Drive Priority Question

[St. Angers Snare]

I was going to install DE and everything to make a track, but I have a question about drives.

I have Windows on my C drive (obviously)
I have Steam and games on my B drive.
I have extra stuff on my A drive.

I don't remember where, and I can't seem to find it, but I read that you need Reflex to be in your program files on your C drive.

Could I make a dummy folder of the reflex directory on my C drive, and then copy the files that DE makes and put it in the real reflex database folder on my B drive? If so, do I just copy the folder names or do I need the actual files in there as well?

Thank you.

[mcm2boys]

DE used to have problems finding Reflex if Steam or Reflex wasn't on your C: drive. That has been fixed but there are still lingering problems, it was reported last week that if Windows is on your C: drive (in this case an SSD - not sure if that's important yet) and DE and Reflex on a different (in this case D:) drive then there is an error compiling raceable tracks (SX and Nats) and they crash the game when loaded.

So in theory you can have Reflex where you want, but DE needs to be on C:. The newest version has a slight change in the code that was causing the above problem but it hasn't been tested. Now if DE can't find reflex it should ask you to locate the Reflex folder and save it for future use.

Hope that helps.

Laurie

[St. Angers Snare]

I have an issue now that when I import a height map into Reflex, it'll show the terrain in the DE window, but when exported into the game the terrain will be completely flat.

I have DE and Reflex on my B drive, but I will move DE to the C drive.

Another issue I have found is that after I am done exporting the height map into Reflex, I go to test it, minimize the game and go back to DE, the height map disappears from the objects tab and if I try to change something it tells me something along the lines of not having authority or something. And then when I try to load a project it says the format is wrong. I know I'm being vague, but maybe that's because I have it on a different drive? I will reinstall it to my C drive and update if it changes anything.

[mcm2boys]

I experienced the flat terrain issue for the 1st time just the other day, i thought i had made a few changes to fix it but maybe i didn't fix all of it. Are you using the latest version that was released on Friday?

The authority message makes me think that maybe you're not running DE with Admin privileges which it needs to write to some folders?

The 'format is wrong' message is a general catch all when something goes wrong while loading a *.track file. It could be anything from a missing file or a corrupted track file

You won't know if you need to move DE to C: until you add a spline and try to save it as a raceable track.

[St. Angers Snare]

I'm using the most recent DE, yes. I downloaded it last night actually. Sometimes it'll show the terrain in-game, sometimes it won't.

Do I need to run DE as an admin everytime I use it? I've installed it by running as an admin, but i don't think I've actually opened it as an admin (i've just been clicking on the shortcut) so maybe that's my issue like you said.

And I honestly don't know what is wrong with the whole format being wrong.

[JamieT]

Flat terrain issue... You need to make sure you save as compiler track first.  Then save as beta track.  You only need to do this for a brand new track you're starting.

I guess that DE needs files located in a folder along with the *.track file for it to compile properly.  Once that first save has been made, you won't need to save as compiler file again if you don't want to.  But obviously you'll need to if you want to save any changes.

[mcm2boys]

Yeah you do need to run it as admin every time. You can set this in the icon properties, under the compatibility tab.

I have not heard of the disappearing terrain before, is it possible that the camera is looking downwards and you are below the terrain? Do you see the objects on the track and no terrain or do you see the 3D view filled with the sky color? There are 2 buttons with cameras on in the navigation panel clicking on these will give you horizontal or vertical camera views, that should tell you where you are relative to the terrain or use the q/e/w/a/s/d buttons to move around.

I also noticed that on my system after testing in Reflex when i switch back to DE the 3D view will be completely white (maybe this is my system doing what yours does when it doesn't show the terrian), but if i change to another tab (log or terrain) and back to the object tab the 3D view appears as normal.

[St. Angers Snare]

Flat terrain issue... You need to make sure you save as compiler track first.  Then save as beta track.  You only need to do this for a brand new track you're starting.

I guess that DE needs files located in a folder along with the *.track file for it to compile properly.  Once that first save has been made, you won't need to save as compiler file again if you don't want to.  But obviously you'll need to if you want to save any changes.

I will try that, thank you.

Yeah you do need to run it as admin every time. You can set this in the icon properties, under the compatibility tab.

I have not heard of the disappearing terrain before, is it possible that the camera is looking downwards and you are below the terrain? Do you see the objects on the track and no terrain or do you see the 3D view filled with the sky color? There are 2 buttons with cameras on in the navigation panel clicking on these will give you horizontal or vertical camera views, that should tell you where you are relative to the terrain or use the q/e/w/a/s/d buttons to move around.

