Concrete/ruin brush - possible? (YES!)

[Kaputnik 27]

First of all, I'm aware of the area fillers collection, but I personally find the assets a bit awkward to use - especially since I use right click to rotate camera (so I can't free rotate ploppables). They also take up a lot of slots in the asset menus.

What I'm looking for is something that works similar to the sand paint tool included in the Terraform tool and BloodyPenguin's Resource addon - but with concrete, ruined and/or other textures.

Is this possible at all - do those textures exist in a way that lets them be painted in?

I'm particularly interested in using these as ground fillers around train tracks (could also help visually distinguish local/regional/cargo/passenger tracks), but also as fillers in industrial/urban areas.

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Edit: There is now a mod for this, yay!

BloodyPenguin released this: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689937287

Edit again: He actually posted it on ST too:

 

[boldlybuilding 873]

Hmm, yeah, I wonder about that, too. If you can paint sand, as well as paint resources that change the color of the ground, why not paintable concrete and other textures?

[boformer 3,169]

The main problem is the storage of the data.

I don't have enough knowledge of the terrain system. BloodyPenguin might know how to do it.

[Kaputnik 27]

As in storage format, or as in storage location?

I know absolutely nothing about how modding in CSL works, but I'm guessing we don't have the permissions or IDs needed for writing/reading xmls on a savegame basis?

I was thinking that the outline of each shape could be saved as a set of vectors in an external xml as to not disturb the save game - or something like that - but like I said I have no clue how mods in this game work. Even better would probably be to create a folder for each mod or each savegame where smaller xmls could be saved for each mod/save pair.

  Edited October 18, 2015 by Kaputnik  

[GC_Vos 714]

If the paint feature from the map editor could be carried over, that would be amazing!

[boldlybuilding 873]

There's already a mod that carries over the sand painting feature from the editor to the main game. If that could somehow be duplicated or changed, but with a different texture, that would be nice. But I know nothing about how these things work. It's one of those things that seems like it would be so simple, considering the more complicated things people have done, but may not be...

[boformer 3,169]

As in storage format, or as in storage location?

I know absolutely nothing about how modding in CSL works, but I'm guessing we don't have the permissions or IDs needed for writing/reading xmls on a savegame basis?

I was thinking that the outline of each shape could be saved as a set of vectors in an external xml as to not disturb the save game - or something like that - but like I said I have no clue how mods in this game work. Even better would probably be to create a folder for each mod or each savegame where smaller xmls could be saved for each mod/save pair.

You have all permissions. You can even add your own data to the savegame files with the API.

The game usually stores ground texture information in some kind of grid/texture.

Basically the mod has to do 3 things:

Provide painting tool

Tell game to paint concrete/dirt

Save the information

 

Sand is different from concrete because the game has a built in storage for it. There is also a tool from the asset editor that just has to be enabled.

  Edited October 19, 2015 by boformer  

[Kaputnik 27]

Could it be possible to create fake natural resources that can be painted in with a clone of the sand/oil/ore/fertile tool?

Then have them covered by a texture instead of a color adjustment?

  Edited October 19, 2015 by Kaputnik  

[Drosovila 86]

I havebtried changing the oil/ore textures to the default concrete one but sadly there is no way to se the opacity to 100%. It already allows for some cool effects but isnt really practical. Having additional brushes would be amazing

[GC_Vos 714]

Droso have you tried adding a full green alpha? Don't know if it works for landscape but that works for modding roads / paved areas.

[Kaputnik 27]

For what it's worth, I posted a suggestion on the OF for including this kind of tool in the map editor.
I suppose that's where it belongs in the base game - and if I understand correctly it should be relatively easy to port it from there to an in-game tool.

I dunno if the suggestion subforum is really being watched, but if anyone would like to help escalate it etc...

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/suggestion-texture-brushes.888626/

[Kaputnik 27]

Would anybody be interested in taking a look at this again now that Boformer "uncovered" the TerrainPatch class?

I'm sorry I can't be of a lot of help as my programming skills are very limited... but a tool like this would be oh so excellent.

[boformer 3,169]

It's a lot more than the TerrainPatch class. It's a whole chain of classes and methods. I guess it would take 10 - 15h for an experienced modder to make something like a brush that persists when you load and save.

[Kaputnik 27]

BloodyPenguin just posted a texture brush plugin for his landscaping tools!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689937287

 

 

Edit: Didn't see that he posted it himself in General:

Can't seem to delete this bump, so here it is for now