Creating a quick and dirty terrain to fly offline
So you want to make your own terrain to fly Aces High offline. Well I will attempt to help you do just that.
First and foremost you must understand that this tutorial is just to give you some very basic knowledge on building
an Aces High terrain that you can fly offline.
It will not teach you how to make a terrain that will be accepted by Hitech Creations for use in their arenas.
That may come after a little more practice and further instruction.
This tutorial assumes you have a working knowledge of how to install a program,
and how to navigate thru the folder structure of your hard drive. If not that is outside the scope of this tutorial.
Although it is advised to have a good graphics program (photo editing software) such as Photo Shop™, Print Shop™ and the likes, it is not required.
There are plenty of free programs that will accomplish the same thing.
Contents
Abbreviations
OK first there are a few common abbreviations you need to be familiar with.
- HTC = Hitech Creations™
- AH = Aces High™
- TE = Aces High Terrain Editor™
- OE = Aces High Object Editor™
- CBM = Clip Board Map
- DEM = Digital Elevation Map
OK the only two things that are really required to make your own offline terrain are the AH Terrain Editor
which can be downloaded from the Aces High main web site. (http://www.hitechcreations.com/frindex.html)
and Microsoft® Paint, which comes with your Windows Operating System.
The editor is located here (http://www.hitechcreations.com/World-War-Two-Games/Terrains/downloads-content-art.html).
This download will install the content editors ( Terrain Editor, Object Editor, and Cloud Editor)
Install these in the default location, we will only focus on the Terrain Editor for this tutorial.
----7/18/2012 Updated editor download link to latest version----
Starting the Terrain Editor for the First Time
OK lets get started.
First off start up the TE. If it didn't create a desktop icon navigate to
where you installed the editors and click on the "ahedit.exe" program icon.
Now when the editor first starts up there is no terrain to edit so we need to make a new one.
On the upper left corner click on the "File Tab" then under the drop down list click "New". This is where we will name our terrain.
For the sake of simplicity lets just call it "test".
Now for a little important info, use only lowercase letters or numbers, and no more than 8 characters.
OK now it will ask you for the terrain size "64, 128, 256, or 512" this is the size of your terrain in square miles.
Actually it's the "Clipboard Map" Size but we'll get to that later, let's just make this one 128.
OK Very important info here. Under the file tab "Upper Left Corner again" click "Save".
It will take a few seconds for the terrain to save,
your cursor should turn to an hour glass letting you know it's busy, depending on your operation system.
OK once that is done I know this next step may sound asinine but it's very important.
Now that we have created our new terrain, click on file in the upper left corner and then exit to close down the editor.
Before we go any further lets add something to the directory structure that I will explain why later in this tutorial.
Navigate to the folder where you installed the terrain editor and find the folder
"(your editor install directory)\ahiiterr\test" inside this folder create a new folder called "texsrc".
So it should look like "(your editor install directory)\ahiiterr\test\texsrc"
Again I will explain why we added this folder later.
Now lets start up the TE again and start working on our new terrain.
Once the editor starts up it will look like your ready to go but in fact we are not.
Under file select open, then navigate to your terrain which should be in a folder called "test"
click on the folder name,then open the file called "test.oba".
This will open your terrain in the editor.
Now you will see nothing but water and you should, that's all there is we haven't painted any land in the terrain yet.
Creating Some Land
OK first things first, in the lower left corner of the window, under "Terrain Window Options".
You will see a couple boxes labeled "Grid, Cell Overlay On, and Snap" make sure there is a check mark in all three.
You should now see the red grid squares in you editors main window.
OK we need to make some land so we can put an airfield to fly from so here we go.
First in the upper right corner of the window select the "Water" tab we are only going to work with
the "Depth Slider", "Erase Water", and "Brush Size Slider".
Move the Depth Slider all the way to the top where it says "Land".
Then click on the "Erase Water" (it should put the black dot in it's circle),
and slide the "Brush Size Slider" all the way to the right.
Now move your cursor into the editor window where the water and red grid squares are. Your Cursor should turn to an eraser.
Now left click and hold down the mouse button and erase the water in about 9 of the red square's and make an Island.
All the water should disappear and turn to a grayish sand.
Wolla we have created some land!
OK now go up to the upper left corner of the editor and select file and then save.
Yep you will be doing this quite often.
OK now since we don't want our Island to be ugly gray sand lets go plant some grass.
In the upper right corner click on the "Terrain" tab.
Here you will paint the grass texture over that ugly gray sand.
Put a check mark in the "Grass" box and set the "Brush Size Slider" all the way to the right.
Now move your cursor to the main window and it should turn into a paint brush and a big red circle.
Left click and hold the mouse button down and paint all the gray sand, it will now turn into green grass.
OK once again lets save what we got "hopefully you remember how to do that by now".
OK I know your getting ansi we are almost there.
