A Lil help

[Stevo (A)]

I'm trying to sort out these zone files and so far so bad.
I have run a few tests and so far I'm not sure how I'm doing.

Here's why:
1. I'm not sure what colors do what. although I have a guide (Which needs to be put back up)
2. Some times the zone's work other times they don't.

As the site owner may know there was a help guide to Reflex track making, which was lost due to the dirttwister
forums going down, I would like for that to be re-posted (if it already hasn't).

I also can't seem to get the softness map to work..... As stated in the guide you just change the colors
to suite the deformation but yet it won't take affect..... Why??

[DirtTwister]

The dirttwister forums aren't down.  It is this forum.   I just moved it back to the Twisted DIRT domain when I took over hosting Twisted DIRT.  Since I was hosting Twisted DIRT the wiki could now work properly under the Twisted DIRT domain so it was moved also.  The wiki is here:

https://twisteddirt.bruceatkinson.com/wiki

[DirtTwister]

The wiki needs to be updated.  The zone info changed when the compiler went to 1.07 or 1.08.  Laurie fixed some things in 1.09 and Alan (al167) did a lot of testing.  Here is what he posted on the zone info:

after a lot of testing i came to the conclusion that zones 1 and 2 must be game specific regardless of the track sets used. i think this means they will stay the same no matter what track sets are used with the compiler. zones three and four change with the different track sets. It would be good in the future to have an option to switch between track sets to access different particles/ noises or have  an option to all the particles/ noises in the editor eventually.(probably way too big a job)

also i discovered the particles in zone 3 dont change with the mask map. i tried light colour dirt,grass,rock,dark dirt, wet look(white alpha) the particles didnt change no matter what.

everything is now working properly with version 1.09, but i was having troubes with the particles and sounds not working until i figured out that i had to have an image on all 4 zones to get the particles and sounds to work.
heres what i come up with:- (note some of the info was taken from the wiki as it was correct)

.Zone testing for compiler version 1.09

zone 1 image (8 colours)- slip and reset map.- this seems no different from the current wiki

basically as the index goes from 0 to 5, the sliperyness increases. it starts off really grippy with index 0, and by index 5 its like riding on ice.
index colour 7 is the reset.
index 0 - (black) R0,G0,B0
-very grippy, nearly no slip
index 1 - (red) R128,G0,B0
-still very grippy with ever so slightly more slip than index 0
index 2 - (green) R0,G128,B0
-this is the normal slip for most tracks like Lost Meadow, Moto 448, Grassland, Kingston 1, Manchester 1
index 3 - (yellow) R128,G128,B0
-this is slighty more slip - tracks Kingston 1 - Sand, Sugar Ridge Sand mix of 2 of 3 with 3 being like Splatter Brush
index 4 - (blue) R0,G0,B128
-even more slippery now -  Moto 448 - Water
index 5 - (purple) R0,G0,B128
-very slippery - ice / snow
index 6 - (light blue) R0,G128,B128
-does nothing
index 7 - (grey) R128,G128,B128
-rider position reset- use this to prevent riders cutting the track and cheating.


zone 2 image (4 colours) - drag is increased progressively from index 0 being no drag through to index 3 being full drag
index 0 - (black) R0,G0,B0
-no drag
index 1 - (red) R128,G0,B0
-normal drag
index 2 - (green) R0,G128,B0
-sand/mud
index 3 - (yellow) R128,G128,B0
-super mud/snow - When used on a normal track it feels like you have lost a lot of power

Zone3-(8 colours) particles - mask map does not affect these particles.
index 0 - (black) R0,G0,B0
-combo of brown dirt and grass roost(small spray)
index 1 - (red) R128,G0,B0
-combo of grass and dark dry dirt roost.
index 2 - (green) R0,G128,B0
-big grey rocks and brown mud clumps roost.
index 3 - (yellow) R128,G128,B0
-dark dusty dry roost
index 4 - (blue) R0,G0,B128
-fine water spray.
index 5 - (purple) R0,G0,B128
-no particles
index 6 - (light blue) R0,G128,B128
-grey rocks and grass clippings roost
index 7 - (grey) R128,G128,B128
-big spray of loamy brown dirt


Zone4-(8 colours) sounds
index 0 - (black) R0,G0,B0
-riding over sticks or coarse gravel or dirt
index 1 - (red) R128,G0,B0
-muffled sound like riding on carpet with sticks/gravel/ leaves noises.
index 2 - (green) R0,G128,B0
-water noises - without splashes
index 3 - (yellow) R128,G128,B0
-water noises- with splashes
index 4 - (blue) R0,G0,B128
-no sounds
index 5 - (purple) R0,G0,B128
-no sounds
index 6 - (light blue) R0,G128,B128
-no sounds
index 7 - (grey) R128,G128,B128
-nobbies on plywood or metal, would be good for a freestyle ramp.

Allan

[Stevo (A)]

Thanks heaps buddy. I was unable to find that wiki so I assumed it was lost.
Allan's testing and info is extremely helpful but were he started to talk about the mask
effecting the zone's is were I got slightly confused...... How does the mask effect the zone's???
Other than that I understand the colouring and everything 

*EDIT*
I would also like to know how the shadow mask works.... I haven't got any idea on that
so a little explanation would be greatly appreciated.
Also I don't understand the Ambient Files, ie Reflection map and Spherical Light Map

[al167]

make shure you use version 1.09 of the compiler as the zone files for roost and sounds dont work in version 1.08.

The mask map does NOT affect the zones. it was previosly thought(on the wiki) that the colors of the roost changed depending on the textures you use- but that was wrong. 
dont go off the wiki for the zone files use the info that i put together. the info on the wiki was for a previous version of the compiler and is not correct.

note:  i have found in photoshop that sometimes the colours dont match the index number so check the index number with the colour sampler tool (its under the eye dropper). its the index number that makes the difference not the colours.

dont worry about the spherical light or reflection map as the defaults are fine. (i spent too much time with these with no success) the reflection map is a hdr image that we dont know much obout yet-  i assume it is there mainly for if you have water or puddles that you want to reflect the scenery sourounding it off like a mirror. until we have water or shiny things (both are objects) dont worry about this yet.
The shadow map works i think by masking/filtering the sunlight. draw black where you want a shadow and white where no shadow ( i think its been a while). give it a go anyway . you can use your disp map here too. but i havent used this in any of my tracks.

did you figure out the softness map yet, the wiki explains this well.

glad to see someone else keen to get there tracks looking good!!

cheers allan

[mcm2boys]

To add a bit more info about the shadow map, although i haven't tried playing with this, from the stock tracks it is a disp map with the static objects baked into it. The game uses it to cast shadows on the models in the scene and possibly for self shadowing the terrain.

This will eventually be generated by the editor because i doubt if there is any software out there that can do it for you, but for now the dispmap should work fine because it is at least the right format.

Laurie

[Stevo (A)]

I seem to have got everything working nicely.
Zone's are working great, sound and all.
I do have version 1.09
The softness map works now (I change some formatting)
Yeah all and all I think I got most of it down.

Thank you guys.