concretely explain its usefulness than for you to try it out and immediately see its power.

    Other commands, I believe, are toggle_terrain features, which shows exactly how rivers work, how their starting point affects them, etc.

    You can see all of the possible arguments, when you type ?toggle_terrain. I highly suggest you try them all, because you'll be really surprised with what you find. Type toggle_terrain with no argument, to return the game to its normal look.
    Holy nuts! I was just working on placing ports when I stumbled across this! Thanks so much Signifier One! Extremely helpful!

  3. #3
    Socal_infidel's Avatar PDER Piper
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Just thought I'd add to this as it's a very helpful command!

    Normal:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 




    toggle_terrain region
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 




    toggle_terrain tiletype
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 




    toggle_terrain climate
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 




    toggle_terrain features
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 




    Now I'm back to placing ports on my map!

  4. #4
    makanyane's Avatar Ronin
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    It works in RTW too from Rome Shell !!!!! How on earth did we manage to miss that one all these years? Much thanks and rep for reporting that....

    (SigniferOne - have you mentioned it in RTW forums? I will later if you don't get round to it but you might as well get the kudos!)


    Only foot note is on the groundtype and climate overlays what you see is the type used on the odd/odd numbered co-ordinates only as they are the ones that correspond with tiles on the map_regions and strat map coordinates.

    That screenie is the area shown in the ground_types below...

    which is using a grid of mountain terrain on the odd/odd coordinates to block area, but has other terrain in between which displays on camp map textures (and would affect battle map as well)

  5. #5
    MasterOfNone's Avatar RTW Modder 2004-2009
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    I'm sure I tried this before with no effect - wasn't it one of the commands in the old cheats lists from a couple of years ago? Maybe there was something similar; ah, you learn something new every day in modding ... even when you're retired

    Well done anyway!

    EDIT: Well, it does not work in BI unless I am doing something wrong (maybe because I am in a modfolder and/or provincial?) - thought I'd tried it!
    Last edited by MasterOfNone; September 16, 2007 at 04:44 PM.
    MasterOfNone is a retired modder and the mind behind Viking Invasion II, Norman Invasion, Gods & Fighting Men and The Fourth Age: Total War - The New Shadow. He now spends his time trying to be a novelist Find out more about him and his writing at http://www.writers-and-publishers.com. Please support The Fourth Age: Total War - The Dominion of Men.

  6. #6
    makanyane's Avatar Ronin
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    screenie I posted is from Lycan Rising (WIP) which is a mod-foldered provincial campaign in BI!

    seems remarkably unusual for me to have something working that others don't! watch out for the exact sequence and don't use caps (but you'd know that from other ones... :hmmm and um, try entering same thing twice in a row - sometimes toggle_fow doesn't work for me first time as when starting from a loaded game it sometimes seems to think things are on, that actually aren't

    Found some more useful looking ones in terms of checking the layout
    toggle_terrain choke:
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    and toggle_terrain frontier_defend
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    that last one was awkward to get to, it worked doing
    toggle_terrain frontier first then entering toggle_terrain frontier_defend on next line. Not sure yet if it means anything or not - but looks as though it might be revealing something about the AI priorities on the map - I'll have to run game and see if AI armies end up in those spots more than elsewhere...

  7. #7
    on a mountain's Avatar Kirā
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    SigniferOne, you officially are god now.

    I will build a little shrine to you in the corner of my den.

  8. #8
    alpaca's Avatar Harbinger of saliva
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    There's a few more cheat commands which are useful for mapping but only available through scripting with "console_command":
    -toggle_wireframe
    -toggle_coastlines

    There are a few other commands in there, too, which are mainly interesting for coding and scripting (capabilities, recruitment_pool, diplomacy_costs) and I did mention save_battle_replay elsewhere I believe...

    No thing is everything. Every thing is nothing.

  9. #9
    MasterOfNone's Avatar RTW Modder 2004-2009
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Gah, yes it works. Silly me -
    MasterOfNone is a retired modder and the mind behind Viking Invasion II, Norman Invasion, Gods & Fighting Men and The Fourth Age: Total War - The New Shadow. He now spends his time trying to be a novelist Find out more about him and his writing at http://www.writers-and-publishers.com. Please support The Fourth Age: Total War - The Dominion of Men.

  10. #10
    Halie Satanus's Avatar Emperor of ice cream
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    @Mak, let me guess, knowing about this two/three months ago would've made a world (pun intended ) of difference..

