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HTML
175 lines
10 KiB
HTML
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
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<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
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<title>Height Maps</title>
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</head>
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<body background="../pics/background.jpg" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFFFF" vlink="#FFFFFF" alink="#FFFFFF">
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<b>
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<p align="center"><font size="5">Height Maps</font></p>
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<div align="right">
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<table border="1" cellspacing="1" width="100%" bordercolor="#808080" bgcolor="#000000" cellpadding="10">
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<tr>
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<td width="100%"><font FACE="Times New Roman">
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<p> The terrain maps in Quake III: Team Arena began as grayscale bitmap art files
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imported into David Hyde<64>s <20><i>GenSurf</i><EFBFBD> tool, a Q3Radiant plug-in. As
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mentioned before, the height map is a template that the utility uses to define
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the vertex heights of the triangles forming the terrain surface. We used <i> Adobe
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Photoshop</i> and <i> JASC<53>s Paint Shop Pro</i> to create and adjust our height maps <20>
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but any art program that can output a .bmp format file can be used to create the
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height map.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">
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<p><img SRC="Image3.gif" WIDTH="264" HEIGHT="350" align="left"></p>
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</font><font FACE="Times New Roman">
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<p>figure 1.</p>
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<p> By way of example, the piece of artwork in figure 1 is a greatly scaled up
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(4X) version of the height map used to create the initial terrain geometry for
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mpterra2. The very dark, horizontal area near the center is the big <20>lake<6B>
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near the center of the map. The dark curves to the upper right and lower left
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are the <20>fjord<72> water areas. The dark areas in the upper left and lower
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right are the locations of the bases. The white and very light gray areas
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represent the peaks of hills and mountains.</p>
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<p> The key to understanding how the height map works is that the shades of gray
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in the art (call them <20>color values<65>) represent the height of mesh vertexes
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(triangle corners) and not the triangle quads (squares created by two
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triangles). When you work on a piece of art where each individual pixel
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corresponds to a vertex, it is easy to imagine the pixels (usually large square
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blocks) as squares of terrain. But that<61>s not how it works.</p>
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<p> Start by giving some thought to the eventual size and proportions of the
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final terrain area in your map. How many rows and columns of triangles do you
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want in the map? The finer you subdivide the map (making more rows and columns),
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the more triangles will appear in any given view, but the terrain can be made
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less blocky by including more.</p>
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<p> GenSurf can generate a terrain mesh of up to 64 triangles on a side (of the X
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and Y dimensions of the entire mesh). If you don<6F>t decimate the GenSurf output
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(an option that optimizes and reduces the number of triangles used to create the
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mesh <20> and we really recommend that you don<6F>t), it generates a mesh of
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triangles in arranged in quads in neat rows and columns. By way of reference,
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mpterra2 (the largest Team Arena map) is <20>only<6C> 48x64 columns and rows of
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triangles. Since Q3Radiant and q3map tend to like things that end up in neat
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powers of 2 or units of 64 subdivisions, consider having your map extents (lower
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left and upper right map corners) fall onto neat units, power of 2 units. In
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mpterra2, the extents were set up to make the mesh triangles have sides of 256
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units.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">
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<p><img SRC="Image4.gif" WIDTH="103" HEIGHT="99" align="left"></p>
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</font><font FACE="Times New Roman">
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<p>Figure 2.</p>
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<p> Figure 2 shows an example of a top view of a terrain mesh that is 8 x 8 rows
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and colums of triangles (on a side).</p>
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<p> Just as you would plan out a game map, give thought to the layout and flow of
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your terrain map. Will it be all-open in one view? Can you use natural terrain
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features to block vis? How complicated will your buildings (if any) be? Do you
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want to include trees, water, weather effects or other items that could add to
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the visual cost of your map?</p>
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<p> Begin the creation of your height map by making a new grayscale file. If your
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program doesn<73>t allow you to easily modify a .bmp format file, work in another
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format and then convert it when you save. You can make the dimensions of your
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height map art whatever you want. The extents you set in GenSurf for the map
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dimensions are what determine the final size of the terrain piece. Some may find
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it easier to work with a large file initially, using their favorite painting
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tools to lay in the shades of gray.</p>
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<p> However, when you get down to making final and precise changes in your height
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map you should (and this is STRONGLY recommended), change the size of the art
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file such that the pixel dimensions of the map are 1 pixel larger than the
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number of divisions (rows and columns) in the terrain mesh you want to create.
