Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2025 11:31 pm Post subject:
What does depth do for TMP files?
I was having trouble with my tiles but the issue was Morphable = true.
I fixed it now, but when trying to find out what was the problem, I had tried to using depth.
The first cliffs I had, had no depth to them or at least I didn't set the depths.
Do those do anything? Or are they for TS and aren't working in YR.
I don't see any differences when I set them.
Unfortunately I can't help you with your problem, I just want to know which program you use to edit the tmp files. Thanks.
It's Terral from RedModAlert SDK from here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/ra2yr-enhanced.
It's a complete package for everything. Except the mix editor, cause that caused my mix file to be corrupted.
Don't use that unless it's been updated because mine was download from 2020-2023 I think. QUICK_EDIT
When a unit is passing over or in front of a tile, or when two tiles with extraimage overlap, the z-data tells it which pixel to display above the others. Some of us use the z-data to fake the LAT system and blend neighbouring tiles together. _________________ http://www.moddb.com/mods/scorched-earth-ra2-mod-with-smart-ai QUICK_EDIT
When a unit is passing over or in front of a tile, or when two tiles with extraimage overlap, the z-data tells it which pixel to display above the others.
I haven't tried it yet, but which part is the front? The white side or the darker side?
G-E wrote:
Some of us use the z-data to fake the LAT system and blend neighbouring tiles together.
I'm guessing this is done by using the "wall" part of the tile?
Also, in the tile part, the depth has two types.
One is a gradient of white to black and the other is just dark gray. What does the gray part mean?
Fake LAT is just making the image bigger than the diamond shaped cell size to overlap with surrounding tiles. This method is no longer needed as WAE map editor allows adding any number of LAT systems through config files. The fake LAT system was developed to supplement the limited number of LAT support in the game and FA2.
Dark grey falls in range between white and black. QUICK_EDIT
the z-data, or depth, is a visual representation of the z layering that gets applied to the extra image attached to the tile
so the game knows how to handle it in terms of layering when it renders all the sprites on screen
the z data is absolutely necessary, and half-assing it can very well result in your tilesets having awful visual bugs. the good news
is that the zdata format is really uncomplicated and all you need to do is make sure that it has the right gradient direction and is
always drawn from the bottom-most tile upwards. running your tiles through batchtmpconverter once when finished is also a good idea.
see how the data on some existing tiles is drawn if you are unsure how it should look _________________ visit my moddb profile for .shp downloads and stuff QUICK_EDIT
Indeed if the z-data is too strong on a tile it will bleed through the art for some buildings, especially likely the Bib because that's already drawn at ground level. _________________ http://www.moddb.com/mods/scorched-earth-ra2-mod-with-smart-ai QUICK_EDIT
Fake LAT is just making the image bigger than the diamond shaped cell size to overlap with surrounding tiles. This method is no longer needed as WAE map editor allows adding any number of LAT systems through config files. The fake LAT system was developed to supplement the limited number of LAT support in the game and FA2.
Man, now I'm learning WAE can use unlimited amounts LATS? I did go back to WAE a while ago
but the lag spikes when moving towards large amounts of technotypes were making it irritating when I just want to test things.
And the map starts at the midde so I'm surrounded by a bunch of technotypes that would just spike my scrolling.
It was the same as using the old FA2, where the units were single shades of dark colors and bright remappables.
Adding high amount of celltags then was horrible for FA2 and moving near those celltags would lag FA2 really badly.
FA2sp made everything so much smoother. Smooth enough for me to comfortably test things.
Is there a way to load everything already in WAE? I mean even at the start, just loading any map takes a long time.
If there is a way then I'll move back and if there are errors, at least that can be fixable. Can't really fix the lag by me.
E1 Elite wrote:
Dark grey falls in range between white and black.
But what does it mean though? What does the black and white mean? Does white means in above or below another image?
Does gray mean it's always below another image or above? Why wasn't it just either black or white?
McPwny wrote:
the z-data, or depth, is a visual representation of the z layering that gets applied to the extra image attached to the tile
so the game knows how to handle it in terms of layering when it renders all the sprites on screen
Depth = z-data and Wall = extra image? For Terral of course.
McPwny wrote:
the z data is absolutely necessary, and half-assing it can very well result in your tilesets having awful visual bugs.
All of my tile were made without even touching the depth/z-data and the only "visual bug"
I noticed was the height=1 cliff which wasn't a type of cliff in the original game.
I thought it was like that because the cliff was too low and that was why it looked weird when units pass on the side of it.
And it was also in one direction for the height=1 cliff. All of the other height=1 cliff doesn't seem to have this visual bug.
McPwny wrote:
running your tiles through batchtmpconverter once when finished is also a good idea.
I don't know what batchtmpconverter does but I'll try it. If it show no difference, then maybe Terral already handled the tile to have most of the things it required to have to be usable in-game.
G-E wrote:
Indeed if the z-data is too strong on a tile it will bleed through the art for some buildings, especially likely the Bib because that's already drawn at ground level.
I don't know how z-data could be strong if my guess was correct that z-data=depth since there are only two option for it in Terral.
But I get what you mean about the bleeding. QUICK_EDIT
I like how it's consistently laggy now. That's better than the just suddenly becoming laggy.
Seems like my issue now is my graphics card. My 1050ti is dying now, with my second monitor flashing everytime
I turn it on and off again. Hopefullly it dies soon so I could finally get the 5700xt or the 6600xt.
E1 Elite wrote:
On grey gradient, you can test and tell us also. Or the tutorial might have that info.
Will do. Though it might be a while since I've now gotten interested in making infantry.
Don't wanna waste it while I'm still interested. Trying to use my interest to get used to adding them before my interest is gone.
E1 Elite wrote:
BatchTMPConverter sets the radar color with the average used in the TMP. Terral might be doing that already.
If it is for radar color only, then yes, Terral has it already. QUICK_EDIT
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What does depth do for TMP files?
Or the tutorial might have that info.
