Texture: TGA-rotating, applying a texture, walkmesh...

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               The wok reader has some bugs and one of those can make the game crash. NWN doesn't like it if the material ID of one of the faces on a walkmesh is set to -1. The wok reader also sets the material ID to 65536 sometimes, which doesn't make the game crash, but makes parts of the walkmesh unwalkable.
To change the walkmesh in gmax find the walkmesh which hopefully is named walkmesh, wok, colormesh or CM. It has no texture, so it should be easy to spot.
Now on that mesh select the faces you want to change. At the right side of your window is a scroll bar. Scroll down until you see 'Surface properties'. There you will find a field where you can enter the material ID for the selected faces.
1 is for dirt
2 is for obscuring (not walkable and also blocks line of sight and ranged attacks)
3 is for grass
4 is for stone/rock
5 is for wood
6 is for walkable water (shallow rivers and brooks)
7 is not walkable
8 transparent (not walkable, but doesn't block line of sight)
9  carpet
10 metal
11 puddles - the same as 6 only with different footstep sounds
12-13 swamp, mud - the same as 6, but could possibly be changed to add different visual effects than the water splashes and different footstep sounds
14 leaves
15 lava
16 bottomless pit (not walkable)
17 deep water (not walkable)
18 door (no idea what this does, seems to be walkable, but blocks line of sight)
19 snow
20 sand
21 barebones (doesn't add any footstep sounds or visual effects)
22 stone bridge (same as stone, but also adds the visual effect of falling rocks)
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Zwerkules, 21 avril 2012 - 11:05 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_TheOneBlackRider]

               Alright! Thanks!
I'll give it a shot and will hopefully fix it.

AND: I would be glad, if one of you experienced people out there would offer to create the perfect road-tesxture/aligning, so there would be a good model of that hill/slope-road-tile available (even if I already put so much time into this - well, it was for learning '> - I would send the stuff out to you, then). As said, I won't get it any better ATM = with my abilities and would put it in, but more so gladly a perfect tile - with all the credits to the creator '>
Anyone with too much sparetime? '>

               
               

               

                     Modifié par TheOneBlackRider, 21 avril 2012 - 08:50 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_TheOneBlackRider]

               Yep, that walkmesh-change worked! Thanks for the little tutorial.

The tile is walkable, BUT: I still get that "X" for "non walkable" of the cursor IG, when pointing onto that slope-tile.

Any ideas?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               

TheOneBlackRider wrote...

The tile is walkable, BUT: I still get that "X" for "non walkable" of the cursor IG, when pointing onto that slope-tile.

Any ideas?

Likely that is due to having some other missing tiles for that configuration.

Since you are painting a road over a rising piece of ground, you would also need to have the road dead end on the upper section as one tile, and the road dead end on the lower section as one tile.

The toolset MUST see all three types in the tileset.set file or it gives you that red x.  

You could easily duplicate the current tile, entirely, and just rename it and put it into the .set file.

The only change really needed to make that x disappear is for the toolset to see a tile listed correctly.  You can edit that via notepade by changing the 4 sides to properly match up.  IE, top would be set to road, with bottom set to sand.  Next tile would need top set to sand, with bottom set to road.  Then the toolset will behave correctly.

Of course, it means when you go to paint the road, you will end up with very sharp ends of the road since it doesn't have the fade out texture applied to the proper location.

IE, a road end painted on flat sand, sorta fades into the sand. 

Normally, when working on tilesets, it is the little extras that are the pain.

This particular tile you mention has been created and recreated mutliple times over the years by various authors.

CTP has done it in Babylon, but you are not allowed to strip it out, and even if you did, you would have other adjustments to make as well, since CTP raised the tileset in general, and reskinned it with a different sand texture I think.

I know I have this same set of 3 tiles in another Tropical set that was never released, but it also has the base of the entire tileset raised so that nothing drops below zero z, to make shadows work correctly.  Bioware designed their engine to NOT cast shadows below zero z, and this means anything that should cast a shadow down into a pit etc, the shadow gets cut at the zero z level.


Anyway, if you take the texture that is already applied to a standard road end tile, you could paint that texture on top of, or bottom of, the respective NEW tile you duplicated.  Just adjust the tiles entry in the .set file to point to correct setting for the crosser.  Either Top OR Bottom, pointing to Road, with Left and RIght both being empty.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Bannor Bloodfist, 22 avril 2012 - 01:06 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy__six]

               Click & drag the road up the hill, and see what happens.

