Map making questions - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Map making questions (/showthread.php?tid=53160)

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Map making questions - Boo - 25.03.2008

I've read through hundreds of posts and the tutorials but still am a bit confused on a few issues.

I have made my basic map files per Clockwatchers tutorial and put them in a folder with a the appropriate entries in all.ini and a load.ini copied from another map and modified for my map files.
The map would show up in the FMB list fine but would fail on loading with the following error:
"world load map error java lang runtime error exception landscape xxxx/xxx xxx_iniloading error"

I finally got it past that failure by renaming everything carefully but I still get the following failure:
"section [MAP2D] not found in maps/Boo_NESpain/Boo_NESpain_load.ini"

Now there is a [MAP2D} section in that ini pointing two two xxx_ed01 and 02 tga files and I made trying to keep the same parameters I saw in other mod maps, but I am not sure they are made correctly, I have not found info on this yet (the forum search function is not very helpfull)

I was also wondering whether it is still required to list all your files in teh fileslist.txt. I assume the new wrapper took care of that since the other mod maps I loaded do not require entries there.

Here is my data if someone wants to look it over and throw me a hand:

(My actors.static and text.txt fiels are blank)

File Structure:


Graphic files:


my load ini:

Quote:[MAP]
ColorMap = Boo_NESpain_c.tga
HeightMap = Boo_NESpain_h.tga
SmallMap = map_M.tga
TypeMap = Boo_NESpain_T.tga
FarMap = Boo_NESpain_F.tga
ReflMap = map_R.tga

[LIGHT]
LandLight = LandLight.mat
CloudShadows = CloudShadows.mat

[MAP2D]
Boo_NESpain_ed_m01.tga
Boo_NESpain_ed_m02.tga

[TMAPED]
ed_map_t.tga


[WORLDPOS]
CAMOUFLAGE = SUMMER
MONTH=8
DECLIN = 49
PRESSURE = 745
TEMPERATURE = 25

[CUBE]
Down = Cube_bott.tga
East = Cube_right.tga
North = Cube_front.tga
South = Cube_back.tga
Up = Cube_top.tga
West = Cube_left.tga

[static]
;actors.static
Boo_NESpain_actors.static

[text]
;texts.txt
Boo_NESPaintext.txt

[WOOD]
Wood0 = Italy_DF/forest/summer/itawood0.tga
Wood1 = Italy_DF/forest/summer/itawood1.tga
Wood2 = Italy_DF/forest/summer/itawood2.tga
Wood3 = Italy_DF/forest/summer/itawood3.tga
Wood4 = Italy_DF/forest/summer/itawood4.tga

WoodMask2 = forest/summer/forestMask.tga
WoodMask3 = forest/summer/forestMask2.tga
WoodMiniMasks = forest/summer/MiniMask.tga
SideWood = forest/summer/ForestSide.tga

[APPENDIX]
HighClouds = Clouds256.tga
HighCloudsNoise = CloudsNoise.tga
// CloudsMap = CloudMap4x4km.tga
Moon = Moon\Moon0000.tga
ShadeNoise = land/Noise.tga
WaterNoise = water/WaterNoise.tga
WaterNoiseAnimStart = Water/Animated/WaterNoise00.tga
ForestNoise= forest/summer/ListForestNoise.tga
BeachFoam = water/Foam.tga
BeachSurf = water/BeachSurf.tga
BeachLand = water/RiverLand.tga
Tree0 = Trees\AlteredBush8a.tga
TreeLightMask = Trees\LightM256.tga

[WATER]
Water = Italy_DF/water/ItalyWater.tga
WaterColorATI = 0.140 0.175 0.230
//WaterColorATI = 0.150 0.225 0.180
WaterColorNV = 0.140 0.185 0.268
//WaterColorNV = 0.165 0.264 0.233


[ROADS]
Rail = land/summer/Rail
Road = land/summer/Road
Highway = land/summer/Highway

[FIELDS]
LowLand0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/LowLand_2neu.tga
LowLand1 = Italy_DF/land/summer/fields_handfields_med.tga,2
LowLand2 = Italy_DF/land/summer/FIELDS2_med.TGA,2
LowLand3 = Italy_DF/land/summer/fields_v2.tga,2

