I duplicate here a post inserted in IC5 Forum, as it can be interesting for IC6 as well: a terrain can be built in IC5, saved, and then imported in IC6.
NOTE: in IC6 the key-combination SHIFT+ALT+J does nothing, so the whole process does not really works.
SHIFT+ALT+E opens a dialog box asking for a .ini file, but the .ini file working in IC5 will cause IC6 to crash...
Hope it will be useful for the community.
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EarthSculptor to iClone Pipeline
Prepared by Roberto Colombo
GIMP
1. Prepare a heightmap with a photoeditor (e.,g. GIMP)
2. Save with one of the following formats(GIMP settings are listed below each format):
a) TGA
RLE compression =disabled
Origin = Bottom left
b) PNG
Interlacing (Adam7) =disabled (EarthSculptor does not read the map is this setting is enabled)
Save background color =enabled
Save gamma = disabled
Save layer offset =disabled
Save resolution =enabled
Save creation time =enabled
Save color values fromtransparent pixels = enabled
Compression level = 0
Earth Sculptur
Terrain creation
1. Create a new terrain with thesesettings
Map size = 513x513 (it seems that other values are not accepted whenimported in iClone)
Colormap = can be adjusted to the desired level, recommended 4096x4096
Detailmap = can be adjusted tothe desired level, recommended 4096x4096
Lightmap = don’t care (not used by iClone)
Texture Splitting = none
Detail Texture = 4 (iClone handles only 4 textures)
Color Lightmap = no
2. Set the Terrain window options asthe following
LOD = disable
Height = user choice!
Wireframe = don’t care
Grid = don’t care
Color = don’t care (not used by iClone)
Detail = enabled
Lighting = don’t care (not used by iClone)
Color Mode = add minus half
Fog = disabled
Underground = disabled
3. Menu Import -> Heightmap image
Load the heightmap
4. Modify the map in EarthSculptor asneeded using the Terraform window tools
Terrain painting
1. The terrain in iclone will have 4paint layers, each one containing three channels:
a) The Diffuse texture, which isgenerated by the Detail maps of EarthSculptor
b) The Detail channel, which can be anytexture
c) The Bump channel, which can also beany bump texture
EarthSculptor has 2 painting methods:
a) The Detail window tools
b) The Color window tools
The Detail window tool is used to generate the 4 textures which will beassigned, in iClone, to the Diffuse channel maps of each terrain paint layers.
These textures are used to paint the main parts of the terrain.
The Color window tools can be used to generate the 4 additional textures thatcan be assigned to the 4 Detail channel maps in iClone.
These textures can be used to draw details and variations.
iClone will not automatically importwhat is painted with the Color window tools!
Even though variations are painted in EarthSculptor, iClone imports only the 4textures assigned in the Detail window.
Therefore, it is advisable to draw the variation first, export them as separatetextures with the menu option Export->Terrain Textures, and later importthem in iClone as Detail textures as Detail channel maps.
The process is cumbersome and kind of reversed, but if the Detail windowtextures are assigned first in EarthSculptor, then the Color window textureswill be distorted by the color of the Detail window textures. Whereas we wantto leave them clean and add them as they are in iClone.
2. Start the terrain painting process,using the Detail window tools
Up to 4 textures can be used to paint the terrain
3. Menu File -> Save
Save the work in EarthSculptor.
By saving the file, EarthSculptor creates some .png files.
The file named xxxx_d.png (xxx = name of the file just saved) is the one thatwill be used for iClone
4. Menu Export -> Obj Export
Export into .obj format with the following settings:
Center at origin = enabled
Normals = disabled
UVs = disabled
Optimized Mesh = disabled
Water = disabled
iClone
1. Create a file, with .ini extension,with the following text
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[HeightMap]
file = "Terrain.obj"
cell_unit = 100
height_scale = 50.0
offset_x = -12800.0
offset_y = -12800.0
offset_z = 0
[MaskMap]
file = "Terrain_d.png"
[Material]
count = 4
[Material0]
diffuse_r = 1.0
diffuse_g = 1.0
diffuse_b = 1.0
specular_r = 0.0
specular_g = 0.0
specular_b = 0.0
ambient_r = 1.5
ambient_g = 1.5
ambient_b = 1.5
shininess = 0.5
shineStrength = 1.0
decal_uv_tile_x = 24.0
decal_uv_tile_y = 24.0
decal_uv_tile_z = 24.0
decal_uv_offset_x = 0.0
decal_uv_offset_y = 0.0
decal_uv_rotate = 0
detail_uv_tile_x =60.6842
detail_uv_tile_y =60.6842
