jstonehouse

Re: resolution, I think you need to refer to the pinned DDFIX post.

I've had another crack a creating a l0xxxx.gtl editor, this time as a standalone program that allows you to change terrain textures by applying altitude based rule changes. Basically, it's a visual version of what FU3 does through the RULES.TXT file. You can use this with the default 13 textures or with my extended 26 textures.The Editor converts l0xxxx.gtl files and their corresponding l5xxxx.geo elevation files to 512x512 bitmaps and displays useful information when moving the mouse across the main display, i.e. Min Alt, Max Alt, Alt Range, Alt Index, Texture and so on. The Index value is an altitude range corresponding to the 64 colours used to create the elevation bitmap and is useful when specifying Min Alt and Max Alt values for rule changes.You can apply up to 8 rule changes at a time (just repeat until you get the desired results), either to the entire tile or to a subsection defined as X and Y co-ordinates. The Editor displays X-origin and Y-origin values within the tile as an aid to this.I'm not really expecting this to get much use - I did it to amuse myself as much as anything - but it's in the Avsim library if anybody wants to have a play.Jonathan S.

Nice work Dave! I never could get my head around the rules, which is why I went to such lengths with the GTL tiles. Keep 'em coming!:Applause:RegardsJonathan S.

Hi GlidernutAll the outer terrain textures use the same 256-colour RGB colour map. You can view and export the palette very easily using IrfanView: select Image - Palette - Edit Palette or Image - Palette - Export PaletteIn The GIMP you can either view the palette directly by selecting Colours - Map - Rearrange Colourmap or, if you want a permanent copy available at all times, import the palette from the image itself:Select Windows - Dockable Dialogues - Palettes Right click anywhere in the Palettes window and select Import Palette... Under Select Source select Image Under Import Options change the Palette name (if desired) Click the Import button The imported palette will then appear at the top of the list of palettes in the palette window. Right click it and select Edit Palette... to view, zoom, etc.The GIMP is open source so you can download it for free @ http://www.gimp.org/downloads/The same applies with OpenOffice. If you want it then download it free @ http://download.openoffice.org/Kind regardsJonathan S.

Hi GlidernutThe attached images (taken near Grand Canyon West) show the difference between the original LGS textures and my new ones. The first image shows the LGS textures, the second my new textures. However, as the RULES.TXT file needs a lot of work you'll find that the layout of the textures is the same as the original LGS layout, i.e. only the textures themselves have changed as per the screenshots.As regards installation, the base TarGA images don't need to be installed. I only included them so that anyone who wants to add their own rules can see what the new textures look like before trying to use them. As long as you've copied my new GENTILES.TAG and RULES.TXT files to your /Flight3/gentiles folder then FU3 will replace the original 13 LGS textures with my new versions. However, you'll need to generate loose GTL tiles to see all the changes (see my ReadMe.txt file in the zip file you downloaded).Hope this makes sense!RegardsJonathan S.

Hi everyoneI've just uploaded the final version of my Outer Terrain textures to the library. This version contains a complete set of 26 textures (25 land, 1 water) and includes water transition tiles for 13 of the 25 land textures. Adding water transitions for the other land textures would take forever so I picked 13 of the most likely and obvious candidates and ignored the remainder. I had hoped to complete the water transitions in April but I've been abroad for the last 4 months and didn't get chance to complete them before I went.I haven't had time to create a new rules.txt file but maybe someone could have a bash at this? I think Dave Morgan was planning to have a go but I have an idea he was waiting on me to forward the water transitions...sorry Dave...The zip file contains:A new gentiles.tag fileA copy of the RULES.TXT file originally provided with the last beta release of the texturesThe 26 base textures as TarGA imagesA tile transition spreadsheet (so you'll know whether agriculture will transition with snow, for example)The full list of textures and their FU3 identifiers is as follows:A AgricultureB SuburbanC CanyonD Dark ForestE Rice fieldsF ForestG GrassH High DesertI HighlandsJ FieldsK MarshL Light ForestM MesaN ChaparralO OrchardsP PuebloQ Spring TundraR MeadowS SnowT Grassy HillsU UrbanV Salt FlatsW WaterX Forest/Snow MixY Desert ScrubZ Winter TundraRegardsJonathan S.

Hi everyone. As far as I know LGS never released the original artwork for the Outer Terrain's night tiles. So, I've extracted all the TarGA images (91 in total) from NITETILE.TAG and uploaded them to the library, just so we have them 'on file'. I know you've all been dying to get your hands on these so please don't all rush at once... :( Kind regardsJonathan S.

