Plateaus and highland terrains?

[primem0ver]

It has been a really long time since I played around with terrain graphics files in the base FPK archives and terrain coding so I have forgotten how much of it works.

I have long wanted to create an "elevated" terrain for places like Tibet and Colorado/Utah/Nevada etc... and I am wondering if this is possible. In the past I tried and failed at various ideas but I overlooked one possibility: I was just thinking today that if it is possible to reuse an elevated version of the "coast" graphics but recolor them with a rocky texture rather than sand (and make sets for each basic terrain type); and then call them a "plateau" terrain, then it might be possible to create a highland terrain. So there would be another (easily visible...but oh well) elevation level for highland terrains. Below the plateau tile would be the regular terrain and above would be the highlands (highlands plains, highland grassland, etc...). For those of you more familiar with the terrain and graphics mechanics, is this remotely possible?

 

[Toffer90]

I think the plot types are hardcoded in the exe, but I haven't investigated that 100%.
The "...\Art\Terrain\HeightMap" textures are tied to the plot types, not to the terrains types, so if you want plots to exhibit a new graphical elevation you'll need to add a new plot type.

Possible... I doubt it.

 

[Thunderbrd]

One of the known issues in viewports is problems with heightmaps where they seem to still use the original heightmap and that doesn't get reset. There are numerous height map bugs and issues and its one of the problem with many of the peaklike objects like volcanoes and natural wonders. I have always been meaning to dig into this a lot more because I want to be able to adjust base height maps for units based on unit state and so on - I'm praying this is somehow possible.

 

[primem0ver]

I think the plot types are hardcoded in the exe, but I haven't investigated that 100%.
The "...\Art\Terrain\HeightMap" textures are tied to the plot types, not to the terrains types, so if you want plots to exhibit a new graphical elevation you'll need to add a new plot type..

Are you sure?. Seems to me it may affect base height but "coast" is not a plot type and it certainly affects the terrain height; the coast is where we have the "falloff" into the ocean. A new "plateau" terrain type would be the exact same thing except it is where the highlands would "falloff" onto the regular land. I do agree though that plot type probably plays a role with the base height. Not sure we can add a new "base" if the core engine is restricted to two basic heights... ocean and land. That is where my real question lies. Can we shift all the heights up so that that plains and hills serve as a new "base" for raise to a highland? Also... what happens when we add "hills" to an ocean plot? It would be cool if we could use "hills" in the ocean as a mid ocean ridge.

 

[Toffer90]

Coast have their own heightMap called \Assets\Art\Terrain\Water\CoastLandBlends.tga
This too is handled by the exe.

Spoiler It is only referenced here in xml, and nowhere else :

<WaterPlaneInfo>
    <WaterMaterial>
        <MaterialColors>
            <DiffuseMaterialColor>
                <r>1.00</r>
                <g>1.00</g>
                <b>1.00</b>
            </DiffuseMaterialColor>
            <SpecularMaterialColor>
                <r>1.00</r>
                <g>1.00</g>
                <b>1.00</b>
            </SpecularMaterialColor>
            <EmmisiveMaterialColor>
                <r>1.00</r>
                <g>1.00</g>
                <b>1.00</b>
            </EmmisiveMaterialColor>
        </MaterialColors>
        <MaterialAlpha>0.5</MaterialAlpha>
    </WaterMaterial>
    <WaterTextures>
        <WaterBaseTexture>
            <TextureFile>Art/Terrain/Water/Water.dds</TextureFile>
            <TextureScaling>0.0020822511</TextureScaling>
            <URate>0.000150003</URate>
            <VRate>0.000029169</VRate>
        </WaterBaseTexture>
        <WaterTransitionTexture>
            <TextureFile>Art/Terrain/Water/CoastLandBlends.dds</TextureFile>
        </WaterTransitionTexture>
    </WaterTextures>
</WaterPlaneInfo>

Hmm, it does have a bGroundPlane tag, but I'm not sure it's possible to direct the exe to do the transition between anything other than land-water transitions.

Also... what happens when we add "hills" to an ocean plot? It would be cool if we could use "hills" in the ocean as a mid ocean ridge.

The ocean plot will become a land plot as the hill is a land plot type; and the water plots around it will have the CoastLandBlends height-map transition applied to the water land transition.

 

[Toffer90]

You may find these somewhat interesting:

C2C Graphics

• The last image there is a coastal terrain with a texture that makes the water plane opaque.​

C2C Graphics

• In the spoiler there, the continental shelf terrain texture makes it look like the coast stretch far out from land.​

C2C Graphics

• that continental shelf terrain looked a bit odd in the middle of the ocean though.​