Flatten tool not working right?

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Wolfsong73
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Flatten tool not working right?

Post by Wolfsong73 » 2015-01-06, 15:09

This is my first post ever on these forums, so... Hi everyone :)

I just downloaded Cafu last night to check it out, and have to say I'm pretty impressed! All the tools seem very straight-forward, and within a short period of time I was able to throw together a basic little level (well, really a room with some patch/bezier surfaces, some lights and a small terrain area outside.

Being a creative type, it's always nice to find an engine where the creator(s) have built an intuitive editor where you can just open it up and start going, and everything works pretty much as you'd expect it to, or requires very little "fiddling" to figure out.

It's amazing how many engines (even some of the AAA ones) can't seem to get this part right, and provide an editing environment that is cumbersome and unintuitive to use.

So, kudos on that!

I haven't dug into more advanced things yet, but I intend to later today (have work soon).

I am running into a problem with terrain, however. The Flatten tool isn't doing what it's described to in the documentation. Rather than flattening all areas to an "average" height, it's lowering everywhere beneath the brush down to 0 height (black on the heightmap), so it's acting more like a fast lowering tool, than a flattening tool.

Is there a problem with this tool, or is there some trick to using it?

Thanks for any help!
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Carsten
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Re: Flatten tool not working right?

Post by Carsten » 2015-01-06, 18:01

Hi Wolfsong73,
welcome to the Cafu forums! :welcome:
Wolfsong73 wrote:Being a creative type, it's always nice to find an engine where the creator(s) have built an intuitive editor where you can just open it up and start going, and everything works pretty much as you'd expect it to, or requires very little "fiddling" to figure out.
:thanks:
I am running into a problem with terrain, however. The Flatten tool isn't doing what it's described to in the documentation. Rather than flattening all areas to an "average" height, it's lowering everywhere beneath the brush down to 0 height (black on the heightmap), so it's acting more like a fast lowering tool, than a flattening tool.

Is there a problem with this tool, or is there some trick to using it?
This sounds like a bug, and I will get back to it later today and see if I can reproduce it.

In the meanwhile, can you please tell which version of Cafu you are using (recent source code, binary release of 2013-04-27, binary release 12.05, ...)?
Best regards,
Carsten
Wolfsong73
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Joined:2015-01-06, 14:59

Re: Flatten tool not working right?

Post by Wolfsong73 » 2015-01-06, 19:09

Hi there,

Thank you for the follow-up!

Sure, the version I'm using is the Windows Development release, linked on the Downloads page.

Cafu-bin-2013-04-27-9e48f96-win32.zip

I can get more specific information when I get back to my own computer, but I'm pretty sure that should provide what you're looking for.

Thanks!
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Carsten
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Re: Flatten tool not working right?

Post by Carsten » 2015-01-06, 22:35

Hi Wolfsong73,

ok, I just tried to reproduce this in example map BPRockB, which comes along with a small outdoor terrain.

Did you try setting a reference value for the tool, using the Alt key as described at The Flatten Tool?

In my recent test, the tool behaved just as documented: When I press the Alt key, the terrain cursor changes from a red circle to a blue "+". A click into the terrain at a place with the desired (reference) height then selects this height for further operations of the tool (there is no visual confirmation that a new reference height has been picked up, though). Thereafter, upon releasing the Alt key again, back with the normal red circle cursor, I can flatten the terrain to the previously set height.

Does this work for you?

(I agree that this is not very intuitive though, and should somehow be improved... Just a thought, for example: we could (optionally) make the eyedropper an explicit tool, and visually indicate the current reference height by a small color field in the dialog...)
Wolfsong73 wrote:Sure, the version I'm using is the Windows Development release, linked on the Downloads page.

Cafu-bin-2013-04-27-9e48f96-win32.zip

I can get more specific information when I get back to my own computer, but I'm pretty sure that should provide what you're looking for.
Yes, thanks. I was asking because if this was a bug and I fixed it, I was wondering how we would best ship the fixed version to you. Of course, a new binary release is overdue, but creating one requires (for me) a lot more effort than just pushing the updated source code into the central Git repository. But we can still worry about this once we got to the bottom of the original problem. :up:
Best regards,
Carsten
Wolfsong73
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Joined:2015-01-06, 14:59

Re: Flatten tool not working right?

Post by Wolfsong73 » 2015-01-07, 03:27

Okay, so I gave it another go, and this time it worked. Last night, I was doing the alt-click thing to get the height... but it wasn't working. Now it is. So... I have no idea what was going wrong last night.

That said.. I do have another question... How do I light the terrain? I've looked for lighting settings in the editor, perhaps a 'sun' or 'infinite light' entity, but saw nothing. I also did a google search and found a result that said something about the skybox controlling outdoor lighting, as long as you have the lighting set as part of the compile process. I set that up, but it still remains full-bright.

How do you render lighting on the terrain mesh?

Thanks again!
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Carsten
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Re: Flatten tool not working right?

Post by Carsten » 2015-01-07, 18:18

Hi Wolfsong73,
Wolfsong73 wrote:That said.. I do have another question... How do I light the terrain? [...]

How do you render lighting on the terrain mesh?
Unfortunately, the current situation is still as described in this post:
http://www.cafu.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5160#p5160

I honestly wonder why we did not at least make this configurable in the past... if you want me to, I can have a look into it over the weekend and see where it gets us. No promises, though, as I have a lot of other high-priority work to account for first. Generally, if possible, it would be great if you could have a look into this yourself, any help is very much appreciated. :cheesy:
Best regards,
Carsten
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