Landscaping; terrain editing

[genesaika]

I am building a new city and have run into a problem... I can not change the textures of the terrain no matter what I do.

 

I open the landscape editor, ctrl - H, and select the texture I want; then I right click and paint around, but nothing happens.

 

I have tried checking the edit colors box and nothing.

 

I have done everything I can think of.

 

Maybe it is an issue with Vista?

 

Regards,

Gene Saika

[clockout1]

This is an annoying little bug with the CS that seems to be caused by (I think) priority of one land texture over another. The only solution I can think of is to paint random textures till it changes, then use the one you want. When you use certain textures, it will almost reload the edited space, showing all the different textures underneath the default one.

 

Maybe this helps and maybe it doesn't. I've never been good at troubleshooting.

[genesaika]

Thank You,

 

That helped for now, But even doing that half of the textures don't work

 

Regards,

Gene Saika

[David Brasher]

There are very low limits to how many textures you can use in one cell. I think you can only have eight. If you want a different texture than those eight, you will have to remove one of your textures.

 

But alas, it is not easy like that. That one texture you want to remove is probably spread all throughout the whole cell. So what I do is make my brush as huge as possible, set opacity to 100, and paint the whole cell in one texture. Then I go back and paint it again with the textures I want. It is sort of a pain. but I haven't heard of an easier way.

 

It is helpful to turn on the cell boundary lines. (Hot key "B") This will help you paint the entire cell and not miss a spot. Remember that you may not edit the cells at the edge of the 5 x 5 area which the CS displays. You will have to move to display a different 5 x 5 area to edit the edges.

[genesaika]

David,

 

Thank you for your advise, but it wouldn't let me paint any of the terrain in the 5 x 5 areas...

 

I did get it to let me paint about half of one of them though, which leads me to my next problem.

 

At about the middle of some of those 5 x 5's the texture changes and it is at those points that i seem to be having trouble.

 

Regards,

Gene Saika

[Vagrant0]

I'm honestly disappointed with some of you...

 

To answer the question, you might want to read this tutorial.

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index...rrain_Texturing

 

in particular

When fine-tuning your landscape texturing, it's handy to know about the "i" hotkey. While working in the Render Window, press i to bring up the Cell Textures by Quad window. This window contains information about textures in the cell currently being edited (the one where your red cursor is seen), allowing you to easily analyze the density of particular textures, and by proxy; grass density. Reducing texture count and/or grass density is a good way to improve performance if you're having trouble optimizing an exterior area.

 

Pressing "i" will show all the textures used by a cell listed by quad. You can either replace textures with a low coverage with the same texture that has a higher coverage (freeing up the cell to have more textures), or change them to match the texture you want to use and now be able to paint freely.

 

Although David's advice was kinda right, he forgot to mention that you should use a texture which is already present in every one of those cells to paint over them and start fresh if you've already hit the limit. Once past the limit, even if you paint at 100 opacity, you can't add another texture to that cell quad. You can pick a texture from what is within that cell by pressing ctrl + right clicking on the texture you want to use.

[genesaika]

Thank you, Vagrant.

 

I do remember reading that now... i guess being sick is effecting me more then i would like it to.

 

My problem is now fixed.

 

Regards,

Gene Saika

[David Brasher]

I'm honestly disappointed with some of you...

 

So Vagrant0 is honestly disappointed with me. These broad shoulders can bear it. I bear him no ill will. I do not claim to be any sort of an expert, but if I can provide information that can get people closer to solving their problems, then I feel like I am making a difference. My information may not be the best information, but if few people have responded yet, at least my information is something to work with.

 

About the textures not showing up when you try to paint them: Beware of steep hills. Some textures are only for relatively flat surfaces. This is in addition to not being able to paint the cells on the edges of the 5x5 visible map, and not being able to paint a new texture after you reach the limit for the cell.

 

Follow Vagrant0's advice. It is good advice.

[Vagrant0]

I'm honestly disappointed with some of you...

 

So Vagrant0 is honestly disappointed with me.

Well, I didn't mean anything bad by it, I was just surprised that none of the responses before mine even mentioned how the texture limit is handled. I don't always have time to go into explaining everything about an answer, so when I don't, I usually leave it to one of the other reasonably knowledgeable people on the forums to respond to. Usually it gets solved before I have a chance to respond, or atleast put on a good track toward being solved. Although what you said was still reasonably good advice, it did however seem to be moving things down the wrong track. No offense intended, please forgive my ego. Your continued efforts are appreciated.

[David Brasher]

I am really glad that the forums have you, Vagrant0. You provide so many good answers on so many topics and are willing to devote so much time and effort to your job. Sometimes I read your answers and jot down notes.

 

Next time I am painting exterior terrain, I will have to examine the interface more closely and use your suggestion.