Snoopy's Terrain For Ctp2

Ekmek · November 16, 2002, 12:44

Final tilefile for version 1 is in the Ekmek Tile thread
you can get the gtset555 and the TGAs there. Thanks for everyone's help.

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/show...&threadid=96137

(original post follows)
Since I'm stuck in Kuwait and cant install games I've been able to get tileedit working and started converting some of SNOOPY's terrain graphics from Civ3 for the tile files in CTP2. And since I'm not a pro at this I might need some help.

1. I have them in Bitmaps, I think they have to be TGAs, is there a specific format etc?

2. Is there a list of terrains so I know what to replace

3. Anyone willing to test it once I get it compiled because I can't play and games on military computers.

4. Are there already better Terrain graphic mods and I might as well stop this?

I'll probably have a lot more questions later...

attachment removed...latest at bottom of thread

Maquiladora · November 16, 2002, 13:11

1. 16/24/32bit uncompressed tga's

2. Ive attached the ctp2 terrain.txt

3. Yep

4. Ive almost finished converting the ctp1 terrains to use in a scenario/mod but apart from that no ones made any terrain mods AFAIK.

SMIFFGIG · November 16, 2002, 20:49

"3 words" Dont Give Up

I wanna see this

Ekmek · November 18, 2002, 09:03

I'm still plugging away at this. I will need help putting into the til file when I get most done. only 100 or more to go...

Maquiladora · November 18, 2002, 12:07

How are you choosing which parts of the Civ3 terrain to convert? For example to replace the first plains tile, i found it best to just pick the one that closely matches the ctp2 terrain and the just replace the tga. Fortunately the first plains tile doesnt have any borders so you dont have to worry about it interconnecting until you make the borders.

Youre only replacing the ctp2 terrain and border tga's right? And not creating new rules?

Ekmek · November 19, 2002, 03:37

I only plan on replacing CTP2's not making new rules. I'll probably keep the ctp2 water and beach tiles, the are pretty good any ways. I just plan to put in the sn00py land files, like plains mountains etc. Swamp won't be replaced. I don't know if I need to replace the border tiles since the ransitions should blend in ok since they are not that radically different. We'll see.

I do wonder, what is the other til file with the mixed colors?

How do I import my tgas into a til file so I can start replacing?

J Bytheway · November 19, 2002, 04:53

The one with the mixed colours is the one that the game actually uses. You can make the colours look normal by choosing an appropriate option in TileEdit somewhere.

You can import new graphics either one at a time with the TileEdit GUI or else by writing a script file like when you make a sprite (only much longer...). If you export to script & tgas you can see what's going on.

Ekmek · December 3, 2002, 01:48

My job changed so it has slowed down progress. On top of that I found oput that this computer doesnt have the software to convert to TGAs so I might need help with that. Here is what I have so far. note that i used the colony and other improvement graphics as which i figure can touch up ctp2 also.

Maquiladora · December 3, 2002, 02:10

Looks good E. Keep converting them if you can, im using them.

If you want to convert them to tga's before you can download a trial for Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop, probably need broadband too.

By the way are some of these from Play the World? Only i havent seen some of them before. Hopefully i can get a copy so i can use the new terrains.

Maquiladora · December 3, 2002, 02:22

I just noticed theyre all 98 x 76, to import them into TileView they need to be 94 x 72

Maquiladora · December 3, 2002, 02:40

I cropped all the images to 94*72 and converted them to 16bit uncompressed tga's.

Maquiladora · December 3, 2002, 02:49

I wasnt gonna post a screenshot, but heres basically how far ive got with it so far and it kinda demostrates why you need new borders most of the time. Theyre pretty easy to make if you have a full isometric of the tile, just "cut-out" the border with the "paste as transparent" command, kind of like a pastry cutter.

Also ive been experimenting with using no borders at all, using alot more rules and unique tiles, so theres no need for borders and you can have a much more random looking terrain spread. Ill have to see how exactly how hardcoded ctp2 allows for that though.

Immortal Wombat · December 3, 2002, 07:40

Bit blotchy, but very nice so far

SMIFFGIG · December 3, 2002, 15:15

Quote:

I just noticed theyre all 98 x 76, to import them into TileView they need to be 94 x 72

Thats a fault in TileEdit that changes the sizes, i had some problem (although i think its fixed in the latest version)

and those terrains your talking about Maq, there all in Sn00py's mod, the civ3 official ones are just the same but looks as thought they used a different pallete AKA they look cheap.

Anyway its looking good, Very good, im looking forward to it

-James

Martin the Dane · December 3, 2002, 21:37

Quote:

Thats a fault in TileEdit that changes the sizes, i had some problem (although i think its fixed in the latest version)

Well, no it's not a bug, you probably used "Save Image" and not "Save Tile"
"Save Image" saves whatever image is displayed in the main display (including the image border) while "Save Tile" saves the tile as it is found in the tile-file. Both options use the current background color.

Note that "Save Image" can save the image as a windows bitmap and jpeg as well as tga.

Martin the Dane

Ekmek · December 11, 2002, 17:16

Maq, good work on that stuff. I've change most of mine to the format you said (the exercise here is keeping me real busy). Will be posting stuff in about a week. I hope to knock out most of what you need. But I saw you wanna go without borders. I'll try to copy the SEVERAL transition tiles Civ3 uses and is what they give for a more earth like look (they are mix tiles with smooth boundaries and have file names like xggc.pcx).

1) Can you get the computer to use these maybe how the randomizer works have it pick a certain set of tiles?

