IWTE - World editing - (General Discussion)

[Jukoman]

Those. towers shoot?

The model does not imply the deployment of a balcony.

Oil would like, what could be the reason? Any chance of what will work?

[makanyane]

Your towers will shoot with
manned 0
in the descr_walls.txt

I'm just having difficulty figuring out a way of getting
manned 1
to work. E.g. having the game think the troops are close enough to them.

I'll try and have another look (without adding a balcony!) later tonight/tomorrow

[Jukoman]

and what height for the flag on the tower is needed?

[makanyane]

@Jukoman - have sent pm

summary - not getting anywhere yet - will have a better go at it over weekend (start from working version and see when it breaks...)

[Jukoman]

Oil earned.
I moved the arrow markers a little further from the walls of the building and they earned. Apparently, if the marker is inside the building - it does not work.

[makanyane]

I've got back to trying to have another look at this.

I only get the oil - if I move the arrow markers as you described AND use manned 0 for the gatehouse in descr_walls.txt

Is that as far as you got? Or have you managed to make it work with manned 1? (i.e. activated by defending troop proximity)

[scwosh]

Hey, guys! Prompt, please, whether it is possible to configure the file .worldpkgdesc so that one faction has several settlements of the same level with different layout and architecture? That is, the layout of the settlement was not tied to the name of the faction, and the name of the settlement?

[makanyane]

Hey, guys! Prompt, please, whether it is possible to configure the file .worldpkgdesc so that one faction has several settlements of the same level with different layout and architecture? That is, the layout of the settlement was not tied to the name of the faction, and the name of the settlement?

I can't find a way of doing it
this
claimed you could - but I haven't managed to get it to work.

So I think you're stuck with one design per faction, per settlement level.

[Mr_Nygren]

descr_sm_factions.txt has the 'internal' faction names and cultures - those are the faction names that need to be used in the .worldpkgdesc

descr_culture gives the fort icon that's used on the strat map - per culture - you should be able to change that per faction by using the faction_variant folder system as you would for the settlements.



you can use anything that has a 'plaza' and a 'deployment outline' as a fort, so anything CA made as a fort, also any settlement including villages - though obviously that'd mess up what siege equipment armies turn up with.

Gigantus has various threads about the proper stone forts, see here


I'm not sure if I've understood your question correctly!

I know about the descr_sm_factions as i've just it a lot for the settlements.

I've also used the culture-file for strat-map cities but was unsure about forts.

I am not writing about forts on the strat-map, but rather on the battle-map - and yes, i do know i can use any custom settlement so that wasn't my question.

My question was what names does forts have and how do i know the correct ones? Is there a list?

As an example, i could see the Fort used by the Wizzrobe thanks to it being spawned on the strat-map from the start - this meant that it did have a code-name in the descr_strat-file that i could use for the IWTE program. But i don't know what the names are for other factions because they have no forts at the start of the campaign. I am guessing they should be listed in descr_culture?

Wizzrobe fort:

"fort 137 49 stone_fort_a culture northern_european"

I used the default_fort as the type, then i used the stone_fort_a as the variant - and it worked.

Other factions might use other entries for the variant?

[makanyane]

ahhh - there isn't a list as the important bit is only what's inside the .worldpkgdesc

you just need to make new .worldpkgdesc (I thought 'Name' was the important bit - but just make Name and Variant the same and it'll work...)

So 'Name' and 'Variant' = "New_Fort_Name" - the pkg Path is to the .world you want to use and the culture is the culture you want to use it. and "default_fort" as type.

then put
"fort 137 49 New_Fort_Name culture culture_name"

if you're placing them in descr_strat you don't need to make the pkg faction specific as it's being called by the name/location

[leo.civil.uefs]

Someone once asked about the distance for trees turning into sprites.

As far as I can remember that could not be changed.

How is it now? Can IWTE do it?
Because its still ugly to see a forest fileld with sprites of trees in our mods.
Im not sure if sprites or actually a detail reduction when the câmera moves far.

[makanyane]

IWTE > Veg/GeogDB tab > Veg Distance table > for tall_vegetation there are 'model distance' settings for 'veg detail low/medium/high' that's the vegetation graphics quality setting the user selects in the game settings. So the model displays until that distance then the sprite takes over - things other than trees (tall_vegetation also have a cut off point where the sprite disappears totally) --- usual save and re-name file to use the new one applies.

Try adjusting the one for high detail. I'd suggest leaving the other (medium and low) settings alone so users can still downgrade to those if their computer can't cope!
If you've got a lot of trees on a map having too large a 'model distance' might make everything grind to a halt...



Might also be worth trying re-doing the sprites with latest IWTE and manually tweaking the images if necessary - I might be biased but I think WD actually got the sprite making process a bit better than some of the CA originals.

[AnthoniusII]

Can someone please give some solution in this issue:
In general i make a city strat_map (in this case a large_town) and inorder to create the PSF's i shrink them by 10% and separate the "castle" that includes the buildings and the banner symbol and the "walls".
For example our Roman PSF's are smaller cities.

fort                data/models_strat/residences/BYZ_fort.CAS,                        fort_roman
fort_cost            500
fort_wall            data/models_strat/residences/BYZ_fort_walls.CAS

So far so good.
With the same tactique i made the northern_European PSFs (NE_forts , NE_fort_walls ), southern european, middle_eastern etc.
In the balkan areas the slavic factions (all ) belong to eastern_european culture.
But when i try to replace the PSFs with the same technique i described above all i get is southern_european PSFs (see attachment) but the main settlement strat_map models are showing as intended.
The eastern_european fort entry is like this:

fort                data/models_strat/residences/EE_fort.CAS,                            fort_barbarian
fort_cost            500
fort_wall            data/models_strat/residences/EE_fort_walls.CAS

Any sugestion?

