Having trouble getting started with CVS version

I've read the wiki page that describes installation, and I based my process on it. I'm trying to use CVS (Ogre and PLSM2) with Visual Studio 8.0.

Here's what I've done:

1. I grabbed the CVS for ogrenew and ogreaddons and put them basically in (basepath)\ogrenew and (basepath)\ogreaddons
2. I got ogrenew building first (copying dependencies etc.)
3. I copied the Plugins, Samples, and Tools directories from (basepath)\ogreaddons\paginglandscape to (basepath)\ogrenew.
4. I added the projects into the Ogre solution (which are the vcproj files in : (basepath)\ogrenew\PlugIns\PagingLandScape2\scripts, (basepath)\Samples\PagingLandScape2\scripts, and (basepath)\Tools\MapSplitter\script). This of course converted them from VC 7.1 projects to 8.0 (conversion worked fine).
5. I rebuilt the solution (everything builds fine).
6. I extracted datasrcs.zip to (basepath)\ogrenew\samples\media\paginglandscape2\datasrcs.

At this point, I assume my job is to get the Mapsplitter to work to create the data I need.

7. I copied all of the required DLL's from the Common bin directory (debug in this case at (basepath)\ogrenew\Samples\Common\bin\Debug) to (basepath)\ogrenew\tools\common\bin\debug.
8. I ran MapsplitterD.exe (debug version) from (basepath)\ogrenew\Tools\Common\bin\debug. It complanied that the "../../../../Samples/Media/paginglandscape2/terrains/hf129_3" does not exist (referenced in media.cfg), so I created that empty directory.
9. I ran it again, and it tries to generate maps based upon puget_1k.gen.cfg. It throws an exception like:


-----------------------------------
Details:
-----------------------------------
Error #: 1
Function: PagingLandScapeOptions::loadMapOptions
Description: Your map must at least have a width and height defined in the config file .
File: ..\..\..\PlugIns\PagingLandScape2\src\OgrePagingLandScapeOptions.cpp
Line: 471
Stack unwinding: <<beginning of stack>>
00:11:34: Termination handler: uncaught exception!
00:11:34: *-*-* OGRE Shutdown


10. I debugged this and it looks like it's looking for "Height" and "Width" in the file, and defaulting both values to zero. It then throws an exception if either of these are zero (which it does).

Now my question is: what am I doing wrong? Is puget_1k.gen.cfg supposed to have a Height and Width value in it? Both the CVS version and the "binary" version zip file had a "gen" file with this key/value pair. Am I doing something really stupid?

I tried to follow the wiki instructions, but it kept referring to running stuff from the "PLSM" directory. I'm not sure what that meant, but the Tools/Common/bin/Debug seems like the place I SHOULD be running Mapsplitter(D) from. I realize the wiki might be slightly out of date or something, but if I get this running, I will go back and edit it where it makes sense to .

Sorry, it's a bug.

Fixed in CVS.

You can either comment it in paginglandscapeOptions until anonymous CVS is updated or put abitrary values in gen.cfg

Thanks for the clean and detailed report, it helps a lot.


"PLSM" directory
well, using SDK it ends in $(OGREHOME)\bin\debug but in CVS it's in Tools/Common/bin/Debug

Thanks tuan I'll check CVS tomorrow (actually later today now ). I'm trying to get PLSM2 working with a great tool I've been playing around with called L3DT. Hopefully once I get it working I'll throw together a wiki article on using its output with PLSM2.

Keep up the great work on PLSM2. I'm particularly stoked that you're looking at imposters. Your demo crashed on me when I moved around, but it was inspiring while running (I'll try to build it from source later and try to figure out what the problem was). I think imposters have enormous potential in the landscape area. They seem like they'd handle a particular problem I think I'd have dealing with caves in terrain (where LOD would simply hide/close the cave completely).

I'd also like to thank you for all of the great articles you've linked in the past on various topics. You seem to read a large amount of the interesting research papers out there.

Hopefully once I get it working I'll throw together a wiki article on using its output with PLSM2.
That would be great !

Your demo crashed on me when I moved around, but it was inspiring while running (I'll try to build it from source later and try to figure out what the problem was)
Yes alpha version doesn't handle case were impostor need more texture space than currently available. Next version will allocate a new RenderTexture when needed, so wait for next version. (there may be interface changes too.)

You seem to read a large amount of the interesting research papers out there.
We have the great luck that papers on 3d scientific domain are mostly freely available on the Internet, even some with source code to experiment with. Cannot refrain from reading/testing those when I can.

Couple of quick notes:

When I run the MapSplitter, it still whines about the "../../../../Samples/Media/PagingLandscape2/Terrains/hf129_3" directory not existing. It might be worth creating that directory in CVS with a .keepme file (like the other directories).

When I run the demo out of ogrenew/samples/common/bin/debug etc., it fails with the same config warning (ho Height and Width), which was the problem the MapSplitter had originally.

fixed in CVS, Thanks.
(widht and hiehgt are mandatory)

Thanks tuan! I got it working (next step: creating my own map from scratch).

There were a few more issues if you're looking to REALLY clean it up I think I saw some of these mentioned in earlier threads, but I had a hard time searching for them on the forum.

In CVS, you have a few textures in the JPG format (splatting_*.jpg and terrain_texture.0.0.jpg) where the material scripts are expecting PNG's.

In addition, there are quite a few material definitions that appear to already be a included in OGRE CVS. I renamed the extension on a few material files from the paginglandscape2 scripts directory (colors.material, MapEditor-Circle.material, and MyTree.material). Of course it might be hard to really reconcile that with OGRE CVS.

material scripts are expecting PNG's
I'll look that.
colors.material, MapEditor-Circle.material, and MyTree.material
didn't they come from a previous plsm2 installation ?

colors.material, MapEditor-Circle.material, and MyTree.material
didn't they come from a previous plsm2 installation ?

To be clear: the files did not exist, but materials they referenced were already defined in material files that came with OGRE CVS. In other words, I renamed the above files just so they wouldn't define materials that OGRE already defined. I'm starting clean each time (checking out of CVS...please don't tell the sourceforge people! ) to test all of this stuff out. I'm thinking the OGRE guys "did you a favor" .

I cannot reproduce the problem here.
Do you remember material names they referenced that were in double ?

I figured it out. The wiki instructions for using CVS gives this step:
copy \PlugIns,\Samples and \Tools from ogreaddons\paginglandscape to \ogrenew

The problem is that when you check out ogreaddons from CVS, the Samples directory has the following files duplicated in both ogreaddons\paginglandscape\Samples\Media\paginglandscape2\material and ogreaddons\paginglandscape\Samples\Media\materials\scripts:

1. 
   colors.material
   MapEditor-Circle.material
   MyTree.material
   [/list:u]
   
   Either the wiki instructions should probably be changed, or perhaps the "paginglandscape\Samples\Media\materials" directory should be removed from CVS?
   
   Again, none of these are HUGE issues and most people should be able to figure them out...but it might cut down on questions/problems.

Thanks, removed the bad folder and medias.
I'll update wiki as well.

Thanks tuan. Hopefully my future comments and questions will be of a less "trivial" nature.