MidLand0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_neu4.tga,2
MidLand1 = Italy_DF/land/summer/dryland.tga,2
MidLand2 = Italy_DF/land/summer/dry1.tga,2
MidLand3 = Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_neu3.tga,2
Mount0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_neu5.tga,2
Mount1 = Italy_DF/land/summer/grass_macchia_rock_v2.tga,2
Mount2 = Italy_DF/land/summer/bigcountry_dry2.tga
Mount3 = Italy_DF/land/summer/mount_top2.tga,2
Country0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/bigcountry.tga
Country1 = Italy_DF/land/summer/fields_dry2.tga,2
Country2 = Italy_DF/land/summer/dryland.tga,2
Country3 = Italy_DF/land/summer/fields_drygreen.tga,2
City0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/MidCity.tga
City1 = Italy_DF/land/summer/DownCity_dry.tga
City2 = Italy_DF/land/summer/CenterCity_dry2.tga
City3 = Italy_DF/land/summer/factory_dry.tga
AirField0= Italy_DF/land/summer/dry2_v2.tga,2
AirField1= Italy_DF/land/summer/Lowland_dry.tga,2
AirField2= Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_dry.tga,2
AirField3= Italy_DF/land/summer/vulcan.tga
Wood0 = Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_neu4.tga,2
Wood1 =
Wood2 = Italy_DF/forest/summer/ItaWood_far.tga,2
Wood3 = Italy_DF/land/summer/macchia_neu4.tga,2
Water0 = water/water.tga
Water1 = water/water.tga
Water2 = water/coastline.tga
Water3 = Italy_DF/water/dune_beach.tga

It would be great if someone could compile all the required steps with existing tutorials from start to finish and lock it so they don't get off topic or confused with people asking questions. What would be really helpful to start with is a listing showing all the required files, a short description and required formats (color depth, max size, pixel size, etc) Then move on to ClockWatchers MicroDem tutorial, then how to use the Map FMB tools for splitting up the map_c file. Then the tutroials on texturing the F map and laying out the T map, finally followed with map folder structure and required entries in the load.ini. (Yeah I know it woudl be a big job, I would do it if I had it mastered which I obviously don't yet )

Thanks for any help and big SALUTE to those who have taken the time and effort to get us this far, I have been at this only two days and am beating my head against the wall against problems that many of you took months to work through.

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- 6S.Maraz - 25.03.2008

1) map_T and Map_H should both be the same size, they are both grayscale 8 bit so the size should be 11137 KB

2)
this is the right map2d section (m01 and m02 inverted):

[MAP2D]
Boo_NESpain_ed_m02.tga
Boo_NESpain_ed_m01.tga

3) I read that map_C should just be named map_c.tga (and map_c.tga_table), try to stick to these names and see if it works

Hope this helps
Maraz

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- delco - 25.03.2008

Cachis la mar y yo haciendo lo mismo....

Please keep up the good work! I

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- RAF_Leigh - 25.03.2008

if your using GIMP turn off RLE compression that might help

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- RAF_Magpie - 25.03.2008

RAF_Leigh Wrote:if your using GIMP turn off RLE compression that might help

The option to turn this on or off, will only come up if you use "save as" - so make sure everytime you're saving your .tga in Gimp to use the "save as" function

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- Skunkmeister - 25.03.2008

I've found that GIMP doesnt handle large map sizes very well. For some reason the files will save to a format appearing to be the correct one, but the game will refuse to recognize the files.

The only solution I've found was to use photoshop for my map files. I have CS 9.2.

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- Boo - 25.03.2008

Yeah I had RLE compression off, thanks for so many replies so quickly!

I hope I don't need photoshop, that's an expensive program.

What about having to enter the filenames in fileslist.txt, was AI correct in thinking that is not needed?

