IWTE - World editing - (General Discussion)

[AnthoniusII]

How do i know which itam (they have letters and numbers) is a tower.
How do I exctract it with Milkshape and how do i inplant it againt to the certain settement.

[wilddog]

M2 does not use items. It does not have any names. It just has a group of complexes containing groups of mesh which are linked as a single object. in IWTE if something is a tower or a wall it is assigned the name 'wall' or 'tower' (or gate). If you want to amend a tower you have to work out which object it is and download it and its various mesh groups into milkshape and load it back to replace it.
If you want to animate it you have to separately amend the relevant animations and textures associated with the animation.

The M2 set up is nothing like the RR settlement plan setup which uses items.

[wilddog]

For milkshape you have to select the structure the object is in (which may involve more than one structure). Once you have opened the 3 binary files of the settlement you need to use the button write ms3dfile incl damaged.

Unfortunately milkshape has too many restrictions and blender is now the main software supported.

[AnthoniusII]

Another question please:
_tartaros_created a new culture named Romaic and put some buildings from mods that he got permsion for ussing them. But when we load the battlefield model of the Romaic Large_Town we have invisible buildings and open spece battlefield.
As you can see in the attachment picture this is not an open field battle but the Syracuse Romaic culture Large_town battlemodel.
What may caused this effect ?
Other settlements of other sizes apear properly exept the UV maps re-creation we need to do.

[makanyane]

maybe not loading the worldterrain file properly (that normally results in floating buildings but they might be being sunk here instead) - can you send all the folder of settlement files that you think are loading for this?

[AnthoniusII]

Sure..Its on the attachments.
EDIT: I downloaded King Kong's tutorial that includes Milkshape (i am too old to learn new tools).
Any advices how to select and modify already made (vanilla)towers only and save them in the vanilla settlements?

[makanyane]

Those files look like the referenced paths are wrong


the .worldpkgdesc says the .world file is in settlements/romaic/settlements/large_town/ (see top of picture)

the .world file says the other files are in settlements/greek/settlements/large_town and are called 'greek_large_town_A' etc
I'm guessing they aren't actually there, but are in the romaic folder?

if so you need to change the referenced paths in the .world file using the button shown in the picture - save 3 binaries - rename the new .world file to replace the old one - test in game

if you get that bit done come back and confirm if it worked - then I'll try and do some explanation about the towers (which will be more complicated)

[AnthoniusII]

It says that inorder to change the pathfile the tool needs to read 3 binaries i selected those 3 binaries the tool apeared a number of lines with the comment "this will take a while" the last line is "getting existing data , please wait" for 20 minutes and no new or modified (by date) files apear to rename.
I repeated the process but in the end when .world was readen i saved it as romaic instead of greek.world , the tool maked some calculations it pop up a message that everything is done "do not forget to save" but no where is a file as romaic.world or anythng else.
Never mind i give up . I am too old , with high bloof preasure and huge depresion to learn such complicated tools...TGC will be release WITHOUT battle settlements or PSFs .
EDIT: TGC/DATA/settlements/Romaic/settlements/large_town all files _tartaros_ made have the name romaic.
Still we get invisble settlement see attachments,
No need to help. I insist TGC will be released with no battlemap settlements.

[makanyane]

The problem isn't that your files aren't called Romaic - the problem is that the are called Romaic and are in the Romaic folder - but what it says INSIDE the .world file is that it should look them up in greek/settlement/large_town/ and that they'd be called greek

this is for the .worldpathfinding .worldterrain .animinstances and .worldvegetation

the image below is of part of the contents of the .world folder



I was trying to get you to change the .world file (which shouldn't be that hard using the button I marked!)

The alternative would be to copy your romaic files - rename them to greek_.... and place them in the greek/settlements/large_town folder IF you are NOT using the greek large town elsewhere

[makanyane]

here - this is the .world file fixed to look up the other files in the romaic folderromaic_large_town_A.zip

[wilddog]

Not really sure what the problem was.
As I understand it
you realised you had to open the 3 binary files (using the read 3 Binary files button).
That should of taken about 4-5 seconds depending on size of settlement.
You then used the update referenced paths button which should have displayed the existing paths.
That should of been displayed virtually instantly.
You then needed to double click on the paths you want to edit and edit them.
Once completed you press OK
If that is all you are doing you press the save 3 binary files.
The file are all saved in the directory the 3 binaries came from with the name you assigned when you were asked to select the 3 binaries in the first place (subsequent saves have numbers added to prevent accidental overwrite).
Not sure at what stage you had a 20 minute wait unless the binary files were out of sync (that would normally crash things) or you were expecting something to happen when the routine is waiting for you to do something.

edit - The save file name is asked for immediately after having asked for the 3 binaries to use as an identifier for your changes.

