CFS3 Terrain Creation - is anyone still around?

**sdsbolt** · January 5th, 2024, 15:36

I have a small victory in that I can use Microdem to create the .bil that ers2tiff will recognize. I have only tried with srtm30 data. I dont have photoshop so I cannot create
a landclass tiff that the tools will recognize. Not sure if there is another way.

**mongoose** · January 5th, 2024, 19:43

Originally Posted by sdsbolt

I have a small victory in that I can use Microdem to create the .bil that ers2tiff will recognize. I have only tried with srtm30 data. I dont have photoshop so I cannot create
a landclass tiff that the tools will recognize. Not sure if there is another way.

Doesn't Gimp achieve the same effects?

**rbp71854** · January 6th, 2024, 08:27

Originally Posted by sdsbolt

I dont have photoshop so I cannot create
a landclass tiff that the tools will recognize. Not sure if there is another way.

I may have used Corel PaintShop Photo Pro for Tiff creations.

**gecko** · January 6th, 2024, 11:18

Having not gotten far enough to have a tiff to work with, I was assuming other programs could do the job too?

**hairyspin** · January 6th, 2024, 12:18

Paint.NET works with and saves as .tiff files. It's also free. I'm a Photoshop user myself (very old version), but sometimes Paint.NET gets me out of a hole.

https://www.getpaint.net/

**sdsbolt** · January 6th, 2024, 16:14

thanks for the tiff export suggestions guys. Ive tried with a few programs but tiff2lcf.exe wont load them. Back in the day Martin Wright found it would only work with tiff created by photoshop. Not sure if it has changed since then.

***Pat Pattle*** · January 6th, 2024, 22:40

Doesn't it need to be a 32bit tiff? I seem to remember that from somewhere.

***MajorMagee*** · January 7th, 2024, 02:19

Yes, 32 bit is 8 bit for each channel of RGB and Alpha.

**sdsbolt** · January 7th, 2024, 04:43

heres the test map if anybody can covert to 32bit tiff that fits needed description. Needs to be 768x768 and colors must stay pure green and pure blue with no transition

**gecko** · January 7th, 2024, 07:04

Looks like conversion to jpg caused some artifacts and it isn't pure green and blue. What was the original file?

***NachtPiloten*** · January 7th, 2024, 07:20

Originally Posted by sdsbolt

I have a small victory in that I can use Microdem to create the .bil that ers2tiff will recognize. I have only tried with srtm30 data. I dont have photoshop so I cannot create
a landclass tiff that the tools will recognize. Not sure if there is another way.

Link to download Mircodem?

***MajorMagee*** · January 7th, 2024, 09:36

Try this one.

Test_Map.zip

***NachtPiloten*** · January 7th, 2024, 09:37

Spoke to the developer and he sent me the link, thanks!!!

**sdsbolt** · January 7th, 2024, 11:58

Thank you Andy, that worked! Only small problem was a few extra colors (blue-green and black) got added to the texture. Most likely its because I shared original as a jpeg. I am able to work around the few extra colors by adding a few more terrain types for now. Thank you again.

**sdsbolt** · January 7th, 2024, 12:06

Spoke to the developer and he sent me the link, thanks!!!

You can use Microdem but if you already have a copy of Global Mapper I would probably stick with that. GM seems easier to use and more robust. Microdem seems to crash easier and can be fussy about the data it uses. My issues with Microdem may be due to my inexperience and I am certainly thankful to the developers for this program.

We also have a tutorial on using GM to create mesh which makes things easier.

**sdsbolt** · January 7th, 2024, 16:56

no water yet but there is some mesh

**sdsbolt** · January 9th, 2024, 15:18

just testing the water tools by making a big pool

***Pat Pattle*** · January 10th, 2024, 03:24

I'm very impressed with the progress!

**rbp71854** · January 10th, 2024, 07:13

Well done, you are well on your way to creating a new theater of operations.

**sdsbolt** · January 14th, 2024, 05:13

islands in the test theater. One small error in the theater desciptor caused me days of confusion. Still plenty of problem areas.

One cool thing I notice is that the only DEM tool you need these days is QGIS which is free and has a good amount of support tutorials. Microdem and Global Mapper are nice tools but not neccesary.

Still not sure if there is a freeware program that can create the 32bit landclass TIFF that tiff2lcf will recognize ???

***Frosty*** · January 14th, 2024, 05:18

I really have no idea how to do this but I am impressed anyway!!

**sdsbolt** · January 14th, 2024, 07:31

thanks Joost, I feel like anyone can do with the updated tools and info. I have no clue how pioneers like Martin, Ed and Bob managed it years ago .

Hope to test with srtm3 data next week