detail_uv_offset_x = 0.0
detail_uv_offset_y = 0.0
detail_uv_rotate = 0
bump_uv_tile_x = 10.0
bump_uv_tile_y = 10.0
bump_uv_tile_z = 10.0
bump_uv_offset_x = 0.0
bump_uv_offset_y = 0.0
is_normal_bump = false
bump_map_weight = 0.5
decal_map = "Texture0.png"
bump_map="Bump0.jpg"
detail_map="Detail0.png"
[Material1]
diffuse_r = 1.0
diffuse_g = 1.0
diffuse_b = 1.0
specular_r = 0.0
specular_g = 0.0
specular_b = 1.0 ;; you can see blue specular on brown sand
ambient_r = 1.5
ambient_g = 1.5
ambient_b = 1.5
shininess = 0.5
shineStrength = 1.0
decal_uv_tile_x = 12.0
decal_uv_tile_y = 12.0
decal_uv_tile_z = 12.0
decal_uv_offset_x = 0.0
decal_uv_offset_y = 0.0
decal_uv_rotate = 0
detail_uv_tile_x =15.6842
detail_uv_tile_y =15.6842
detail_uv_offset_x = 0.0
detail_uv_offset_y = 0.0
detail_uv_rotate = 0
bump_uv_tile_x = 1.0
bump_uv_tile_y = 1.0
bump_uv_tile_z = 1.0
bump_uv_offset_x = 0.0
bump_uv_offset_y = 0.0
decal_map = "Texture1.png"
bump_map="Bump1.jpg"
detail_map="Detail1.png"
[Material2]
diffuse_r = 1.0
diffuse_g = 1.0
diffuse_b = 1.0
specular_r = 0.0
specular_g = 0.0
specular_b = 0.0
ambient_r = 1.5
ambient_g = 1.5
ambient_b = 1.5
shininess = 0.5
shineStrength = 1.0
decal_uv_tile_x = 12.0
decal_uv_tile_y = 12.0
decal_uv_tile_z = 24.0
decal_uv_offset_x = 0.0
decal_uv_offset_y = 0.0
decal_uv_rotate = 0
detail_uv_tile_x =15.6842
detail_uv_tile_y =15.6842
detail_uv_offset_x = 0.0
detail_uv_offset_y = 0.0
detail_uv_rotate = 0
bump_uv_tile_x = 3.0
bump_uv_tile_y = 3.0
bump_uv_tile_z = 3.0
bump_uv_offset_x = 0.0
bump_uv_offset_y = 0.0
decal_map = "Texture2.png"
bump_map="Bump2.jpg"
detail_map="Detail2.png"
[Material3]
diffuse_r = 1.0
diffuse_g = 1.0
diffuse_b = 1.0
specular_r = 0.0
specular_g = 0.0
specular_b = 0.0
ambient_r = 1.5
ambient_g = 1.5
ambient_b = 1.5
shininess = 0.5
shineStrength = 1.0
decal_uv_tile_x = 12.0
decal_uv_tile_y = 12.0
decal_uv_tile_z = 12.0
decal_uv_offset_x = 0.0
decal_uv_offset_y = 0.0
decal_uv_rotate = 0
detail_uv_tile_x =15.6842
detail_uv_tile_y =15.6842
detail_uv_offset_x = 0.0
detail_uv_offset_y = 0.0
detail_uv_rotate = 0
bump_uv_tile_x = 1.0
bump_uv_tile_y = 1.0
bump_uv_tile_z = 3.0
bump_uv_offset_x = 0.0
bump_uv_offset_y = 0.0
decal_map = "Texture3.png"
bump_map="Bump3.jpg"
detail_map="Detail3.png"
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2. Note the .ini structure:
a. [Heightmap] => a kind of header,where some global information are specified
b. [Maskmap] => used to define whichfile define the mask map, which is used to assign the materials to differentpart of the terrain
c. [Material] => used to specify howmany materials we have.
I tried with 8 (as EarthSculptor allows to create up to 8 Detail textures) butiClone simply ignore them and defaults to 4
d. [Material#] => a set ofinformation to define a material, replicated 4 times
3. Note also the map naming convention
a. Earth Sculptor Detail texture => Decal_mapin the .ini file => iClone Diffuse map
b. Earth Sculptor Painting texture=> (can be optionally assigned to) Detail_map in the .ini file => iCloneDetail map
c. Any Bump texture => (can beoptionally assigned to) Bump_map in the .ini file => iClone Bump map
4. In order to be able to import theterrain in iClone, few simple modifications shall be done to the .ini file
5. The text marked in BOLD RED shall be mandatorily changed.
You need to specify:
a. The exact file name of the .obj filecreated with EarthSculptor
b. The exact name of the file xxx_d.pngcreated by EarthSculptor (this file is created when you save a project inEarthSculptor)
c. The exact file names of the Texturesused in EarthSculptor in the Detail tool window.
Respect the same order!
6. Note the additional maps with thevalue marked in BOLD BLUE.
These maps represents the iClone Bump map and Detail map.
7. If a Bump or Detail map is notneeded for a certain material, just remove in the .ini the text line referringto it.
8. As a summary, hereafter are the files needed by iClone.
Note: in this example, the name of the EarthSculptor project is “Terrain”, andthat the detail textures are called Texture0, Texture1, Texture2, and Texture3.Obviously any other name will fit.
a. Terrain.ini
b. Terrain.obj
c. Terrain_d.png
d. Texture0.png, Texture1.png, Texture2.png,Texture3.png
e. [Optional] Bump0.jpg, Bump1.jpg,Bump2.jpg, Bump3.jpg
f. [Optional]Detail 0.jpg, Detail 1.jpg, Detail 2.jpg, Detail3.jpg
My recommendation is to keep everything in thesame directory!
9. Open iClone and press SHIFT+ALT+J
10. Load the “.ini” file
11. You should now see your terrain in iClone, which should have 4 materials.