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[slipper]

Hi all

I am having a bit of a play around adding textures to an existing map by editing the map_t file in Gimp, following the great information here.

So far so good, i have managed to 'paint' new textures using layers to the map_t, and it seems to be working fine.

I have a question though, and i can not seem to find an answer to. The map i am editing is quite large, and the way i am texturing it above is very time consuming, so i was wondering if someone could explain to me if it is possible, in Gimp, to randomly place certain RGB valued tiles onto a layer? so that a non repeating texture is applied to a map.

I am not that familiar with Gimp, as i am just starting to learn, so could any explanation be step by step if possible please?

Out of interest how do others go about texturing a large land mass using a range of different RGB values?

Thanks for any help

regards

slipper

[tabbycat]

Hi slipper

I had similar thoughts about randomising texture tiles - I've tried some experiments using the 'noise' filter in Gimp - not 100% successful yet and still needing further work, but fortuately I kept notes on what I was doing; so if you want to try it out, here is my procedure:

IMPORTANT: first make a backup copy of your current map_t.tga

Bear in mind that my own map_t was originally produced in microDEM and textured initially according to height bands. I subsequently split the RGB values each into their own layer in GIMP and saved the result as a .xcf file (GIMP's native format) to preserve the layers - this enables saving intermediate test versions as .tga, but retains the original layered version to return to at any time. Having the RGB values split into their own layers makes the following pocedure posible:

map_T.xcf

1. Make only the required texture layer visible (click the 'eye' icons to turn-off other layers)
3. With the texture layer set active use the 'Select by colour' tool to select the texture area
4. Filters > Noise > HSV Noise
5. In the Noise dialogue, set Holdness: 5, Hue: 180, Saturation: 127, Value: 127 & click OK
6. Colour > Threshold
7. In the Threshold dialogue, enter '1' in the left box and '255' in the right box, then OK
8. Copy this layer, set it active and make it the only layer visible.
9. Ue the 'Select by colour' tool to select the WHITE areas.
10. Hit the 'delete' key to make the selection transparent.
11. Select the BLACK areas
12. Bucket-fill with the RGB value of your chosen texture.
13. Select > none
14. Make the previous layer active and the only layer visible.
15. Select the BLACK areas
16. Hit the 'delete' key to make the selection transparent.
17. Select the WHITE areas.
18. Bucket-fill with the RGB value of your chosen second texture.
19. Restore visibility to all other required layers
20. Flatten layers and save as map_T.tga - remember to UNcheck the RLE compression box

Test the result.

If nothing else, the above might give you a starting point for further experimentation and I'll be very interested to hear how you get on; so please let me know

Terry

[slipper]

tabbycat

Thanks for this mate, i'm brand new to editing maps so this should be a great help.

Just had a quick go but i must have messed up somewhere along the line as my map_t.tga ended up ~28mb as opposed to ~9mb for the previous one, could follow the steps fine i think except for the select 'WHITE' and 'BLACK' areas, i think this is where i went wrong.

in step 9 i have a black area, a highlighted area, and the rest of the screen is checkered in two tone grey, is this the White you are refering to?

Cheers again

regards

slipper

[tabbycat]

Further to my PMs, here are some screenshots of the procedure:

After step #1:


Step #5:


After step #5:


After step #7:


After step #9:


After step #11:


Hope this makes things a little clearer .......
 

[mandrill]

Slipper, I do it the hard way with a decade old version of PSP. I load up the map_t and use a colour replacement tool to dot areas of 255 (pure white) all over the place on my base shade (usually pure black 0). When it looks reasonably covered, I again use the colour replace tool to convert the white 255 to whatever shade of dark grey triggers the variation texture that I want to introduce. Mind numbingly boring, but simple. And works.

[slipper]

mandrill

cheers mate, yeah thats what i have been doing mate, like you said really boring but probably gives the better looking maps. Thanks for your reply

slipper