GP4 Track Editing - new new thread

I have yet another question

When I'm using texture browser with the gp4 file, the textures are the ones that were in the wad. Is there anyway of redirecting the texture browser to look for the tga files in a completely new folder, or even adding about 100 textures in one go? As far as I can work out, I can only get new textures in by renaming existing ones, and if I'm replacing a lot that could take time

Cheers for any help

_________________________________________________

For a list of EVERY download for GP4, look here: [docs.google.com]

The Builder can open any texture that is the same folder as the .gp4 file that you are working on. This is the way it’s designed. Alternatively, you can export and import a gp4 file and the textures will be added on import. The new (.tga) must be in same file folder as the .gp4 file that you are working on, or add them one at a time as needed. It is not necessary to rename the original textures to replace them with the new textures.

You can use the textures from any wad, simply drop them into the same folder as the .gp4 file that you are opening and add them as you choose to use some. If you modify the texture melborne2001_page_008 (example to change the colour), remember that at some point the original artist built it, so in that case, you can change the name to melborne2001_page_008b.

Just copy and paste the name into the Add New Texture field. If you would like to use a texture you created, name it so you can identify the new texture in a list ConcreteWall_01 for example

It still would be more usefull for builder to look at seperate folders for textures, then you wouldn't get a 300mb + wad when compressing folder.....I did request this feature, maybe on the to-to list ?
Or better still.......a filter in easywad to select which files are included in compression.?

F1Dev

@Truecrysis : I can see what you mean...I will add to this to the todo list...Adding a batch of names is easy but I don't know yet how it could be done cleverly.

@ramf1fv : how come your wad would be 300mb ? what do you want to separate ? I remind someone asked for loading textures from a different folder than the .gp4 one but I don't remind the exact details right now (I'm pretty sure it's on the todo list though)

@lo2k

300mb was just an example , As you know Builder only displays TGA's that are in the track folder, so when you compress folder to wad it compresses everything.
When experimenting and testing new textures, the track folder can get very big and cluttered with WIP textures etc.

I think it was me who suggested the seperate folder in the dev forum, it would make life much easier if when I compressed to wad, the only files being compressed were the ones needed.

eg: TGA's are in one folder, (a development folder).......or better still sub-folders, so I could have my development folder, and within that, sub-folders containing specific areas of the track.

Dev Folder > Track Textures Folder
..................> Grass Textures Folder
..................> Crowd Textures Folder
..................> Building Textures Folder
..................> .....etc

GP4 Builder could read these folders and display the textures, but the track folder still only contains TEX/Track files. When I'm happy with a texture I can covert to TEX with the "Use Output Path" pointing to the track folder.
This keeps my track folder nice and clean.

F1Dev

Hmm... I try to follow your workflow and I'm not saying you might change it but I would just point 2 things :
- "the track folder can get very big and cluttered with WIP textures etc."
There's an app... errr, I mean a feature in GP4Builder for that (removing useless texture files from the folder).

- " but the track folder still only contains TEX/Track files"
Hmm, on my side I always keep all the wad files (tex, gp4 and so on) in a folder and I extract all .tga files (from .tex) in a subfolder where I copy the .gp4/.bin/.dat/.col.
this way I work on tga files in the sub folder (without .tga sorting subfolders I admit) and when needed I update tex files in the main folder. And when I want to recreate the track wad, I just have to move the subfolder elsewhere to get a clean folder ready to be reconverted in the track .wad

I will think about your workflow though...





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2012 06:51PM by Lo2k.

Lo2k Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hmm... I try to follow your workflow and I'm not
> saying you might change it but I would just point
> 2 things :
> - "the track folder can get very big and cluttered
> with WIP textures etc."
> There's an app... errr, I mean a feature in
> GP4Builder for that (removing useless texture
> files from the folder).

