fourth thought .. sounds like talk to myself.
i did some test about "seperating 2d and 3d war" - the result is NO GO.
Appearantly falcone terrain/campaign engine is tightly linked- 2D and 3D world are linked - and the junction file is THR !!!
THR is NOT a simplified map, it's a REAL digitized terrain converted from Texture.bin and theater.l2,
and MOST of all, THR file is used for BOTH 2D and 3D world!! ( one THR, called for both 2d and 3d ! ).
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My failure test on "seperate 2d/3d world - abstract fast highway" [ Island to Island theaters ]:
- i pick Kurile theater, use TerranView, i pave a new road with plain-road tiles, linking south end of CIS Kurile island and NW end of CIS-occupied Hokkaido land. i run THR creator to generate a new THR.
- i use TacEdit to open save0.cam, load NEW THR, yes it shows a NEW road connecting the two islands. i create new OBJ link, move obj to align along the road and get LOW move cost. i move some CIS GUs to this sea-road for test.
- in 2D map, run at 64x time compression. yes, GUS moving along the new sea-road back to Kurile. it proves this new road work and can move at high speed.
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n192 ... 6/wwww.jpg
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n192 ... 1fwdsf.jpg
- now come to the poor part. in 3D world, i see NEW road tiles connecting the island. I assumed tweaked THR is only for 2d world, but it also affect 3D world! i test in 3D with original Theater.L2 and sea-road-tweak-Theater.l2, the result is the same. SO, ONE THR is for both 2D and 3D world.
-BTW when paving roads in sea tile, it also affects all shared sea tiles.. i knew, the sector must be splited via TerrainView.
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Though the "seperate 2d/3d world " test is not very successful, it does bring some conclusions:
- Creating new " fast highway" is doable, but it should match in both 2D and 3D world. so, creating a [Poti tunnel for Georgia theater] is doable.. the major difference from Kurile test is, its elevation should be flattened to achieve low move cost ( kurile one is sea level =0). Also in 3D world it will look like a deep valley running thru moutains.
- Since THR presents precisely every bit of terrain, Placing obectives and obj-linking line on [THR-Relief map roads] precisely is very important!! The more precise you place, the more closer you follow the tortuous road data on THR-relief map, the LOWER move cost you get!! That's why you have to add junction type obj to help shaping obj-linking lines!
- For kurile/ island-island type SEA-road idea, it's still doable - if somebody still insist on such bulky, continous flow of GUs as amphibous landing.
The solution is [ creating a NEW set of plain-road tiles, but all painted as generic SEA texture. no road texture, but have road definition on tiles ]. The new tiles allow GU to move along invisible roads, but look like generic sea tile. In this way, it fits 2D world functionality, and fits 3d world visual effect. The only thing to noted is, Shared sea tile sectors should be splited via TerrainView, or ALL other normal sea tiles will be affected.