How to make maps! - Page 2

How to make maps!

Discuss maps & map creation - from concept to execution to the ever elusive release.

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Buggi
Posts: 875
Joined: 29 Apr 2005, 07:46

Post by Buggi »

I actually like the way spring does metal... I must be weird.

Anyway, I saw the cry for a programmer, and, alas, I'm a programmer! And I've done map editors for past games (like pharaoh).

I'll stay away from the core... But I can do some research on the spring map format and see what I can assist with :)
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Redfish
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Joined: 27 Feb 2005, 16:12

Post by Redfish »

I've just looked into the source for the mapconv tool. And there is already a part the replaces green dots from the metal maps with geoview.bmp(geothermal crack) on the texture map. So I only have to rewrite that, so that it checks for blueness(red is for metal green geos). And when it finds it, it doesn't put the geoview there, but the metal patch. However we'll need a couple of textures for 2.0 1.1 etc patches. Maybe someone could make those.
zwzsg wrote:
Please take not that Spring do not like having dots in map names. When trying to play Comet Catcher offline, it tells me it can't find Comet Catcher 0.smd because the dot confuse Spring. Then the game starts with both comm next to each other.
Yup, so you should rename the files to something without the .
Last edited by Redfish on 29 Apr 2005, 12:44, edited 1 time in total.
Tangaroa
Posts: 77
Joined: 17 Aug 2004, 04:50

Post by Tangaroa »

Whee, I just made a core prime metal type kmap.

I think I will have to the multicoloured 16 bit heightmap to get the sharp corners, and the metal doesnt work quite right yet, but here are some screenshots:

http://images.igloos.ca/v/tangoimg/scre ... ewsIndex=1

http://images.igloos.ca/v/tangoimg/scre ... ewsIndex=1

http://images.igloos.ca/v/tangoimg/scre ... ewsIndex=1
jouninkomiko
Posts: 436
Joined: 26 Aug 2004, 08:11

Post by jouninkomiko »

it shouldn't be difficult to modify the map loading code to find the last dot rather than the first...
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FLOZi
MC: Legacy & Spring 1944 Developer
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Joined: 29 Apr 2005, 01:14

Post by FLOZi »

Terrain deformation looks a little strange on a metal map :shock:
Tangaroa
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Joined: 17 Aug 2004, 04:50

Post by Tangaroa »

Heh, yah, hopefully we will get a tool to change that, it should really be small, shallow dent like craters rather than massive holes.
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zwzsg
Kernel Panic Co-Developer
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Post by zwzsg »

Don't forget to change sky and water colors. On Core Prime water is dark green and sky is black.
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Redfish
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Post by Redfish »

zwzsg what exactly did you use for you metal map? a rectangle with a slight bit of texture in it?
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Caydr
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Post by Caydr »

3 notes for prospective terragen map-makers (would've saved me a lot of headaches):

First, you want to set water height so that it does not appear at all. Spring automatically adjusts the texture when it's going underwater.

Second, select the orthographic map view and then hit the option for automatic camera. Hella lot easier than aligning it yourself. Maybe the guy who wrote that guide was nuts or something, when I set my camera as he described I was only capturing about 1x1 of map data.

This has already been mentioned, but if you're using photoshop, stay away from RAW files!!! BMP works fine.
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zwzsg
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Post by zwzsg »

Because I wanted exactly the same layout as in Greenhaven, I proceeded like that:

I extracted /features/trees.tdf and replaved every entries by something using a blank model. That way tree won't show up ingame. To do the job well I should have done the same with rocks and other features as well.

I run TA, played on greenhaven, quikcly kidnapped the enemy comm and moved it away, and did a bunch of +makeposter.

I merged them into an ingame shot of greenhaven, entire, with no units and no trees.

In an image editor, I selected all metal patches, but no rock and no geo. I pasted the image selection into the greenhaven.bmp extracted by Annihilator.

I shifted the hue to turn the map from green to red. But that made the metal patches greenish, so I tweaked the hue map to get them ok.

I splitted the whole bitmap in RGB. I capped G to a threshold to prevent having trees in dark black slopes. I recombined RGB.

The texture map was ready.

Bare eye can see the metal patch, they are white metallic while the rest of the map is red or black ash. So with an appropriate sequence of filter, change contrast, replace color, decrease color depth to 2, etc... I was able to get a bmp with only the metal standing out on a uniform background. I then blurred them a bit until they grew back to appropriate size, and turned the picture into green spots on black background, making sure to use only pure green, with lightness ranging from fluo green to pure black, but having every single pixel have 0 red and 0 blue. Oh, and I also resized the map to proper dimension somewhere in the process. The metal map was nearly ready, it lacked only the geo.

From the picture made with merged +makeposter, I manually marked every geo vent with a circle of a strong color. Then I filtered the picture, keeping only the strong color. Then I resized the picture. Then I manually added one pure red pixel on each spot. Then I filtered to keep only the pure red pixel on an unifrom background. Then I pasted in metal map.

The metal map was now fully ready.

In the .smd I changed ExtractorRadius to make it go just a bit larger than metal patches. That way you can have mexx close to each other like in TA, but if mexx are misplaced by a building grid square or two, they still cover the whole patches. (Building grid in Spring is much more sensitive than in TA). Then I changed MaxMetal so that metal extractor give the same M as in TA. So now, mexx played just like OTA. Note: I got a report that most metal patches gives the same M. It's possible that in the blurring process I lost the difference between different patches. Maybe I'll redo the metal map to ensure that each patch gives the same amount as in TA.

