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[agracier]

I think I've found a way to get 2 extra slots freed up for use as texture slots.

The woods slots always generate 3D trees when RGB 24 pixels are placed on map_t. In some cases, woods/3D trees are not really needed on a map and then it is a shame to let these slots go to waste.

I tried a method whereby I made one single transparent forest texture, and then placed it in the load.ini like this:

[WOOD]
Wood0 = forest/summer/transparent.tga
wood1 = forest/summer/transparent.tga
Wood2 = forest/summer/transparent.tga
Wood3 = forest/summer/transparent.tga
Wood4 = forest/summer/transparent.tga

The point is to make the forest texture truly transparent, so that even if the game does generate 3D trees on this texture slot, you won't be able to see them since they are transparent - or invisible trees - you'll only see the underlying texture.

You only need one transparent forest texture. Here is one. Maybe others could try it out to see if I have it right ...

https://www.mediafire.com/?2wgj4tjmzjz

[X-Raptor]

  Great work agracier! this will open a new era in map modding!!

[SAS~Malone]

ok, i must be in a 'go-slow' mode today, as far as engaging my brain is concerned, but i don't quite get how this translates to freeing up extra slots?
if you use the transparent tex for wood0-wood4, where is the free slots?
it's obviously staring me in the face, but colour me dumb, and humour my silly question. i'm missing something obvious, i just know it....

[agracier]

Hmmm ... you're right that it doesn't free up a slot as such. But it does mean that in many maps, especially desert terrain maps or others depending on your choice of textures, you do get to use the woods slots if you don't wish to have any 3D trees generated by the game.

On a desert map it should be obvious: why use 3D trees? There is no need for any, especially since there are no 3D palm tree forest textures to begin with. So if you're not going to use the woods slot on a desert map because there are no forests in a desert, then why let the slot go to waste?

And on a jungle map, this is perhaps my taste, but I've found that all forest tree textures always look so European. It's better to leave them off of a jungle/tropical map and to work with appropriate textures to get a jungle effect. So once again that would mean a wasted slot.

I admit that this is useful only if you don't wish to have 3D forest trees on a map. But I've found that such trees don't always look very well on a map and tend to be uniform European looking. Lately I've been leaving them off altogether and I don't think the maps suffer from a lack of 3D forest trees.

[Checkyersix]

Would a/c still explode when they hit the "tree" terrain?

CY6.

[agracier]

Would a/c still explode when they hit the "tree" terrain?

Good question ... I have no idea but I'll try it out ...

Then again, when you're flying at tree-top level I say you deserve to crash anyway ... ha ha

[farang65]

One aspect that I don't like about the wood situation in the load.ini is this
Just say you have done a lot of new jungle textures from Google Earth.
You use those textures throughout the map.
Then you think if it looks good enough with out wood or not.
You then decide that you want some wooded areas and you use the ground(wood)texture that suits the wood you decide upon.
The ground(wood) texture looks really out of place within the jungle texture.

Now a question I have done this but wondering if it is a double up of textures.
 
You use the custom Google Earth texture as your ground (wood) texture.
You have already placed the same custom Google Earth texture in map_T a different name
You then cover an area with wood.
Are you doubling up on basically the same ground texture when you apply some wood?

Sunday yes brain is strange this morning too.

Cheers Kirby

[agracier]

I agree with you on the first part. Woods (RGB 24) often look so out of place on a map. I think they were designed to resemble European forests and that they do quite well, though you have to be careful in your choice of textures.

But in non-European areas they don't go over very well I think. There are certainly no 3D trees that resemble palm trees or anything tropical.

That's why I have more or less descided to leave the 3D Woods trees off of maps entirely ... except perhaps to use as trees on water/swamp areas to simulate flooding or swamps with thick growth.

__________

On the second part: as long as you keep the RGB areas on map_t clear and distinctly different in value, then it won't matter which texture you assign to them.

Say you use a texture for woods RGB 24 (let's call it 'tropical_forest_1.tga'), and you also use the same texture as low2 RGB 2, then you'll see the same texture as ground covering on both areas, but with 3D trees on the areas colored RGB 24, and without 3D trees on areas colored RGB 2.

If it will look good is something altogether different. That will depend on your choice of textures ... and that is not always an exact science if you ask me. Sometimes a texture will look fabulous in a graphics editor, but awful in-game or the other way around ...

[farang65]

I think your idea of this transparent forest texture suits jungles etc greatly,

Getting a decent jungle texture is the next step.

Also with jungle it is not normally just one color, low altitude and high altitude jungles vary a lot (looking at Google Earth etc.)

Recent areas I've looked at for textures are Southern India/Ceylon, Trinidad and Tobago and Caribbean Islands, and back to Panama. (getting close to your Cuba map)

With my Google Earth textures I decrease the brightness by sixty on all of them, size is 1024 x 1024 for all. Sometimes you have to adjust the yellow/green/red hue in the texture to get it right as well.

Your transparent texture works great. I tried it out last night.

Cheers Kirby

[agracier]

Recent areas I've looked at for textures are Southern India/Ceylon, Trinidad and Tobago and Caribbean Islands, and back to Panama. (getting close to your Cuba map)

Another very useful area to find good textures is the 2 main Hawaiian islands. Redko tipped this off in a post some time back and you can indeed find a multitude of good vegetation, cultivated fields and whatnot on Hawaii and Oahu.

The Yucatan peninsula, especially around the coastlines is very useful too, though not necessarily for jungle textures.

I've found, that to get good textures for an Il-2 map, very seldom can they be made from the actual corresponding Google earth areas. Their satellite imagery coloring varies too much from swathe to swathe and so does the resolution.

But it is fun to zoom around Google Earth and hoping that you will chance upon a useful area to extract textures from.