IWTE - World editing - (General Discussion)

[leo.civil.uefs]

Its fairly straight forward and the short answer is you simply make the references for both summer and winter for everything associated with that climate the same.

So depending on the various different parts you are changing you need to amend items listed below :

Stratmap textures = descr_aerial_map_ground_types.txt
descr_climates.txt = to set strat map veg models
descr_geography_new.db = battlefield ground_textures, overlays and overlay modification
vegetation.db = vegetation groups (this allocates the vegetation models amongst other things).
vegetation/models/textures = copy the winter textures and rename them by removing the text "_winter" from the name

In IWTE you can edit the descr_geography_new.db and the vegetation.db. There is also a copy function to copy a season from any climate (in the same db file) to another season/climate combination. You can choose which tables to copy.

I never added a function to copy from a different geography.db file though so if you wanted to do that you would have to copy in the entries you wanted to duplicate first.

Ok I got everything to be snowy both on summer and winter for a specific climate.

The only thing I cant change is the overlay textures that are loaded by the settlements, thats because the engine has the switch mechanism that reads the "winter" folder inside the textures folder when it is winter, and the winter textures are shared by all settlements so I cannot change it for only one. Its a IWTE thing and would affect all settlements, unless I create unique ones and place them there but these regions should be upgradable so I cannot.

Actually, it is pretty good the way it is now. Im totally satisfied.

Thanks!

[wilddog]

One change I'll also need to do is Terrain texture editing, move some farm land, add trench pits etc . i assume I'll be able to do that ? haven't looked at this yet.

Farm land is handled by the textures in the settlements/settlementname/maps/overlays folder. They are textures so need to be converted to DDS then edited within photoshop/gimp etc at the moment. IWTE doesn't handle this but I plan to add these into the painting process but likely only if converted to TGA's.

There isn't really a concept of a trench pit its either terrain (and texture is determined by various factors) or its an object in the .world file.

[Rorarii]

Farm land is handled by the textures in the settlements/settlementname/maps/overlays folder. They are textures so need to be converted to DDS then edited within photoshop/gimp etc at the moment. IWTE doesn't handle this but I plan to add these into the painting process but likely only if converted to TGA's.

There isn't really a concept of a trench pit its either terrain (and texture is determined by various factors) or its an object in the .world file.

thanks again, what i meant by trench pits is just color related - dark for bottom of trench, maybe mud and some water .. and half buried skeleton? Adjusting terrain heights I already do with your tool.

R

[makanyane]

You could use that settlement plan thing for them, to get them to load a different set, I thought that worked for battle maps?

Anyway I tend to agree it doesn't look too bad, just like the snow has melted on the paths...

[leo.civil.uefs]

I never added a function to copy from a different geography.db file

That could come useful in some specific cases.

For example, the ReallyBadAI mod uses the geography.db file. I cannot implement this mod in mine because it would replace my own geography.db. Im quite sure none of the bits I edited in it are also edited in RBAI so I could just took the edited bits from it and use in mine with no conflict, but that would be manually, copy and paste, suffering, time, sweating...

Anyway its up to you decide if it worth it to invest effort in such a new funtion for IWTE. I have no idea how difficult it would be to add this new feature.

just like the snow has melted on the paths...

No, its just that some clever orcs cleaned it in their free time.

[wilddog]

For example, the ReallyBadAI mod uses the geography.db file. I cannot implement this mod in mine because it would replace my own geography.db. Im quite sure none of the bits I edited in it are also edited in RBAI so I could just took the edited bits from it and use in mine with no conflict, but that would be manually, copy and paste, suffering, time, sweating...

Anyway its up to you decide if it worth it to invest effort in such a new funtion for IWTE. I have no idea how difficult it would be to add this new feature.

I'd have to see how easy it was to allow a second one to be opened and then allow you to copy the same climate/season options but this time not being able to see them versus the hardship of opening a second instance of IWTE and simply editing that way. For most items its probably not that different so editing is probably not much time. If it was you would start with the other geography.db and copy the bits you wanted different from your geography.db. Not high on my to do list at the moment.

[wilddog]

for the next IWTE release I plan to add in both the tall vegetation and average vegetation settings into the painting process. I may cap these as using large areas of it will blow the graphics. These settings are used on some vanilla models and support adding trees, rocks and bushes into the world vegetation. The trees one has been editable in IWTE for a long time but the shrubs one was removed some years back for some reason (probably because I thought it wasn't used) though the files did use to signal it when loaded up. For those that kept getting stones/small rocks on some maps (which count as small shrubs in the vegetation.db) this was the reason... Mak says sorry for those that asked her about it.

[leo.civil.uefs]

For those that kept getting stones/small rocks on some maps (which count as small shrubs in the vegetation.db) this was the reason... Mak says sorry for those that asked her about it.

Sorry my ignorance but, is this the reason why even after deleting all vegetation from Moria climate in IWTE I still get some rocks in the battlemap?