[AnthoniusII]

here - this is the .world file fixed to look up the other files in the romaic folderromaic_large_town_A.zip

It worked . Now witch textures should i make new UV maps to avoid the close black effect?

Not really sure what the problem was.
As I understand it
you realised you had to open the 3 binary files (using the read 3 Binary files button).
That should of taken about 4-5 seconds depending on size of settlement.
You then used the update referenced paths button which should have displayed the existing paths.
That should of been displayed virtually instantly.
You then needed to double click on the paths you want to edit and edit them.
Once completed you press OK
If that is all you are doing you press the save 3 binary files.
The file are all saved in the directory the 3 binaries came from with the name you assigned when you were asked to select the 3 binaries in the first place (subsequent saves have numbers added to prevent accidental overwrite).
Not sure at what stage you had a 20 minute wait unless the binary files were out of sync (that would normally crash things) or you were expecting something to happen when the routine is waiting for you to do something.

edit - The save file name is asked for immediately after having asked for the 3 binaries to use as an identifier for your changes.

Yes i did the steps as the tool guides me.
1: Read the 3 binaries (the tool opens one each time but only the last one with the entry .world has the save button and before save it i rename it from grerk to romaic.
2: The tool makes some calclulations (it apears in the python screen) and last it says completed do not forget to save but there is nothing to save at that point!!!

[makanyane]

It worked . Now witch textures should i make new UV maps to avoid the close black effect?

you shouldn't need to do anything to the uv maps

if it's got textures showing but they look odd when you zoom in then you might need to remake the 'normal' with less 'bumpiness'

to see what textures are used 'read 3 binaries' again
expand the Textures tab - that will show you the main texture names - if you need to see the _normal name



- select the texture line in the Textures box
- go to the Structures tab
- click 'Change Texture info
- you don't need to actually change anything here - just read what the texture names are - go check they are actually in the mod-folder
- convert the .texture files to .dds and change them if necessary e.g. remake the _normal with more moderate strength settings
- convert your new .dds back to .texture and install in game

(the hellenistic1 texture looks like the only thing that isn't vanilla)

re; your other problems
which version of IWTE are you using?

the save process is manual - you just hit the "Save 3 Binary Files" when you have made some changes you want to keep

[AnthoniusII]

I use version 17.03_A I do not know how to use Blender. It took me years to learn basics for milkshape.
Anyway thank you both. _tartaros_tried REALY hard but messed things up. Now instead of slavic settlements or other culture we can find besigeing Aztec ones or Middleeast ones.
Unforthunatly when Alien_t finished his masterpiece Turnovo for Bulgaria TW mod and was about to use that material and his knowlege on IWTE 10 YEARS ago he quited modding.
Bad luck . I have to live with the fact that TGC mod that i wished to be my ultimate contribution to TWC -the way Rusichi/MARKA team did years ago- will be unfinished. Maybe if instead of Romans and Bulgarians i will add lizzards and witches as factions to attract some help.Thank you both anyway. I am too depresed to continue asking help for people that peromised help but never gave it....That's life. Isn't it?

[Undead Martyr]

So two questions, mulling over how to possibly implement Venice into the game.

First, how does water work? I assume that it's part of the .world terrain, but would the canals, islands, and streets (as part of the city, mind; there are plenty of streets/alleyways in Venice, after all) be feasibly modeled via terrain alone or would one need to add a custom model into the game for those?

Second, is it possible to create a "destructible" pontoon bridge as a "wall element" that when destroyed, could still be walked on (possibly with a movement or stamina debuff, representing swimming/wading through the lagoon water) that the defending AI would be scripted to attack and the attackers scripted to use? The Arsenal and maybe a small fortified manor/gatehouse at the land side would basically "replace" the walls/gates as such in controlling access to the city.

[makanyane]

So two questions, mulling over how to possibly implement Venice into the game.

First, how does water work? I assume that it's part of the .world terrain, but would the canals, islands, and streets (as part of the city, mind; there are plenty of streets/alleyways in Venice, after all) be feasibly modeled via terrain alone or would one need to add a custom model into the game for those?

Second, is it possible to create a "destructible" pontoon bridge as a "wall element" that when destroyed, could still be walked on (possibly with a movement or stamina debuff, representing swimming/wading through the lagoon water) that the defending AI would be scripted to attack and the attackers scripted to use? The Arsenal and maybe a small fortified manor/gatehouse at the land side would basically "replace" the walls/gates as such in controlling access to the city.

