Help with FS2004 Terrain SDK / Alpha water mask

[Guest mherb]

Greetings everyone!I've searched high and low and can't find any problems similar to mine, which is probably an error down to me!I'm using the FS2004 Terrain SDK and I'm trying to create a Custom Texture Terrain area using satellite data. Half of the image lays on the coast and the rest in the ocean. I've created the file "project.tga" and have created a alpha mask as per the SDK to define water and land.Land absolute white R:255 G:255 B:255 and Black for water. This works well in the LOD 13 cells of land and water (the coast) ... but the next cells out in the ocean are covered in the Photo scenery texture I wish to use as default water. In imagetool it says the images in question have no Alpha, in Photoshop it says it's there.Is there anything obvious I'm missing? Is there a better way to define water and land with Custom Textures?Thanks in advance.Mitch

[arno 1]

I used the same method and for me it worked fine. But I have no idea what could be going wrong, in theory it should work.

[Guest mherb]

Hi Arno, Thanks for the reply.It appears I required hard black on the actual satellite image itself for the water mask to work. It looks fine now!Another question, can I have just the summer texture and a lightmap texture in the .inf file? Or do I need all seasons to to utilise Light Map?Thanks!Mitch

[arno 1]

Not sure, I only tested with one texture (SU) for now. I think you need to activate seasons before you can get a lightmap, but mayne you can try with just specifying summer and lightmap.About the alpha, I assume besides the black in the image you still have the alpha channel as well? Because when I tried with only black in the image and no alpha channel it did not work.

[Guest mherb]

Yea, I'll have to look into that. It might be possible just to specify LM and SU. Anyone?It looks as though you need black in the actual image (water) and on the alpha to get the right results.Mitch

[Guest PaulL01]

>Yea, I'll have to look into that. It might be possible just>to specify LM and SU. Anyone?>>It looks as though you need black in the actual image (water)>and on the alpha to get the right results.>>MitchTo use LM you need all seasons, so until you actually create seasons just make copies of the SU textures and rename in seasonal sets. Though it is redundant it is also the only way I know of dealing with these shortcomings.

[bob.bernstein 0]

duplicated post somehow

[bob.bernstein 0]

I have a personal preference, which is to make 6 infs, each calling out one season or night. This keeps everything crystal clear for me and the time spent is nothing compared to the potential for confusion.B

[Guest PaulL01]

>I have a personal preference, which is to make 6 infs, each>calling out one season or night. This keeps everything>crystal clear for me and the time spent is nothing compared to>the potential for confusion.>>BBob,Are you saying that using one inf you can specify just LM and it will work?I think I have tried this and found that the inf was rejected..???

[bob.bernstein 0]

no, I let it always stay at SU, and I compile it using a batch file...here is an example:resample crestfa.infdel class.tmfren ???????????????su.bmp ???????????????fa.bmpThe del line is because only the real su compile requires a bgl. Note I use fs2000 sdk resample, because it still works best imho.

[Guest mherb]

Thanks for the replies.Ok so from what I can gather, all seasons must be active for LM to work correctly?Failing that, is there an easy way to get (default) or some other night light working on Custom Terrain Textures?-M

[ibanez737 2]

Hi Bob, This is off topic, but are you doing a scenery of Crest airport? If so, I can't wait! Being a Washingtonian, I love all of your sceneries, especially Harvey Field. I'm thinking of doing a scenery of Monroe airport, which is near where I live. The only think that's holding me back is lack of time. Can't wait to see your new stuff!-Scott

[bob.bernstein 0]

Hi Scott, I've had the good fortune of being invited to fsaddon....giving me a chance to combine efforts with an allstar lineup....Harvey/Monroe will be our first release....see the link below for some screenies. http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=27547Best regards,Bob Bernstein