world modified

[Vaz]

I continue here, continue over Solaris, studying his prety changeable surface, only I have moved away towards other places with abundance of "mechanical animations" and "set effects".
Attachment 61699
There are not vacations, is the same knowledge voyage , in circular approximations.

That's amazing! +Rep. Just wondering if there's a tutorial anywhere about how I can change the sky texture, hopefully to one of permanent sunset, or dawn for the battlemap, or isn't that possible?

Thanks in advance, and I hope you keep up with this, and that life quietens down and sorts itself out for you KE Good luck regardless!

[wilddog]

Yes Makanyane and I are still researching different bits. We've both had Flu so not much progress and I want to get back on to my main mod as this was really just to add some variations to that.

We've got to work out how to delete out an object which has references to the 'table blocks' i.e. the bits that tell it where it can stand on walls etc. It's the ones which cause a delete of the complete table block which are causing a problem ( taking something out which doesn't cause a complete delete is understood) as I still get a crash even if I take out the table block (and reset the table 2 references). Still got to work out how to connect added in objects and add their 'special bits' but just trying to suss out the deletes first. Note we've only really been doing this in relation to the Kingdoms stone forts (mostly stone fort C).

Edit - OK crash is because I needed to also remove the entry reference to the seven float table and then resequence it and apply the new sequence numbers back to the table blocks, pathfinding and Wacky tables (or at least that's what i believe after Mak did some manual tests).

[KnightErrant]

Hi Wilddog and Makanyane,

I've been away for so long I can't reconcile my WCeditor and WorldEditor versions.
I thought my work versions were the latest but the timestamps at home don't jive
correctly. Could you do me a favor, if WCeditor (whatever version), does the right
text output, and WorldEditor version 0.8 corrects the uv problem that Makanyane found,
could you release them, the versions that work for you? I'm not sure I can even find
the right thing now. This might be a useful stopgap until a better set is available.

And sorry to hear about the flu; fingers crossed so far over here.

Thanks,

KE

[dmesa]

Nice to see you're back argantonio!

[helmersen]

It looks awesome!

[SigniferOne]

I've been away and am hoping to return soon, but you guys are all amazing, and I just wanted to tell you that.

[irishron]

I just found this thread last month and have been reading it all trying to catch up a little. I was pretty good a trig in high school but failed calculus miserably. Part of it I understand but most of it is over my head. I must say great work to all involved.

[wilddog]

OK, this is really a beta version so as they say use at your own peril. However it does give a few extra features to those issued previously by KE and is an extension based on his tool set.

Don't attempt to use this tool if you don't already understand the basic contents of this thread!!

It should support the following:
1)Terrain amendments as previous ie tree placement, raising surrounding heights, increasing settlement size.
2) Adding and removing of milkshape structures (as per KE's tools) but with more info in the names. This info is used to support adding/removal of objects and retention of previous connections
3) CA's pads are removed from the file text editing - and general counts are ignored (this still needs to be simplified).
4) A button supports a TGA of the .world model - size is fixed but is to the same scale as the TGA's for adding in surrounding terrain features (ie trees and bushes).
5) It supports adding and removing of entire structures - limited to one structure has to remain per complex (so you add what you want and delete the old ones - structures larger than the milkshape limit can be deleted or replaced with smaller structures).
6) Reflection planes (ie moats) can be added in or removed.
7) Objects can be assigned as 'game objects' ie. gate tower etc (still needs manual editing to make functional)
8) Collision object entries can be added based on .world models.
9) Textures can be swapped/added to structures.
10) number sequences associated with header types, object numbers, collision central tables have been catered for (6th float headers are believed to be catered for on all known combinations ...but!).

NOTE: There are still many areas that need to be handled by text editing e.g. wall pathfinding, perimeters, structural effects etc... Although this tool maintains existing .animinstances effects it does not add new ones!

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=2708

[wolfslayer]

This looks quite interesting wilddog, thanks for all your hard work.

I see there are some function for modifying .worldvegetation files. I'm really interested in cropping the dimensions of some existing .worldvegetation files for settlement villages, while retaining the exisitng vegetation within the cropped area, so they can be used as ambient scenery.

The settlement .worldvegetations are so huge they displace the walls of the first one to load if you use two on the same map, even though the .worldterrains are far apart on the battlemap.

Will do some exploring with your new utility this weekend and see what different things are possible within my skill level..

[Yelü Dashi]

I am keen to use this tool and can't say I've been following the minutiae of all the developments. In the readme file there is a statement:

C) Replace MS3D - Replace selected complex/structure with the selected MS3d file

When I go to replace one of the three complexes and hit 'Replace MS3D' the only filetype I am allowed to select is *.worldcollision ?

Am I missing something or is this an error ?

I gotta say the functionality of this tool is astounding (a tutorial for the non-maths inclined wouldn't go amiss). The potential to revolutise /extend the lifespan of MTW2 modding is here. Congrats to all of you. You deserve the highest honours TWC can bestow, or at least some special hats.

[makanyane]

When I go to replace one of the three complexes and hit 'Replace MS3D' the only filetype I am allowed to select is *.worldcollision ?

Am I missing something or is this an error ?

Because changing a structure can now change the number of objects you need to load matching .world, .collision and .animinstances files so it can change the object number related bits in each file (trying to run game with different numbers of objects in those files causes crash)

the function should ask you to load .worldcollision, then .animinstances then .ms3d - then ask for save name (which will be used for the start of all three file names)

[wilddog]

I see there are some function for modifying .worldvegetation files. I'm really interested in cropping the dimensions of some existing .worldvegetation files for settlement villages, while retaining the exisitng vegetation within the cropped area, so they can be used as ambient scenery.

