IWTE - World editing - (General Discussion)

[wilddog]

Latest version IWTE_1v3_2_BETA released Mar 06, 2010

Added extra for 1v3_2
1) bug fixes to do with adding collisions and recalculating bounding spheres (I changed a list reference and forgot to update it everywhere) - sorry
2) Added ability to add/change/delete road markers (used to link campaign roads to the TGA for the settlement)
3) Amended the calculation for the 6 float table to handle 'village' settlements with Plaza, deployment and no roadmarkers (It's a new situation as I couldn't find any examples when I checked but this should be solved now).
4) Tidied up some button options with adding the game objects to restrict the choices whilst editing

@Rozanov - hopefully that solves the problems you were having with some settlements (items 2 and 4).
@twmodder - fix for bounding spheres should be covered in item 1 - thanks for pointing that out.

Link is same as previous and on the first post.

[Pat89]

Great job!

3) Amended the calculation for the 6 float table to handle 'village' settlements with Plaza, deployment and no roadmarkers (It's a new situation as I couldn't find any examples when I checked but this should be solved now).

Is that real villages or is that "villages" as in modified forts or something else?

[wolfslayer]

Use the resize options to increase the size of all 3 of the landscape files. When doing it for the terrain you should switch on the merge distance vertex count and set the vertexes over which the merge should take place. You can correct or amend this by simply amending the alpha layer of the tga. This controls the blend of the settlement with the battlemap background when used in the game. NB use the option to see the affect and then use the alpha for the TGA to smooth - adjust as you want.

Thank you for explaining that wilddog; I'll do some testing with this.
Did you check creating terrain tga with 3.2? Works fine with 2.0, but not 3.1, 3.2, at least for me, and it's the only function I've tried, since my gaming machine is down temporarily; copied a few files over to my laptop to work with in the meantime.

[wilddog]

Thank you for explaining that wilddog; I'll do some testing with this.
Did you check creating terrain tga with 3.2? Works fine with 2.0, but not 3.1, 3.2, at least for me, and it's the only function I've tried, since my gaming machine is down temporarily; copied a few files over to my laptop to work with in the meantime.

Hi, Wolfslayer, can you tell me a bit more about what isn't working? Is it the creation, the read back or using it in game? I'm not seeing any issues on my side (from the creation or read back) though I was only testing with the smaller stone fort C.

Is that real villages or is that "villages" as in modified forts or something else?

I meant anything you create as a village i.e. Settlement with no walls - how you use it after that doesn't really matter . The only essential requirements for a village are a plaza and a deployment outline. However other factors affect the so called 6th float table and if that's present it has a header number which is dependent on the 'content' of the file. Unfortunately before I had added the ability to add/delete the road markers I wasn't sure what affect they had on these new 'villages' and the way I calculated the new 6 float header value was a guess as there were no examples - and I was wrong. As far as I can tell it should be OK now.


@Wolfslayer : just tried simple test of creating world terrain tga, created a high area outside the stone fort C and reloaded it . Tried in game with no issues. So need more info to track this down.

[Pat89]

Ok, thanks for explaining

[wolfslayer]

Wild: With 1.3x; I get a "completed reading terrain file" and it stops processing, 1.2 writes the terrain tga immediately after ""completed reading terrain file". I am going to retry with a completely clean boot to see if maybe a virus memory guard or anything similiar might be interfering..

[wilddog]

@wolfslayer in 1v3x you press the create Terrain TGA button and select the file. The file is read and the command window shows the 'completed reading terrain file (the actual message still says processing - I just spotted that). It then displays the height tab so you can put in the required parameters. You then press OK and it continues. The command window displays a few lines (matrix has nverts, tga has nrows, tga has ncols and then Finished writing base TGA file) and then the message says Request completed. So other than the message in the message box not quite being right that's the only thing I'm noticing.

It does stick the TGA in the same directory as the original file that was opened.

[wolfslayer]

Yes have it working okay now, it might help if I look at the program interface, instead of just the dos box (doh)! Thanks for your help; now to get my MTW2 back up amd running ;-)

[wilddog]

Yes have it working okay now, it might help if I look at the program interface, instead of just the dos box (doh)! Thanks for your help; now to get my MTW2 back up amd running ;-)

Good to hear its working fine..

I tried to get the messages a bit more meaningful and displayed at the right time (something I was initially having problems with and haven't corrected them all yet) so sorry about that.

[Gorrrrrn]

wd - tx for taking time to update IWTE.
look forward to using when RSI has calmed down a little.

Did notice sometimes IN PREVIOUS VERSION that the world txt file was 0KB - when the anim and collisions .txt files were proper length

don't know if that's in any way significant though.

[wilddog]

wd - tx for taking time to update IWTE.
look forward to using when RSI has calmed down a little.

Did notice sometimes IN PREVIOUS VERSION that the world txt file was 0KB - when the anim and collisions .txt files were proper length

don't know if that's in any way significant though.

No its not that significant. Its because you've done another action after reading in the binary files and that often causes a rewrite of that particular text file (only). Its only really meant as a helper in case of a crash or whilst testing. By default I pass it around when doing some internal updates but there may not be a call to write anything as such and that's why it ends up empty.

