a more powerful exporter

[boto]

hi ES,

hi,

i find the tool great and look forward to be able to make bigger terrains than possible in the latest demo version.

btw: i am thinking of making an exporter which creates a seperate image file which contains the blend factors for the detail layers. if someone is willing to help ...

cheers
boto

Just e-mail me if you need help, or post your questions in the development forum.

Ernest

i principle, the Save As.. function exports all necessary textures. but i think it would be great to move the Save As.. functionality to an exporter ( such as Texture Exporter ) and let the user define the output size. the blend mask texture ( <file>_d.png ) is somehow small with 512x512 which leads to cracks when blending the texures in our terrain renderer. and it would be great to include the export option for black background where no detail textures are used instead of transparent.

btw: do have any release plan for the official version? the limitation of 257x257 section size is really hard for our artists. we are integrating the tool into our development tool chain.

here is our project site: http://yag2002.sf.net

cheers
boto

[ES]

i principle, the Save As.. function exports all necessary textures. but i think it would be great to move the Save As.. functionality to an exporter ( such as Texture Exporter ) and let the user define the output size.

Well the save as is just to rename/copy the map, it's meant to save the map in it's native format which just happens to be very open. Anything different is reserved for the export plug-in which ppl should write their own to fit their own needs, it's impossible for me to accommodate everyones needs. I suppose in the future I would have something to change the maps size and texture size on the current map.

the blend mask texture ( <file>_d.png ) is somehow small with 512x512 which leads to cracks when blending the texures in our terrain renderer. and it would be great to include the export option for black background where no detail textures are used instead of transparent.

Just create a new map with bigger texture size for the detail map. There is always a detail map in every part of the map, if you need a blank one, just load black texture as one of your detail textures.

btw: do have any release plan for the official version? the limitation of 257x257 section size is really hard for our artists. we are integrating the tool into our development tool chain.

Yes the official version will be out as soon as possible, hopefully by mid September, I'm not adding any more features now and I'm just pushing this thing out the door, so people can buy it and not be sidelined by the current limitations of the beta demo. By the way the next release will support 8 detail textures.

[boto]

hi ES

I suppose in the future I would have something to change the maps size and texture size on the current map.

it sounds fare.

if i may suppose something else: what do you think about letting the user define the subdivision of the terrain mesh. what do you think? does it make sense? i have to admit that the current fixed resolution is really sufficient, though.

i am also interested to know what terrain rendering technique you use.

By the way the next release will support 8 detail textures.

cool, very cool. i can't wait for the release date

thank you for the hints. i will look what i can do for our exporter. once it is finished i can send it to you. maybe you could arrange a contribution section for collection the community work!?

cheers
boto

[ES]

The terrain rendering is done using my own method
http://www.ernestszoka.com/tstriplod/tstrip.htm

For plugins, if it's useful to community just post here on the forum, note there will be changes in the plugin in the next release, so it will require some code changes.

For subdivisions, there will be subdivisions for the textures only like in 0.25. For the terrain maybe in the future there will be tiling, who knows.

ES

[boto]

hi ES,

the work with earthsculptor makes really big fun. now, it is possible to set the detail map size on exporting, however i cannot change the map size for the heightmap. it is fixed to 257x257. are there any plans to support setting the heightmap size in an exporter?

i noticed also that the alpha channel of png pics are not exported properly. in order to export 4 detail channels i have to export 2 png files at the momen. one containing 3 channels and the other for exporting the forth channel.

cheers
boto

[ES]

Exporting the heightmap is fixed to the original size of the heightmap. You can either purchase a copy of EarthSculptor and get larger heightmaps to work with or take the exported heightmap and make it larger in photoshop.

ES

[boto]

hi ES,

i have already purchased Earthsculptor.
if the size of creating the terrain was 256x256, then there is no chance to changing it durin export? enlarging theight map using photoshop is not really an option, because the original terrain surface would be only interpolated. this means loss of quality.

cheers
boto

[ES]

Nope there is not chance of changing the size during the export, it would be the same as interpolating in photoshop.

ES

[boto]

oh i see. the grid wit lod 0 has a resolution of 256x256.
thanks for your help.

cheers
boto