Yes, but the textures aren't useless


> - " but the track folder still only contains
> TEX/Track files"
> Hmm, on my side I always keep all the wad files
> (tex, gp4 and so on) in a folder and I extract all
> .tga files (from .tex) in a subfolder where I copy
> the .gp4/.bin/.dat/.col.
> this way I work on tga files in the sub folder
> (without .tga sorting subfolders I admit) and when
> needed I update tex files in the main folder. And
> when I want to recreate the track wad, I just have
> to move the subfolder elsewhere to get a clean
> folder ready to be reconverted in the track .wad


Yes, an obvious method, but not exactly streamlined, and very repetative when testing textures and animations.
I do like to iron out avoidable/unnecessary steps, It's very noticable when making new crowd animations, there's a lot of work involved and I guess the "extra" steps just wear me down.
Espescially when I run the game, and realize I've forgotten one of them

F1Dev

Hi there, long time no see here at this thread...


Lo2k, a doubt: why pitverge.bin is above .gp4 pit meshes? Is it some feature I still don´t know at GP4Builder?


r@m, here my work flow:

1. Generate tga files on a subfolder (texresizer)
2. Copy files to .gp4 folder and delete tga subfolder
3. edit tgas which are inside .gp4 folder
4. once everyone is edited, I regenerate all tga files on a subfolder( texresizer)
5. Copy new tga files over edited ones inside .gp4 folder
6. delete tga files and subfolder
7. generate wad file

If you wanna save some time, do not delete new tga subfolder on item 4 when creating wad file. Just cut them to another place and use them when it´s necessary.

@Gildoorf : I just checked and both .gp4 and .bin pitverges generated meshes are at the same altitude (there's indeed a difference of 0.005m but it can't be noticeable) .





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2012 09:45AM by Lo2k.

@Lo2k: Sorry mate, I still think it´s a problem if one can´t see textures applied to pitlane verges and banks since bin files are over it in game.

It looks a little bit worse in the rain.

@Auscain : This is not pitverge.bin mesh that you can see in your screen. This is usual pitlane/tarmac interaction.

Lo2k: Thank you for the response. I'm quite familiar with what the pitlane and track look like ingame as I have used it for over 10 years. It's the part at the top of the screen that I'm concerned about. In-game the in the dry the part is light brown. I've tried adjusting the Heights with the .dat and also the .gp4 part, to no avail. It looks like it's coming from the track R bank. That part is actually moved to match the outside of the pitlane instead of laying under the pitlane. I'm not overly concerned about it. I just believed it may be the same problem as gildoorf.

Moving on to other things, in regard to previous discussions with ramf1v, would it be possible for the GP4uilder to just lode all .tga files contained in the file that the .gp4 is in?
Other than that, a window with in the Builder to search and import .tga's option. These were two ideas that I believe may be useful

Hmm, That's my bad if my answer sounded dumb because yes, I know you're in the community for long and that you are surely fully aware of such track troubles...
What I meant is that the most part of your image was showing usual track pitlane interaction, and not anything pitverge.bin related. (Hope it sounds a little better)

I can now see that what you were pointing is in fact at the top right of your screen...
If I see clearly (but I don't quite see clearly on your screen), it looks like the usual trouble I got with recent F1virtual tracks : first or last pitlane sector is simply missing in game. Thus no jip mapping and sometimes we can see trough the mesh, thus the greenish tint here (for wet) or brown one (for dry). If you delete some faces from a verge or bank, you will see through the mesh too and see the exact same colour wich is a base colour drawn under horizon.
I dealt with these cases a few times already without any real solution so far.
I'm reading your answer again and wonder what's linked to track R bank... it could be another hint to find what's happening here.

Concerning textures :
Loading all tgas... hmm, if I follow Ram example he surely has a few wip tga textures as grass samples and such and I doubt it would be very usefull to load them all. Moreover, all texure shown in Texture Browser are texture with their names saved in the .gp4...A solution to load a folder of .tga sounds interersting but I have to think about it.
A window to search and import a tga... because you don't know it's name and thus using the new texture button is a pain ? well, yep, I could use a classic open window instead of the simple "enter your tga name" box.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2012 11:11PM by Lo2k.

I'm not sure what is meant by "Loading All TGA's", I thought they already were in the texture browser.

Browsing for tga's would be a cool addition to the Material Editor.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how possible would it be for imported 3ds to display their textures automatically and not have to re-assign ?

I'm hoping seperate tga folders is easy for you to implement.

F1Dev

Quote

Truecrysis When I'm using texture browser with the gp4 file, the textures are the ones that were in the wad. Is there anyway of redirecting the texture browser to look for the tga files in a completely new folder, or even adding about 100 textures in one go?

