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Dinosaur egg
Dinosaur egg
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Post by transmission »

I am trying to edit the terrain of a large level, like level 3. After I change it and import the terrain, it will not retain its original dimensions but imports very small, that is, only covers a small area while the rest is flat. How can I import edited terrain while maintaining the original dimesions of the level's area?

Also, how can I create very tall mountains like there are in the game. When I edited the terrain in the mini level the highest point and the lowest point are set to be not very large at all.

Thirdly, I am constantly having problems with textures not importing. When I try to update the swp it either says that the textures are ignored or that there is nothing new to import yet I still get blue objects without textures. Any ideas?

Thanks.
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Rebel
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Post by Rebel »

I personally haven't practiced much on altering terrain, though the size problem can be overcome by changing the XSize value:

Default: 128.0000
Change to; 256.0000 or 512, 1024, etc... (on import Terrain window)


Textures:

Could be related to several possible problems, from truncated bitmap names, thereby not matching the true texture names, to lack of mapping (if using most recent GeomAdd version).


When importing model, check option 'change texture names to form'

Example> "Map\texturename.bmp" changes this to; "Map\levelname\texturename.bmp"

Max, and it seems every other modelling program, can only handle so many characters; it shortens the bmp names in the 3ds files, so you need to be certain that those names inside of the 3ds match up with the textures if you're creating your own models or altering existing ones.

If you use the Trespasser format (TPM) created by Andres and Remdul, you can open these up as normal text files and edit your texture names and mappings manually.

*All bitmaps must also be 8bit. Others, will not import --
transmission
Dinosaur egg
Dinosaur egg
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Joined: Sat Nov 30, 2002 4:52 am

Post by transmission »

I imported the 3D terrain now first into the minilevel and I tried importing the green ground texture to cover it but in the game it was a bunch of wrong colors like pink, yellow and brown. How can I import ground textures that work?

More importantly, I also tried a different approach and imported my edited terrain into an existing level, level 4. It does import to a position off to the left of where the town would be. And I moved Anne, trees and dinos and things and made a neat little area on my terrain but when I tried to start it in the game, it stops just when it's about finished the world initialization. I tried verifying the level and the only warning I got was for missing textures for chair leg or something which was probably there all along. Is there some mandatory spot where Anne must be or it won't start? Any ideas why it won't work.
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Post by Rebel »

I've uploaded a grass ground texture for you below. I've used it, so it does import properly.

http://www.trespasserextras.com/ground.ZIP


Your Problems:

I'll say first, that the town is a complicated level, and not the best to attempt to alter. Move or delete the wrong model, and you're looking at a failed, level-load.

Possible problems:

Just one texture missing can sometimes cause a level-crash.

'Bad' terrain, can also cause your level to quit loading at the very end. It (your altered terrain), may look good in TresEd, but there's a vert count/height that the engine can conclude out of bounds, n' hence, crash.

Anne's position, doesn't mean a thing. You can place her anywhere that you'd like too.

Level editing is a tricky business, Transmission. All I can say is to expect problems along the way, but each problem encountered and solved, arms you with added knowledge. Frustrating at times, though fun too, wouldn't you say?

:D
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Post by Troodon »

I imported the 3D terrain now first into the minilevel and I tried importing the green ground texture to cover it but in the game it was a bunch of wrong colors like pink, yellow and brown. How can I import ground textures that work?
In my experience, this happens when you have another terrain (base) object bitmap texture with a different color palette. Delete all such other objects from your level then reimport your new terrain texture and you'll see the color palette is now correct.
And I moved Anne, trees and dinos and things and made a neat little area on my terrain but when I tried to start it in the game, it stops just when it's about finished the world initialization.
But did it load before you moved Anne and the objects?
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