VastPark developer zone

Hey Flapman,

It's a good question and the Terragen reference is perfect but you can stop with that once you have rendered the 6 images for the cube map. VastPark supports a number of different image formats including jpg, dds, png, tga and bmp. We generally use either jpg or dds with each image being 512x512pixels. The image sizes could be larger but you need to be mindful of what looks good vs file size.

Using the VastPark publisher, after hitting the new button, locate the diretory where your 6 images are. By holding down CTRL you can select each of the six images together. Once you've opened the images the Publisher recognizes this as a skybox. Fill out the item details, then click on the skybox tab where you will see 6 squares and the first of your six images. If you hover over the green squares the name of its position comes up and you can place the images on each square by clicking on them. Once you've done that hit the publish button, it will upload and should be ready to use in the Creator.

I'm not too familiar with Terragen or Blender, but i think you can set up your camera in Terragen so it looks directly down at your terrain. Then you can render it out and use it as the ground image for the UV Map. If anyone else knows a better way let me know.
Then you can export it as a Direct X object from Blender and publish it.

Hope this helps, I will look at getting a tutorial with some images up for this soon.

Wow Shep, that sounds easy. OOhh, another point for Vast Park for it's tools! :) I'll try that out.

As far as the ground texture, I just need to figure out the right settings for the camera. Yes, if anyone else has experience about this let us all know. :)

Now he is an idea for a future Vast Park Tool. Import Height Map, followed by Import Overlay Image then the Creator compiles that into a Ground Object. Possible?

Shep - 11-01-2009 23:04:18
bq. Hey Flapman,
It's a good question and the Terragen reference is perfect but you can stop with that once you have rendered the 6 images for the cube map. VastPark supports a number of different image formats including jpg, dds, png, tga and bmp. We generally use either jpg or dds with each image being 512x512pixels. The image sizes could be larger but you need to be mindful of what looks good vs file size.
Using the VastPark publisher, after hitting the new button, locate the diretory where your 6 images are. By holding down CTRL you can select each of the six images together. Once you've opened the images the Publisher recognizes this as a skybox. Fill out the item details, then click on the skybox tab where you will see 6 squares and the first of your six images. If you hover over the green squares the name of its position comes up and you can place the images on each square by clicking on them. Once you've done that hit the publish button, it will upload and should be ready to use in the Creator.
I'm not too familiar with Terragen or Blender, but i think you can set up your camera in Terragen so it looks directly down at your terrain. Then you can render it out and use it as the ground image for the UV Map. If anyone else knows a better way let me know.
Then you can export it as a Direct X object from Blender and publish it.
Hope this helps, I will look at getting a tutorial with some images up for this soon.

As far as the ground texture, I just need to figure out the right settings for the camera. Yes, if anyone else has experience about this let us all know. :)

Had a quick look around and I'm not sure how relevant it is but this tutorial might help.
<a href="http://www.planetannihilation.com/terragen/tg_map_tut/tutorial.html">http://www.planetannihilation.com/terragen/tg_map_tut/tutorial.html</a>

Now he is an idea for a future Vast Park Tool. Import Height Map, followed by Import Overlay Image then the Creator compiles that into a Ground Object. Possible?

It is definitely possible and if it were to be done would probably appear in the publisher tool.

Thx Shep, I've never seen that tutorial before. I'll did through it. I may find what I am looking for. Now as far as Publisher, that would be cool if it could do that. :0

Shep - 12-01-2009 01:37:26
bq. bq.
As far as the ground texture, I just need to figure out the right settings for the camera. Yes, if anyone else has experience about this let us all know. :)

Had a quick look around and I'm not sure how relevant it is but this tutorial might help.
<a href="http://www.planetannihilation.com/terragen/tg_map_tut/tutorial.html">http://www.planetannihilation.com/terragen/tg_map_tut/tutorial.html</a>
[quote]
Now he is an idea for a future Vast Park Tool. Import Height Map, followed by Import Overlay Image then the Creator compiles that into a Ground Object. Possible?

It is definitely possible and if it were to be done would probably appear in the publisher tool.[/quote]

I've created a tutorial for anybody looking to publish there own skybox.
<a href="http://www.vastpark.com/index.php/tutorials/vwme6_publishing_a_skybox">http://www.vastpark.com/index.php/tutorials/vwme6_publishing_a_skybox</a>
If you have any questions, problems or critiques be sure to leave me a post.

Very nice and very helpful tutorial. Thanks for doing that.

Shep - 14-01-2009 00:37:24
bq. I've created a tutorial for anybody looking to publish there own skybox.
<a href="http://www.vastpark.com/index.php/tutorials/vwme6_publishing_a_skybox">http://www.vastpark.com/index.php/tutorials/vwme6_publishing_a_skybox</a>
If you have any questions, problems or critiques be sure to leave me a post.

Shep, thanks. Good tutorial.