24.09.2008, 07:48
Hi farang,
Good to see you getting into some modding. I have just started and will help as much as I can although textures is not my specialty (nothing is acutally) - am currently doing my first map, of my home town of Wellington NZ! So, to your questions
1) I understand that there are two recommended sizes: 512x512 px and 1024x1024 px. Both represent 1600x1600m in game, with the 1024x1024 px size rendering the texture in higher resolution. (PM me if you don't understand the next bit) As map_t.tga uses a scale of 200m per pixel that means a 8 x 8 square of pixels in your map_t will represent one whole rendering of a texture.
1) Yes. If you are using the AAA unified Mod installer that directory will be [il2 root]/MODS/Mapmods/Maps/_Tex/[texture location]
2) It is a bump-map file. It applies shading to the texture based on grayscale values to make it look more 3d. For more info ask Wikipedia - the source of all knowledge. .BumpH files are not necessary, but like any little extra, quite nice.
3) No... I would recommend using GIMP. It is the preferred editor of the AAA community.
4) You may also like to know about .tree.tga files for applying patterns of trees to your textures and using Autopop tool or the FMB to populate your textures with objects.
MAP Q) IL2 does not apply textures to your map based on the height of the terrain. It applies them based on the grayscale values contained in the map_t.tga for the map. Each grayscale value in map_t corresponds to a different texture defined in the load.ini of your map. For example a pixel of RGB = 0 on your map_t.tga at location X,Y will apply one 200 x 200m area of the texture assigned to Lowland0 in the map's load.ini at that location. RGB =1 to Lowland1 etc.
CAUTION) I have tried texturing but I gave up because I found applying custom textures to my maps gave IL2 serious performance issues. I don't know why. If you also experience this but find a solution please PM me and tell me.
I hope this helps. Any further questions, please PM me. I know how difficult the learning curve is.
T
Good to see you getting into some modding. I have just started and will help as much as I can although textures is not my specialty (nothing is acutally) - am currently doing my first map, of my home town of Wellington NZ! So, to your questions
1) I understand that there are two recommended sizes: 512x512 px and 1024x1024 px. Both represent 1600x1600m in game, with the 1024x1024 px size rendering the texture in higher resolution. (PM me if you don't understand the next bit) As map_t.tga uses a scale of 200m per pixel that means a 8 x 8 square of pixels in your map_t will represent one whole rendering of a texture.
1) Yes. If you are using the AAA unified Mod installer that directory will be [il2 root]/MODS/Mapmods/Maps/_Tex/[texture location]
2) It is a bump-map file. It applies shading to the texture based on grayscale values to make it look more 3d. For more info ask Wikipedia - the source of all knowledge. .BumpH files are not necessary, but like any little extra, quite nice.
3) No... I would recommend using GIMP. It is the preferred editor of the AAA community.
4) You may also like to know about .tree.tga files for applying patterns of trees to your textures and using Autopop tool or the FMB to populate your textures with objects.
MAP Q) IL2 does not apply textures to your map based on the height of the terrain. It applies them based on the grayscale values contained in the map_t.tga for the map. Each grayscale value in map_t corresponds to a different texture defined in the load.ini of your map. For example a pixel of RGB = 0 on your map_t.tga at location X,Y will apply one 200 x 200m area of the texture assigned to Lowland0 in the map's load.ini at that location. RGB =1 to Lowland1 etc.
CAUTION) I have tried texturing but I gave up because I found applying custom textures to my maps gave IL2 serious performance issues. I don't know why. If you also experience this but find a solution please PM me and tell me.
I hope this helps. Any further questions, please PM me. I know how difficult the learning curve is.
T