invisible terrain

[ScarleTomato]

anyone know how to make invisible terrain? I've done it accidentally before with corrupt downloads of maps, but i don't know how to do it on purpose, and i don't have the map anymore to figure out what it was doing.

[Warfreak]

Try Texture 0?

[ScarleTomato]

just makes a plain white texture

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I don't have a clue if this will work, but you could load the model in Threed, select the material the terrain part uses, then edit the material the part uses, and set the transparency from 100 to 0 and save the model as XSI; it works fine in game with stuff like cockpits, but some say it screws up the frame rate for BZ. Don't really know one way or the other?

[Avatar]

Um, texture zero on all layers at 0 or 1 strength... at least I think that's how I've screwed it up before.

Like you said, it's easy to do by accident, but when you want to do it...  lol...

-Av-

[Raven]

Erm, BNG? He wants invisible terrain son

Texture 0 always did it for me. If not, just get a 128x128 transparent tga/png and have that as one of your textures in the editor and paint the ground with it.

Failing that you can replicate what you are describing as when it screwed up by deliberately screwing it up. Assign a custom texture, delete said texture file = invisible texture (and probably a notification in the console so it isn't the best idea).

[TheJamsh]

yeh, just create a black texture, and alpha channel it. simple. Note however, all you will see underneath it is the global fog colour, and anything else like tunnels that are underground and within view distance.

[Feared_1]

Just remove the textures on the map. You don't have to make a whole new one

[Nielk1]

I've been using an alpha one I think. Removing the textures all together might work better. My texture turns solid cyan if the detail settings drop. Granted I've had this a long time. Like, pre PB3.

[TheJamsh]

Oh yeh, i forgot that alpha channels on textures (apart from in particle systems) usually turn solid white, and non transparent.

[bigbadbogie]

I found during old QF2 development that alpha-transparent textures that I had used to hide the edges of the map in pb4a had turned opaque in TA5.

[mrtwosheds]

Yes, I think transparent terrain got "Fixed" 

[TheJamsh]

Yeh there was a huge bug where random segments of terrain jsut wouldnt appear. I think the fix involved making the base layer opaque at all times. Not overly sure though, no code monkey.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

Invisible terrain? Is that like when you load an impcomplete map and all you see in the map editor is your ship like bobbing aimlessly on a plain grey map? Why does BZ do this?

Come to think of it it can be done on purpose. I remember one map that used a custom texture that BZ couldn't find (Toon Explosion I think). Any ways when I tried making an air DM with that map and because I didn't also copy the custom texture it used; when the map loaded my ship was like floating in sheer nothingness, i.e., no visual reference points at all. Maybe you could edit the TRN file and delete any listed texture files to achieve invisible terrain like I...um didn't see? Try it out and let us know what happens. BNG.

PS: When I copied the custom texture back to the folder again everything visually returned back to normal again. I don't know if this is a bug or what, but invisible terrain does appear doable afterall?  

[Nielk1]

Yeh there was a huge bug where random segments of terrain jsut wouldnt appear. I think the fix involved making the base layer opaque at all times. Not overly sure though, no code monkey.

Gaffe #8? If that were true Slaor would have said something.