I also noticed that on my system after testing in Reflex when i switch back to DE the 3D view will be completely white (maybe this is my system doing what yours does when it doesn't show the terrian), but if i change to another tab (log or terrain) and back to the object tab the 3D view appears as normal.

Thank you for clarifying the admin thing. And I am completely parallel with the terrain (so I'd be able to see the jumps and everything from the angle, so essentially a side angle that I believe it defaults to when you open a new track) and all that appears is the base texture with none of the height map changes of the height map I imported, but I will try what Jamie said. I'm going to "pick up" Photoshop tomorrow or Thursday and start working on it again as my trial is about to run out.

I've heard alot of people are using other programs to generate a heightmap (leveller, earthsculptor, a few others) rather than manually doing it in Photoshop and I plan on making a track with lots of elevation changes that are extremely sudden, do you get any benefit from those other than the simplicity of seeing everything in 3D? IE more elevation?

[JamieT]

I am completely parallel with the terrain (so I'd be able to see the jumps and everything from the angle, so essentially a side angle that I believe it defaults to when you open a new track) and all that appears is the base texture with none of the height map changes of the height map I imported, but I will try what Jamie said. I'm going to "pick up" Photoshop tomorrow or Thursday and start working on it again as my trial is about to run out.

I've heard alot of people are using other programs to generate a heightmap (leveller, earthsculptor, a few others) rather than manually doing it in Photoshop and I plan on making a track with lots of elevation changes that are extremely sudden, do you get any benefit from those other than the simplicity of seeing everything in 3D? IE more elevation?

Might be because you have the camera set to orthogoraphic rather than perspective.  At the bottom of the 3D view there's a button thats kind of multi coloured, click that and see if it fixes the issue.

As for Photoshop vs Leveller..
Photoshop only allows you to make heightmaps of 8bit quality.  That's 2 times 2 times 2 (8 times)...  Which equals 256 different height levels.  One you get high elevation, it starts to look like stair steps with 8bit data.

The solution is either use the "ViewDisp" tool to smooth the stair steps, or use 16bit quality images.  Only problem is that DE doesn't import 16 bit grey scale images.  You need an image like ViewDisp will generate which has the 16bit of information spread over two 8bit channels (Red & Green).  This why your height map looks green when you import it into DE.

Leveller is the only tool I've found which lets you output this 16 bit Red & Green format.  I don't believe Earthsculpt lets you do that.  It means you can create huge mountains, as well as having small whoops because there's higher precision with the elevation.  It costs $50, but it's WELL worth it for that alone, not to mention the other things it can do very well.

[St. Angers Snare]

I am completely parallel with the terrain (so I'd be able to see the jumps and everything from the angle, so essentially a side angle that I believe it defaults to when you open a new track) and all that appears is the base texture with none of the height map changes of the height map I imported, but I will try what Jamie said. I'm going to "pick up" Photoshop tomorrow or Thursday and start working on it again as my trial is about to run out.

I've heard alot of people are using other programs to generate a heightmap (leveller, earthsculptor, a few others) rather than manually doing it in Photoshop and I plan on making a track with lots of elevation changes that are extremely sudden, do you get any benefit from those other than the simplicity of seeing everything in 3D? IE more elevation?

Might be because you have the camera set to orthogoraphic rather than perspective.  At the bottom of the 3D view there's a button thats kind of multi coloured, click that and see if it fixes the issue.

As for Photoshop vs Leveller..
Photoshop only allows you to make heightmaps of 8bit quality.  That's 2 times 2 times 2 (8 times)...  Which equals 256 different height levels.  One you get high elevation, it starts to look like stair steps with 8bit data.

The solution is either use the "ViewDisp" tool to smooth the stair steps, or use 16bit quality images.  Only problem is that DE doesn't import 16 bit grey scale images.  You need an image like ViewDisp will generate which has the 16bit of information spread over two 8bit channels (Red & Green).  This why your height map looks green when you import it into DE.

Leveller is the only tool I've found which lets you output this 16 bit Red & Green format.  I don't believe Earthsculpt lets you do that.  It means you can create huge mountains, as well as having small whoops because there's higher precision with the elevation.  It costs $50, but it's WELL worth it for that alone, not to mention the other things it can do very well.

I did what you said to do by choosing to save as a compiler first and I haven't seen the flat terrain issue, although I am having an issue but I'll get into that soon.

What you said about Photoshop makes perfect sense. I've made tracks with elevation changes and it was literally nothing but the stair step effect everywhere unless it was flat terrain. I've seen the tools that smoothen the picture, but it honestly seems to dull and round everything way too much in order to make the stairs to go away, especially at how bad my stair step is because I'm essentially making huge mountains. I may have to look into Leveller and fork over the money.