Are you using a mask to protect your lots?

BSIRegina

I know a lot of people have had and are continuing to have troubles with the edges of their lots tearing, so it got me to thinking about an aspect of C-A-W I haven't seen discussed here in the forum. This is the Mask under terrain editing tools.

It's my understanding based on reading the manual, that what this Mask does is protect any piece of the map that's underneath it from terrain changes to other areas of the map. Since I've never used it I had to figure out exactly what it does. I could be wrong (and if I am I would really appreciate anyone letting me know) but I think this may be the magic formula to prevent the edges of lots from ripping apart from the rest of the world.

I haven't had time to experiment with this a lot, and today being Saturday, my time won't be my own. Weekends can and often do get a bit weird around here.

Here's picture #1, area I painted the mask over, just a simple square:


I grabbed the gentle flatten tool and ran over the entire area; notice how the edges of the masked square are down very slightly, but the remaining area has been unaltered by the tool:


What it looks like after I've removed the mask:


The last picture, I placed a lot and masked over it with a considerable border size, then added hills to surround it, then removed the mask. The area where the mask was is unaffected by the gentle hill tool.

Clawswp

great idea Regina! I will have to try this out. From your tests it seems really promising!
Also i have downloaded your textures and thank you so much for those, they are great!

Rflong7

Oh, yes. I've used the Mask a lot when I'm sculpting.

The thing I've noticed is that it doesn't really work as well all the time.

I masked a big area of the world and then sculpted a small area -the brush didn't even touch the lots- but it still ripped a lot edge. The lot wasn't touch and was well covered.

I started messing with the Mask as soon as I read about it in the Manual.

BSIRegina

That's what I was afraid of, Rflong. It's too bad it doesn't work as well as advertised.

You're welcome, Claw, I hope you enjoy them!

Johnnywr

I used it too and basically the same thing that happened to Rflong happened to me. It can be very hit or miss.

Rflong7

It works well on a beginning world, where not much has been done but there is always something.

I used it on my last two tiny worlds to make the level raised flat areas and protect the rest.

Works great for making different levels and but it doesn't always protect the lot edges.

auntielynds

I'm going to try it. The lots I have on hillsides are the worst, and the fact they are very close to each other doesn't help. I've been covering up some of the edges with buckthorn, or bulrush, but you can't line your whole lot with bushes. The tears on flat, level ground are manageable. I just have to conform edges on each one before I export, but like I said nothing so far has worked on my hillside lots.

wondersueak

ooh this is great to find out! The progress of my *mountain beach (lots of mountain no flat areas)* world has been nearly halted because of this issue.

water_cat1

i just thought, 'oh this will help my lots unconforming', then i read your other posts and i went awwww

I did see what it could do and using the falloff settings too (that could be useful) but have never properly used it on a world.

Rflong7

It seems like it should work but it won't for lots which are close to each other. The world frame still moves. With the Fall off/opacity set to 100 there is still the soft area- the not quite strong mask.

The only think which seems to work to prevent rips on hills is to keep the slope even on both sides of a hill/lot and to give space to lots not on flat land.

Docsprock

Well there's my problem!:D Ive never used that, but I sure will now. Thanks for the tip!

Rflong7

I am flabbergasted on how many people read the information/manual and yet didn't test this... :shock:

KickRamone

It is the unreliability of the masks. I gave up the extra work of masking when the masks did not work right. I may give them a second chance though. Seeing BSIReginia's results makes me think this would have come in handy yesterday.