2) have you tried any of the improvement tiles I made, I think they will help too.

later

Maquiladora · December 11, 2002, 18:09

No, i do want to use borders, it was just an idea for much more detailed and random looking terrain, i havent tried it yet. Leave the borders until the very end though. As you can see in the upper right hand corner of the screenshot, i already made a few borders for the plains tile, it molds pretty nicely.

1. To make terrain without using any borders, involves deleting all/most of the borders from the tile file OR making them invisible somewhere. Then define LOTS of rules to each tile, (that would increase to about 400 tiles) then when it generates the map it would place each terrain next to the terrains it was told to be next to.

I imagine that this would create slightly boring pattern though, it may need a couple of borders somewhere to create variation.

2. Yeah ive looked at them, they look pretty good. I think its best to do all the terrains first, although if you get bored with making the terrain sometimes (i know i do) switch and mess with the tile imps. They can be done too.

Im a little preoccupied with my scenario at the moment, i usually switch jobs every so often, but it all gets done eventually.

Ekmek · December 22, 2002, 10:13

Ok, I've been busy in the war room but now that the exercise is over I cranked hard to finish these TGAs. I put all of the snOOpy ones, plus winter ones and extra snOOpy ones from PTW and even quick crafted some swamp tiles, also added stuff for tile improvements, no changes to beaches or water tiles. There are 80 tiles here!, some I figure will have to be duplicated for CTP2 use or use some from other projects (like Pendrunn's new beaches).

Maq if you gotta the time, feel free to make them part of your tile project, I dont know jack about tile edit to make a .til file. thanks.

Maquiladora · December 22, 2002, 19:26

Thats good work E, so far theres about 50 id wanna use

Can you also take a look at the PTW WW2 Units Flc's thread if you have time? I need someone to post those flcs for me.

Ekmek · December 30, 2002, 08:53

Maq,
I uploaded a bunch of the WW2 flcs. hope they help. Any luck with putting any of these files into some ctp2 terrain? no rush...

Maquiladora · December 30, 2002, 09:16

Not as yet, i do plan to use some of the tile imps in my scenario's tile file. Its reaching beta stage now so i can carry on work on the civ3 tile file again pretty soon. Thanks for the Flcs

no rush with those either, unit sprite making is a long process.

Ekmek · February 2, 2003, 03:07

Maq,

I was wondering if you looked how tile borders are done. They look very square and I was wondering if that shape is the only way they can be. What I'm thinkking is that, like the civ3 mixed tiles make the edges smoother and higher and lower in some areas. I dont have a way to test it out but just wondering if you know anything about this.

Maquiladora · February 2, 2003, 09:23

I have wondered about it, but i figured the only way to make it appear like this is by making a sort of jigsaw on the tiles, but with the right combination of tiles next to each other, it would look like the tile is less square because it would "invade" more into another square but still be recognizable as its own square.

Borders have to be the size and shape they are, although borders dont have to be used at all, but that requires alot of rules to make sure the tiles fit together where and when they should (this is how beach tiles work). If you experiment with that its probably best to change one rule at a time then test to see the outcome.

Excuse my painful example. I dont think you coud overlap as much as this into beach tiles (for naval units movement), but the land tiles you could go almost half way into another land tile as long as it was recognizable.

Green - grassland, Yellow - plains, Blue - beach tiles w/ sea.

Martin Gühmann · February 2, 2003, 10:33

Quote:

Originally posted by E
Maq,

I was wondering if you looked how tile borders are done. They look very square and I was wondering if that shape is the only way they can be. What I'm thinkking is that, like the civ3 mixed tiles make the edges smoother and higher and lower in some areas. I dont have a way to test it out but just wondering if you know anything about this.

The reason why the tile borders look very square is that they just did one border and mirrored all the other ones. Fact is that also all the mirrored versions are saved in the tile file. So you can do every border tile differend so that they aren't mirrored versions. The result would be less square borders.

-Martin

Ekmek · May 17, 2003, 00:20

Maq are you still around? Any luck using any of the tifs I made? or has anyone tried?

Maquiladora · May 17, 2003, 05:50

Its been a long time i dont have CtP2 installed even at the moment with work and stuff i only have time for playing, if that

I still have all the work you did on cd backup but its on freeze at the moment.

If someone could do the big work of putting in the tiles id test them and help with artwork but i dont think i could do the inputting at the moment.

Ekmek · July 25, 2003, 10:49

I know I've been sitting on this, but I'm still thinking bout the border issue. What I'm going to work on is to make the borders using some other graphics so it will make the terrain more 3-d. Like in some cases there will be cliffs (like using the graphics from AoK) and plains will "sit" lower than grasslands since I'll try to creatively cut and paste the sides of hills and make them look like slopes etc. Not promising to much, but my big thing I'm still not clear on.

The tgas that are all the strange colors that the game uses, do I have to change my tiles to those colors if so how?

Maquiladora · July 25, 2003, 10:59

Quote:

The tgas that are all the strange colors that the game uses, do I have to change my tiles to those colors if so how?

Thats the in-game colour mode, it will generate that when you put them into tileview so you dont need to edit it to those colours.

Martin the Dane · July 25, 2003, 11:10

No you don't have to change the colors, TileEdit does that for you. It can handle both types of TileFiles, and convert colors from one format to the other, so just use the standard colors, but remember to import them in the right format. If you (or Maq) import into an in-game colored .til file, make sure the "In-Game Color Mode" menu item is checked.

Btw. if you or anyone else need to convert tgas between the two formats outside of the game, I have a util somwhere that can do it, but I'll have to dig for it.

Martin the Dane

Ekmek · July 31, 2003, 09:13

I guess I'm a slow learner but how do I put my new graphics in place of the old ones? Thewre is no replace function so how do I get my TGAs into a tile file?