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If you are making a 64 x 64 division map, then you want to create a 65 x 65
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pixel height map.</p>
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<p> If there is not a one-to-one match between the number of vertexes in the mesh
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(one more than the number of divisions) and the number of pixels in the height
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map, then GenSurf interpolates the number values (0 to 255 range) of the pixels
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to get an averaged value instead of an exact value for the height of the vertex
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at that point.</p>
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<p> When you save out the height map art file, you must save it in 8-bit .BMP
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format. Currently, this is the only the file format that GenSurf recognizes.</p>
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<b>
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<p>Tips and things to consider for making Height Maps</p>
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<blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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</b></font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Read through the section on blocking
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vis later in the document. Plan your vis blocking terrain structures in advance
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instead of having to start over when you discover that too much of your world is
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in view.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Consider what type of geometry will
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form the edges of your map. The terrain maps in Q3:TA resolve the issue by
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creating canyon-like settings <20> valleys bordered by high canyon or mountain
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walls.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Start by filling your map with a
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neutral gray (value 127 or 128). Paint the high areas lighter and the low areas
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darker.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Keep your terrain shapes simple when
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you start. You can add greater complexity as your map develops.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">You will probably want to keep the <20>playable<6C>
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area of your map within a fairly close or <20>narrow<6F> range of gray values
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close to the middle range of values. This allows you to use very dark shades of
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gray to create deep chasms and very light shades of gray to create high
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mountains, canyon walls or visual barriers.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Extreme jumps between the gray values
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in adjacent areas means steep slopes.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Avoid making vertical or near vertical
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terrain surfaces <20> unless you don<6F>t mind the resulting textured surface
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looking like barcode. Q3Map planar projects the textures onto the terrain entity<74>s
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surface (Normal brushes are box mapped). The pixels will stretch and stretch to
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fill the space. The farther the surface is from horizontal, the greater the
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stretching.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Use the roughness feature of GenSurf
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to add a little, um <20> roughness to your map <20> so flat areas aren<65>t
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completely flat. If you are using a 1 to 1 scale height map, adding <20>noise<73>
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to the file will also accomplish this.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">If you want an area, such as a path,
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to be flat, you need to make the gray value affecting two adjacent vertexes the
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same value.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">You can create gentle slopes by
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changing the gray values between adjacent areas by very small amounts.</p>
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</font><font FACE="Symbol">
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<p><EFBFBD> </font><font FACE="Times New Roman">Slopes greater than 45 degrees are
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close to becoming unplayable barriers.</p>
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<p> </p>
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</blockquote>
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</blockquote>
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<p>If you are building a symmetrical team style map, only create one side of the
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terrain. Create a new piece of art that has the dimensions of the final piece.
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Paste the map half into the new file and move it into position. If the map will
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have an even number of vertexes, paste the map again and then rotate or mirror
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(as you choose) the selection and move it into position. If the number of
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vertexes is odd, after you paste the first half of the map, select all but the
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row or column of pixels along which the two halves of the map will face and copy
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it. Paste it, rotate or mirror it, then position it. Now, select and copy half
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the row or column of pixels you didn<64>t copy in the last operation. Paste it,
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transform it as you did in the last operation, and then position it so that it
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is in the same row or column, but on the opposite side of the piece you copied.</p>
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<p>When you make significant changes to a height map, consider saving it as
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version rather than over-writing the older file. Always nice to have a back up
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when you realize that you<6F>ve messed up more than you<6F>ve fixed.</p>
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</font>
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<p align="center"><a href="creating_the_terrain.html">Back</a> - <a href="table_of_contents.html">Table
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of Contents</a> - <a href="other_possible_height_map_tools.html">Other Height
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Map Tools</a></p>
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<p> </td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</div>
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</b>
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<p align="center"> </p>
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<p align="center">-8-</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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