Creating the Terrain

Important: before continuing, save your scenario, exit the editor, then re-load your scenario in the editor using the “Edit scenario” button on the main menu. This will prevent any problems with creating the textures.

Another important bit of information is that you can rotate the camera by using the ` (backtick) key, usually located next to the “1” on the keyboard. Keep the key pressed and move the mouse to rotate the camera. If you don’t have a QWERTY keyboard, the key below the “Esc” key on the top left will probably work as well.

The terrain colours you see on the ground are just an image and don’t depend on the terrain elevation or the terrain type. This page shows how to paint the terrain directly using the editor. However, for more control (and less frustration), it’s a good idea to do the terrain editing in your favourite graphics editing program.

On to business. To create a set of terrain textures to draw on, go to the third tab from the top (Terrain). The menu you see will be the one shown on the right. Click on the “Paint ground” button at the top of the menu. The game will ask you if it should create a new texture set: choose “Yes”. Ignore the “Set arable”, “Remove arable”, and “Remove sprites” buttons for now, we’ll come back on those in the following pages.

The terrain consists of two “layers”: colour and blend (or texture). The colour is pretty obvious; the blend or texture layer sits on top of the colour layer and provides a texture: either rock, grass, sand, mud, or a mixture of them. This is used to give the terrain a more natural look. The checkboxes at the top of the menu can be used to disable either of the “layers” while painting in the editor.

To paint something, first select what texture type you want using the sliders on the left or by directly typing numbers into the boxes next to the sliders. Then, pick an appropriate colour, either by mixing the red, green, and blue components yourself, or selecting a colour from the list below.

Then, select a brush from the bottom of the menu by changing the shape, size, and opacity as you see fit; and start to paint on the terrain. Painting itself can be very slow though.

Remember to save often using the “Save textures” button: the editor is prone to crashes while painting the terrain, and there is no undo button available. When you’ve made a fatal error in painting the terrain, you can click “Load textures” to revert to the previously saved version.

If your editor crashes consistently when painting terrain, don’t despair: there’s a way to edit the textures outside the editor that will be explained later.
In the meantime, you can look up the original scenario that was used with your apron on the aprons page and use the DDS files of that original scenario for your own.

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