Creating .TER Files
A .TER file is a text based file that contains all the information that the terrain compiler (MakeTerr) requires to assemble a ready to run .TRN file.
Although you can make your own .ter files from scratch, I don't recommend that you do that. The simplest way to prepare to build a track of your own creation is to take an existing .ter file and change just a few lines in the file to make it work for your needs. Make sure that the .ter file you start with matches the type of terrain you are building. In other words, don't use a .ter file that was set up to build a Stunt Quarry and try to build a Nationals track, or vise-versa.
Here is a portion of a .ter file. The sections highlighted in green are the only parts you need to modify to use the file yourself.
[ElevationData]
GridResolutionInFeet=3.0
TerrainType=NATIONAL
TotalElevationFiles=73
TotalTextureMapFiles=2
TotalTexturePlacements=1
TotalTargetWidth=1280
TotalTargetBreadth=1280
ElevationFormat=ASC
ElevationDefault=0
ElevationAtEdge=15.0
TextureFormat=8
ShareTextures=1
ShareGeometries=1
UpPropagateTextures=1
ElevationPath=v:\motox\brian\quarries\quarry18\
TextureMapPath=v:\motox\brian\quarries\quarry18\
[TerrainPalette]
TotalFileSets=2
NumberOfColors=236
FileSet_1=v:\motox\brian\quarries\quarry18\quarry18.tga
FileSet_2=v:\motox\brian\quarries\quarry18\quarry18a.tga
[TextureMapFile_1]
Name=quarry18.tga
CoverageInGrids=256
PixelsPerGrid=4
[TextureMapFile_2]
Name=quarry18tile.tga
CoverageInGrids=16
PixelsPerGrid=4
... [hundreds of lines deleted here to save space on this web page] ...
[ElevationFile_73]
Width=256
Breadth=256
BaseX=768
BaseY=768
Name=quarry18.asc
IMPORTANT: The above quarry18.asc file would be found 9 times in a
complete Nationals .ter file. In a Stunt Quarry .ter file it is found 25 times. You should
perform a Search Replace operation in your text editor to substitute
"quarry18.asc" with "YourNew.asc" file name!!!
Base=4.235294
IMPORTANT: You must make the Base= parameter equal to the height
value of the edge of your 1x1 terrain. If you look in your .asc file, and study the Z
values, you should see that all the edges points are the same all the around your terrain.
If they aren't, you need to go back and edit your displacement, then recreate your .asc
file. If the edge elevation of your terrain were 6.78901, then each instance of the Base=
parameter that ALSO contains your 1x1 .asc file needs to read "Base=6.78901". Do
not edit the Base= values for of the ElevationFile_xx entries for the edge of the world
geometry. Those should all remain at Base=15.0 as long you use our stock edge of the world
pieces. You will need to edit the Base= parameter in 9 places for Nationals tracks and in
25 places for stunt quarries!
VerticalMultiplier=1.0
The vertical multiplier determines the strength at which this chunk
of terrain is elevated in the game. You will ALWAYS want the center 1x1 terrain piece to
be elevated at exactly 1.0. In a nationals track, the 8 1x1's that surround your track
should be elevated very low in the range of 0.01 - 0.5. In the case of stunt quarries, all
the copies of the quarry surrounding the center piece can be elevated randomly between
-1.0 and 1.0. Please don't exceed +/- 1.0 in any of your tracks, or it will generated an
enormous number of polygons. Study the sample .ter files for the nationals and quarry
tracks to get a feel for how they are set up.
ForceEdges=NSEW
Creating a .TER File From Scratch
You can create a .ter file from scratch using a command line utility called Tergen.exe.
To run TerGen, open an MS-Dos prompt by clicking on the Start menu, choosing "Run...", typing "command" and pressing enter.
At the command prompt you can view the command line arguments by running TerGen with no arguments.
The proper syntax to create a new .ter file for building a Nationals track is as follows:
TerGen 5 MyTextureMap.tga Quarry.asc MyTextureMapA.tga >MyNew.ter
In the above example, you should substitute "MyTextureMap.tga with the name of your 1016x1016 texture map name, and "MyTextureMap.tga" with the name of your tileable perimeter texture. You can also name the output file what ever you like, in place of "MyNew.ter".
IMPORTANT: Always leave the "quarry.asc" parameter the same as in the above example. TerGen assumes that the 9 edge of the world ascii files are named using a specific naming convention. After creating this file, you will need to use a text editor to search/replace all the instances of "quarry.asc" to "YourNationalsTrack.asc" (or whatever your .asc file is named). There should be 9 instances to replace and they will all be located at the end of the .ter file.
The proper syntax to create a new .ter file for building a Stunt Quarry track is as follows:
TerGen 7 MyTextureMap.tga Quarry.asc >MyNew.ter
You'll notice that the quarry syntax does not use the second texture map with the "A" appended to the end of the filename.