Importing Real-World Location

[jhnyx]

Hello, I'm interested in modifying Bridge Command, specifically the environment, to include a real-world location from my country. I used RenderDoc to extract the 3D data and imported it into Blender. My goal is to integrate this custom environment into the game. Is it possible?

Edit:

I successfully imported my custom 3D environment into Bridge Command, but I encountered a problem—my model appears completely white. The textures from the original data (extracted via RenderDoc from Google Maps) seem to have been lost.
Does the 3DS format used in Bridge Command support textures, or do they need to be manually applied after import?
If textures are supported, how can I ensure they are properly exported from Blender?
Would DirectX (.X) be a better format for preserving textures, and if so, is there a recommended way to export it from Blender?

[forum_admin]

Hello, apologies for the delay!

Is this an elevation map that you are trying to import? If so, the best way is generally to use a heightmap and texture (See https://www.bridgecommand.co.uk/Doc/WorldFileSpec.php) This should avoid problems with the texture not being loaded.

If you do want a 3d model, the 3ds format as used in Bridge Command should support textures. I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with blender to know what set of options are needed. Quite a lot of other formats are also supported, including .obj (see the full list at https://irrlicht.sourceforge.io/?page_id=45#supportedformats), so it might be worth trying a few different options. Although a lot of the models used in Bridge Command are .x format, I don't think there's a lot of support in modern tools for exporting to this format any more.

Please let me know how you get on, and I may be able to provide more advice depending on exactly what you are trying to do.

[Pat]

I'm also looking at Blender to create worlds as Bundysoft's L3DT seems to be unavailable.  I can capture my local area in Blender with the BlenderGIS add-on (Bing maps seem better quality around me than Google) and some open topography.org gets me the relief.  Another Blender plugin allows me to export this world as a .3ds file, but my question is, how do I import this into BC?  The terrain.ini file has entries for a heightmap and texture file so do I need something different here to accept just a .3ds file instead?

[forum_admin]

Hi Pat,
I think the best way to use a 3d model as the terrain will be to use a 'dummy' height map image and settings in terrain.ini, to set the overall parameters (the image can be black, with SeaMaxDepth set to be at least as deep as your maximum depth).

You would then load the terrain model as a 'Land Object'. You will need to make sure you know where the model origin is, and set this as the land object position.

You will need to make sure the Radar, Collision and Absolute settings are all '1'.

Details of the parameters are in https://www.bridgecommand.co.uk/Doc/Current/WorldFileSpec.html

Let me know how this works!