texure problem

[mk1]

hi,

i already posted about this problem on the bi forums, but since i didn't get much help from there (yet) i'll give it a try here as well.

my problem is that i've been working on an island with wrptool and decided to make my own textures, which i did. everything seems to be fine in wrptool and even in the ofp editor, but when entered ingame, the joints and some corners of the texures look really weird.

the texture size is 256x256 and they are in .paa format, converted from targa-images.

here are few screenshots to illustrate the problem:

http://personal.inet.fi/private/cassu/screenshot.jpg
http://personal.inet.fi/private/cassu/wrp.jpg
http://personal.inet.fi/private/cassu/wrp2.jpg
http://personal.inet.fi/private/cassu/Editor.jpg

oh, and here's the link to the bi forums thread:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/i ... 39;t=44211


any help would be much appreciated, since otherwise the island is coming along nicely.

[Snake_Man]

Heh thats a difficult thing indeed, I was going to say that the OFP directory pbo of the textures has something funny about it, but heh since it shows the textures ok in OFP mission editor... Hmm.

Frankly, I dont know what causes that. :-/

[ebud]

try converting the textures from paa to pac or pac to paa, whichever they are now just try the other format. Then make sure there isn't an alpha channel in them. I'd just try a few different things and see what happens.

Also try replacing them with default textures to see if the problem continues.

Then maybe try just using one texture at a time and slowly adding them in by hand to see when this happens and which textures are the problem.

[mk1]

i did check that there was no alpha channels and i used a differenet targa->paa converter and a different pbo-compiler, but at least these didn't have any effect.

i placed the textures one by one into a flat island and they all seem to work fine when not connected with each other, so at least the actual files are not corrupted.

i then started making connections betweem certain textures and the problem finally occured. it seems that when certain (i think transition)textures are connected with certain other textures, the problem occurs.

the problem seems to be that these troublesome textures shift graphicly and also the textures next to them. this might be a bit difficult to explain, but a small part of the texture pattern from the opposite side of the texture is shifted to the other end of the texture, like the program would be rotating them around. in other words, the texture is there, but is in a way misplaced to its cell.

now why this happns is beyond me, but the only explanation i can now think of is the incorrect naming. or have i perhaps forgotten some important part of texture process that might be causing this aside from the naming?

i have not imported/exported those files into/from visitor so if there's something that needs to be done to the textures with that program, i might be missing it.

the way i did these was that i had the files as 256x256 targa files and no alpha channels. files are names from 0.tga to 77.tga. i then converted the tga files into .paa files with png2pac (and other variants) using dxt-compression (and also tried other compressions). after that i simple added them to the texture browser of wrptool and placed them all by hand (did not use the transition maker).

next i'm going to try the "correct" naming, but if that doesn't work i'm clueless.

[Planck]

How did you make your transitional textures?

I would suggest that it might be best to let the program make them for you.


Planck

[mk1]

they were already made, since i converted the textures from dds-files into targas. of course, i could always make them again with ofp tools, but is that really necessery if they already exsist?

[Recon]

Hi,

when I made my texturepack I had similar problems.

First; the textures are best in .pac format.

Second: I finally made the transitions with visitor, you also get the naming right then.

Third: texture names have to be as follows:

Base texture: B1 or A3 (seamless texture)

Then a combination of the two is something like: B1A3A3B1

This is because these combined textures are made of four squares meanning that in this example the texture has is build up as follows:

A3 l B1
-------
B1 l A3

So: B1B1A3A3 means:

A3 l A3
-------
B1 l B1

Also note that the names are read the other way in WRPtool, but I have to check that again to verify. Letting Visitor make them for you is making your life a lot easier.

[mk1]

well, i'm "glad" to hear that someone has had the same kind of problem and thanks for the tips guys..

it seems that it'll be a big-ass load of work for me since i have to rename 70+ files, reconvert and place them again. i'll try the things you've suggested as soon as i find the time.

few questions did arise though:

1. what do you suggest i should use for converting the files? i've used png2pac, which ironicly is actually tga2paa .. and that's the only batch tool i know of. or should i just bring targa files to visitor?

2. can i make the texture files in visitor alone? i've tried opening my wrp-island in the program but it didn't open (perhaps due incorrect configuration), so at least i can't place them in that program.

any suggestions?

[Recon]

I strongly suggest that you try to correctly install Visitor (take a look at the official BIS/breathe site for a helpfile)http://www.flashpoint1985.com/breathe
and use it, it will save you a lot of time.

You can also download my texturepack at:http://llw.the-dropzone.net/main/module ... tit&lid=20 so you can take a look at it or use it. Note that it is a 75mb download.

[mk1]

right. this is turning more into a visitor guide now..

anyway, i checked your texture pack and think i got the naming idea correctly. i renamed my own textures in a similar manner so that i now only need the transition textures.

and... i installed visitor and buldozer according to kege's guide. despite numerous attempts to import a wrp file, i still end up getting both programs crashed. i tried all the tricks suggested on the bi forums, but without resuts.

the only solution that i can think of now is that i'll just place the textures on a random island so that the transition texture files are created and then continue placing them to my island in wrptool. thus i wouldn't need to import my island to visitor.

hopefully this'll work, since i'm running out of ideas..

and if someone would explain how do i define the differnece of a base texture and an individual texture? i'm a bit confused with terrain type, surface and texture usage.

[Recon]

a base texture is 1 color, so in my previous example it will be:

B1 l B1
------
B1 l B1

A variant is the same as a base texture with a patch of another color in the middle, so it looks like a crop field or something. But the borders have to be the same as the base. Also the naming is different, instead of B1 you can name it something like Bcrop or Bfield.

[mk1]

yes, but i was just wondering how does one separate them in visitor, or define in visitor that this is an individual texture. just by the name?

well, anyway i managed to create the transitions with visitor and some extra ones too i didn't have before. now i just have to import them to wrptool.

another thing, i noticed a slight loss of detail/resolution in the textures when i imported them via visitor. as if they'd been scaled down in color. is this normal and how can it be avoided if at all?