Hi Dave. I've uploaded a new gentiles.tag file to the library, titled Outer Terrain Textures - Version 2. This includes a texture transition spreadsheet and the artwork for the 26 base textures. Good luck with the rules!RegardsJonathan S.

Hi DaveGlad you're going to have a crack at this. In terms of what you're letting yourself in for, be aware that I drool almost all the time now and wake up in the middle of the night screaming obscenities and wrestling with phantom LGS texture artists. As regards rules, FU3 reads the file header (for the terrain types, mapping and rotation) each time you start a flight in the OT. So, if you use your existing rules file as a starting point then you'll need to copy the file header from the rules file provided with my textures and paste it into your own rules file.I'm working on the remaining 7 textures at the moment, to complete the full set of 26. Otherwise, I'd probably never get round to finishing them! Should be ready by the end of the first week of March. I'll upload the gentiles file when it's done and then make a start on the water transitions. The only change is to terrain type 'E', which is now an alternative field texture. Otherwise, the terrain types are as per my previous post: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=275453Oh, with the next gentiles upload I'll also provide a texture transition spreadsheet. Most textures will only transition with a dozen or so other textures, and the spreadsheet will tell you whether texture A will transition with texture B, C, D, E, F and so on.I've often though that Portland would make a good candidate for a makeover: Google maps shows it as a nice mixture of urban, suburban, fields and agriculture, with a national park and mountains nearby. Kind regardsJonathan S.

Hi Jim. I'd forget about markers.dat - I've examined this myself and it's a typical last-minute LGS bodge.However, you should be able to set the aircraft's orientation in the script iself, as per my previous post on the subjecthttp://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=268881Try commenting out (//) the line that references the markers.dat file for the plane's orientation and replace it with your own command: Set orientation of plane to X Y ZI think the X Y Z values have to be between 0 and 65536, with 65536 indicating 'due north' at 360 degrees.From memory, I think there's some duplication between the AutoPos and AutoCord sections of the markers.dat file, so you might find that one of the three orientation values will change the plane's initial altitude!RegardsJonathan S.

Thanks Andre! Hopefully someone will have a go at improving my quick-and-dirty new rules! This reminds me, I forgot to list the terrain type identifiers in the RULES.TXT file:a = agricultureb = suburbanc = canyond = dark foreste = earthf = forestg = grassh = high deserti = highlandsj = fieldsk = marshl = light forestm = mesan = chaparralo = orchardp = puebloq = spring tundrar = meadows = snowt = grassy hillu = urbanv = salt flatsw = waterx = forest/snow mixy = parched desertz = winter tundraRegardsJonathan S.

I've just uploaded a beta version of some new outer terrain textures to the Avsim Library. No water transitions yet, but the GENTILES.TAG file contains 19 new base textures, plus variation and transition textures. Also included in the zip are a new RULES.TXT file and a full set of GTL tiles, for those who don't want to generate their own tiles. Water transitions will follow next month: I need to produce about 100 or so but they take time...As regards the match-up to the Seattle high-res region, it's a bit hit-and-miss at the moment. Mountainous areas (i.e. the western border - see screenshots) fare better than, for example, the area north of Paine Field. There's still work to do here... In general, hilly areas really look much better than they did with the original LGS textures. Plains and flatlands less so, as rules can only provide so much variation. Try a flight around the Grand Canyon and the mountains west of Seattle.I've provided this beta version in the hope that someone will have a go at improving the rules while I work on the water transitions: the mid-west in particular still looks fairly barren.RegardsJonathan S.

I haven't checked to be honest. Should be OK, but I'll check and do some match-up work if necessary. The rules.txt file needs a lot of work: huges swathes of the OT are covered by just two or three textures, so even with better textures it still looks pretty grim. If anyone feels like taking a crack at the rules then I could upload a 'beta' version of the new gentiles.tag file in a couple of weeks. This would include all the land textures, variations and transitions but exclude water transitions, which I haven't even started yet!

A few more of Death Valley and the Grand Canyon areas.

Here's a few screenshots of some new textures I'm working on. I'm hoping to release a set of 17 next month, to replace the existing 13 and add new field, canyon, rocky desert and chaparral textures. I have another 9 on the backburner and hope to release a full set of 26 at some point. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to produce transition tiles...especially water transitions...RegardsJonathan S.

