Calling Fractal Terrains from another program

Is it possible to be able to have a program launch FT with the world data already set?

I have an access database with all the worlds from Traveller's Spinward Marches entered into it. I would like to create a button that would launch FT with the proper settings for the world and automatically create a map.

Comments

  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    It should be possible. See attached.
  • Excellent! I'm a bit confused by the syntax though.

    Would it be: -Parms=SeaPercent=30,Circumference=5000

    or: -SeaPercent=30,-Circumference=5000

    ?
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    It would be

    -parms=12345,5000,30,30000,-30000

    for the basic parameters of randseed=12345, circumference=5000, seapercent=30, peak=30000, abyss=-30000 and so on.

    The "Index" value in the first column is the parameter number on -parms. This feature wasn't really intended for use by humans.

    For temperature, rainfall, and additional commands, the parameters are as shown in the document (thus, temperature might be -parms=temp=30,20,50 and change the image width to 1000 would be -imgwidth=1000).
  • So far so good. How do I change the fractal function? I've been trying to set "LandType" but it doesn't seem to do anything. I want to set the fractal function to "fBm with Perlin's improved noise"
  • I only want to change a few parameters so I have been using:

    -parms=Circumference,15000=SeaPercent,30

    with my access database providing the actual numbers.
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    Posted By: AlricI only want to change a few parameters so I have been using:

    -parms=Circumference,15000=SeaPercent,30

    with my access database providing the actual numbers.
    Unfortunately, you have to specify ALL of the parameters up to the point where you don't want to specify them anymore.

    To specify circumference and sea percent, you'd need to specify
    -parms=12345,5000,30

    To specify the fractal type, you'll need to specify 16 parameters or more.

    Values for LandType should be:
    0 Ridged Multifractal
    1 Fractional Brownian Motion
    18 fBm with Perlin's Improved Noise
    18 Wilbur Fractional Brownian Motion (fBm)
    19 Wilbur Ridged Multifractal
    21 Voronoi Ridged Multifractal
    23 RMF with Perlin's Improved Noise

    Which points out that there's a bug in FT: the wilbur and improved fBm types are sharing an ID and they shouldn't be. Whoopsie.
  • pdjpdj Traveler
    edited October 2012
    Posted By: jslayton

    Values for LandType should be:
    0 Ridged Multifractal
    1 Fractional Brownian Motion
    18 fBm with Perlin's Improved Noise
    18 Wilbur Fractional Brownian Motion (fBm)
    19 Wilbur Ridged Multifractal
    21 Voronoi Ridged Multifractal
    23 RMF with Perlin's Improved Noise

    Which points out that there's a bug in FT: the wilbur and improved fBm types are sharing an ID and they shouldn't be. Whoopsie.
    Hah! That explains why when I use WfBm it never gets remembered. I'd been puzzling about that :)
  • Posted By: jslayton
    Which points out that there's a bug in FT: the wilbur and improved fBm types are sharing an ID and they shouldn't be. Whoopsie.
    Darn! The fBm with Perlin's was the one I wanted to use.

    Is there a way to change the defaults for FT? That would work as well.
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    Posted By: Alric
    Posted By: jslayton
    Which points out that there's a bug in FT: the wilbur and improved fBm types are sharing an ID and they shouldn't be. Whoopsie.
    Darn! The fBm with Perlin's was the one I wanted to use.

    Is there a way to change the defaults for FT? That would work as well.
    You can always move the "WilburFBM.dll" file out of the directory that has FT.exe in it. Then the Wilbur noise won't be available at all.

    It does not appear that you can set the defaults for FT and then run that data. You can load an existing .ftw file from the command line, but it will overwrite any parameters you pass. The file "Default.srf" would ideally contain the defaults that you want, but FT treats it as either the command line parameters OR the parameters from Default.srf. I'm going to have to say that if you want to use the command line parameters, then you're going to have to specify all of them that you want. Like I said early on, this interface wasn't intended for the convenience of humans, but rather for calling FT from an external program (and such a program can be made to trivially provide all of the needed parameters).
  • Posted By: jslayton I'm going to have to say that if you want to use the command line parameters, then you're going to have to specify all of them that you want. Like I said early on, this interface wasn't intended for the convenience of humans, but rather for calling FT from an external program (and such a program can be made to trivially provide all of the needed parameters).
    That's what I'm doing. I have a database with all the systems for Traveller's Spinward Marches for Microsoft Access. I have set-up a form that lets you scroll through the systems and lists the system's details. Now I'm working on a button that will launch FT with the parameters taken from the traveller data.

    The current issue is that the Traveller data doesn't specify for a lot of the parameters that FT has, for example axial tilt. I was hoping to just use the program's defaults for them because otherwise I don't know what values to use.
  • jslaytonjslayton Moderator, ProFantasy Mapmaker
    You should just be able to look at the dialogs in FT to determine the default values.
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