TIFFs files for CFS3 landclasses

**odin_br** · July 23rd, 2016, 07:49

At Last...

***Pat Pattle*** · July 23rd, 2016, 07:52

Well done Odin!!! This is great news indeed!

Am looking forward to the tutorial.

***Geezer*** · July 25th, 2016, 04:44

Very interesting...and congratulations on solving the problem. I'm looking forward to your tutorial.

**odin_br** · July 25th, 2016, 05:05

Dear all,

Thanks to you all for tips and help.
This is a 1st version tutorial.
Please, Can someone correct my bad english on DOC file?

Now I will start to find the TIFF2LCF limitations of file size.
Also I want to deeper undestanding of the CFS3 Landclass system and new theater scenery creation.

Any new discovery will be released to SOH community.

Best Regards,

***Pat Pattle*** · July 25th, 2016, 06:25

Thank you Odin, that's a very good tutorial. I shall definitely be trying this sometime.

Out of interest, Photoshop CS2 is available free and legally from the Adobe site:

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

You'll need to register to gain download access.

Cheers,

Clive

**mongoose** · July 25th, 2016, 11:52

Originally Posted by Pat Pattle

Thank you Odin, that's a very good tutorial. I shall definitely be trying this sometime.

Out of interest, Photoshop CS2 is available free and legally from the Adobe site:

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html

You'll need to register to gain download access.

Cheers,

Clive

Is this relevant??
Read before you download a CS2 product

Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago and do not run on many modern operating systems; Adobe no longer supports them.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. Only customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products may use the serial numbers provided during the download.

**hairyspin** · July 25th, 2016, 12:26

Originally Posted by odin_br

...This is a 1st version tutorial ... Any new discovery will be released to SOH community.

Well done Odin! Your English is perfectly readable and the tutorial clear and easy to follow.

***Pat Pattle*** · July 25th, 2016, 12:44

Is this relevant??
Read before you download a CS2 product

Adobe has disabled the activation server for CS2 products, including Acrobat 7, because of a technical issue. These products were released more than seven years ago and do not run on many modern operating systems; Adobe no longer supports them.

Adobe strongly advises against running unsupported and outdated software. Only customers who legitimately purchased CS2 or Acrobat 7 and need to maintain their current use of these products may use the serial numbers provided during the download.

I didn't read that bit. I downloaded this a few years ago when the offer first came out. Back then it came with the serial number to activate it.
I won't post it here but if anyone wants it send me a pm.

It works fine in W10 by the way! :0)

***Geezer*** · July 25th, 2016, 13:17

Originally Posted by Pat Pattle

I didn't read that bit. I downloaded this a few years ago when the offer first came out. Back then it came with the serial number to activate it.
I won't post it here but if anyone wants it send me a pm.

It works fine in W10 by the way! :0)

I did the same thing, and it worked fine for years (WinXP and Win7), but recently has become unstable with a few functions not working at all.

**odin_br** · July 25th, 2016, 14:26

Dear all,

Only for your info: TIFF2LCF tool can handle 9,472 pixel x 9,472 pixel, 350MB Tiff file without problems. I use only 1 landclass color for test.
Until friday, I´will try a 1GB file size.

Best Regards,

**gecko** · July 25th, 2016, 15:57

Are you planning on building that map?!

**mongoose** · July 25th, 2016, 16:36

Originally Posted by Pat Pattle

I didn't read that bit. I downloaded this a few years ago when the offer first came out. Back then it came with the serial number to activate it.
I won't post it here but if anyone wants it send me a pm.

It works fine in W10 by the way! :0)

Does one need the serial number now?

**mongoose** · July 25th, 2016, 16:38

Originally Posted by gecko

Are you planning on building that map?!

Just All WWII West, East, North Europe, N Africa Theaters would be enough!

***MajorMagee*** · July 25th, 2016, 16:39

Originally Posted by Geezer

I did the same thing, and it worked fine for years (WinXP and Win7), but recently has become unstable with a few functions not working at all.

There were a couple of Windows Updates back in the spring of 2016 that ruined my install of CS2 in Win 7. (disappearing tool bars, hiding image windows, dialog boxes sent behind everything that could not be brought forward, etc.). For a time I was able to find and delete the offending updates, but lately it has gotten to the point where nothing seemed to repair it. That was one of the reasons I finally had to bite the bullet and "Upgrade" to Win 10. For now it seems to be working normally again, but it's only been a couple of days so far...

**sdsbolt** · July 25th, 2016, 17:21

New info about max file size for LCF

nice but i thought there was a maximum theater size of about 1600km square or something like that(dont know precise #). I know that in MAW and RS they made the theaters as large as possible but sill had to leave out a bit. I would be delighted to know you found a way around this limit.

***Geezer*** · July 25th, 2016, 17:37

Originally Posted by MajorMagee

There were a couple of Windows Updates back in the spring of 2016 that ruined my install of CS2 in Win 7. (disappearing tool bars, hiding image windows, dialog boxes sent behind everything that could not be brought forward, etc.). For a time I was able to find and delete the offending updates, but lately it has gotten to the point where nothing seemed to repair it. That was one of the reasons I finally had to bite the bullet and "Upgrade" to Win 10. For now it seems to be working normally again, but it's only been a couple of days so far...