Hi everyoneI've just uploaded a new version of my GTL grid structure map to the Avsim library. This version includes Andre's new outer terrain area north of Seattle and adds a search facility, which enables you to search for a tile using FU3 world co-ordinates. To find out the world co-ordinates of any OT area simply open Fled, set the top-down view to the latitude/longitude of the area you're interested in and click the latitude/longitude figures that appear in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. The latitude/longitude figures will disappear and be replaced by FU3 world co-ordinates as easting and northing values. Enter these values into my FU3 GTL Map, click the button and the spreadsheet will map these co-ordinates to the correct tile and return the tile name. If you don't know the latitude/longitude of the area you're interested in then you can always obtain this from within the game itself. Just start a flight in the area you're interested in and press Ctrl-z at any time to enter Zoar mode. This will pause the game and display the current latitude/longitude in the top left hand corner of the screen.A word of warning about the search facility: because we're dealing with co-ordinates the upper right co-ordinates of any given tile are identical to the lower left co-ordinates of the tile immediately above and to the right. Similarly, the upper left co-ordinates of a tile are identical to the lower right co-ordinates of the tile immediately above and to the left. So, if you accidentally enter a tile's exact upper left (UL), lower left (LL), upper right (UR) or lower right (LR) co-ordinates as an easting or northing then the search will return the first possible match, because it won't be able to determine which of the available matches you're actually looking for. However, the chances of you randomly selecting an area that just happens to be at one or more of these exact co-ordinates are extremely remote, so this shouldn't be a problem. In the same zip file you'll find a separate spreadsheet containing world co-ordinates for all 2460 GTL tiles. This spreadsheet contains four sets of co-ordinates defining the lower left (LL), upper left (UL), lower right (LR) and upper right (UR) corners of each tile. You won't find this dataset in the GTL Map, which performs an internal calculation to find the tile.Kind regardsJonathan S.

Hi everyone. Merry Xmas to you all!I've just uploaded v2.0 of my Outer Terrain GTL Tile Editor, which should be available in the Avsim library shortly. OpenOffice format only I'm afraid. You can download OpenOffice for free from www.openoffice.org if needs be.This version add the ability to load terrain elevation, which is useful because the original rules-based method of modifying the OT is based on altitude constraints. Also, the GTL Map has been extended to include Andre's 164-tile extension to the north and a search facility has been added to allow you to identify specific tiles based on FU3 world co-ordinates, which can be obtained from Fled. The ReadMe file in the zip file provides more information.I've also changed the editor's default zoom level to 100%. For reasons I can no longer remember this was fixed at 25% in the original version. So, it's now possible to zoom right out and view an entire tile 'at once', which wasn't possible in the original version.***Help Required***I developed this editor on a machine running XP. In order for the editor to work correctly when saving changes to tiles it has to delete the original tile and recreate it from scratch. There's a very good reason for this but I won't bore you with the specifics. Anyway, it occurred to me that this could be a problem on machines running Vista, given that Vista asks for Admin rights for just about everything. Is there a Vista user who'd be willing to spend some time modifying, saving and loading tiles and reporting back with any errors or anomalies? Specifically, I'm looking for problems reloading tiles that have been edited and saved and any 'crash-to-desktop' issues in FU3 itself when flying over tiles that have been edited. I'm 99.99% sure that all is well but I'd appreciate some feedback if possible.Many thanks!Jonathan S.p.s. I'll be uploading a new version of my standalone GTL Grid Structure Map next week, which will include Andre's new OT area and the search facility mentioned above. This will be available in OpenOffice AND Excel versions.GTL editor showing terrain elevation

Have you tried commenting (//) out the line in the SCRIPT.TXT file that references Autopos17 for the hoop's position and replacing it with your own X, Y and Z co-ordinates? The X and Y co-ordinates are in metres from the south-west origin of the Seattle region and FLED uses the same scale and point of origin when in 'world' mode. So, you can use FLED to obtain an X and Y value for the hoop's position and then convert its current altitude into metres and increment it as required to obtain the Z value. The procedure is as follows:Insert challenge_cheat into your flt3.cfg file to enable Zoar mode in challenges Start the challenge and Ctrl-z to switch to Zoar mode Fly to the hoop, get as close as you can and note the lat/long co-ordinates and height Convert the height to metres and increment by a small amount to obtain your new Z value Open FLED and set the top-down view to the lat/long co-ordinates Switch FLED to 'world' mode (left click lat/long co-ordinates in bottom left hand corner of screen) and note the X and Y values Close FLED, navigate to the relevant challenge folder, open the SCRIPT.TXT file Comment (//) out the existing line within the ON STARTUP procedure, i.e. //Set position of hoop17 to marker Autopos17 Add a new line underneath it, i.e. Set position of hoop17 to X Y Z Close script, restart challenge, check position and altitude of hoop and tweak X, Y and Z values as required Works for me!Jonathan S.

