[TEC] GWX SH4TerrainEX Information!

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by astvitaliy1982

I want to clarify one nuance with the construction of squares. In SH3 I made a 6 pixel overlay, but in SH4 this is not necessary.
(I mean the process when building squares in Photoshop.)

astvitaliy1982, editing the SH4 files the way you are, or the way Jeff is thinking of, might not incur the same SH3 6-pixel overlap that you show in your "nuance" image above, but if using the GWX Terrain Extractor and Photoshop to make the changes, you will indeed run into the same 6-pixel overlap in the SH4 files. If you edit a 601x601 "tile" within the 6-pixel area of the overlap, the neighboring "tile" has to be edited ~exactly~ the same in that overlap area, else you will see pillars of stone at the corners of the "tile" intersections, and sometimes shear wall of "dirt" that reach to the heavens... accidentally altering just one pixel can cause issue, which I have seen first-hand ... definitely not fun trying to track down the "mistake"...

[Jeff-Groves]

As propbeanie said. Take a look at E141S002 for a perfect example of overlap issues.

And that is in a stock BFD!

[propbeanie]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

As propbeanie said. Take a look at E141S002 for a perfect example of overlap issues.

And that is in a stock BFD!

Scary, ain't it?... "Quality Control"...

[Jeff-Groves]

[astvitaliy1982]

There is one iron rule in editing with GWX SH4TerrainEX. It should be written in red letters - Never edit already redone squares!!!
This will lead to what you wrote about. However, this is also fixable. It just takes a little fiddling around.
But never edit what has been changed. The best way out is to redo the square
yourself or apply the converted square to the native one and convert it. But I wouldn't risk it. Taking the square out of the game, we are already violating its integrity. If you do this many times, then voids appear. I call them Wandering Pixels. That's why I never use the same square twice.

[astvitaliy1982]

When you take a stock square, edit it, put it in "color indexed" mode, and
press "Save as RAW", then the Title should be equal to - 0.

[astvitaliy1982]

E141S002 - check this file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aL7...ew?usp=sharing

[Jeff-Groves]

We edited E141S002 a few days ago.

Your image of 'wandering pixels' is to small to see any detail.
Only time I've seen that is when one does not remove the header when exported from the ZHF file. No need to do that if exported directly from the BFD file.

It may be possible to edit the TerrainMapPS.fx and TerrainMapVS.fx Shader files to change how the Navigation map appears in Game.
I removed both as a test and lost all land masses!

[astvitaliy1982]

I was just one step away from the perfect map. I have a map with a colored depth gradient. Is there a way to replace the color palette of a photo with the one we need? (0-47) I know Phyton can do it. But I can't find a user manual...

[Jeff-Groves]

Try changing the picture as if you doing a RAW file.

[Jeff-Groves]

Only way I can reproduce 'Wandering Pixels' is to NOT remove header information when exporting from a saved ZHF file.

Now you only remove the header information 1 time! So any more opening of a saved RAW file as you work on it?
DO NOT have the 4 bytes removed!

[astvitaliy1982]

Ok. I've been thinking... No matter how I implement this method, it will still be based on intuition... Either I do it visually by comparing pictures, or I do it by going over mathematical formulas based on approximate analysis... The result will not be 100%. But... The depths in the game will now matter... I'm going to get a bottle of beer for inspiration and get to work...)

[Jeff-Groves]

We can ONLY work in the limits the Hard Code allows.
And I'll have a beer with you My Friend!

[propbeanie]

Make mine a sarsaparilla!!! Unless, of course, you like mogwai gremlins and their water reaction, 'cause that's the way I react to beer... lol

[astvitaliy1982]

I want to share with you one observation in SH3TerrainEX,
but I don't know which branch to put it in.

When building lakes, I had one problem.
Since the world in SH3 is flat and the terrain is based on a real map,
that is observed in such not beautiful situation.




A) If you build a lake in the depths of the mainland, then the relief is too high. And if in
the center of the lake will be islands, then when building a depth map (in certain places)
they will turn into huge rocks coming out of the water.



What I do in this case... The area on the editable "Depths" square where the lake will be located,
I completely paint over with shades of sushi of small heights.

// Heights in m
48 - 0x40800000 = 4.0
49 - 0x40a00000 = 5.0
50 - 0x40c00000 = 6.0
51 - 0x41000000 = 8.0

1) I throw this "Depths" square into the game without building a height map.
2) Run it in game via JSGME and make sure it is replaced (in Sh3Mission Editor)
3) I build a map of "Heights" and also throw them into the game. Again I check through JSGME, and make sure
that it has been replaced in the Sh3Mission Editor.
Depths at this moment are all equal -16.0 ( Table // 92 47 - 0xc1800000 = -16.0)
4) I throw in the "Depths" square those depths that I need. But! The height of the islands with this manipulation,
remains the same as I did in point 1.

I can't explain it in programming language, but with SH3TerrainEX you can build,
add and edit heights in the game.

I did this method on the construction of lakes Venern and Vättern, Ladoga and Onega lakes.