Discussion Tile making

[LordCroussette]

I've just discovered that we can make custom tiles of level less than 11. To test it I've made a surf tile of level 10. It's very useful if we make a big surface area and want the custom tiles don't differ (using transparent/blurred edges) from the default global surface textures (tiles)! I think that's really wonderful! And will help me in making a pretty big surface area of Kyiv with three airports. It will cover two tiles of level 13:

View attachment 34738

You can make tiles of all levels. Even L1 if you wanted! (Not that we'd really see it since you would need to be really zoomed out for it to show up.

 

[N_Molson]

The whole texture systems work as a hierarchical "tree", with each branch giving birth to 4 smaller ones. So you need 4x level 2 tiles to cover the surface of 1x level 1 tile, and so on...

 

[misha.physics]

I'm searching a better way for a smoothly transition between highly and low detailed textures.

I have the custom highly and default low detailed tiles:



And I would like to make a smoothly transition between them, for exapmle, on the one side. I put them on top of each other (as laeyrs), make "Match Color", set "Fade", then add a layer mask and use "Gradient tool" for edge transparency. But nevertheless the result is not very good, especially when zooming in (last image). So, maybe there is a way to improve this (Even using programs other than Photoshop if necessary.)



What I don't like in my attempt is transparency. I think about some blur with variable pixelization (if it's possible to do). I think the "Edge Blend" function in @jarmonik TerrainToolBox works better.

So, maybe someone can suggest some other ways for colour matching and making a smoothly transition between high and low textures as best as possible.

 

[LordCroussette]

I'm searching a better way for a smoothly transition between highly and low detailed textures.

I have the custom highly and default low detailed tiles:

View attachment 34839View attachment 34840

And I would like to make a smoothly transition between them, for exapmle, on the one side. I put them on top of each other (as laeyrs), make "Match Color", set "Fade", then add a layer mask and use "Gradient tool" for edge transparency. But nevertheless the result is not very good, especially when zooming in (last image). So, maybe there is a way to improve this (Even using programs other than Photoshop if necessary.)

View attachment 34841View attachment 34842

What I don't like in my attempt is transparency. I think about some blur with variable pixelization (if it's possible to do). I think the "Edge Blend" function in @jarmonik TerrainToolBox works better.

So, maybe someone can suggest some other ways for colour matching and making a smoothly transition between high and low textures as best as possible.

Assuming you aren't making tiles that are bigger than 1024x1024, you could just do something like this, y'a know.

A progressive change between each level. The base itself is high-res (like L19) but the further you go away, the less detailed things are. But it's progressive, so you don't have a stark contrast between like L18 and L13. That's how I (and many others) do bases (unless they are islands).

 

[misha.physics]

@LordCroussette, thank you, I really should try this way!

Yes, now I'm using only 512x512 tiles, because it's a golden mean between flickering and detalization for this D3D9 settings:



By the way what's the reason you mean for this?:

Assuming you aren't making tiles that are bigger than 1024x1024

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P.S. Does anyone know a solution to this feature?:

 

[LordCroussette]

P.S. Does anyone know a solution to this feature?:

View attachment 34851

That's honestly the first time I'm seeing this lol. Probably a D3D9 issue rather than a tile/base issue.

 

[misha.physics]

Now I know how to manually edit water masks and night lights. One of the airports in Kyiv:

 

[misha.physics]

I just thought maybe someone has seen somewhere highly detailed night maps (with night lights) of cities (at least for one), which (maps) could be used for mask tiles (for the RGB channel)?