Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Tutorials & Resources For Mappers

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Beherith
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Joined: 26 Oct 2007, 16:21

Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Beherith »

So, I will start off this tutorial with the two greatest limitations of WICed:
-You need to get the game and have it installed in order to be able to install the WIC editor
Link to WICed:
http://www.massgate.net/downloads.php

-It can only conveniently texture maps of a maximum 16x16 size.
Image
Now for the fun part:
After downloading and installing WICed, run it and create a new file from it. Selecting an environment will be irrevelant for spring, as this only effects the sky and atmosphere and lightting conditions that will be different in spring.

Importing a heightmap:
The heighmap must be 513*513 size, 16 bit, 1 channel(greyscale) , intel/ibm byte order RAW file. This will result in a standard 16*16 size texture for spring. WICed uses half the heightmap resolution that Spring uses, so your going to have to downscale it to import, but this doesnt effect quality too much, as long as your Spring map doesnt have too many near vertical cliffs or exquisite heighmap detail.

If importing a heightmap that is smaller than Springs 16*16, you should enlarge the canvas of the heightmap to 1025*1025 in photoshop, so the unused areas are all of one color, then resize the whole image to 513*513

Navigating on the map:
-Right click and drag to move the camera
-Scroll to zoom
-Middle click to rotate camera

Editing using the built in terrain editor:
The built in editor is very simple to use yet supports every feature you could ask for. It can raise, lower, smooth, set elevation and make ramps. The brushed can be found in the toolbar in the terrain section. Brush size and pressure is also adjustable.

There is a useful option for in the toolbar to check your slopes for passability: by pressing the pathmap button in the terrain overlay section, high slope areas will appear red on the map. A good guideline is, that if that slope has just barely turned red, kbots will be able to pass it but not vehicles.

Exporting the heightmap:
Your going to need the heightmap for compiling the map with mapconv, so to export it, save the map in WICed, and use the file HeightMap.raw in the wiced/maps/yourmapname directory. For use in mapconv you will have to upscale this image to 1025*1025 and crop it to your desired dimensions.

Textureing:
This is the part where wiced really shines, clicking the texture generator on the toolbar (in the render section) will pop up two windows, one is the Ground render window:
Image
Here you can select which areas of the heightmap you would like to render the texture, by dragging on the grid. Set the quality to high unless you just want a fast preview. I recommend turning Lightbake on. Leave the target as heightmap. Pressing render will render the texture. This shouldnt take more than 20 minutes when rendering the whole map on high quality.

The second window is the texture generator, this is the part you will likely be using the most.
The layers tab:
Image
Here you can import the default climates (which look quite good), or export your own. You can add as many terrain layers as you want, with the top of the list being the last to get rendered and is the top layer.

Mask tab:
Image
If you select an area in the ground render window, the mask tab will show you where your current terrain layer is being applied on the select area. You can set all kinds of options to control the distribution of the terrain layer. Changes here are global, they wont just affect the selected area.

Surface tab:
Image
You can select what kind of texture you want for that terrain layer, and wether you want any modifications to it. I recommend setting the detail texture here to blank, because it wont get rendered on onto your final texture, and it might give misleading results. You can opt to use the built in textures, or, by clicking on the textures image, you can load your own. Turn off autoprops and mass grass because these features cannot be transfered to spring. You can add the built in high resolution detail texture as separate layers so that they can be rendered onto the texture as well.

Setting water levels:

Click the environment button in the toolbar to bring up the environment window. Here I recommend you set fog in the atmosphere window to a low value, to make it more similar to what the map will look like in spring, and to set the water level in the water tab to your desired height. Water rendering can be turned off from the View menu, by simply unclicking the option.

Adding roads:
I havent used this feature yet in a released map, but it might be interesting for others, click the place object toolbar button to bring up the object editor. Then click on the road icon to place all kinds of roads. They are mostly in scale with t1 units though :)

Exporting the texture:
This is the only major tricky part. In order to export it one big image (in the save directory it only saves the 1k*1k splits), you have to select the area you wish to export, and hit render. Once its finished, find the image
wiced\editordata\wiced\temp\BlendedMap.tga

If you turned on Lightbake (which you should) then it will be this file:
wiced\editordata\wiced\temp\ShadedMap.tga

This is your complete spring texture.

Happy mapping!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and i will add it to the tutorial.


