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Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby raisins » 14 Sep 2015, 20:19

Hey guys, so I'm using Skyline as my level editor for my engine. I prefer using skyline for everything but I don't know lua so I can't work with it (for now), but I can work using it as a map editor.

I've experiemented with the terrain editor + road editor + vegetation and I thought it's very powerful. Now I want to be able to use the terrain data produced by Skyline on my engine (parse it). How do I go about doing that? It looks like the .ter file on my project is in binary format, if it's not protected or under proprietary license can I ask what the formatting of it is and how would one go about parsing it?

Thanks.
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Re: Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby TattieBoJangle » 14 Sep 2015, 21:19

Hey guys, so I'm using Skyline as my level editor for my engine. I prefer using skyline for everything but I don't know lua so I can't work with it (for now), but I can work using it as a map editor.


I believe they will soon have schematics up and running this will let you do a lot of the things without knowing how to code. My advise would be to build a game it would surprise you how long you can spend on one level and along the way get help from the community ;)

I know a guy who made a full game that had no code just levels and everything in place then at the end he brought it all together.

As far as I know the .ter wont open in any 3rd party software plus its more a .xml the only way I could get the terrain from one to another was to build the map, export it as a hightmap then use it in any other program/engine or you can do it the other way around make it and import it into skyline.
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Re: Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby raisins » 14 Sep 2015, 21:55

export it as a hightmap


I'll check this out. I'm now hoping there would be multiple instances of heightmaps where 1 projects data of actual terrain, 1 for painted textures, 1 for vegetation, and 1 for road. We'll see. :)

Thanks Tattie.
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Re: Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby epsilonion » 15 Sep 2015, 00:55

hi raisins,
As far as I have been told LUA is one of the easier languages to learn, for the basics there is a blog post that can be found here ->http://blog.aurasoft-skyline.co.uk/category/tutorials/tutorial_lua/
game engines use something called hooks to intergrate lua into there systems also know as API's that can be found here -> http://www.chi-ad.com/Skyline/API/Lua/html/index.html
once you get a basic understanding of the tutorials in the blog posts I have put some demo scenes on the forum found here -> http://www.forum.aurasoft-skyline.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=38
I try to put as much information in the comments of the scripts as I can to describe what each line does, I think that this would be the easier way to learn LUA, bare in mind that I am learning myself and only really started learning lua when I bought the commercial version of skyline earlier this year even tho I had a background in Java and C++ over 20 years ago and this is the first time i have done any form of programming in that time... (yup I am an oldie lol)..

You will find that the API documentation needs updating a little and the newer API commands are in the change logs of the updates, so when you get a bit further on in LUA you might want to look in them to see if your missing a command or put a request for one in the forum.

If your trying to make a script for any reason and want help just post in the forum everyone here will try and help what ever way we can.
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Re: Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby Shando » 15 Sep 2015, 10:13

Hi raisins,

As the others have already said, learning to code is not overly hard, it's just really about learning the nuances of the language.

From my own experience Lua is certainly one of the easier languages to learn, in fact I learnt it by coding bits and pieces for my son's GMod Server ;) Admittedly, I did have a bit of background in C++, Java etc.

There are tons of resources for Lua on the internet and, as Tattie said, once the Schematics in Skyline are up and running, creating a game will involve minimal (compared to some other engines!) coding. In fact, my first attempt at creating a game was using an engine where you had to write everything in C++ and my code ran to 10+ thousand lines in total!

Since starting with Skyline, I've managed to create a complete dungeon level (with HUD, flickering torches, rats, enemies, weapons, ammo etc.) that probably only has about 1000-2000 actual lines of code, much of which is duplicated between entities (enemy AI) with only minor differences for each one.

If you need help, just ask and I'm sure someone on the Forum will be able to help.

Regards

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Re: Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby StarFire » 15 Sep 2015, 16:07

Hey raisins, as everyone has said Lua is relatively easy to get running but the new Visual Mechanics is going to make life sooo much easier. The new system is currently being prepared for the next release ( going to be a biggy!)

I am also planning in the networking commands into the next development phase, this will be a direct access to raknet via lua and modules I know there are a few of you waiting for this one ( thanks for being patient) :D
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Re: Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby epsilonion » 15 Sep 2015, 17:23

Whoop Whoop raknet... I have been looking at opening a server as a test server for when you get it in skyline.. will have to do some more research on it for the next update..
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Re: Using Terrain Data On Third Party

Postby Shando » 16 Sep 2015, 00:38

I am also planning in the networking commands into the next development phase, this will be a direct access to raknet via lua and modules


Now that's what I'm talkin' about :mrgreen:
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