L3DT Users' Community

Hi Aaron.

Is possible to use tiled map on VTPEnviro? I need to spray on my Beleriand L3DT map trees and fences. I've seen that Enviro permits to navigate on 3D landscape with vegetation, but i don't know if it accepts L3DT tiled maps.

Cheers.

Mauro.

Sorry Aaron.
I've noted now VTPEnviro export restrictions...

Restrictions:
The map must be square.
The heightfield size must not exceed 4097 × 4097.
Neither the heightfield nor the texture can be a mosaic.
The project name may not contain spaces (converted to underscores automatically).

Hi Aaron.

In these days i'm attempting to deeper understanding Virtual Terrain Project world so as to use in Arda Project.

In particular i'm attempting to concentrate my effort in two ways:

- vegetation
- tiles (due my huge heightfileds)

Concerning of tiles i want to make you a question:
I've noted that VTBuilder allows to resample heightfields and imagery (textures too) with Area Tool > Merge & Resample Elevation and Area Tool > Merge & Resample Imagery also when they aren't squares.
Because my heigtfield and his texture aren't squares i'm attempting to bypass export limitation of L3DT to VTPEnviro by operating directly into VTBuilder. The result is fine about heightfield, but so far i did't be able to directly import and resample into VTBuilder about 3021 (53 x 57) tiles that compounds final texture.
It seems that L3DT mosaic process and VTBuilder tiling process are similar (both tools have a file that mantain structure; L3DT a .mmf file, VTBuilder a .ini file), but they produces different tiles format files (L3DT produces a lot of .jpg while VTBuilder produces a lot of proprietary files).

The question is: there is a way to import L3DT Texture map into VTPEnviro bypassing the mosaic limitation?
I've attempted to combine Texture map in one huge files but, due my RAM limitation (1024 MB) i can't do this, because L3DT request over 2048 MB to perform task.

VTBuilder documentation says that it easy to drag and drop images into work area, but it seems impossible to to this with over 3000 tiles. How can resample them?

Can you give me an hand, please?

Thanks in advance.

Mauro.

Hi Mauro,

I've got a slightly out-of-date installation of VTP that does not have the tiling feature, so I can't really help with much of this just yet. I'll download the newer version sometime this week and have a play with it.

mauronen wrote:It seems that L3DT mosaic process and VTBuilder tiling process are similar (both tools have a file that mantain structure; L3DT a .mmf file, VTBuilder a .ini file), but they produces different tiles format files (L3DT produces a lot of .jpg while VTBuilder produces a lot of proprietary files).

Most curious. I will have to check this out. By the way, what file extension/format are those 'proprietary files'?

mauronen wrote:The question is: there is a way to import L3DT Texture map into VTPEnviro bypassing the mosaic limitation?

Nothing right now, but I'll see what I can do with tileset support in VTP.

mauronen wrote:I've attempted to combine Texture map in one huge files but, due my RAM limitation (1024 MB) i can't do this, because L3DT request over 2048 MB to perform task.

Ah, there's not much I can do about that.

mauronen wrote:VTBuilder documentation says that it easy to drag and drop images into work area, but it seems impossible to to this with over 3000 tiles. How can resample them?

You can change the number of tiles in a mosaic using the 'file->export->active map' option. If you export the texture as a mosaic, you can change the tile size in the 2nd page of the export wizard. As for changing things in VTP; sorry, I have no idea.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Hi Aaron.
Some replies...

Most curious. I will have to check this out. By the way, what file extension/format are those 'proprietary files'?

VTP accepts .TIF and .JPG as Imagery layer and many formats (Terragen also) as Elevation layer.
For tiling process VTP use 3 files for each tile (i suppose to treating LODs):
- Tiles for Heightfields elevation have *.pgm extension
- Tiles for Imagery have *.ppm extension
See at http://www.vterrain.org/Doc/VTBuilder/export_area.html and http://www.vterrain.org/Doc/Enviro/tilesets.html for more informations.

mauronen wrote:

I've attempted to combine Texture map in one huge files but, due my RAM limitation (1024 MB) i can't do this, because L3DT request over 2048 MB to perform task.

Ah, there's not much I can do about that.

These days i'm attempting to play with some GDAL utilities (http://gdal.org), particularly with GDAL_MERGE and GDAL_WARP. Seems that they can merge many tiles in on huge file without use much RAM. VTP use GDAL too as core (see http://www.vterrain.org/Implementation/index.html). Why don't try to use it (almost about tile/merge features) in L3DT?

Hi Mauro,

Thanks for the info. I can probably add PGM and PPM support for tiled maps without too much trouble (probably after L3DT 2.4).

Mauronen wrote:Why don't try to use it (almost about tile/merge features) in L3DT?

Ahh...when I said 'there's not much I can do about that' I should have said 'there's not much I can do about that, right now'. I can do the resizing out-of-core (as GDAL does), but it's not something I want to add to L3DT 2.4 at this late stage - it will have to wait for a subsequent release.

As for using GDAL in L3DT - it might be a difficult fit. I'll think about it.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Hi Aaron.

I've solved the problem of use tiled texture with VTPEnviro using a product called ER Mapper http://www.ermapper.com. You can see, if you want, final result in part 5 of my tutorial.

Cheers.

Mauro.[/url]

Hi Mauro,

Part 5 looks really good. Well done again.

Thanks also for the link to ER Mapper - I've added it to the links page.

Cheers,
Aaron.