Making the Clip Board Map (CBM)
Let's first create our CBM (Clip Board Map).
In the upper left corner under file select "Make Map", this will bring up another window.
Leave every thing at the defaults ( should have "Show Grid Lines, 1024 x 1024, and the 3 other boxes should have 80, 128, and 4 in them)
Now click OK.
The editor will look kinda funny and seem like it's locked up but it's not.
Don't do anything and wait for your terrain and the red grid lines to re-appear.
Now once again save your work, then exit the editor.
This is where that "texsrc" folder we created earlier comes in.
Navigate to your terrains folder is again.. "(your editor install directory)\ahiiterr\test" and in this folder you will see
a file called "map.bmp". this is our clip board map.
First move this file into our "texsrc" folder.
Now lets open this file in Paint.
Once you have it open in paint click on "File then Save As"
change the "Save as type" drop down to "256 Color Bitmap"
and the file name to the name of our terrain "test".
Then a window will pop up saying "Saving into this format may cause some loss of color information".
Click yes. Now you can close paint and delete the file named "map.bmp"
leaving only our newly created file named "test.bmp" in the texsrc folder.
OK now start up your terrain editor again and click on file open and in the test folder click on test.oba.
You should now see your CBM in the smaller window in the lower right corner of the editor window.
This is used for navigating around in the editor and it's also the CBM you see when you fly your terrain offline.
Now once again make sure in the lower left corner you put check marks in the Grid, Cell Overlay On, and Snap boxes.
Adding Your Air Field, Town, and HQ Objects
OK lets get a place to fly from put in our nifty little terrain here.
In the upper right corner of the editor window select the "Objects" tab.
Now in the editor window click in one of the grid squares (not the one in the center that has the numbers 10.24 and 10.24)
this should put a red plus symbol in the center of that grid square.
Now on the right hand side in the "Available shape" list scroll down and find the object named "lafld0" and select it.
lafld0 should now be highlighted in blue, click the "Add Shape/Group" button just below the list.
This should place the large airfield in the terrain and bring up the object properties window.
We are only going to change one thing in this window for this object.
Where it says "Object Type" it should have "Void" in the selection box. Click the arrow to bring the drop down box in and find
"Group Master" and select it. Now Group Mater should be highlighted in blue and in the window, click OK.
Once again save what we have done here.
Now if you right click on the CBM window (the little window in the bottom right corner with the clip board map in it)
it will bring up a little box with a few option in it. Select "Show Field Numbers".
You should now see a field icon in the CBM window with "A1_1" above it.
Once again this is for navigation purposes in the editor when ever you start making larger
terrains with more fields and such in it, but for now it's just to look neat.
For the sake of argument lets save our work again.
OK now click on a red grid square some where else on our grassy terrain (not in the water)
and put a red cross in the center of another grid square.
In the "Available Shapes" list navigate to the object named "hq0" this is an HQ or Head Quarters object.
Then click on the "Add Shape/Group" button again.
Once again our "Object Properties" window will pop up.
For this object we are going to make two changes to the properties.
In the Object type list change this from "Void" to "HQ".
Then uncheck the "Field Owned" box under "Ownership".
This will change it to "Country 1" instead of "Field 1".
Leave every thing else as it is and click OK.
Once again save your work.
If you right click on the CBM window again and select the "Show Field Numbers" it will turn the icons off,
do it again and turn them back on.
You will now see a HQ icon (a Star) with "Z1_1" above it in the CBM window.
This is our HQ (Head Quarters) for our terrain.
Now we need to add one more object before we can build and fly our terrain offline.
Select another grid square either next to or with in 2 squares of your large air field,
placing the red plus in the center of it.
Now in the Available Shapes list find the "town0" object and click "Add Shape/Group".
In the Object Properties window change the "Object Type" to "Group Master" and in the Ownership check mark "Field Owned"
and make sure the field number is one and zone is 1.
Now save your work and close the editor.
Building the Terrain for Offline Flying
OK restart the editor and under file select the open option and reopen your test.oba file.
once the file is open, under file select "Build".
This will build the terrain res file we will put in the games terrain directory to fly offline.
Once the terrain is thru building ( your cursor is no longer an hour glass) close the editor and navigate
to your editors directory ""(your editor install directory)\ahiiterr". In the directory you should now see a file named "test.res".
This is our working terrain.
Copy this file to your Aces High games terrain folder where the rest of your terrain files are.
(Not the editors terrain folder but the games terrain folder)
It should be something like (HTC\Aces High\ahiiterr).
Now start up Aces High II and at the main screen select "Choose Terrain"
this will bring up the window listing the available terrains for your game.
Scroll thru the list until you find the terrain you just built "test" and select it. Then select OK.
You will now be back at the main AH window, now select "offline Practice"
and you should now be in the tower of the terrain you just built.
Congratulations you have just made a quick and dirty one airfield terrain.
