L3DT Users' Community

Ok, I'm done for now. I didn't do anything earth-shattering, just changed what was written out in the script file to use relative paths, except for the texture file. This seemed to work fine as an absolute path to the file location. I now have this plugin successfully creating an Atlas file in the given location.

Note however, that Atlas texture importing from a single large JPG is broken, by default. There is a fix for it, but it requires source code alteration. Importing from tiles (a mosaic map) works fine, which is probably what people are doing most of the time anyway.

Where would you like me to send it Aaron?

Hi Mark,

Sorry for the slow reply. If you could send the changes to aaron@bundysoft.com, that would be great.

Regarding the large JPEG bug in TGEA; I'll change the plugin for force the texture to be exported as a temporary mosaic. That way it should always work.

With that change done, I think it might be ready to be included with the L3DT installer (L3DT 2.5b final). Can you think of any other changes that would be needed before release?

Cheers,
Aaron.

Hi Mark,

Thanks again for fixing this up. I've uploaded your changes (binary and source) to the plugin page at:

http://www.bundysoft.com/wiki/doku.php? ... tio_atlas2

I did make a few changes: I've made it always export the texture as a mosaic, so as to avoid the LargeJPEG problem. I've also changed the reverse-find code to use the built-in plugin API function for getting directories (file_GetDir). I tweaked some of the error messages to look a bit nicer. Finally, I forced the plugin to export the heightfield RAW as 16-bit (previously this was assumed, but not actually checked).

Can you give it a try to make sure I've not cocked anything up?

Cheerio,
Aaron.

Hi Everyone,

Can I ask some TGEA users to have a look at the latest build of the L3DTio_Atlas2 plugin? This is an alternative plugin to the GarageGames 'official' plugin, and is substantially smaller and simpler because it does not include the TGEA code to compile atlas files. Instead, it writes a script file containing the console functions to compile the Atlas files, and then calls TGEA.exe to run the script.

The latest plugin is located here:

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/downloads/plugins/bin/L3DTio_Atlas2-bin.zip

To install the plugin, please follow these instructions:

http://www.bundysoft.com/docs/doku.php?id=l3dt:userguide:extensions:install

To use the plugin, select the 'Extensions->L3DTio_Atlas2->Export to TGEA Atlas (community plugin)' menu option. Please note that this version allows you to select between 'unique texture' and 'blended textures'. The unique textures should work OK, but the blended textures aren't working just yet.

Regarding blended terrains; I've run into a little road-block in the form of missing documentation. Can anyone tell me what the function arguments for 'atlasGenerateOpacityTOCFromTiles' are? Does this function even exist, or do I have to use a single opacity file with 'atlasGenerateOpacityTOC'? Should I be asking on the GarageGames forum? (ans: probably)

Finally, for those interested, the VC7.0 source code is here:

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/downloads/plugins/src/L3DTio_Atlas2-src.zip

Many thanks to Mark Dynna for fixing up the TGEA path handling code.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

Edit: The results of the search are that atlasGenerateOpacityTOCFromTiles never existed, and I should have been using atlasGenerateTextureTOCFromTiles.

Hi All,

I've updated the L3DTio_Atlas2 plugin again and written the user-guide for it (see here). From my testing with TGEA v1.03, the unique texturing exports work properly. The blended terrain exports do not work because the 'atlasGenerateOpacityTOC' function is no-longer supported in TGEA v1.03.

Anyway, if you use unique textures in Atlas, please give this new plugin a try. In a future release this plugin may replace the 'official' Atlas plugin in the 'L3DT for Torque' installation, as it is considerably easier to maintain.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

L3DTio_Atlas2::ExtAtlasExportUI error:
- cannot retrieve alpha map.

CZeoFunc::CallFunction error:
- The function 'ExtAtlasExportUI' in the plugin 'L3DTio_Atlas2' returned an error.

Heightfield 512px - hor. scale 0.5

Maps at TX/HF 8 (hence 4096)

I have L3DT Pro 2.5b build 36

Any ideas?

Hi Tobias,

Whoops, the Blended terrain support in the L3DTio_Atlas2 plugin wasn't working properly. I've fixed this, and you can download the update from here. Extract the plugin (.zeo) from the zip archive, and copy it over the existing plugin, which should be located at:

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\Bundysoft\L3DT Professional 2.5.2.26\Extensions\L3DTio_Atlas2.zeo


Also, before generating blended terrain you must first generate the alpha maps in L3DT. To do this, use the 'Operations->Alpha maps->Generate maps' menu option (see here for user-guide). You may have to combine several layers so that there are only four output layers (on the 1st page of the alpha maps wizard), and you'll want to ensure the alpha maps are set to 4 layers per image (on the 2nd page of the alpha maps wizard).

Please let me know if there are any problems.

Best regards,
Aaron.