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- RAF_Leigh - 25.03.2008

u dont need photoshop you can use GIMP like what magpies doing with his NZ map (BTW thats huge ) and if you are goign to use the file list you need to enter everything that you made in the floder like

maps/Boo_NESpain/Boo_NESpain_actors.static
maps/Boo_NESpain/Boo_NESpain_c.tga

and so on

but i cant remember if you have to have map_c.tga insted of Boo_NESpain_c.tga if you do it your way i think your going to have to change the load.ini to fit it


well good map making

RAF_Leigh

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- GerritJ9 - 25.03.2008

I use both Photoshop CS3 and GIMP 2.4.4- some tasks seem to be easier in GIMP, some easier in Photoshop. GIMP definitely has problems in handling very large files, though- although it has no problems with handling my East Java project's map_c, map_h and map_t at 200m/px, it freezes when trying to work on map_c at 50m/px (at 50m/px, map_c is 28928 x 14848 px!)- Photoshop handles this size quite happily.

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- Boo - 26.03.2008

Graphics programs are not my strong point so I am a bit confused by the 200/50 meter settings.

I set those per the MicroDem tutorial but when I open the files in GIMP and check "image properties" it only show 72ppi for all the files. I tried changing them using "Scale Image" to 50 or 200 meters but when I reopen it after saving it is back to 72ppi. I then tried changing a small file to see if it was a GIMP memory problem and the same thing happened. Am I scaling it correctly, reading the wrong numbers, or is there another way to do it? (alos when I use Gimp's scaling function it asks what kind of interpolation to use and I went with the default "cubic")

Looking at Fly_z's BoB map it also shows 72ppi for the images in his folder??.


Also info on what are the requirements for the 2Dmap files would be appreciated. It appears they are supposed to be like:
ed_01 twice the height map resolution RGB
ed_02 same as map resolution RGB

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- 6S.Maraz - 26.03.2008

Boo Wrote:Graphics programs are not my strong point so I am a bit confused by the 200/50 meter settings.

I set those per the MicroDem tutorial (...)

That's right, you must set the scale of the image when you export from MicroDem to TGA format as written in tutorials. There you must set pixel spacing = 50m for map_c and 200m for other maps (T and h).

So map_C will come 4 times as large as map_T and map_h in both width and height (so 4x4=16 times larger in terms of number of pixels and file size).

Graphics programs won't tell you the scale in meters of your image, they simply don't know that it's the image of a portion of earth. For GIMP or Photoshop it's just as the picture of Pam Anderson

Maraz

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- Boo - 26.03.2008

If that is so why does it say in ClockWatchers Microdem tutorial that you can set the size later in Gimp?

Quote:Remember that for map_h and map_T we set the map size to 1 pixel = 200m because this is what
IL2 uses. But for map_C, IL2 uses 1 pixel = 50m. It also uses RGB = 0 for water, RGB = 255 is
land and the greyscales in between are shallow water/smooth shorelines.
Method 1, set the mapsize in MicroDEM to 1 pixel = 50m, but you wil have to Blur the edges in
Gimp or a similar picture manipulation program to get nice water edges.
Method 2, set MicroDEM to 1 pixel = 200m and scale the image up in you picture program. In
Gimp this will automatically give a greyscale/antialaised edge to the map_C.

Does this mean I should just double the resolution of the map_c file then?

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- delco - 26.03.2008

Not double but quadruple. And that is why it says you

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- Boo - 27.03.2008

Well I finally had some success! Obviously I have some more work to do, but just getting it to load was a huge relief.

My main problem was that when I read that map_c had to be 4 times bigger than map_h I was think they meant 4 times by volume, which means doubling the image size, when really it meeded to be 4x the resolution.

You know what the say about assuming.
(For those non-native English speakers: when you ASSUME you make an ASS out of U (you) and ME)

The map still won't save anything placed on it, I am not sure if that is because I don't have the ed files correct or I have not modified to FMB+ yet. BUt anyway now I am happy and don't feel so silly.

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- delco - 27.03.2008

You need to have a folder 'map' in you il2 folder, and within that one another one with the name of your map. In may case I have \IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\maps\dlc_SpainSW

When you save the saved files go there. After that and if you are happy with your work you can move those files to the mod map folder overwriting the older ones and you are ready to go.

delco

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