  11. #11
    MasterOfNone's Avatar RTW Modder 2004-2009
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    I can't believe it was missed for so long. Maybe the parameters could be defined. Here's mine

    choke - shows impassable areas in red and passable areas in greyscale; the higher the choke intensity of the area, the lighter the greyscale.
    MasterOfNone is a retired modder and the mind behind Viking Invasion II, Norman Invasion, Gods & Fighting Men and The Fourth Age: Total War - The New Shadow. He now spends his time trying to be a novelist Find out more about him and his writing at http://www.writers-and-publishers.com. Please support The Fourth Age: Total War - The Dominion of Men.

  12. #12
    Indefinitely Banned
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Boy do I feel stupid.

  13. #13
    alpaca's Avatar Harbinger of saliva
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Quote Originally Posted by mirage41 View Post
    Boy do I feel stupid.
    Well I think I'll refrain from comments
    I will especially with consideration for self-preservation not talk about how I went through the exe some months ago testing console commands and then forgetting about them again.

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  14. #14
    on a mountain's Avatar Kirā
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Does that choke command really work?

    *** oam runs off to test the command ***

  15. #15
    makanyane's Avatar Ronin
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Quote Originally Posted by alpaca View Post
    Well I think I'll refrain from comments
    I will especially with consideration for self-preservation not talk about how I went through the exe some months ago testing console commands and then forgetting about them again.
    best not to, though if you remember anything else please tell...

    As far as parameters goes fontier_defend which looks like the really interesting one to me:

    Green comes up fairly obviously as defend points along each land border - its showing me I need a bit of a redesign as some borders that are meant to be blocked aren't blocked far enough out so are still generating defend points along the mountains (that actually ties up with what I was suspecting from watching it autorun). They also tie up quite exactly with where AI chooses to build watchtowers, and they do also stand on those points at a contested border.

    The light blue / cyan colour looks like ambush locations (its mainly showing on woodland near boundaries) whether AI uses that in practice I don't know.

    EDIT2: Just worked out what the dark blue is, obvious really, it's the accessible chunk of squares which are half way between two adjacent settlements, on an as the crow flies line. I just tested with rebel spawn rate high and they were not going to those squares, which ruins my earlier hunch so not sure it that actually means something or not. Wonder if having that central point completely off the actual walked path messes up the AI, hmmm..... I'd like to try and replicate some of Nikolai's campaign testing and see if there is any relevance of the visible / road paths to that square.


    EDIT: oh and the choke one, I was wondering what the darker grey meant - on one map I viewed it looked like the darker areas might be "no point in going here" as they were turning up on protruding edges of coastline and bits of regions that protruded into impassible terrain without any path through (sorry that's a really long way of saying 'dead ends')
    Last edited by makanyane; September 17, 2007 at 02:02 PM.

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    wilddog's Avatar Paintedwolves run free
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    SigniferOne
    Excellent find and great post well done.

    Its been great fun watching Makanyane trying to decipher what the results show this evening.

  17. #17
    Opifex
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    guys!
    Last edited by SigniferOne; September 17, 2007 at 06:23 PM.


    "If ye love wealth greater than liberty,
    the tranquility of servitude greater than
    the animating contest for freedom, go
    home from us in peace. We seek not
    your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch
    down and lick the hand that feeds you,
    and may posterity forget that ye were
    our countrymen."
    -Samuel Adams

  18. #18
    WImPyTjeH's Avatar Wimpy of the Sore Ass
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Excellent find +rep :wink:

    The 'choke' command is really useful

    W


  19. #19
    MasterOfNone's Avatar RTW Modder 2004-2009
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Yes it is; I have already used it successfully on two noobs with installation problems who dared to insist they had read my installation instructions to the letter - they won't be making anymore posts...
    MasterOfNone is a retired modder and the mind behind Viking Invasion II, Norman Invasion, Gods & Fighting Men and The Fourth Age: Total War - The New Shadow. He now spends his time trying to be a novelist Find out more about him and his writing at http://www.writers-and-publishers.com. Please support The Fourth Age: Total War - The Dominion of Men.

  20. #20
    Uranos's Avatar RTW Modder 2005-2009
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    Default Re: toggle_terrain highly useful for mapping

    Great finding guys

    Just why it was discovered so late - when all my mapping work is finished

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