The settlement .worldvegetations are so huge they displace the walls of the first one to load if you use two on the same map, even though the .worldterrains are far apart on the battlemap.

Those functions were present in the version released about 3 months ago though it was recently pointed out that the basic milkshake changes of the terrain had stopped working. I don't think I added any options to reduce size but I can add that in next time. I didn't really think too much about reducing sizes to be honest.
You may also want to see if hamlets can be added in as villages. I haven't tried that as its more work and I've generally been tryign to see what can be added from a relatively small model.

The .world TGA option creates a large TGA of the world complex vertexes but this to the same scale as the world vegetation one for adding trees and shrubs (so in photoshop or equivalent you should be able to match layers). In a later version I'll probably allow a parameter to select the size which would allow a 100% match.

@Yelü Dashi - As Makanyane said if you do something which affects game objects they end up being referenced in the world collision and animinstances files so I ask for those first. An update I want to make is probably to ALWAYS ask for those three. It simplifies the writing back. Watch out for the add Collision option or adding the mainobject assignments as they don't ask for all 3 files. I am sure people will prefer to have the initial issue of all 3 being called just as a constant rather than remembering when and when not all 3 files are in use.

[wilddog]

The settlement .worldvegetations are so huge they displace the walls of the first one to load if you use two on the same map, even though the .worldterrains are far apart on the battlemap.

One thing you may want to try (I haven't experimented with multiple ambients). If you use the TGA version of the world terrain (not the world vegetations) and amend the alpha that controls the blending with the 'base' scenery. So if you reduced that down where there were no 'world objects' it may resolve the problem anyway as it should (I think) suppress the vegetation. I'd be curious on the results

[Yelü Dashi]

ah I see (I think)...cheers.

[Yelü Dashi]

I've sucessfully replaced some ambient buildings with ones from we've prepared from AUH. TBH once I figured out what I was doing it was actually it was quick and.... dare I say (after 54 pages and a 1000+ posts) quite "easy", and that is saying something. Obviously it makes it simplier to find vanilla buildings that correspond to the dimensions and approximate shape of your new geometry, but my model had a quite a few more polygons in it and was all automatically relcalculated. I would like to post a pic, but I'm having a slight issue with textures.

Are alpha maps not used on the battlemap ? I am sure they are but they not showing up for me in the way they do for unit models (dds/texture files produced in exactly the same way). There is an option to choose the type of texture from a drop list where you remap the filepath (a great function in itself). Do I correctly assume that if I want to use a texture with transparent elements I should select "building alpha" from that list ?

Thanks.


EDIT: LOL. Ok so the answer to that is "yes".

[Ataegina]

Theres any tutorial about make new buildings? I personal i was thinking if was possible import from rtw to mtw2 (.cas to .ms3d seems easy) but from milkshape to next step...

[wilddog]

Are alpha maps not used on the battlemap ? I am sure they are but they not showing up for me in the way they do for unit models (dds/texture files produced in exactly the same way). There is an option to choose the type of texture from a drop list where you remap the filepath (a great function in itself). Do I correctly assume that if I want to use a texture with transparent elements I should select "building alpha" from that list ?

Thanks.


EDIT: LOL. Ok so the answer to that is "yes".

Regarding textures. The texture tab allows you to select one of the types and the paths allows addition of the two texture files. Only validation is that they end .texture. You will see many textures are reused (in the .world many are also recalled rather than just referenced each time). The types cover normal, alpha water and then we found the litter normal and building alpha when we were testing against other buildings. These basically preset the lodname fields and the variables within the textures. We did actually find a second water variant but I doubt it makes much difference. The latter 2 were just variants on the first 3 so are proabbly interchangeable. We added them just to ensure things were retained. You do need to assign any new texture you set up but you can of course simply set up a placeholder name and change it later if necessary (if you forget though you will crash).

Bits I need to sort out on adding a structure is : -
1) updating perimeter information
2) recalculating complex bounding sphere (the new structure one is handled)
3) recalculating world bounding sphere
4) updating table 1

Note the assumption is that you add to the correct complex in the first place as they are positional. Having said that when they all recalc it should handle but if it is the wrong complex then you may end up with performance issues (I'm assuming that would happen).

[makanyane]

Theres any tutorial about make new buildings? I personal i was thinking if was possible import from rtw to mtw2 (.cas to .ms3d seems easy) but from milkshape to next step...

not really, new IWTE tool makes it more possible to do, but we've not written up much explanation yet... rtw had only simple file separation;

building .cas in rtw roughly is similar in function to the .world file in m2 (which may contain multiple .ms3d's)

the .info element in rtw that controls camera movement and hits, is similar to the .worldcollision bits in M2

M2 terrain files are probably roughly equivalent to the underlay / overlay bits of RTW

but there's definitely not an easy , direct way of converting one to the other

[Ataegina]

well theres always a easy way to change default models into new shapes and change textures

[wolfslayer]

Interesting results playing around with .worldvegetation tga4 (pure black 0,0,0 around the perimeter of the settlement); normally placing a settlement on a coastal hex would displace all the water far into the ocean;
made this teutonic village into an ambient settlement also, hoping to see it spawn on a settlement battle map here soon to observe the results. As a settlement model or fort this would need a worldterrrain "land bridge" if it was placed near water.