[makanyane]

erm yes possibly
if it's under the area controlled by the terrain file...

just looked at moria east and west veg files and that section comes up looking like;



do those grey areas match up with the areas of stones that were turning up?

[leo.civil.uefs]

erm yes possibly
if it's under the area controlled by the terrain file...

just looked at moria east and west veg files and that section comes up looking like;



do those grey areas match up with the areas of stones that were turning up?

sorry where did you got this file? My 3 and 4 groups are totally black in west moria. And the new version of IWTE only allows me to build the group3 one not the 4.

[makanyane]

I'm testing next version... group 2 veg might be making a come back
(and as it's edited in the 2d screen the black is where stuff is, white=empty)

that's what that looks like for the moria ones - so you'd be seeing a square block in one corner of the battle-map and a couple of stripes
is that what you're getting?

[leo.civil.uefs]

Sorry the new button is in such a different position compared with all the ones we have got now sincefirst version of IWTE came out, I just missed it.

I said many times I was going to retire but eveytime I enter this thread I see you comming with new features in IWTE that forces me to continue modding, you're responsible for my suffering.

I'm testing next version... group 2 veg might be making a come back
(and as it's edited in the 2d screen the black is where stuff is, white=empty)

that's what that looks like for the moria ones - so you'd be seeing a square block in one corner of the battle-map and a couple of stripes
is that what you're getting?

Hum... it seems so. Yes. They are shrubs.

[wilddog]

And the new version of IWTE only allows me to build the group3 one not the 4.

2) Added new 'painting' process for files accessed via the 'files' tab at the top of the window.

4) World vegetation files for adding grass and trees added to the painting process and their buttons removed. Amendment to the blending vegetation file still uses the old process.

[wilddog]

Sorry the new button is in such a different position compared with all the ones we have got now sincefirst version of IWTE came out, I just missed it.

No problem Leo.. I just couldn't resist commenting. Mak warned me about changing the way to select files but I think it's just a bit faster and gets me out of setting up more and more buttons. In fact lets me get rid of some.

I expect to release another update by end of the weekend to handle the other two vegetation bits and then I'll address the ones (textures once converted to TGA) which are under the maps/overlays.

The new painter process is a bit faster and allows to map the data to the various view options so also makes that easier. Also allows me to set some basic controls. I may extend to the strat map TGA's in the end as that was the thing I was testing on before adding into IWTE.

One other new thing I did was I decided to amend the save (of the TGA base files eg worldvegetation) so they are always put in a folder which relates to where you run the exe from it basically defaults to exepath\IWTEsave (exepath is shown in the command window). Any file is then saved with the next available number above the one it started with. May do that to the other IWTE files also as it then keeps them all together and I know that was a real mess.

In the end I want to see if I can support some of the world terrain editing via the same process.. at least the old TGA bit.

[leo.civil.uefs]

is the creat pathfinding tga tool still available? Its extremly useful when you want to edit it in photoshop based in your terrain tga.

[wilddog]

@Leo - I can add it back in as I just disabled rather than removed. I will need to amend slightly as I was changing some of the values used in the TGA's to suit the new painter process better. I'm also working on adding in the terrain to the painter process also as I need that for the overlays. I've done the missing two vegetation parts now but will probably hold back on the release until I can sort out the terrain bits as I'm also changing the functionality slightly each time.

[leo.civil.uefs]

@Leo - I can add it back in as I just disabled rather than removed.

Please do it. Im not going to make more custom settlements but after all these one I have already done I can clearly say its a very necessary tool.

By the way, would be difficult to allow IWTE to convert more than 1 .texture file with one command? Its annoying to do it 1 by 1 when you do have a lot of them. Alpaca's converter can do it.

[wilddog]

but after all these one I have already done I can clearly say its a very necessary tool.

It will probably be added in but maybe not immediately.

By the way, would be difficult to allow IWTE to convert more than 1 .texture file with one command? Its annoying to do it 1 by 1 when you do have a lot of them. Alpaca's converter can do it.

Its not difficult. I was running though a similar process for testing all the strat cas conversions. However as you said Alpacas tool can do it so it wasn't a priority and I had already posted a fix saying how to amend his tool for later python versions. This will probably be added but you tend to only convert once (texture to dds) and then be doing multiples only as you amend the dds's. It also had the risk of overwriting your amended DDS's if you hit the wrong button.

[leo.civil.uefs]

I had already posted a fix saying how to amend his tool for later python versions.

Where is it?

[wilddog]

is the creat pathfinding tga tool still available? Its extremly useful when you want to edit it in photoshop based in your terrain tga.

sorry had a rethink :
I may add in exactly what you asked for here ie a create TGA so you can compare outside of the tool but am less likely to add in a read back which is what you really meant rather than what you said.

As I'm likely changing the scale away from a pure greyscale it would make it more controlled and stop the inevitable 'extra' questions around it. It would also help address gosho's issues where he couldn't really understand that as the tool currently let you use different scales for doing different edits, then whey couldn't he use one scale to amend them.