I'm still figuring out what to do next. Please let me know if your new Win10 install of CS2 goes south.

**Corpse_Grinder** · July 25th, 2016, 19:43

This is a very interesting breakthrough! I have always been fascinated by how creating new theaters was done. Back in the day, it seemed there were only one or two people who knew how to accomplish this. This could open up a lot of previously un-done theaters for CFS3. I will be following this thread closely, I might even reinstall CFS3 if I see something I can help out with.

The possibilities are endless.

**hairyspin** · July 25th, 2016, 21:58

Originally Posted by gecko

Are you planning on building that map?!

Easy, tiger! Just in case anyone is thinking Odin has theatre creation sussed, there's a much bigger step still to jump. The basis of a CFS3 theatre is the mesh: the shape of the land itself and where the wet bits go. 0-1 Driver knew how to get geographical data converted to mesh and it's a tedious job needing expensive software.

Once you have the mesh, the rest follows: landclass tells the simulator what kind of terrain covers the mesh - grass, peat bog, mangrove swamp, tarmac. Vector data tells CFS3 where to put the roads and railways. Autogen populates your peat bog with huts and the woodland with trees. Finally Clive puts airfields where they're needed with modelled buildings and the officers' mess. But it all starts with the theatre mesh.

**Daiwilletti** · July 27th, 2016, 14:25

Originally Posted by Pat Pattle

Very interesting thread Odin, I really hope you can get this cracked.

I have nothing technical to add, the guys that had this knowledge have either sadly passed away or moved on from the hobby.

There was one chap called Rob (Biff) whom I'm assuming is no longer around but left a blog, might be some useful tit bits:

http://scene-explore.blogspot.co.uk/

Good luck!

On the subject of terrain mesh creation, some of the stuff in the blog Clive refers to may be helpful - describing process etc. Unfortunately Rob (Biff) was a bit cagey on some points of detail.
I have put what I hope is all of Rob's blogs on the subject of CFS3 terrain creation, into the one MS Word document. If anyone wants a copy, either PM me or if its worthwhile I can upload the document.

Was Brundu working on an Eastern Front theatre? The material might be of use to him, don't recall how useful it is. Unfortunately it is all in English but perhaps translateable with software.

**odin_br** · July 29th, 2016, 14:35

Dear all,

I need to confirm it tomorrow, but TIFF2LCF tool does NOT ACCEPT 1GB TIFF file.

If it is true, then the LCF file is the theatre size limiter.

Best Regards.

**gecko** · July 30th, 2016, 19:16

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the lcf size related primarily to the resolution of the landclasses mapping? A larger file would mean each landclass square was smaller, allowing city outlines etc to be followed more precisely. So a file to big for the converter would only limit the resolution of the landclasses. Or am I completely wrong? Is the resolution fixed?

**odin_br** · August 2nd, 2016, 05:51

Dear all and gecko,

All theaters mesh and LCF file have the same resolution. It means: each MESH pixel have 1024 metres (~1 km). Also each land class pixel have 1024.
A LandClass file with a double size of the mesh, can generate a more precise landclass? I don´t know... It need to be tested.
According SDK all textures need to be a power of 2. But the final mosaic TILE is fixed to a 4096x4096 pixels (1024 x 4) according mosaic help file.
Only try and error can reveal the landclass x textures works. A massive task!! But not impossible...

First, let´s produce a very detailed tutorial on how to produce a new theater.
Second, discover if is possible to use SRTM 3 (~90m / pixel) or SRTM 1 (~30m / pixel).
Trird, discover the maximum terrain size that can be produced.

Best Regards.

***MajorMagee*** · August 2nd, 2016, 06:27

I believe the landclass.xml let's you resize what's being mapped onto the mesh. I know I've made changes that result in the fields being bigger than the default, but I assume it would work for them to be smaller as well.

See post #82 and #83 for information on pixel scaling and typical scenery density for each type of region.

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...-is-this/page4

**odin_br** · August 15th, 2016, 02:42

Dear all,

Finally, I managed to produce a working a totally new theater on cfs3.
I will release to you all on next week.

But, it´s not a complete tutorial yet. These tutorial have only the minimum tasks to produce a new scenery. It´s not dificulty, but have a lot work to do.

Stay tunned...

P.S. MajorMagee, thanks a lot by your discovery. Very powerful for new sceneries.

**odin_br** · August 15th, 2016, 03:00

Dear all,

Please consider the following points before using the tutorial:
1-) The theater produced is a "blank" scenery - For community research, test and development.
2-) The theater produced is very small - It´s an Islands scenery in the middle of Atlantic ocean. The Azores islands.
3-) Procedures detailed:
- How to produce the terrain.
- How to produce Shorelines and Water shape (ocean and big lakes)
- How to produce Landclasses
- How to edit the required files to produce a new theater.
4-) Not yet
- Vectors (roads, railroads, rivers).

Best Regards,