I've started exporting the terrain files. This proved simpler than expected.

I've started exporting the terrain files. This proved simpler than expected.

For example. Buggles-North terrain is exported via this text:

change region bi-03
terrain save c:\GRIDS\SECONDS\(BACKUPS)\Terrain\OStoL3DT\bi-03.ter
change region bi-04
terrain save c:\GRIDS\SECONDS\(BACKUPS)\Terrain\OStoL3DT\bi-04.ter
change region bi-13
terrain save c:\GRIDS\SECONDS\(BACKUPS)\Terrain\OStoL3DT\bi-13.ter
change region bi-14
terrain save c:\GRIDS\SECONDS\(BACKUPS)\Terrain\OStoL3DT\bi-14.ter
change region bi-23
terrain save c:\GRIDS\SECONDS\(BACKUPS)\Terrain\OStoL3DT\bi-23.ter
change region bi-24
terrain save c:\GRIDS\SECONDS\(BACKUPS)\Terrain\OStoL3DT\bi-24.ter
change region root

I just copy and paste this into the BuggleNorth console and it executes one line at a time and the files are saved. I have a set of these for each Region group, created by ALT-Selecting the names column in the Buggle-North console, copy and pasting that into Notepad++, and then running a macro to cut the name on a line and paste the value in with standard text. I only have to make this text once.

To load modified terrain back into the the grid, it's simply a matter of writing the reverse by coping this text and replacing terrain save with terrain load and \OStoL3DT\ with \L3DTtoOS\ (which is a separate directory with modified versions of the terrain). There's a couple of advantages to doing this. Firstly I won't be working on the files in \OStoL3DT\ directly. Rather I'll copy that to another PC where I have L3DT installed, and copy various files into sub-directories to work on different blocks. That way if I stuff it up, I have a clean copy of the terrain on this PC. But also it means I can finely tune the terrain on the other PC for several blocks, and later copy the finished versions back to \L3DTtoOS\ for reloading.

Sounds messy but it's not, and it gives an extra level of backups for the terrain. We'll see how it works in practice.