L3DT Questions

[Argh]

Yo, just started using L3DT, it's cool, I think I'll buy it.

Few questions first, if anybody has some answers, I'd like to hear them:

1. Does the whole "compile Spring map" thingie work, if you perform an image drape? No offense meant to atorpy et al, but that's something I strongly prefer to do by hand, and I can't try before I buy.

2. Again on the image drape... is there a way to treat a raw RGB bitmap as my Texture Map?

Also, it seems like my texture is getting really washed out- I'll have to see here in a bit, once I can see it in Spring, but that's my initial impression. I want the RGB values to be absolutely correct, where the terrain isn't getting lit + / - ... is there a way to do that? I want to use lighting, obviously, but I'm less than totally thrilled to see my texture getting really washed out. Any good way to fix that?

Moreover, please let me know, how do I export the lightmap results + the drape, I'm having to do it by hand in Photoshop (sorry, that's prolly a nub question, but meh, it's a basic need).

3. When dealing with large images, is L3DT going to go ahead and comply nicely, when I ask it to just render it to a single bitmap?

If anybody knows the answers to these questions, please let me know, especially about how to render out a final without bothering with an attributes / texture map, neither of which I have any real use for at this time.

[Hoi]

I belive there's a l3dt trail, atleast when I saw the site some time ago.

[Argh]

Yeah, I'm using it now. I'm asking these questions to get an idea of how well it's going to integrate into my workflow, basically.

[Hoi]

I mean the pro trail, there is one, and from what the site says, I'm assuming it has exactly the same functionality as the normal pro version.
Or it doesn't allow to save or something like that and what I just said was stupid

[Argh]

Lol, yes. One more question, probably only atorpy can answer: why can't we do soft-blend airbrush work with terrain patterns?

If I could do the equivalent of pattern-stamp with soft edges and flow controls in the texture editor, I wouldn't need Photoshop at all. After all, that's all I'm doing- just a lot of pattern-stamp, with several dozen textures.

Maybe I need to mess around with SpringMapEdit, see if that's an acceptable alternative- at least then, I'd be working with a view of the mesh. But the whole bake-to-final with the lightmap is pretty crucial, for a really pro result, if I'm going to use this tool to generate the results I expect.

[Argh]

Ok, looks like I can compensate for the light issues with curves, and I assume that I can adjust the ambient values upwards to make things look a bit more real. I'll look at SpringMapEdit for painting certain things.

[Atorpy]

Hi Argh,

I apologise for my slow reply; I've been busy implementing 'undo', which was quite a bit more difficult than one might casually think it to be.

Anyway, L3DT doesn't (yet) support a workflow that involves importing a large texture/image drape (as opposed to generating it in L3DT). I can add this without much trouble, but I will have to write a new bitmap plugin to support loading very large single image files, and that may take a little while to ensure it's fully compliant with all the required bitmap colour modes and such.

I'll also have to write a little function to bake the light-map onto the texture. In fact, that may already be implemented, but I've not provided a menu item yet. I'll look into it.

why can't we do soft-blend airbrush work with terrain patterns?

Because I haven't implemented it yet . Manual editing is a relatively new thing in L3DT and there are many such features I haven't built yet. I'll add it to the to-do list.

As for the washed-out textures; can you post an image? I'm not quite sure whether this is a viewer problem, a map settings problem, a climate problem, or something else.

Best regards,
Aaron.

[Forboding Angel]

Argh, use pure white for the sun color. No reason it should be washed out if you use white. And post a screenie if you could.

[Argh]

I apologise for my slow reply

No problem, you're a busy guy, this is of secondary interest to ye.

Ok, I figured that was the current answer on my workflow. As I said, if I had a way to hand-paint stuff within L3DT that was like what I'm used to in Photoshop (no layers, mind ye, I just walk the tightwire and do it) I'd just do it all there, period, and save a lot of time. I love map development with your application, it's very straightforward and easy to get great-looking results, I'm just looking at ways to save time, as I just don't know enough about developing a climate yet to get results that I actually want, and from there, I'm always going to want to do a lot of hand-paint- a really good map needs it, imo.

Forb, I'll post a screenie here in a bit. I'm probably making some nub mistake, I didn't get to spend more than a few hours making the map itself, as I've had a lot of other things on my plate this week.

As I said, I've discovered how to compensate for it, and arrive somewhere near my desired pallette, but I'm pretty concerned about the level of wash-out, and I'd like a way to avoid it entirely, if possible. I'm a little bit ... persnickety, when it comes to color.

[Argh]

Meh, I haven't put up the examples yet. I'll try to get to that when I can tomorrow, when I'm home again.

[Atorpy]

Hi Argh,

I've uploaded a new developmental build of L3DT Pro that supports importing custom texture maps into existing map projects, using the 'File->Import->Texture map' menu option. This version also includes an updated BMP plugin that supports reading and writing of huge bitmap single-file images that are too large to fit in RAM.

The dev build in question is v2.6.0.7, which is on the downloads page now (consult your reg e-mail for the link). Please let me know if you find any problems with it.

Next up: baking the light-map onto the custom texture.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

[Forboding Angel]

Aaron, isn't lightmap baking already done to some degree? I know it's not just a simple overlay but... meh hell i dunno what I'm talking about.

Btw Aaron, I have another green/desert climate for spring that is really super pretty ready to go if you wanna stick it into the repository or in the program. Few new smaller textures... lemmie find a screenshot link...

aha found it http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7812 ... 172vr6.jpg

Kinda a suppliment to the greenworld climate except more as an intermediary between desert and green.... assuming that makes decent sense.

Unfortunately, I'm not real sure how to properly package climate files/materials/etc in the new versions.

[Atorpy]

Hi Argh and Forboding,

On the L3DT Pro downloads page you will now find dev build 2.6.0.8, which supports applying the light map to a custom texture map.

To summarise the new operations relevant to this thread:

• You can import your custom texture map using the 'File->Import->Texture map' menu option. If you're going to use a large single image file (i.e. >8k x 8k pixels), be sure to use the bitmap format, as other formats may run out of memory with large files.
• To apply the light map to the custom texture, use the the 'Scripts->BakeLightOntoTexture' menu option. If you don't like the result, you can use the 'undo' button.
• To export the texture for further editing in a 3rd party program, use the 'File->Export->Map' menu option. Again, be sure to use the bitmap format if you want large single image files.

If there are any problems, please let me know.

Aaron, isn't lightmap baking already done to some degree?

Right you are. L3DT had a couple of calculations for overlaying one map onto another, but no nice menu option for this specific case. What I've done in the new dev build is to write a script to put all the steps together (inc. saving undo points, performing the overlay, refreshing texture in view, etc.), and then include the script in the menu.

Btw Aaron, I have another green/desert climate for spring that is really super pretty ready to go if you wanna stick it into the repository or in the program [...] Unfortunately, I'm not real sure how to properly package climate files/materials/etc in the new versions.

Ooh, I like! If you want to send me the climate file, material file(s) and texture files, I'll package it together and upload it for you. I'll also write up a guide on the process for future reference. If my memory serves (which is not guaranteed), the climate packaging process is rather more straightforward in v2.6 than in previous versions. Thank-you again for for effort and generosity.

Best regards,
Aaron.

[Argh]

Excellent! I'll take a look at this when I'm done with my current task-list, I'm making a lot of new objects to populate a larger version of my initial test map with.