Scenery question...

[popsaka]

In the ETO, is it possible to retain the more advanced tiles as per the norm in GB and France
whilst going for the vague non-farmland generic look for Italy? I mean the checkerboard thing
is all wrong in our CFS3 part of the 'boot' and especially in the Northern Italian, Austrian and
Eastern French mountains. I'm hopin' my description is sufficient...
It seems in the mountainous terrain I used to have just enough snow with more white on the
taller peaks... Is me memory playin' tricks on me? (again?) In all the time I've been flying and
altering and customizing you'd think I'd be a bit less clueless (Duh, which way did he go George?)
(Gosh, I didn't hafta fix me spelling once! )
Oh and thanx in advance gang! You're all the best!

[popsaka]

...sitting in a dark windowless one room cold water flat watching my last cigarette smolder out in an over crowded ashtray
waiting by the phone wondering why... WHY... no one calls, no one answers me daasperate plea for inflammation... uh
information... about --sigh-- scenery basic uncomplicated unimposing unforgivable...

That's okay folks. We've had him removed to the local rest and recoup home.

[Daiwilletti]

Hey Popsaka,

sorry to hear about your wintery daasperate circumstances

Maybe if you didn't ask such difficult questions, someone would be able to answer you .

Not having done this, one possible work-around that springs to mind is to start with the landclasses.xml. Make up a new landclass name (such as "Boot"). Copy the format used in the xml and reference some scenery tiles, lso or mos or whatever is required, which you think would look suitable in the boot. It doesn't matter that the scenery textures are referenced for other landclasses.

There will be perhaps another couple of files to tweak (not in front of my 'puter unfortunately. But one of the things (take a look at my post in the good ideas sticky) is to set the tile size larger (IIRC you want less of a patchwork look) for your new "Boot" landclass.

Take the campaign.xml file which is being used by your install (I think it is defined in the "default.xml" or game.xml or somesuch - just going from memory here not at the CFS3 'puter) to define countries etc available for missions, etc. 4X ample in MAW it is mtcs.xml, in stock I think it is simply the one and only stock campaign xml. Up near the top of this xml file is a section where landclasses are listed, and squares on the map are assigned to each landclass. Now I am really stretching, but try adding the Boot landclass and provide a series of the squares that cover parts of Italy to this landclass - and remove them where they are referenced for other landclasses. Try to make sure you don't have gaps/overlaps with the sequence of squares listed for the theatre.

Don't know which squares cover Italy? Fire up the campaign interface where you have the map and underneath the missions available for each sector. Hover your pointer over the squares in Northerh Italy. For each square a unique identifier will pop up - eg. AA20 or somesuch). Take a pen and paper and write down some of these references, suggest for lowland areas not mountainous ones.

Next step - see if it works.

Now this is all simply wild guessing when I am at my 'puter I will take a look and see what if any other xml files need to be tweaked.

The boys in OFF do it but in a much more sophisticated fashion.

HTH and of course sing out somebody if this is all hogwash

Edit: For ETO is it nek.xml in the campaign folder?

[popsaka]

Thanks so much laddie... Now I can put me idle hands to some use on those long rainy afternoons..
(okay, so it only rains in Los Angeles when ya don't want it to)
Just on your post alone I've learnt some new stuff... Thanx again... (as he spits on his hands and
grabs the handle to the inertial starter)

...and what's really sad is I don't even smoke!!

[Daiwilletti]

Hah, so much for good ideas! Just actually had a look at the files (always helps before opening ya mouth).

The nek_ETO.xml does have a landclass section - trouble is, it's only purpose is to give meaning to the "terrain effects" part of the campaign file, see at the bottom of the file:
<TerrainEffects>
<TE TerrainType="Mountain" M="3" S="3" P="3"/>
<TE TerrainType="City" M="3" S="3" P="2"/>
<TE TerrainType="Forest" M="2" S="2" P="1"/>
<TE TerrainType="Town" M="1" S="2" P="1"/>
<TE TerrainType="Mixed" M="0" S="1" P="0"/>
<TE TerrainType="Open" M="0" S="0" P="0"/>
<TE TerrainType="Coastal" M="0" S="0" P="0"/>
<TE TerrainType="Water" M="2" S="2" P="2"/>
<TE TerrainType="Ice" M="2" S="2" P="2"/>
<TE TerrainType="Swamp" M="2" S="2" P="2"/>
<TE TerrainModifier="Hedgerow" M="1" S="2" P="2"/>
<TE TerrainModifier="Road" M="0" S="0" P="0"/>
<TE TerrainModifier="River" M="0" S="2" P="1"/>
</TerrainEffects>
So although I have had a look at the landclasses.xml, I have not yet seen how to translate that so that a specific landclass only pops up in Italy. Must go and dig further
Just as an aside, looked at an older OFF landclass.xml and sure 'nuff it specifies bigger areas for each landclass, which gives the OFF landscape a nice open feeling vs CFS3. That is the Dim= parameter in each landclass of the landclasses.xml. The value is often 9216 for wider expanses of a landclass, rather than 5120 which creates a tighter patchwork.

So, Popsaka, a quick change can be effected by making some landclasses have a bigger Dim value - but this will occur across the entire ETO theatre, not just in Italy.

[popsaka]

Thanx so much for doin' some digging... I barely have a clue where to start...
Things like 'crop and town' and 'marsh' or 'forest'... Which file do you s'pose assigns
these to what country or geographical location? I think maybe you may have been
on to something with sector numbers as in the campaign map(?)...

[Daiwilletti]

Hi Pops, Progress Report: When in doubt, ****. Looking at the Terrain SDK, turns out that the landclasses.xml file is generated when the lcf file (Eur.lcf found in the Terrains folder) is generated. The xml file is for reference only.

The only way to change the landclasses in the theatre would be to develop a new landclass schema which is depicted by specific colours in a TIFF image of the theatre. Each colour represents a different landclass, the colours themselves can be defined when creating the terrain/theatre. I've seen a brightly coloured map somewhere, but cannot find in my backups.....

So, if somebody had the TIFF image for the European theatre (hint hint MS), we could tell which landclasses are predominantly used in that bit of Italy covered by ETO. Otherwise the old "fly over the terrain and eyeball it" method is the only one we have!! And even if the Dimension for a common Italian land class category is increased, it will also be increased everywhere else it occurs in the European Theatre.

Clear as mud? Wish I had that TIFF picture...

[Daiwilletti]

Thanx so much for doin' some digging... I barely have a clue where to start...
Things like 'crop and town' and 'marsh' or 'forest'... Which file do you s'pose assigns
these to what country or geographical location? I think maybe you may have been
on to something with sector numbers as in the campaign map(?)...

When looking at the landclass.xml, you will see .mos and .lso files referenced for each landclass. There is a corresponding dds texture (look under Assets folder in ETO) for those lso files. Hence you can look at the textures and work out what you are seeing when you overfly an area. Some woodland areas around airbases are obviously part of the "Forest" landclass. ETO actually does not have that many ground textures, it does not take long to work out what things on the ground relate to what landclass.

And per your last post, Pops, the trouble is there is no geographic control over landclass location, other than what the terrain maker decided when setting up a TIFF image from which the Eur.lcf was created. So no, I was not onto something with the sector numbers, I was barking up a gumtree!