TIFFs files for CFS3 landclasses

MajorMagee said:
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...
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I'm still figuring out what to do next. Please let me know if your new Win10 install of CS2 goes south.
 
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. :encouragement:
 
gecko said:
Are you planning on building that map?!:jawdrop:
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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.
 
Pat Pattle said:
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!
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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.
 
TIFF2LCF tool limit report

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.
 
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?
 
Landclass file resolution

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.
 
New Theater detailed tutorial next week...

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.
 
Some info about the objectives on new theater tutorial

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,
 
New Thread for New theater tutorial steps

Gecko and all,

I don´t have time to make all tutorial by one shot.
Then, i´ll send each step conform i finished.

Best regards!
 
So in combination with Martin Wright's LCFview program I've been trying to make some simple edits to the lcf file. I am successfully importing .tiff files using the sdk tool and using the stock lcf file converted to bmp with lcf view and the to tiff with edits. This is preserving the location of the cities etc correctly. I am having trouble getting the variations described in the landclasses.xml to work. With my new lcf files, only one variation of any given landclass is shown, even though others are defined. If I switch to the stock lcf, the variations return. Any ideas?
Stock LCF:


My LCF:
 
Hi Daniel, I performed the same test and got the same results. When I re-imported the new LCF the bmp was mostly black. I'm hoping that it's simple a matter of bmp type - presuming there are options,. I've not had time to dig any deeper yet.
If it can be made to work it will be a very useful tool.
 
It is the same for a scratch made lcf too. This one has to get figured out or any attempt to revitalize our scenery is not going to be worth it. Can't stand those repeating patterns.:banghead:
 
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