How To Replace one ore more Tiles in Scenery

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Xavier
Posts: 622
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:22 pm
Location: France

How To Replace one ore more Tiles in Scenery

Post by Xavier » Mon Jun 10, 2019 11:04 am

All the scenery creators had to face, one day or another, with this problem:

How to replace one or more tiles with cured defects or new features in scenery?

With Condor 1, it was imperative to either use "LanscapeEditor" and to redo the entire process of creation that could last several hours or even several days, or cut, one by one, the tiles in 16 "patches", convert to DDS format with the right parameters, turn to 180 °, renumber correctly and replace in the "Textures" directory of the scenery.

With Condor 2, the problem seemed the same, except that, there was no need to return the patches in case the second method was chosen.

However, there is a much more elegant and faster method. It is to use the utility "WaterAlpha" created by Jiri Brozek, that one uses, or not, "WaterAlpha" tiles. The only difference is tiles with stronger green colours than those obtained directly with "LandscapeEditor".


Reminders:

The tools used are:

WateAlpha.exe: version: 0.96629 18949

nvdxt.exe: version 8.30.929.1900

Both tools must be in the same directory.

The tiles of the scenery are all in Terragen format for Condor 2 (23040x23040 m):
Standard tiles, 8192x 8192 pixel resolution, 32 bit BMP.
"WaterAlpha" tiles, 8192x8192 pixel resolution, in 32 bit BMP.


Process:

Prerequisite:

You must create a specific working directory for the process, preferably in a different partition from that of Condor 2 in order to automatically make a copy of your files, otherwise use the "CTRL" key during transfers.

In the example, the directory is named: "WA2_Partiel_Walpha".
Note that there are no spaces or special or accented characters.

1 / Group all the cured or enhanced "Terragen" tiles and "WaterAlpha" tiles in this new working directory:

The cured or enhanced Tiles are numbered "CCRR" and "aCCRRR" (256 MB each).

Image

2 / Launch the utility "WaterAlpha" soft and press the button "Set folder" to choose the working directory that you had created and where you had grouped the tiles to be replaced.

Image

3 / Start the process by pressing the "Process Tiles" button.
At first, the tiles "CCRR" and "aCCRR" are examined one by one, cut and correctly renumbered in txxyy patches, and associated or not with the corresponding WaterAlpha tiles atxxyy patches.

Image

Then automatically, the conversion to DDS starts:

Image

There is no ending signal. The process stops automatically when the black "ndvxt.exe" window disappears.
It takes 5 minutes per tile with an average computer I3, 8 GB RAM.

4 / Result and transfer

The working directory has been greatly enriched (see below for one tile):

Image

The initial tiles are still present and intact, and atxxyy and txxyy patches were created in 2048x2048 format in 32 bit BMP of 16 MB each.

and, a DDS subdirectory has been created that contains:

Image

Copy of txxyy BMP patches and converted DDS patches (5432 kb).

To complete the process, simply select all DDS patches (16 per tile) and copy them to the "Textures" directory of the scenery, for example:
G / Condor2 / Landscapes / Scenery_Name / Textures

Image

A small check flight is needed to verify that everything is in line with your expectations.

To redo this process on other tiles: remove all files from the working directory and remove the associated DDS directory.

This process works even for scenery designers who do not use water effects with "WaterAlpha". The tiles can also be disjointed.

Thanks to Jiri Brozek for this little-known utility.
*****- Xavier - (XDL - VR FAN) *****

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