Terrain colors

[corthew]

You probably saw this question coming.

Is there a way to add more colors to a terrain?

I can work around it for the current scene but a fifth color would make it a bit easier if its possible to do that right now and I'm just missing it.

Also, are there any plans to add undo to the terrain editor? Possibly as a separate function from the undo function available for the rest of MS? At the very least, if its not practical at this time, could you lock the undo function while the terrain editor is active?

It would save many of us a few unnoticed goofs.

[lucindamc123]

I agree with you Corthew. I would love to have available all the textures that are for painting the floor, walls and ceiling for the terrain too.

[Ben_S]

Materials that are in Data/Materials/Terrain appear as options for the terrain editor.

[corthew]

Materials that are in Data/Materials/Terrain appear as options for the terrain editor.

I was more referring to the number of colors active for a single map.

Is that possible at the moment or might it be implemented in the near future?

[Ben_S]

I was more referring to the number of colors active for a single map.

Is that possible at the moment or might it be implemented in the near future?

No, just four channels for textures. One channel is stored in each of the red, green, blue and alpha channels of the image that is used to store them (eg Terrain for Set for scene 1.png). Of interesting note, though - if you pick the terrain textures such that they are redish, greenish, blueish and white, and place a normal image file instead of the terrain png in the movie you are loading, you can get some interesting effects.

Attached File(s)

 super_terrain.png ( 928.51K ) Number of downloads: 21

 

[corthew]

Of interesting note, though - if you pick the terrain textures such that they are redish, greenish, blueish and white, and place a normal image file instead of the terrain png in the movie you are loading, you can get some interesting effects.

Now THAT is cool!

So I could use an image as sort of a terrain overlay?

Would I do that in the folder for the movie?

If so, is this the file I would be replacing: Terrain for Set for 01 First scene.png?

And did you pick those specific colors for the Superman image or do the colors matter that much?

I will play around with it this evening.

[Ben_S]

I got the colour channels right; the terrain colours need to be Black, Red, Green, Blue to match the colours in a png.
I made an addon with some pure colours that can be used to achieve this.
You might have to mirror and rotate your starting image that you are replacing the terrain with. Think it also needs to be square and 512x512.

Attached File(s)

 more_super_terrain.png ( 462.99K ) Number of downloads: 14
 PureColourTerrain.addon ( 3.57K ) Number of downloads: 11

 

[Ben_S]

Now THAT is cool!

So I could use an image as sort of a terrain overlay?

Yes.

Would I do that in the folder for the movie?
If so, is this the file I would be replacing: Terrain for Set for 01 First scene.png?

Yes, that is the file (if it is for scene 1).

And did you pick those specific colors for the Superman image or do the colors matter that much?

I will play around with it this evening.

The colours need to be Black, Red, Green, Blue, to match the Alpha, Red, Green and Blue channels in the png.

[corthew]

Yes.

Yes, that is the file (if it is for scene 1).

The colours need to be Black, Red, Green, Blue, to match the Alpha, Red, Green and Blue channels in the png.

Ahhh...Gotcha. I'm not painting anything with those colors.

Thanks for the color addon. Works perfectly.

[writerly]

I got the colour channels right; the terrain colours need to be Black, Red, Green, Blue to match the colours in a png.
I made an addon with some pure colours that can be used to achieve this.
You might have to mirror and rotate your starting image that you are replacing the terrain with. Think it also needs to be square and 512x512.

Love the addon Ben, but some instructions for those of us left graphically gifted would be awesome.

[corthew]

Love the addon Ben, but some instructions for those of us left graphically gifted would be awesome.

In the folder of whatever movie you're currently working on there will be a terrain png file. This file stores the image that is the terrain for that particular movie. I am not sure yet how that works for multi-scened movies but I digress.

If you replace that file with an image in png format, like Christopher Reeves for example, the image will show up as the terrain. It may need to be 512x512. You can play around with larger and smaller images to try to improve resolution but I'm pretty sure it needs to be square at least. I'll update this after I've had a chance to test different things.


To get the colors to look somewhat right you must place these four colors in the four color slots in this order from left to right:
Black, Red, Green, Blue.

You should see the change immediately.

Note that you want to keep a backup of the image incase you hit that reset button and overwrite it.
BTDT

You can raise, lower, level and smooth the terrain but whatever you do don't color it because that is written to the image file.

Have fun.

[writerly]

In the folder of whatever movie you're currently working on there will be a terrain png file.

I followed the instructions...I think. Got many little squares of my 512X512 image.
Thoughts?
C

[corthew]

I followed the instructions...I think. Got many little squares of my 512X512 image.
Thoughts?
C

Hmmm...I've attached an image of the contents - 1st image - of one of my movie folders with the file in question highlighted. The filename won't always be exactly the same but this gives you an idea at least.

I just tested with a 50x50 image and it stretched it. An 818x818 image clipped a small bit but mostly it was just shrunk down to size.

I'm looking through my instructions to make sure I wasn't too tired to be coherent.

Nope...They look fine.

Ok...Step by step...Following the attached images:

2nd image - Created new blank movie.
3rd image - Saved it with the name, Terrain test.

exited Moviestorm

4th image - Showing the folder with the file that needs replaced, Terrain for Set for scene 1.png.
5th image - created a 512x512 pixel image and saved as, Terrain for Set for scene 1.png.
6th image - In Moviestorm it looks washed.
7th image - changed the four colors as shown.

I learned from doing this for you that the image is reversed in MS. I'll have to take that into account when I'm adjusting an image.

If you still get tiling there may be a problem with your install. Maybe an addon or...could the flat terrain hack cause tiling?

Worth looking into. Anyway, Ben can help if you're still getting tiling.