[makanyane]

Not really sure but EE tends to default to using NE battle-map stuff unless you make it faction specific so am guessing something similar and hard-coded is going on.

Double check that is SE and not NE ones you're ending up with... Which ever one it is make copies of your EE forts with the same name the other culture is using e.g.
SE_fort.CAS or whatever... Put those copies in models_strat/residences/faction_variants/faction_name folders

where 'faction_name' is the internal name of each of your EE factions - you'll also need to include their textures in each
models_strat/residences/faction_variants/faction_name/textures folder (or you'll CTD!)

[Gigantus]

The culprit is possibly descr_ui_buildings that defines the lookup, default below:

lookup_variants
{
    mesoamerican middle_eastern
    mesoamerican eastern_european
    middle_eastern eastern_european
    greek southern_european

It should however only come into effect if the file does not exist in the specified culture's directory. But then that is only applicable for the UI directories if memory (and the file name) suggests?

In the above it could help to use a custom sub directory, eg: data/models_strat/residences/custom/BYZ_fort.CAS

[leo.civil.uefs]

This is an explanation I gave to someone who asked me about the game lagging in one of his custom settlement.

I dont have a ideal place to place it, and none of my tutorials seems to fit, since they are not the place where people go looking for solutions about collisions and lag.

So I will post it here, hoping you guys can correct what I said wrong and maybe find a ideal place to post my explanation.

I think the ideal place would be KingKong's IWTE tutorial but we can't edit.

There we go:



If you have a settlement with too much buildings and assign collisions in IWTE for each one of them, the game will lag. Because buildings are detailed 3d models, and collisions in such models consumes memory. Thats why in settlements where I have too many buildings I dont assign collisions for them. But that means projectiles (arrows, rocks etc) and the camera will pass through it. So my solution is placing invisible boxes (alpha texture) nearly matching the building shapes, then assign collisions to these boxes. The boxes has low vertex count so will not make the game lag.

When you have two buildings merged into a single group in milkshape 3d

(meaning they will be a single object in IWTE) and they share the same collision in IWTE

, but they are far from each other in the game, the game will lag. For example, a house and a wall, far from each other, but as a single group in milkshape (single object in IWTE) and sharing the same collision. That makes the game lag. SOLUTION: Split the two things (the house and the wall) into diferente groups in milkshape, insert it in the settlement via IWTE and then assign a diferent collision for each one.

Effects can also make the game lag. For example, in places where there is too many waterfall effects, the game tends to lag, because the particles consume too much memory. SOLUTION: remove some effects, there is no other way.

The engine reuses collisions to avoid lag, and as far as I know it is possible to do this via IWTE, but I never tried this. You better ask guys in the IWTE thread.

[makanyane]

Thanks Leo!

I should probably try and re-write a short tutorial similar to KingKong's to include some of this stuff, but not quite sure when/if that's going to happen!

The engine reuses collisions to avoid lag, and as far as I know it is possible to do this via IWTE, but I never tried this. You better ask guys in the IWTE thread.

Yes that's easy to do by using the 'assign collision' button, similar principle to the 'assign collision/animation' thing you currently have to do to assign animations for gates/walls.

I'd suggest that's a better way around your 'settlements with too many buildings' add a temporary structure with simple box objects that are large enough to fit round your typical buildings/columns/statues/whatever repeats but doesn't need to be destroyable, give those boxes collisions. Write down which collision number relates to which sized thing. Assign those collisions to each of the relevant things. Delete the temporary structure. That would give you a few more base collisions, but means you don't have to use the alpha-textured big box thing, which I assume must still cast a shadow (?)

There's also the issue with too large single objects, and people using only one Complex - or using multiple Complexes but not keeping all the bits contained within the relevant one - because all that breaks the bounding sphere/box system that is meant to help reduce what is loaded in detail depending on viewpoint.

[wilddog]

I may have a look to see if I can simplify the collisions it creates as they are currently copies of the object itself. At the moment I am looking at doing some corrections to IWTE and hopefully amending the animation process significantly. e.g. amending or adding completely new animations and resetting the effect lighting within the animations.

[makanyane]

Nominations for the 2018 Modding Awards are open!

There is a Tools and Resources section

- Favorite Tool & Resource for TW2 Engine:
- Favorite Tool & Resource for Warscape Engine:
- Favorite Tool & Resource maker for TW2 Engine:
- Favorite Tool & Resource maker for Warscape Engine:

IWTE, me and wilddog are NOT eligble this year, as we didn't actually produce an update in 2018
(but hopefully will in 2019!!)


Please do support the awards and your other favourite tool makers by submitting nominations for those that did have releases in 2018

[AnthoniusII]

Question: Is there a limit of a ms3d file to become a strat_map.cas file?
I use IWTE 17_03_A Version..I made long ago a Byzantine_large_city.cas model that worked.
I desided to add some rambards for more easthetic reasons.
In the Byzantine_city.cas everything worked fine.
Then i added ramarads on the walls and the byzantine_large_city.cas loads smoothly. Working on the same model by copy , regroup and paste process i added rambards on the towers.
When IWTE too reading the ms3d file no error apears.
It creates a .cas file (byzantine_large_city_cas_ms3d.cas) that i rename with its proper name later without touching the last .cas extention.
Game loads but when it comes to load a campaign then I have a CTD after few seconds trying to load the campaign save.