Rebuild terrain files with MakeTerrain

The purpose of this tutorial is to show step by step how to recreate all the terrain files after we have finished editing and adding new tiles in our theater, in order to have a fully functional terrain system to test it in game.

For the rest of this page, I'll use the GUI's provided by TerrainEditor program for both ModTerrain and MakeTerrain programs. Remember, these are command-line programs and can be used without TerrainEditor. You can use these GUI's and create the command-line (the textbox at the bottom of these windows), and then apply these parameters later. This can also be used in an installer.

The assumption is that you have finished tiling the L2 terrain file, and finished adding any custom tiles in the texture.bin file. Furthermore, you have finished editing the L0 elevation of your theater (you can use the old one if you haven't a new one).

The files you need to recreate the terrain are:

• The L2 tile information (theater.t2).
• The L0 elevation information (theater.e0).
• TGA image with palette information (theater.tga).
• Day and night Master Fartiles.

First step is to create the L2 tile information file. Open the ModTerrain GUI Window and check the options shown in the image above. Alternatively, you can use the following command-line:

ModTerrain.exe -x =t #2 %"<TerrainFolder>" *"<OutFolder>"

You'll get a file called theater.t2 in your <OutFolder>.

Again with the ModTerrain GUI Window, checking the options showed above in the image, you'll get a theater.e0 file, containing the L0 elevation data. The corresponding command-line is:

ModTerrain.exe -x =e #0 %"<TerrainFolder>" *"<OutFolder>"

The L0 elevation file produced by ModTerrain is exactly the same format as the ELV file used in editing the L0 elevation in TerrainEditor. You can either create one with ModTerrain as described above, or create an ELV file with TerrainEditor (opening the L0 file and saving it as ELV) and use it instead.

While in TerrainEditor, you have two options to create a TGA Image with the L2's palette information.

The first one is to use the existing data stored in your L2. For this option, just select under the Tools menu, the Save PAL info as TGA command. This will create a TGA Image with the palette that already exists in theater.map file and as pixels the palette offset values in L2.

The second one is to create a new TGA Image, taking the new tiling under consideration, by selecting the Tools menu and clicking on the Make New PAL TGA command. This command will make a picture from all tiles and convert it to 256 colors TGA. This method is recommended, especially if you have new tiles in your tiling.

For this we need the MakeTerrain GUI Window. Select from the dropdown list the Make Master Fartiles option and define the day and night files that are going to be created, as well the texture.bin file and the DDS Folder. The day and night master fartiles files can be named as you like with any extension. The command-line you can use is the following:

MakeTerrain.exe c -"<DDS_Folder>" +"<texture.bin>" *"<Day_Master_Fartile_file>" /"<Night_Master_Fartile_file>"

Now that we have all the files we need, we can proceed and create the terrain. The files that are going to be created (or overwritten if already exist) are:

• Terrain Folder:
  • All Lx and Ox files.
  • Theater.mea file
• Texture Folder:
  • Fartiles.dds
  • FartilesN.dds

All other files are not going to be created and must exist (or copied in case you use it in an installer), in order to have a functional terrain system. The texture.zip file is not required at all in an OF install and possibly in a FF install as well.

All we have to do is to select the files needed, in the MakeTerain GUI Window, as shown in the image above, while we have selected Make Terrain in the dropdown list. Especially for the Elevation File the dialog will ask you for a ELV file. If you have a theater.e0 file from the above steps, you can either rename it to theater.elv, or type *.* in the dialog and press Enter. This will allow you to display all files and then select the theater.e0 file. The filename passed to MakeTerrain program doesn't make any difference, only the data are important.

Remember that the Terrdata Path mentioned above is the folder that contains both the Terrain and Texture folders.

The command-line you can use directly is:

MakeTerrain.exe -"<Terrdata_Path>" +"<L0_Elevation_File>" %"<L2_Tile_Offset_File>" *"<Day_Master_Fartile_File>" /"<Night_Master_Fartile_File>" $"<TGA_Image>" @<Elevation_Method> !<Max_Angle>