Some more modding questions

[ssuser]

A few more modding questions:

First, is the water fog controlled only by the console? There are some buttons on the editor for fog on the water panel but they look like they may be for controlling fog effect on the water surface. Anyway, I tried using the console command fog.water.visibility.enable and it seemed to work, but I did NOT see any water fog in the editor, only in the game itself, which is pretty annoying if you are trying to set effects, is this normal?

Next, I am looking for a tool to turn bitmaps and tgas into TER files for bz2, what is the best? I have found a package called ODLWinter, but there are no instructions for its use in the package, if this is supposed to be a good program that everyone uses, where can I get directions for it?

Finally, does the Jammer class work on AI units, or do they just run thru this without a care and ignore its effects? I am wondering if it is worth trying to create an ISDF Jammer building.

[General BlackDragon]

Hmmm

The fog is controlled by console, but idk if it works as expected in 1.3 TA5+.

Winter is the tool to use. Feed it a 256X256 image for the Heightfield input, and other images alpha layered, and make the terrain. Go into it in the editor, and set which textures u want on each layer with "fill with texture", and then open the TER in winter again and apply the LAYER alpha'ed images to set where u want each layer's texture to appear. Color map controls color on the ground. 255 is fully bright, 0 is black, etc. I use it for Shadows using L3DT.

Tutorials can be found here: http://www.bzcommand.com/forum/index.php?board=19.0

[ssuser]

Thanks, there's some other good stuff there too I grabbed.

Do you know if somewhere there is a really good tutorial for the bz2 odf system? There is much about this I don't understand. For example, right now I am still trying to figure out how the commtower class works and its differences in UEP from stock - in UEP you get a panel icon, but I cannot see how this works, even though I have been thru many, many odf files. There is virtual_class_commtower invoked from 1.3 pak, but this cannot be it, as my own odf for a comm tower displays a panel icon too, and it has no reference to this, nor any odf parameters specifying a panel icon or slot.

I still have an awful lot to learn about this game.

[Ded10c]

The icon comes from a .cfg, not the .odf.

[General BlackDragon]

No it doesn't.

[PoweredBuildingClass] :: PanelIcon = "Blah.tga"


Default is "icon_base_recy.tga" if not present.

[Ded10c]

Hmm, that's what sets the image. I was under the impression a .cfg was still required to position the icon/actually cause it do exist.

[MrTwosheds]

http://www.bzscrap.org/downloads/Docume ... 1_9_09b.7z

[Nielk1]

Hmm, that's what sets the image. I was under the impression a .cfg was still required to position the icon/actually cause it do exist.

Yes the CFG is required to position the icon and make it exist beyond base slot 3.

[ssuser]

I was told before a cfg was what handled this. I have seen some other odfs that use the PanelIcon and other params to allow selection off a separate icon - TheJamsh's warship variant has an odf for a SkyEyeArray or some such thing that uses this, but I have not seem a commtower class with these specific odf parameters in UEP. I really just want to figure out a way not to have Sat View crash in stock gameplay, I don't know which files from UEP make a difference, but UEP works right with the Comm Tower class buildings.

I'll look at the mod doc zip and see what is in there.

Is there a more detailed tutorial on Winter somewhere, or was there one at some point? I get the impression this was rebuilt awhile back and maybe there was better documentation for it at one point. I get how to build height info, this is like Slight's old tool for BZ1 (bzhgt), though Winter keeps saying it wants a 16 bit file, not 8 bit, even though I am feeding it 24 bit bmp files or else PNGs (This is not too clear, what its preferred file format is). The texture/color thing is also not too clear, am I supposed to make a separate bitmap for each layer or what?

[General BlackDragon]

Satellite doesn't work right in multiplayer, but in a commbunker classlabel odf, use:

under [GameObjectClass]:
CategoryTypeOverride = 9 // Base Number to select it with. May be able to use NeedGroup = 1 and IsGrouped = 1, not sure.
CanSelect = 1


Yes it's a seperate image for each thing.

The tutorial is here: http://www.bzcommand.com/forum/index.php?topic=63.0

Basically:

Heightmap image is the heightmap.

Layer 1 - 3 are alpha images of Texture Layers 1 - 3.

Colormap is the color on the ground. (useful for shading with L3DT, see: http://www.bzcommand.com/forum/index.php?topic=110.0 )

That's all I use. I'm not sure what the normal map is for, I never use it.

[MrTwosheds]

though Winter keeps saying it wants a 16 bit file, not 8 bit, even though I am feeding it 24 bit bmp files or else PNGs (This is not too clear, what its preferred file format is).

.bmp works ok, No it is not too clear, and if your using the ODlwinter.exe program it even seems to imply that certain formats produce a superior result, but in bz2 they don't actually make any difference at all.
The normal map reads the angle of the terrain from the map and makes an image of it. It is actually really useful for then directly painting textures or colours onto those cliffs and hillsides via one of the other layers.