Material Won't Accept Square TGA...

[wojo]

I'm trying to resize the aerial image I had assigned as my "overhead texture". When I try to edit the "overhead" material by replacing the image in the materials editor, it gives me that error message about it needing to be a square image. I've checked it several times in a Photoshop program. It was indeed square. I even tried saving it in the middle of a larger canvas. Still won't accept it. Any ideas why not?

Wojo

[Lez Marwick]

Textures do not need to be square. They need to have a height and a width that are both powers of 2 ie, 1, 2,4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128.... up to 4096. Links will only accept them up to 512 or if you are using the 1.07 mod, 1024.

[Danny D]

I'm trying to resize the aerial image I had assigned as my "overhead texture". When I try to edit the "overhead" material by replacing the image in the materials editor, it gives me that error message about it needing to be a square image. I've checked it several times in a Photoshop program. It was indeed square. I even tried saving it in the middle of a larger canvas. Still won't accept it. Any ideas why not?

Wojo

Hi wojo... Here's the method I find to be the easiest way to size your plot...

You can make your overlay TGA whatever size that you want in Photoshop. However, when you move it into the APCD, it must be re-sized to an acceptable APCD size. (4096x4096). For the sake of this discussion, lets hypothetically say that you make up an image from Google Earth. No need to pay attention to the size of the image as you create it. Just make one that your course fits in. Now lets say that your finished image turned out to be 5120x4900. Do this...

1: Make a note of that image size...
2: Next, using Photoshop, resize your image to 4096x4096. (that makes it an acceptable size for adding it to the APCD)...
3: After you add it to the APCD, create a plot to apply it to (most of us clone the default rough texture)...
4: Apply it to the cloned plot and then create a PLANAR for it...

For these next 2 steps, make sure you select "CONSTRAIN SCALE" (This allows you to change the width and height independently.)

5: In the PLANAR XYZ settings, the X will be the width that your original un-sized image was, and the Y will be the height...
6: Type the numbers you made a note of into each of the XY boxes. (5120 in the X box, and 4900 in the Y box)

Doing this will return your plot to the correct width to height ratio...

Next, click on the "UNIFORM SCALE" (This locks the XY settings together so they both change together while maintaining the same ratio)

You have 2 options now to set it to the Google Earth measurements. With the APCD's TOP camera view active, select the Z axis on the top left corner. Now click on the Gizmo icon and use the mouse to drag-size the overlay while taking measurements with the APCD ruler, OR (my favorite option, and more accurate IMO) you can manually type a lower or higher number into the X or Y box while the "UNIFORM SCALE" is selected. Doing so will change the width and height together while maintaining the correct ratio. Keep measuring the distance and making adjustments until the distance on your plot matches the distance on Google Earth.

Hope that helps,

Dan