...it could always be nothing, but there's dozens of tiles even in the standard NWN assets that can only be created via the click & drag method and it amazes me how many people don't even know they exist. A stream going through a wall in the rural winter, for instnace.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheOneBlackRider]

               Thanks!
1. Dissappearing shadow: OK, that z-level explains it. Something new I learned! '> And I won't change anything there. Raising every tile would eat up too mucht time for me ATM.

2. The "x"-issue: Maybe I was not clear: Within the toolset, everything works correctly! When going over the teritory with the road crosser, it gives me green. So all is well here in the toolset.
What I described happenes InGame! As written: The tile works and is also walkabe InGame with your toon. Minimap do show.
BUT: You know, when you use the mouse to walk your toon, you get an arrow-cursor for the direction. If the cursor points upon something, which is not accessable/walkable, it turns into a "X".
Here, in my case, I do have a working walkable slope with the cursor showing the "X" (and here it doesn't even make that "you cannot walk here-sound" when clicking upon the slope. The toon continus walking to the location clicked by the mouse cursor). As soon, as the toon gets of the tile, the cursor turns back into an arrow.
In the end, it's no biggy, since the tile is working and walkable. I was just wondering, what the reason to this may be. (Sorry, I cannot screenshot it, cause the cursor is not captured.)

(P.S. And I won't strip any CTP-contents. '>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par TheOneBlackRider, 22 avril 2012 - 12:42 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

TheOneBlackRider wrote...

Here, in my case, I do have a working walkable slope with the cursor showing the "X" (and here it doesn't even make that "you cannot walk here-sound" when clicking upon the slope. The toon continus walking to the location clicked by the mouse cursor). As soon, as the toon gets of the tile, the cursor turns back into an arrow.

My guess is that you can walk across that tile if you use the aswd keys, but you can't walk onto that tile  from another tile by clicking on it. That is because you probably have a wrong pathnode set for your tile.
That tile should have an A as pathnode and that is a capitalized A because the lower case 'a' pathnode is a different one.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheOneBlackRider]

               I can walk onto it using the keyboard OR by clicking onto the tile (starting from another tile). The slope tile behaves allright, except that the cursor changes into that "X" instead of keeping its arrow shape.
And the pathnode is set to (capital) A (within the .set-file).
...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               Well, I would have to take a look at the tile and the .set file to see then.  It "sounds" like you have everything set correctly, but without checking it myself, I am likely missing something.

One thing you could also try, is if the terrain "hill" you are attempting to add the road to, is available in a grass version, you could simply duplicate it and then re-skin it to sand.

P.S.  You can strip anything you wish out of all the CTP releases EXCEPT Babylon, and the CTP Generic Doors.  I don't have the required permissions from some of the artists involved with those that would allow me to grant rights to Babylon and the Generic Doors, but everything else is fair game.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheOneBlackRider]

               This is not a NWN-tileset. It's still a part of the "seperating Worm's and Sen's awesome Seasonal Forest"-"project" of mine (to reduce the loading time of an area).
Those sand floors/tiles are missing roads and I wanted them to have some roads (to have an alternative to the NWN-desert). So I did take a Worm grass slope tile as a base (adjusting the shape) and added that road plane (with all those troubles I had, which is readable above '>. Somewhere during this process I must have done something to the model, which causes this "X"-issue, because the original grass slope does not have it (of course '>.

Addon: If you start walking towards/onto this slope-tile using the mouse / the arrow cursor and just keep walking on the slope-tile, the cursor stays an arrow. Only if you just point on that tile, it becomes a "X". Clicking, while in X-shape makes the toon walk towards the clicked location (and does NOT give you this "invalid-sound" together with no reaction of the toon).

So, Bannor: Is that an offer?
I mean, I've clearly reached my limits here. The tile is working - not crashing the toolset or game, but something ist not 100% right and I won't be able to fix it with my knowledge.

I'm not out for any credits on this. I just want to have these roads available in that set including a way up to widen the use for these sand-tiles for me (and others). So, if you want to go for it, I would be VERY GLAD, if you would do so (if you have the time and energy). If not, it's ok. It will be as it is, I guess.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par TheOneBlackRider, 24 avril 2012 - 12:54 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <starts getting...>

Bannor Bloodfist wrote...
...
P.S.  You can strip anything you wish out of all the CTP releases EXCEPT Babylon, and the CTP Generic Doors.  I don't have the required permissions from some of the artists involved with those that would allow me to grant rights to Babylon and the Generic Doors, but everything else is fair game.

