Virtual Texture Install Question ...

[Paul L]

Hi,

I'm trying to reinstall the Blue Marble 32k Earth VTs together with the 32k spec maps from http://home.tiscali.nl/celestia/

I had previously done this (although they might have been 16k specs) and remember the fantastic effect of these together with the 32k Blue Marble Earth VTs.

For the life of me I can't remember how I installed these and got them to work properly (it was some months ago, and I'm getting old, so my mind is turning to mush). Can someone point me in the direction of the idiot's guide to VTs - particularly with respect to my dilema above ? I can get the Blue Marbles to work, but can't seem to get the specs installed in the right way to have them show up. I'm missing something basic but can't remember. Is there a 'how to' somewhere (I've looked in the archives without success) ?

I also tried Harald Schmidt's package last night with similarly disappointing effects (ie, lack of spec effect). Any help much appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

[Psykotik]

Maybe you mean the Virtual Textures For Dummies Manual ?
Download it here :

http://home.earthlink.net/~bobhegwood/id19.html

[Paul L]

Thanks Psyk,

Yes I've seen this, but it hasn't helped shed light on my issue. I can get basic VT's working easily, but am not sure if my specular additions are working correctly.

Maybe you mean the Virtual Textures For Dummies Manual ?
Download it here :

http://home.earthlink.net/~bobhegwood/id19.html

[Paul L]

For what it's worth, this site is what I was looking for:

http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/celesti ... n_spec.jpg

But even that didn't solve my problem. No specular maps no matter what I did. Then, I reverted to version 1.3.1 (from the current pre-release) and hey presto ! Beautiful 32k specular maps.

Paul

Thanks Psyk,

Yes I've seen this, but it hasn't helped shed light on my issue. I can get basic VT's working easily, but am not sure if my specular additions are working correctly.

Maybe you mean the Virtual Textures For Dummies Manual ?
Download it here :

http://home.earthlink.net/~bobhegwood/id19.html

[norm.shaw]

Here's the way mines' set up and it works.

Code: Select all

\extras\BlueMarble DDS
   BlueMarble DDS.ssc
   \textures   
      \medres
         BlueMarble DDS.ctx
         earthnight.ctx
         earthspeck32k.ctx
         \BlueMarble DDS
            \level0
            thru
            \level10
         \earthnight
            \level0
            thru
            \level5
         \earthspec32k
            \level0
            thru
            \level10


Contents of BlueMarble DDS.ssc
------------------------------
AltSurface "BlueMarble DDS" "Sol/Earth"
{
   Color [ 0.75 0.35 25.2 ]
   Texture "BlueMarble DDS.ctx"
   NightTexture "earthnight.ctx"
   SpecularTexture "earthspec32k.ctx"
   SpecularColor [ 0.5 0.5 0.55 ]
   SpecularPower 95.0   

}

Contents of BlueMarble DDS.ctx
------------------------------
VirtualTexture
{
        ImageDirectory "BlueMarble DDS"
        BaseSplit 0
        TileSize 512
        TileType "dds"
}

Contents of earthnight.ctx
--------------------------
VirtualTexture
{
        ImageDirectory "earthnight"
        BaseSplit 0
        TileSize 512
        TileType "dds"
}

Contents of earthspec32k.ctx
----------------------------
VirtualTexture
{
        ImageDirectory "earthspec32k"
        BaseSplit 0
        TileSize 512
        TileType "dds"
}


Another issue with 1.3.2 pre8 is that 4 shader files are missing. Without those files you won't have spec. Please see:
http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5076

Hope this is helpful.

-Norm

[Harry]

I can get the Blue Marbles to work, but can't seem to get the specs installed in the right way to have them show up.

I also tried Harald Schmidt's package last night with similarly disappointing effects (ie, lack of spec effect)

Do you see the spec effect when not using a VT, did you try all renderpaths (CTRL-V), which renderpaths are available on your system? Maybe you can see some interesting messages when opening the console ("~") before activating the VT...

And just in case: all my textures (except clouds) should be unzipped in the same directory, i.e. the directory tree should look like this:

Code: Select all

...\earth-gray-hs-32k.ssc
...\earth-hs-32k.ssc
...\README-earth-nightlights-hs-32k.txt
...\README-earth-normals-hs-32k.txt
...\README-earth-spec-hs-32k.txt
...\README-earth-unshaded-hs-32k.txt
...\textures
...\textures\medres
...\textures\medres\earth-gray-hs.ctx
...\textures\medres\earth-gray-hs
...\textures\medres\earth-gray-hs\level0
...\textures\medres\earth-nightlights-hs-32k.ctx
...\textures\medres\earth-nightlights-hs-32k
...\textures\medres\earth-nightlights-hs-32k\level0-5
...\textures\medres\earth-normals-hs-32k.ctx
...\textures\medres\earth-normals-hs-32k
...\textures\medres\earth-normals-hs-32k\level0-5
...\textures\medres\earth-spec-hs-32k.ctx
...\textures\medres\earth-spec-hs-32k
...\textures\medres\earth-spec-hs-32k\level0-5
...\textures\medres\earth-unshaded-hs-32k.ctx
...\textures\medres\earth-unshaded-hs-32k
...\textures\medres\earth-unshaded-hs-32k\level0-5


HTH,

Harald

[maxim]

Specular Textures need the following entries to work:

SpecularTexture "earthspec[4[8.*"
SpecularColor [ 0.5 0.5 0.55 ]
SpecularPower 25.0

Of course the setting numbers are up to you. But without 'Specular Power' no specularity.

Hope that helps.

maxim

[Paul L]

Thanks all. My problem was with 1.3.2 pre8. I'm back to 1.3.1 and all is working nicely. That'll teach me for trying out the pre-releases without first browsing the bugs / fixes forum.