Terrain mod without rocks?

[FrankU]

Dear friends,

I play the game for quite a while now. For the last two or three years I have been using the Cycledogg Meadowshire terrain modd, which gives me a very nice terrain with lush green pastures and parks. It also gives me a nice shoreline which is perfect for seaports: greyish ground with some green shrubberies.

Now I have a question.
My terrains are usually completely flat. I use the harbour level (is it 251 meters?) for my seaports and coastal cities, I level the terrain 15m up for my normal city tiles. Above this I level areas an extra 15m for raised highways and rail.

Here is a picture of my last region.


You can see how flat it is.

Now I zoom in in order to ask the question that is burning on my tongue.


You can see the rock texture at the slopes around the railways. Now I can cover these rocks with grassy textures, but I'd like to have a terrain mod that gives me green grass also on these slopes.
Although the slopes are quite steep, here in The Netherlands we actually have these kinds of slopes and as we do not have any rocks in our entire country, we make these slopes grassy.

So the question is: is it possible to modify some parameter in the meadowshire terrain so that I do not have any rock anymore, or is it possible to make some kind og "rock" mod that actually contains a grass-texture? Or, the last possibility, is there some existing terrain mod with only green grass textures that I have overlooked all this time?

[Ennedi]

Of course it is possible to eliminate rock at all. I'm going to do it, but you was faster 

Your idea will be very good for all "urban - oriented " people who work on completely or almost flat terrain. Rock texture appears when they terraform terrain to make rail or road embankments, interchanges or sunken highways. In real life such slopes are usually covered by grass.

Everything we need is to make a special "rock mod" which uses grassy texture (or another one which you want to see on your embankments) instead of rocky one. Of course we can choose grassy texture for embankments similar but slightly different from those existing on flat areas - or we can use the same texture (but in this case the slope will be practically invisible, it can be good or bad for different players.

I want to make such mod, but I'm busy now and it will take a few weeks. But everybody can do it himself.
- You can take a rock mod (no matter which one), and replace textures from this mod by grassy textures from any terrain textures set (for example CPT No3 or CPT No4 files - these are dependencies for Cycledogg terrain mods and you have them installed if you use Meadowshire Terrain Mod). You should only remember to change TGI numbers of your new textures, they should have identical numbers as old rocky textures replaced by new ones.

TGI numbers (Type - Group - Instance) for rock texture are:
7ab50e44 - 891b0e1a - 00000044
7ab50e44 - 891b0e1a - 00000144
7ab50e44 - 891b0e1a - 00000244
7ab50e44 - 891b0e1a - 00000344
7ab50e44 - 891b0e1a - 00000444

The last two digits in the instance number are a number of the rock texture (ie. texture used on steep slopes). The third digit from the end (0...4) describe the zoom level.

Of course you can make your own custom texture for slopes (for example gravel or something else).

Adam

Edit: There is also another, more simple solution: Open CPT No6 file in your Meadowshire Terrain Mod, find the "Terrain Properties" exemplar, then find "MaxNormalYforCliff" property, double click on it and change it's value to 0. I suggest to save your modification under the new name. Then use it in game instead of an original CPT No6.
If the MaxNormalYforCliff = 0, rock will not appear at all. But I don't know what is hidden by Cycledogg under rock at low elevations - probably grass, but maybe some stones?... Anyway it can be interesting 

[wouanagaine]

I think the second option is better ( modifying the terran examplar ) because it will use the textures of the terran whatever the elevation is, whereas if you do a "grass" rock mod, you'll get that and only that grass on every slope which might not blend well with the terran texture in some elevation/rotation

[Ennedi]

I think the second option is better ( modifying the terran examplar ) because it will use the textures of the terran whatever the elevation is, whereas if you do a "grass" rock mod, you'll get that and only that grass on every slope which might not blend well with the terran texture in some elevation/rotation

You are right Stephane, the first option is better only for people who have completely flat city and want to have only one texture choosen by them on their slopes  When I will make the mod, I will also look at the Terrain Texture Map Table and check which Cycledogg textures are present on low elevations at steep slopes (they are usually covered by the rock texture).

[dedgren]

Here's a pic using the MaxNormalYforCliff property in the Columbus terrain mod Adam's (Ennedi) DJEM set to 0.0175 0.77 (thanks, Adam, for setting me straight).




David

[jmyers2043]

Kind of simulates erosion and/or grass clinging to a rocky hillside and I like the look very much.

[FrankU]

Ennedi,
Thanks for your elaborate answer.
I think a new special "rock" mod would be the nicest solution. I myself would be happy with a grass texture that is more or less the same colours, but suggests a bit rougher terrain: because the slopes along railways and highways are usually a bit more overgrown with weeds and lower shrubs than the flat areas. Of course the little details could be filled in with Chrisadam's rural ploppable grasses.
Making a mod myself is something that I do not want to try.... It would take me too much time to find out all the details.

The MaxNormalYforCliff is a solution that I will try one of these days. Although I ask myself what this does with my diagonal jageed edges...

David, your picture is very nice, but it is not what I am looking for.

[Ennedi]

(...)
The MaxNormalYforCliff is a solution that I will try one of these days. Although I ask myself what this does with my diagonal jageed edges...

If you will change the MaxNormalYForCliff to 0, you will have diagonal jagged edges at every slope 
So I have to agree with you - the best solution for "urban engineers" is a special rock mod. I will try to prepare a few of them (please for patience, it can take about 2 weeks because of other projects and RL tasks)

Adam

[FrankU]

Adam,
Thanks a lot!
Two weeks is nothing if you compare it with the four years I have been able to play the game without it.

Another thing: I opened the Reader, because I wanted to try the view, but somehow something was wrong: all properties in the reader suddenly say "unknown", although I am sure that some weeks ago the reader showed everything like it should be.
I had some problems last week, used the system restore function and now my "my documents" directory has another name. Every program is perfectly able to find all my files, but mabe the reader lost its way???
Anyway: at the moment I am not able to edit my files with the reader....
I'll wait for your mod and wil try to fix my reader...

[Ennedi]

FrankU,

All you need to see properties names is an XML file "Tropod Properties". It should be placed in the Reader folder (when you unzip the Reader it creates it's own folder). I had similar issue some time ago, Tropod Properties were lost after reinstallation (I didn't know why). Fortunately I had Reader installed in another place too and it has this file.

I zipped Tropod Properties and attach it to this post.

Adam

[FrankU]

Ennedi, thanks a lot.
I considered reinstalling, but didn't want to spend the time to do it; I wanted to play the game yesterday evening instead of just fooling around with files.
Fortunately I have the original installation files on my backup drive, so reinstalling is no problem.

Thanks again.