Question regarding phototerrain and shoreline

[tyrodes 29]

I am trying to create some photoreal terrain that overlaps with a shoreline. Currently, my plan is to use Terrabuilder for the photoreal terrain and Ground2K to correct the shoreline.I am worried that that photoreal texture will always overlap any corrected shoreline.Is this true?Thank you very much for your help.

[arno 1]

Yes, you are right there. You can not combine a CUSTOM scenery (the photoreal part) with LWM/VTP scenery.But, you could also place the photoreal tiles with VTP code as well (don't know if there already is a program that can do that for you) and then you can combine those effects.

[tyrodes 29]

Can the photoreal tiles created by terrabuilder be used?Thanks for your insight.

[arno 1]

Yes, I think they can (I don't use TerraBuilder myself, but I think TerraBuilder creates the input file for resample and thus gives the same results).

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi tyrodes.Custom textures can be displayed as VTP2 or VTP1 polys. Just make the poly the shape you want, and assign the texture number as 252 ( seasonal CUSTOM set ) or 253 ( non-seasonal ). This is a landclass number.The CUSTOM textures will need to be vertically flipped for VTP2, mipped, and saved as DXT1. Water areas will be black, but that can serve as a template for LWM water polys.================I believe Ground2K has a method for displaying CUSTOM slices as VTP1, and tiled just like CUSTOM. The VTP1 code generated by Ground2K flips the textures for you automatically at runtime, but VTP1 doesn't allow autogen. So you would need to create objects to display as trees or buildings ( not necessarily a bad thing ). If we could convince Christian to add advanced buildings support, and placement for Gerrish Gray's trees, autogen would be redundant. :) For now, you could make a screenshot of your VTP scenery, and use it as a background for Airport or FSSC, and place tree APIs or buildings.=================The point of using VTP polys to display CUSTOM slices ( or parts of these slices ) is that they can be asigned to a layer. If they are made Layer 4, then the textures behave exactly like landclass textures, and may have other polys and lines show over them ( impossible as placed with resample's bgl ). So as VTP, the textures can have proper shores.Of course, you could alter your source image to display shores or beaches before you run it through TerraBuilder. And that might be something to consider.I'm not sure why you would want to alter the shape of a CUSTOM shoreline, as that is what CUSTOM does really well with the alpha channel. The alpha channel is water with CUSTOM textures placed by resample ( TerraBuilder ).Dick

[tyrodes 29]

Dick,Thank you for the detailed comments. I still have a lot to learn. I will have to look at this later (need to get some work done at work).I am particularly interested in you comments shown below regarding my source image and the alpha channel.Thanks again. >Of course, you could alter your source image to display shores>or beaches before you run it through TerraBuilder. And that>might be something to consider.>>I'm not sure why you would want to alter the shape of a>CUSTOM shoreline, as that is what CUSTOM does really well with>the alpha channel. The alpha channel is water with CUSTOM>textures placed by resample ( TerraBuilder ).