The idea of loading all tgas in the gp4 folder (and in this case they would be unassigned to the gp4 parts) goes back to the above question April05.
I'm not sure it's the best or most convenient solution as it would be a lot to browse through potentially.

Quote

ramfivI'm hoping seperate tga folders is easy for you to implement.

I'm also hoping this can be done.

Lo2k: I see that I may have neglected to answer your question regarding what is linked to the R bank. I will have a look into this again. I did replace the track texture that I removed that was hidden by the pit lane and there was no change in-game. The problem persists. It is in fact R verge just to be clear. Also the pitlane extends for six or seven more sectors after the problem. As I mentioned previously, I'm not overly concerned. At 300kmh on track, it is only a flash. It's just one of those interesting problems.

I was wondering if you were able to include the verge in the track mesh overlay(.bin)? I realise it would cause a problem with the sidelines.

I have a new question: Is it possible to move the track heat haze? At the end of the straight, it is about 2m to the left causing a strange effect on the edge, reflecting a tree. I moved everything to line up with the original Melbourne circuit so I can use the start lights. I'm aware that we have an editor for that now.

I found the heat haze and moved it to Sector 72 X Y Z coordinates. It works thanks I found something you wrote in 2004, Lo2k, and the funny thing is that I probably read it then also

@Ramf1v : Actually, GP4B loads all tga files CALLED by the .gp4 file.
What I meant by "loading all tga" is loading tga names of files from a folder to add these names to the .gp4 texture list (and thus GP4Browser) and made them appliable to any existing object. It's what I believe truecrysis wanted to have at the top of this page.

Browsing for tga when creating a new tex only needs to use a classic "Open" window with any icon size display offered by windows. This might be done. It just helps to figure the name of the tga you want to load but it's ok with me. I added it to the todo list.

You don't have to reassign textures to imported .3ds as long as texture names are 8 characters long...that's 3ds limitation. I can't do anything for this. I tricked this a little anyway and if you use page_xxx name, it will acquire the name of opened track. (IE I import a .3ds file into monaco2001.gp4 and this .3ds has a texture named page_012, then final name will be monaco2001_page_012.tga...calling for a usual track texture name in the monaco folder).

I don't know for separate folders...
I could set a .gp4 path and a separate .tga path but you might have to change tga path each time you open a new track .gp4...
looking into all subfolder is also possible...

@Auscain : Yep, pitlane verges are also converted to .bin now.

And yep, heat haze are defined as text in the .hze file as you discovered digging into the dark and old side of the forum :p





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 10:39PM by Lo2k.

Quote
Lo2k
What I meant by "loading all tga" is loading tga names of files from a folder to add these names to the .gp4 texture list (and thus GP4Browser) and made them appliable to any existing object. It's what I believe truecrysis wanted to have at the top of this page.

I see, this reminds me of a tool I use in Max.... Relink Bitmaps

[www.scriptspot.com]

It reads the texture names from the meshes in the scene, and fixes to paths to any that are missing. I don't think loading "All" tga's is a good idea, but if you meant loading all used or referenced / called textures in the scene, then yes that would be cool.

Quote
Lo2k
You don't have to reassign textures to imported .3ds as long as texture names are 8 characters long...that's 3ds limitation. I can't do anything for this. I tricked this a little anyway and if you use page_xxx name, it will acquire the name of opened track. (IE I import a .3ds file into monaco2001.gp4 and this .3ds has a texture named page_012, then final name will be monaco2001_page_012.tga...calling for a usual track texture name in the monaco folder).

Good to know thx

Quote
Lo2k
I could set a .gp4 path and a separate .tga path... looking into all subfolder is also possible...

This would also be very cool. Using the conventional track .tga naming method : monaco2001_page_012.tga etc. can be difficult keeping track of what texture is what, but with sub-folders they can be placed in Concrete, Track, Grass, Buildings etc. It would be a very neat feature.

Thanks for your efforts.

F1Dev

i just worked on it and thus GP4Builder will load .tga files from .gp4 folder AND all sub-folders in next revision.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2012 09:41AM by Lo2k.