[twmodder]

I had some problems again
When I want to delete a structure, I always get this error message:


When I want to replace a model, I get this one:


Also I cant add a new structure.
All these things are possible in V1.2 if I try the same action.
But I think the tool is great, and works simple, if there is no error. It enables world modding for any team!

[wilddog]

I had some problems again
When I want to delete a structure, I always get this error message:

So you're doing something to delete out a reflective plane? We just tried it with the 1v3_2 beta and didn't have any issues. So not sure what is causing the problem. If its the only structure in a complex then you would of got a different error message so not really sure what to advise. Have you tried to ad a second reflective plane then tried to delete it? You should only have one reflective plane.

When I want to replace a model, I get this one:

I can't recreate this either but it's likely the numbering within the ms3d that's the issue.
There are a couple of issues you need to be wary of the coding doesn't handle it. First is if you are amending a complex where the objects in sequence belong to structure0, then strucure1 and then back to structure0 if you amend structure 0 and wipe out all the objects assigned before structure1 this doesn't recognise why structure1 is appearing in front of structure 0. That's one issue.

The other issue would be tied to just a renumbering issue of the objects within the ms3d you are trying to read.

A third option is if you are using milkshape 1.8.5 - I know the beta of that changed something and it isn't recognised at all by this tool (or earlier versions of milkshape).

[twmodder]

So you're doing something to delete out a reflective plane? We just tried it with the 1v3_2 beta and didn't have any issues. So not sure what is causing the problem. If its the only structure in a complex then you would of got a different error message so not really sure what to advise. Have you tried to ad a second reflective plane then tried to delete it? You should only have one reflective plane.

I get this error at each type of structure

I can't recreate this either but it's likely the numbering within the ms3d that's the issue.

So something has changed since v1.2 in reading the ms3d? With with the old version it works with the same file.
I numbered the groups this way: 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 and so on.

At the moment I have to combine the old and the new version

[wilddog]

I get this error at each type of structure

Not sure why as we can't recreate it. You'll need to give me more details about what settlement and what structure you're deleting.

So something has changed since v1.2 in reading the ms3d? With with the old version it works with the same file.
I numbered the groups this way: 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 and so on.

At the moment I have to combine the old and the new version

Nothing should of changed in the way the ms3d is read. The issues I was explaining have always been there.
I haven't had any of the issues you've mentioned though mostly at the moment I've been using the add structure option. If you send me files I can try and re-create.

[wilddog]

Decided to move on to trying to sort out some of the animation bits. Essentially I'm adding in an ability to simply select an animation from another animinstances file to add to the amended animinstance file. Alignment is set by the collision entry so at the moment these are separate entries (i.e. it would be down to the user to ensure they set them correctly). Mainly adding it in now just to avoid the hex editing for that bit.

[wilddog]

Reference the above on animations and collisions. The ability to add animations and their collisions has been added, but only for selection from the existing file. I now need to work out how to add in the pathfinding for the wall breaches, gate opening as it crashes when those events occur.

[SigniferOne]

Even though you disabled reputation I still added some.

By importing already-existing animations does this mean that e.g. towers will be able to collapse like wall-turrets did in vanilla?

[wilddog]

By importing already-existing animations does this mean that e.g. towers will be able to collapse like wall-turrets did in vanilla?

At the moment I'm concentrating on animations within the files and in particular the standard stone walls and gates. I then want to open the selection to selecting from another set of files (ie .world, collision and animation). They take a bit longer as I need to extract and insert them. Essentially the Wall and gates are the main ones first.

To use the wall as the simplest example you need to select a wall animation and give a direction in which it faces. The animation is then assigned, the new collision positioning to match to the object (collision table 3 and last table) is worked out, the doors required for the breach can then be worked out and the pathfinding associated with the breach. I'm intending to test most of this over Easter and add some other bits eg the docking points as they're also pretty straight forward. The only issue I have is an easy way of editing the pathfinding bit for the gates and then checking the blocking values I use are OK and that they are centred right (some are coming out shifted by a 2m increment (they are set in 2m values so its just a rounding tied to its centre position).

The plan I have is to extend the selection afterwards to select a new set of files and pick up the bits from that. For the other animations the bits are mostly tied around correct animation matching with Collision matching with the animation string references from the .world file and of course back to the actual object shape in the first place.

The main bit is that for existing animations you need to use existing model shapes or it won't work eg walls have to be the same fixed size with the same number of groups. The positioning works well on the walls but for round or near round objects the facings would have to be more exact (I'm just using a pointer mechanism rather than anything you see graphically). The wall pathfindings should handle any angled wall its only the base shape that matters but I need to test. The values in the path finding are mapped against the 'highest' group value (ie the destroyed ones) to create the initial entries but this only works for walls (Gatehouses don't destroy so you need to edit the 'gap' that's the main reason I said I need to add in an editing function though you could do it manually via the text files).

Anyway that's where its at so a lot of testing and then coding to tidy up. I have a list of about 12 items I still need to do to tidy up the above mentioned items.

[wilddog]

updated section in first post saying what's coming next and what is being worked on.

Most of of the adds are tied around the Northern European stone walls and Gate options.