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Default Combat Flight Simulator scenery is built using a clever scheme that holds the description of the texture type in the texture's file name. The scenery is built using exactly 294 "synthetic landscape" sceneries. These 294 textures are divided into exactly 8 landscape groups. I have looked at the groups and decided to name them in the following way:
This nomenclature has also been adopted by CFS landscape designer CFSTmap, by Martin Wright. These names do not necessarily need to be used, but they are recommended for the purpose of standardizing. You may wish to rename them in TerraBuilder to whatever language you wish. Next, each landscape group has several variations of the textures:
So, for instance, Water landscape group has only one texture that represents only water. There are, however, several water textures that represent the transition into other landscape groups. Why is this approach significant? In the "old style" FS98 scenery, all landscape features had a definite edge, bound by the polygon they were represented in. For instance, in FS98 scenery, islands were defined with a polygon that would have a sharp transition to water. Or, urban areas would be defined in the same way, with the sharp transition from the farmland. On the other hand, scenery designed with these "synthetic" transitional textures appear to have no seams (or edges) while transitioning from one landscape type to the other. The resulting effect is a much more realistic, pseudo-photo look to the scenery. The rules that describe the nomenclature of the CFS textures are as follows: Format: aabbccNd.bmp
So, for instance:
As it stands now, this system can support up to 99 landscape classes with all its transitional derivatives. TerraBuilder uses this logic and dissects the texture name to decide where it belongs. When SynthWizard builds a scenery, it decides what textures should be placed next to each other so that there are no visible seams, based on the naming rules outlined above. Also, when editing a scenery, user is able to replace a certain texture by another. TerraBuilder automatically matches the surrounding textures to fit the new selection. For instance, suppose a landscape is built using all FOREST landscape type (heavily forested area with occasional clearing). Then It is decided that a small urban area is needed. A chunk (single SynthWizard Texture area) is selected. Next, an URBAN landscape tile is selected from the lst of all available textures. SynthWizard automatically adjusts 8 surrounding textures to seamlessly fit to the chosen texture. Multiple chunks can also be selected and this operation performed on a wide area. Using this system, it is also possible to introduce extended landscape sets. TerraBuilder has done so, introducing Rock set (08) and Snow set (09). These sets also include transition versions into appropriate landscape types. These sets are now available for a free download from TerraBuilder site. Finally, TerraBuilder has also introduced seasonal versions of all 294 default textures and all extended sets. Plus, for all textures that include water surface, special versions of the winter textures have been created, that have all the water surfaces covered with ice. These texture sets are also available for a free download from TerraBuilder web site.
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