Getting rid of the ugly chalk white clearing effect under cities/forts/watch-towers - is it possible?

[Knonfoda]

So something I'm trying to work out how to do is how to get rid of that ugly "blotch" of white you get beneath settlements and stuff you create on the map. Is it at all possible? I remember vaguely coming across a "texture" in the game files that looked exactly like it (a white blotch) which I assume is it, so I reckon I could just make that transparent, but I'm unsure of where it is now (was somewhat of an accidental find months ago when I was looking for something else) and if I'm wrong about it then I at least want to know if it is possible.

This is what I'm referring to:



As you can see, there is that white blotch beneath cities/forts/watch-towers, but if you happen to spot a city or other object on the edge of the fog of war, it doesn't have it. I want to make that the "standard" for cities, as I'd rather they "float" over the default terrain texture that have that ugly white blotch under it.

So does anyone know what files I have to edit to get rid of it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Aradan]

Open descr_aerial_map_bases, and change all filename lines so that the point to a non-existant file.
Eg:

type        settlement_roman_level_1
filename    bases/settlements/set_barb_00_underlay.tga dummy.tga
range        1.0

The game will be looking for a file named "dummy.tga", it won't find one, so there won't be any blotch.

Alternatively, you can create your own underlay files (that will match the shape/size of your strat-map settlement models) and have the game use them, but it's a lot slower than simply getting rid of them...

[Knonfoda]

Hmmn, I can't seem to find descr_aerial_map_bases, nor can I seem to find the underlay files either. Would you happen to know where they are? Also, will they be TGA or CAS files? I'm hoping for the former (as your example seems to demonstrate) as they are a lot easier to edit.

Thanks for your help with this matter!

[Aradan]

Just copy the one from vanilla's data folder into your data folder.

The underlays are .tga files, and they are in data/terrain/aerial_map/ + whatever path the filename line says (eg data/terrain/aerial_map/bases/settlements).

The game assumes the vanilla data/terrain/aerial_map/ folder as root, so if you want to have new underlay files in your modfolder, you'll need something like this (assuming your modolder is named my_mod and exists in the main RTW directory):

type        settlement_roman_level_1
filename    ../../../../my_mod/data/terrain/aerial_map/bases/settlements/my_new_underlay.tga
range        1.0

[Knonfoda]

Just copy the one from vanilla's data folder into your data folder.

The underlays are .tga files, and they are in data/terrain/aerial_map/ + whatever path the filename line says (eg data/terrain/aerial_map/bases/settlements).

The game assumes the vanilla data/terrain/aerial_map/ folder as root, so if you want to have new underlay files in your modfolder, you'll need something like this (assuming your modolder is named my_mod and exists in the main RTW directory):

type        settlement_roman_level_1
filename    ../../../../my_mod/data/terrain/aerial_map/bases/settlements/my_new_underlay.tga
range        1.0

Hmmn... seems like the mod I'm using (IBSAI - Invasio Barbarorum Somniun Apostatai Iuliani) is a little temperamental with this. It uses RS II vegetation and Rizcu's strat city models, but not only is there no descr_aerial_map_bases but the entire aerial_maps folder has only "ground_types" and "tree_models" as folders. The former doesn't actually have any city tga's or textures, just the usual arid, mediumfertility, tunda, desert, rocky etc textures.

The closest I can find is settlement_plans but I don't think this is it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

ground_types roman_town_ground?

Doesn't seem to correlate to the ground types in the vanilla folder like set_rome_01_underlay.tga and so forth.

I'm guessing the mod is using a custom folder of some sort but I can't even find the txt file that references them, nevermind the actual overlays. Argh! Modding, why u so hard!

[Aradan]

When a file does not exist in a modfolder, the game uses the one from the original data folder.

So:

1) copy descr_aerial_map_bases from RTW/data into RTW/IBSAI/data (assuming IBSAi uses a modfolder actually called "ibsai")
2) create the necessary folder structure inside RTW/IBSAI/data/terrain/aerial_map (ie create a folder called "bases" and inside that create a folder called "ports", another called "settlements", etc)

An alternative to #2 is that you simply copy the "bases" folder from vanilla's data folder and paste it in the appropriate folder in the ibsai modfolder. Keep in mind step 2 is only necessary if you want to not just get rid of the blotch, but force the game to use a one you provide.

[Knonfoda]

When a file does not exist in a modfolder, the game uses the one from the original data folder.

So:

1) copy descr_aerial_map_bases from RTW/data into RTW/IBSAI/data (assuming IBSAi uses a modfolder actually called "ibsai")
2) create the necessary folder structure inside RTW/IBSAI/data/terrain/aerial_map (ie create a folder called "bases" and inside that create a folder called "ports", another called "settlements", etc)

An alternative to #2 is that you simply copy the "bases" folder from vanilla's data folder and paste it in the appropriate folder in the ibsai modfolder. Keep in mind step 2 is only necessary if you want to not just get rid of the blotch, but force the game to use a one you provide.

Got it Aradan, thanks!

I'd forgotten about that rather important part. I just threw a spanner in the works in the form of adding a "66" to the pathfile name and it worked perfectly. I just assumed if the game couldn't find something it would result in an instant CTD but apparently not in this case.

Also, I'm guessing the "range" determines how big/small the "blotch" is? I'm probably going to settle to just making it significantly smaller if I can rather than getting rid of it altogether.

Thanks for your help, it proved invaluable!

[Aradan]

I'm not sure what exactly the range value does. Setting it do 0 doesn't seem to remove the thingy... But the Riczu models are all significantly larger than the vanilla barb_00_underlay.tga, so you can use that or the barbarian fort underlay etc. In most cases the models will cover them completely.

[Knonfoda]

I'm not sure what exactly the range value does. Setting it do 0 doesn't seem to remove the thingy... But the Riczu models are all significantly larger than the vanilla barb_00_underlay.tga, so you can use that or the barbarian fort underlay etc. In most cases the models will cover them completely.

Yeah, I noticed halving the values had no effect whatsoever. For some reason, for a lot of the larger towns the blotch is actually larger than Rizcu's models, and I think it is because the vanilla models are square and thus cover the whole thing up while his are more "organic" and have walls at odd angles so the underlay is more visible. I'm going to do what you suggested and just use smaller underlays for larger cities though.

Thanks again for all the help!