We can?! Holy moly... I've left all the CTP alone out of respect for the pain and tribulations you went through. Thought it was all off-limits. Heh.

That's fantastic news. Really give Cestus a headstart on the Citadel, the *original* Citadel... when ever he gets around to it <you still haven't told him, old man>
I will. Got to choose the right moment. <when he's drunk?>
Chemically challenged. Not a bad idea, bird.

<...sneaky>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               

TheOneBlackRider wrote...

This is not a NWN-tileset. It's still a part of the "seperating Worm's and Sen's awesome Seasonal Forest"-"project" of mine (to reduce the loading time of an area).
Those sand floors/tiles are missing roads and I wanted them to have some roads (to have an alternative to the NWN-desert). So I did take a Worm grass slope tile as a base (adjusting the shape) and added that road plane (with all those troubles I had, which is readable above '>. Somewhere during this process I must have done something to the model, which causes this "X"-issue, because the original grass slope does not have it (of course '>.

Do the grass slopes have a road on them?

So, Bannor: Is that an offer?
I mean, I've clearly reached my limits here. The tile is working - not crashing the toolset or game, but something ist not 100% right and I won't be able to fix it with my knowledge.

If you can send me a copy of what you have, I will take a look at it.  No promises on fixing it all, but at least maybe I can point you to the issue.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               

Rolo Kipp wrote...

<starts getting...>

Bannor Bloodfist wrote...
...
P.S.  You can strip anything you wish out of all the CTP releases EXCEPT Babylon, and the CTP Generic Doors.  I don't have the required permissions from some of the artists involved with those that would allow me to grant rights to Babylon and the Generic Doors, but everything else is fair game.

We can?! Holy moly... I've left all the CTP alone out of respect for the pain and tribulations you went through. Thought it was all off-limits. Heh.

That's fantastic news. Really give Cestus a headstart on the Citadel, the *original* Citadel... when ever he gets around to it <you still haven't told him, old man>
I will. Got to choose the right moment. <when he's drunk?>
Chemically challenged. Not a bad idea, bird.

<...sneaky>

Just be aware that all of the CTP tilesets have been raised by at least 1 meter, meaning they will NOT auto-align with any Bioware original tiles.  

You can adjust this in 3dsmax (possibly gmax, but I have not tested it) with the LOK Lifter by Danmar.  Also note that the lifter is not buggy, but you MUST pay attention to what you are doing with it.  It can raise or lower the entire tile, but you must select the tile base and ONLY the tile base, to use it.  You can also only have ONE tile loaded to get it to work correctly.  Note that anything that is 'hidden' may or may not move, so be really careful with that.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Bannor Bloodfist, 24 avril 2012 - 06:20 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               

Bannor Bloodfist wrote...

You can adjust this in 3dsmax (possibly gmax, but I have not tested it) with the LOK Lifter by Danmar.  Also note that the lifter is not buggy, but you MUST pay attention to what you are doing with it.  It can raise or lower the entire tile, but you must select the tile base and ONLY the tile base, to use it.  You can also only have ONE tile loaded to get it to work correctly.  Note that anything that is 'hidden' may or may not move, so be really careful with that.

VelTools comes with a model lifter which doesn't have any problems with hidden meshes. You also have to select the tile base, enter by how many cm the tile should be raised and press the 'Adjust models' button.
There's also a tool which can mirror a whole model, which works well unless you have parts of the tile linked to an animation node.
The 'Set Vertices -absolute' and 'Get Vertpos/Set Vertpos' tools are also very useful.

So everybody who wants to work with NWmax and hasn't installed Veltools yet, should really take a look at it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               Yes, Veltools is one of my favorite set of tools.  The downside to it's lifter script is that it does NOT ignore hidden objects.  There are many instances where you do not want everything to move, and the LOK Lifter handles that by not moving hidden objects.

There is another difference between them too, but I can't remember which does what.  One physically moves the objects, the other adjusts the tile parent I think.  

I always, ALWAYS have NWMax, Veltools, and Velmar's TSC loaded.  I just manually run the LOK Lifter script when I am doing that specific part of tile adjustment.  One of them causes issues with animation nodes (which are children of the base tile node), the other does not.

I think the LOK Lifter is safer overall though.  At least that is the one that I always use for tile lifting/lowering.  Which doesn't happen all that often anyway.