For the heightmap, I extracted it with annihator, and resized it to appropriate dimension. Because in spring it would be north-south inverted, I added the -i argument in the compilation commandline. Because at first the heightmap wouldn't exactly correspond to the texture map, I resized to a bit less and added a one pixel line outline top and right. (Note: for that part I'm not 100% sure, by pressing F1 in and out I have the impression my heightmap now perfectly fit my texture map, but it's still an experimental process and not a perfect method).

Then, I changed the geovent.bmp that the compilator use to paste a texture over geo to one from mars.

Then I compiled.

Then I edited a .smd to get appropriate tinting. I kept a standard tint for land, but changed units tints, sky tint, fog tint, etc..

IMHO it doesn't look right to have a blue sky and blue water on every planet. It doesn't take long to change values in the .smd. If other map makers could also get their custom sky, water, fog, and units light/tint, Spring would gain in variety and immersion. For instance core prime map should have strong light contrast (UnitAmbientColor values much lower than UnitSunColor) and black sky and colorless fog and light+RB absorbing dark green waters.
Gurkha
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004, 01:53

Post by Gurkha »

ok, I can't figure the command line interface out.

I have three .bmp s:
<C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Pictures\ta maps\map1met.bmp>
<C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Pictures\ta maps\map1hei.bmp>
<C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Pictures\ta maps\map1tex.bmp>

what is the EXACT command line that I have to use to get them turned into a proper .sm2? put whichever setting in it that you think will work best, it's a sort of coastal/large island chain type of map.

TIA

-Gurkha
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zwzsg
Kernel Panic Co-Developer
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Post by zwzsg »

- Dump all files, .bmp and compiler, in same folder
- Right click on windows explorer
- Create New Txt
- Write in it:
@mapconv --help
@pause
@echo:
@echo:
@mapconv -l -c 0.8 -x 256 -n 0 -o "CoastAndMount.sm2" -m metalandgeo.bmp -a height.bmp -i -t color.bmp
@pause:
- Save and quit notepad
- Rename as "MakeMap.bat"
- Double click on MakeMap.bat

Is how I do it.

Then you have to make a .smd. Simply open the .smd of an other map with Notepad and see what's inside.

Read what "mapconv -help" tells, it contains useful info.
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Redfish
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Joined: 27 Feb 2005, 16:12

Post by Redfish »

Hey zwzsg,

thanks for your thorough explanation. It's almost exactly the way I did my new GOW map with patches. I did the metal map with exact values for red only. The patches work perfectly, but in the metal map in spring they look a bit strange. Some are greener, but it doesn't influence the metal they give, so i'll leave it.
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PauloMorfeo
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Joined: 15 Dec 2004, 20:53

Post by PauloMorfeo »

The GOW, and generally all maps, could have some indication on the surface of where the metal is...

So we could see just by looking at the ground without having to switch to Metal-View mode...

I supose that is possible!?
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zwzsg
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Post by zwzsg »

It's what I've done in Redhaven PauloMorfeo.
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Caydr
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Post by Caydr »

Zwzsg... your method of placing metal on metal patches is horrifyingly overcomplex. That's... just... ungodly amount of work. I'll post a walkthrough of my method a little later on, takes about 20 minutes.
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zwzsg
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Post by zwzsg »

Yes, my method is over-complex. You don't have to use it. It was my first try at Spring map-making. And I would have done much more simply if I wasn't trying to respect the exact metal and geo placement of Greenhaven.
Tangaroa
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Joined: 17 Aug 2004, 04:50

Post by Tangaroa »

Im not intending to change the sky and water colours, I cant stand the original core prime. If you look at my OTA metal maps, you will see that I used the atlantis metal tileset, which has blue water and probably blue sky with clouds. (I like the blue transparency of the water, its like a swimming pool almost).

Also, is it possible to open up the RAW files in Photoshop? I think I need to directly edit one to get sharp corners on the metal.
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Redfish
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Post by Redfish »

PauloMorfeo wrote:The GOW, and generally all maps, could have some indication on the surface of where the metal is...

So we could see just by looking at the ground without having to switch to Metal-View mode...

I supose that is possible!?
The map is already ready with visible patches and giving the EXACT GOW values, but it's not hosted anywhere yet.

Caydr wrote:
Zwzsg... your method of placing metal on metal patches is horrifyingly overcomplex. That's... just... ungodly amount of work. I'll post a walkthrough of my method a little later on, takes about 20 minutes.


Caydr if you have a way to export the actual features of a map as a readable image I'll be happy to use that method. Waiting for your tut.

Besides when I did the comet map it was a total pain in the ass to manually add all the points like I did that time and it still didn't have visual textures. I'll make visible patch version for next spring.

So I think zwzsg method is pretty good since I couldn't find any way to export the features from annihilator.
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zwzsg
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Post by zwzsg »

Yes, my method may seem long, but since I treat all patches at once, it in fact save lots of time. Using a few filter and blurring on the whole map takes less time than individually placing a gazillion metal spots.
Tangaroa wrote:Also, is it possible to open up the RAW files in Photoshop? I think I need to directly edit one to get sharp corners on the metal.
As said earlier, forget about RAW, BMP is all you need, even for heightmap.
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