LAX Terrascene

[Guest]

I created terrascene scenery for the entire Socal area, but the globe tile that LAX is in comes out messed up. There is a huge square of land right off the coast of lax that terrascene creates. Has anyone terrascened the lax globe tile and had this problem? If so, how can I get rid of that huge landmass that should be ocean?Thanks,Glenn

[RandallR 444]

Hi Glenn,It wouldn't make much sense for the USGS to survey and provide data for what everyone knows is water, so the data only extends a short distance out from the shoreline. When the data stops, TS has no information to render from, so it fills the blank area with the background texture - the default of which is a swamp-bog image. This is actually very appropriate, as most missing data is along the shores of rivers and lakes. You need something to fill these areas that looks right, so "swamp-bog" fits well along those shores.Some people resolve this issue by changing the default background texture to an ocean type, filling in the missing data areas with water. I recommend against this approach, as you will also fill other parts that are supposed to be land with water wherever there is missing USGS data.I prefer using a paint program like Photoshop (or any program you can edit TGA files with to correct the problem:1. Render the global tile, but don't slice the scenery.2. Open the small images in Photoshop (or your editor of choice) and locate the "mini-tiles" that have your ocean areas that need editing.3a. If you are not going to use a water mask, then clone the proper ocean texture over the mid-ocean swamp areas. Delete the main image tile, and check "use existing" under render options to force TS to rerender the day image to include your changes.3b. To do this with the water mask is much, much easier. :-) Open the small "mini-tiles" for the water tile, locating the bad area. On the mask, land is white, water is black. Your misplaced swamp will now be a big rectangle of white - paint it black! That's it! Delete the main water tile, and check "use existing" under render options to force TS to rerender the water mask.4. Slice the scenery. If you usaed method 3a, you will have ocean textures where they should be. If you used method 3b, the water mask will have placed reflective, moving water over the top of the swamp images and given you continuous water.

[Guest]

Thanks Randall, your tips worked. I edited the water mask and I no longer have the big square of land off the coast of LAX!Thanks again...........Glenn

[RandallR 444]

That's good to hear - Good luck with all of your scenery-creating!