Twisted DIRT

Moved this topic from the Collaborators forum.

I have created a utility to create the Topdown texture from the MaskMap.  You can just drag the .track file to the shortcut or run CreateTopdown and open the .track file. It reads the .track file for all the overlay textures and then builds the topdown using the MaskMap as a guide on where to place and blend the textures.  You can then either use it as is or render it.  

Caution: It will overwrite the topdown texture that it creates.  It names the topdown the same as your MaskMap texture and appends "_Topdown".  So if your MasMap bmp is called track_detail.bmp, this utility will create/overwrite track_detail_Topdown.bmp.

In order to use this you need to set Overlay_Base, Overlay_R, Overlay_G, and Overlay_B textures in your .track file.

http://twisteddirt.com/reflex/test/Setup_CreateTopDown_v102.zip

UPDATED:

v1.0.2 has a fix dealing with quoted file names when drag/drop is involved.  

NOTE:

If your track folder is inside your "Program Files" folder and you are using Vista/Win 7 then you need to go to the properties of the shortcut, click on the compatibility tab and check the "Run As Administrator" check box.

Sample MaskMap from Valley Ride:



Sample Topdown generated from the MaskMap:



Bruce (DirtTwister)

i used .psd files for all my reflex maps. the reflex compiler likes .psd files but the topdown generator doesnt. i had heaps of problems bith the .bmp files forgetting the alph chanels. but .psd work fine.

is it possable to make the topdown utility recognise these files also?. or does anyone know how to succesfully tranfer from .psd to .bpm.(without losing the alpha channels) i cant seem to do it in photoshop.

also what size files and bit(24?) do you recommend for the topdown utility?

cheers allan

2048x2048 or 1024x1024.   This only works with bmp files.   If it's a 32 bit bmp with alpha the alpha is ignored.

I would think the compiler would have a problem with psd files with layers.  I have never used psd files with the compiler. Everything Laurie and I have worked with together have been bmp files.

BMP files don't forget the alpha.  If you just save a BMP it will not contain an alpha.  To save the Alpha in photo shop you have to select an extended bmp format.  I hae been using DXTBMP to manage my BMP files and Alphas.

ah i see now what i was doing wrong.  the key word is bitmap. photoshop must save its .bmp as an image instead of a bitmap from which it then forgets the alpha and the compiler requires a bitmap not an image.
i had troubles trying to get DXTBMP to work but i found a very simply program that converts .psd files to .bmp. its called image tool and you can get it here.
http://www.pairbus.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=258

what i do is draw everything in photo shop and save it as .psd and when i want to create a topdown i convert the textures and the mask map to .bmp and put them in the compiler and save, now the topdown converter works as it should.

thanks Dirttwister. i now understand .bmp files allot better.

I was talking to Laurie about the compiler and PSD files and he said that he added a Delphi component to the compiler that reads most image formats.  He sent me a list of formats that it says it supports.  Below is all the RGBA file formats that it says it supports.  I included PSD even though it didn't say RGBA, but you said it works.  I'll look into on what it would take to support more formats in the Create Topdown.  It's not written in Delphi so I can't use the same tool.

File formats that support RGBA that the compiler will read.  I would say most of these have been untested as far as the Reflex compiler is concerned.  I personally have only tested bmp files.

   TIFF images (*.tif; *.tiff), extended base line implementation
    SGI images (*.bw, *.rgb, *.rgba, *.sgi)
    Truevision images (*.tga; *.vst; *.icb; *.vda; *.win), write support included
    SGI Alias/Wavefront images (*.rla, *.rpf)
    Standard Windows bitmap images (*.bmp, *.rle, *.dib)
    Photoshop images (*.psd, *.pdd)
    Portable network graphic images (*.png)

thanks thats great information

i just used this utility  to make a softness map. what i did was open a new compiler and put in the mask map for my track . i then put in a softness map .bmp bitmap on the base, red ,green and blue texture channel. i used different softness maps for each channel depending on what that channel done.
i put  a bitmap of red-0, green-0, blue-0, on my blue channel,which is rock so i wanted no deformation. the grass i put red 150, green 150, blue 150 (medium deformation). my base and red was clay so i had 5,5,0 (minimal deformation)
i then saved it and ran the utility. and wola a softness map in a matter of minutes
i assume this will work with other maps also like particle or noise zone  maps

cheers Allan

The issue for the zone maps is that they have to be indexed rgb files, so it would be a matter of how well converting them to indexed would work.  I guess it should be easy to do that and then change the colors as needed, but I've never tried.