Sorry missed this.

To get water shapes in you would have to model .worldterrain - if your city is close enough to sea, and low enough in map_heights/terrain, then you can pick up 'real water', which is probably your best bet for Venice. Worldterrain is limited to an 8m grid of points though so you might find it hard to get the exact layout you want... it you try to be too much like Venice your remaining streets will also probably be too narrow for units.

If you don't have real water on the battlemap you can instead use a 'reflective plane' to look like water - but you won't be able to use that on a coastal map.

Your main problem is likely to be that the AI (and pathfinding for your own units) dislike using 'bridges' of the type set in the paths section. You might struggle to get units to cross them. So you could try leaving raised bits of terrain for units to wall on and the clad them with a bridge model. That would definitely work better but you won't see water flowing under it, you'd need solid sides.

No to the pontoon bridge idea - if it was a 'wall' apart from other problems your cavalry/siege equipment wouldn't be able to move on it untill it was destroyed and became a breach...

If your fortified manor/gatehouse can be adapted to have scalable & breachable wall sections and a gate then that should work.

[Undead Martyr]

Thanks for the response. I do intend to get heavily into making custom settlements, but I figure Constantinople would be "easier" than Venice to start with (and before tackling a city I'll probably start with some custom forts/fortified settlements, like Lucca/Faenza/Gorizia, Angelokastro in Corfu, or the Scaligiero). Venice's layout itself itself will probably need to be abstracted somewhat to have it navigable. Shame about the pontoon bridges, but your suggestion of navigable terrain with cladding seems fine- I suppose I can use a mix of "bridges" and just low-lying lagoon terrain for pathing. I do want to have limited approaches and/or a debuff applicable to terrain- is it possible to have an effect like e.g. the river crossings in Shogun 2, with speed and/or stamina debuffs for crossing certain terrain tiles?

I suppose re- pontoon bridges I could make them "ships" as obstacles to be destroyed and have the "breach" model be a pontoon bridge segment? IE you have to get past Venice's "wooden walls" and each one you smash builds a portion of the bridge. Would that work?

[Undead Martyr]

Do you need to mirror settlements and terrain in blender? The tutorial does say so in Milkshape, but it's a bit dated and the file type is different.

ETA: My current goal is to repurpose the vanilla SE_European castle to build a new fort custom battlemap. if I am understanding the documentation correctly, the process to do so is this:

1) load the reference files in IWTE and then export the .world and .worldterrain files to Blender (I've done this).
2) edit the terrain then import back to IWTE.
3) modify vanilla building objects to construct the settlement and then import back to IWTE.
4) create/update collision, pathfinding and vegetation.

I've determined which complexes that I want to use but I'm not 100% clear on how to narrow down, i.e., should I delete the extra complexes in IWTE and then export or do so in Blender and then import? Also can I delete unneeded stuff from complexes like the ambient buildings, and I presume I can edit and reuse (or create from scratch) new stuff/complexes in Blender if e.g., I want to scale/reshape a vanilla wall or piece together/modify an ambient building to create a new custom model. This presumably can be done via creating a new complex in Blender- can I repurpose collisions/animations/pathfinding if, for example, I angle a wall to be diagonal or something or resize a tower?

Broadly, is there any guideline to making a new complex, ie can I simply make a new complex that contains everything new or should I divide things up, do I need to make a new container box, etc. I assume this is mainly a matter of performance...

[Undead Martyr]

Is is possible or even necessary to rotate the vanilla wall animations, or will those be lost if I rotate a vanilla wall segment in Blender? Also, there's the obvious question of gate animations, since I want to have a diagonal gate.

[Undead Martyr]

What's the best way to handle the container boxes, and/or to delete/redo the existing complexes? I have removed all but the first six complexes from the Southern European Huge city in a custom settlement intended to model Constantinople; I would like to be able to delete two of the remaining six and reimport (manually if necessary) one of the deleted ones in order to pare things down to what I'm actually using- basically, I want just the front part of the settlement to use as the building blocks for the Theodosian Walls, and to then build from scratch the new complexes for the back half of the city using duplicated wall segments (I am planning on making the on-map sea walls indestructible and force-spawning attackers at the land side exclusively and I need to retexture the walls anyway so I'm not too worried about losing collision/animation data etc.). It isn't entirely clear, browsing through the wiki pages and the tutorials, if deleting the vanilla Complexes will cause or potentially cause a CTD upon trying to load the new map in a custom battle/campaign, nor is it clear what exactly the container box thingies really do beyond ostensibly making things easier for the rendering engine, but there's little explicit information on how to actually handle these when starting from scratch using an existing vanilla settlement map.