Now that Avsim's upload facility is up and running I've uploaded my spreadsheet-based GTL tile editor (OpenOffice format only I'm afraid) and GTL tile map (Excel and OpenOffice formats) to the library. I've also uploaded another zip file, which contains two spreadsheets with information (file offsets, file sizes, region X and Y co-ordinates, etc.) about the contents of the outer terrain's 3 tag files. This might be useful for anyone interested in developing or expanding the outer terrain, over and above what Andre's already doing with the Seattle expansion.Kind regardsJonathan S.

Hi DaveNo worries - I hope it's of some use to you. I haven't tried to upload again but might have another go at it tomorrow. Strange things happened last time I tried!RegardsJonathan

Hi everyoneJust a curiosity for you. If you edit your \flight3\regions\seattle\region.cfg file so that reg_width is 1 and reg_height is 0 then FU3 will use the outer terrain's GTL tiles to render the Seattle region. If you do this then brace yourself for miles and miles of the default forest texture; LGS didn't add any rules for the Seattle area so the terrain is drab even by OT standards. It's also devoid of airports.I recommend that you fly the OT version of Seattle at least once, if only because it'll make you incredibly grateful to have high-res terrain! I spent a week mucking about in it, and reverting back to the high-res version provided a (very pleasant) shock! :( RegardsJonathan S.

Hi AndreI'll send you the editor itself, but because this is a spreadsheet (it's in OpenOffice format and contains lots of Star BASIC code) I'll include the source code separately so that you don't have to download OpenOffice in order to see what's what. The editor includes a hidden worksheet containing the L0, L2, L5 and GTL file offsets so I'll send this as a separate Excel file just in case it comes in handy.Just promise me you won't laugh at my decidedly second-rate programming skills! :( RegardsJonathan

Hi AndreThe OT's tag file structure is different only because it includes GTL data for each megatile. Otherwise the format is identical to the geotiles.tag files used by the high-res regions. This means that your GeoTiles Viewer can still generate the OT's classification, although the sequencing of the class bits is different. It's obvious that water is 0, but the remaining three land classes are, as mentioned, distributed so randomly that it's difficult to say which classes the values 1, 2 and 3 actually represent. This is why I asked whether LGS set the classification bits 'deliberately' or whether the classification bits are just 'accidents' produced by the overall height value. This is easier to understand is you compare the high-res classification at level 5 with the OT's classification at the same level. Distribution of the high-res classes is as you would expect: urban and land classes appear exactly where you'd expect to see them. By comparison, distribution of the OT classes is all over the place: an urban area can be made up of a crazy mix of all four classes. My tool produces the same results as your GeoTile Viewer.Theoretically, it should be easy to isolate the 'flattened airport' class, but at the moment I'm not even sure about this! I've loaded the classification of two tiles I know contain flattened airport areas: in one tile the flattened airport area is classed as 2 and in the other as 3! These areas appear to be the only examples of 'deliberate' classification yet LGS used different values in different tiles! Gaaaargh! :( Best guess so far is land = 1, urban = 2, flattened area = 3 but I'm open to suggestions!RegardsJonathan S.

Hi AndreI've added to my GTL editor the ability to load the OT's terrain classification. However, I'm a bit confused about the relationship between classification and elevation. Your documentation states that the height value is multiplied by 4 to obtain the 2-bit bit shift, and that FU3 divides the height value by four and subtracts the sea level value when rendering the elevation. Does this mean that the classification bits are part of the overall height value? Or does FU3 also subtract the value of the classification bits along with the sea level value?I know this may sound like a stupid question but I'm asking this because the OT's classification is all over the place: distribution of the three land classes is so random that classification values appear to me to be 'accident' rather than design. In fact, the distribution is so random that I thought there must be a bug in my code, but your GeoTiles Viewer returns the same results. The only land class that is ever rendered uniformly is a deliberately flattened airport area, and this leads me to suspect that classification values are just by-products of the elevation...? Can you help at all?Many thanksJonathan S.

Hi DaveI'll check out the upload facility tomorrow (27/10/09). If it doesn't work then I'll email a copy to you.RegardsJonathan