IMPORTANT:
Use version 1.1 for least amount of instability and best usability with spring. This program can and has crashed for me at times, but nothing too serious, so save often. Also the temp directory outlined in the tutorial is deleted on program exit, so get your stuff out of there once rendered.
Link to 1.0.0.0 to 1.1.0.0 updater:
http://spring.jobjol.nl/show_file.php?id=1637
Last edited by Beherith on 12 Apr 2009, 12:44, edited 3 times in total.
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REVENGE
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Joined: 24 Aug 2006, 06:13

Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by REVENGE »

+1

Sticky this, many thanks Beherith! (even though I don't own WIC :()
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SirArtturi
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Joined: 23 Jan 2008, 18:29

Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by SirArtturi »

Big Up!

Have to give this WiCed a try...
Hunter0000
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Joined: 04 Nov 2004, 00:33

Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Hunter0000 »

Looks great!

One issue though - I can't seem to load the heightmap in either of my image editors (a very old version of PSP and GIMP). PSP attempts to recognize it, giving options for various technical settings but I can't seem to find any settings that produce anything besides glorified static with some curves not resembling the heightmap at all. GIMP flat out refuses to load it. What program did you use to load it? If it is PS or somsuch, are there any free programs that could load it properly?
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Beherith
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Beherith »

Photoshop 7.0 and cs3 both load it for me fine, remember to check intel/ibm byte order on loading, and make sure it loads as 16bit 1 channel 513*513 image.
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Pressure Line
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Pressure Line »

Beherith wrote:Adding roads:
I havent used this feature yet in a released map, but it might be interesting for others, click the place object toolbar button to bring up the object editor. Then click on the road icon to place all kinds of roads. They are mostly in scale with t1 units though :)
that would mainly be because TA units are HUGE. A Gator is about the same size as a modern battletank (M1, T80, etc) and a Peewee is about the height of a power pole (and im not talking about the piddly wooden ones, i mean the big concrete ones) [which incidentally makes a Bulldog 7-8m high, and about 15 meters long (thats about the length of a bus) and nearly as wide, that sukah is HUEG]
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smoth
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by smoth »

oh wow, the roads fit ta scale? interesting... this editor may now be worth using...
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Beherith
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Beherith »

Image
Roads are well supported, you have quite a few to choose from, and the terrain automatically gets flattened under it, and you can make smooth splines from the roads too.

The above image/map took me about 15 minutes to whip up, and imho, that is where wiced shines :)

Edit: Stupid me, I just noticed that road size(width) and texture is fully customizable by clicking roads/properties/advanced . You can even export the typemap for pathing (diff movement speed on roads) mask by clicksing file/export/topdown mask and checking roads only.
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smoth
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by smoth »

HOLY SHIT I LOVE YOU!

Dude, this will be GREAT! Awesome, this will help me a lot in achieving the map I want to make!
Hunter0000
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Joined: 04 Nov 2004, 00:33

Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Hunter0000 »

After some further examination it seems when you render the texture it puts a tga of the heightmap in WIC/temp, removing the need for that PS trial I just installed. Also I am working on a batch file + gimp script to automate the extraction, conversion and resizing into a single step (the script itself is done - just calling it from command line in windows is proving to be hell), if anyone is interested I can post it here when it is finished.
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smoth
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by smoth »

ok, I played with the WIC editor, how does I maek intersections?
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Beherith
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Beherith »

Not natively supported, here is a solution tho:
http://www.massgate.net/read.php?77960,105125
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Hoi
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Hoi »

Want sticky :P
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Jazcash
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Jazcash »

You can do this with a lot of map editors I believe.
I can do the same thing with Sandbox 2 for Crysis with yet another ton of features.
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hunterw
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by hunterw »

JAZCASH wrote:You can do this with a lot of map editors I believe.
I can do the same thing with Sandbox 2 for Crysis with yet another ton of features.
can you render the terrain at 8192x8192 pixels isometrically though?

most map editors can't do that, or at least not easily
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REVENGE
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by REVENGE »

Hmm...so technically, I could make a couple of smaller tiles and stitch them together to make a larger than 16x16 map?
BaNa
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Joined: 09 Sep 2007, 21:05

Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by BaNa »

REVENGE wrote:Hmm...so technically, I could make a couple of smaller tiles and stitch them together to make a larger than 16x16 map?
see aberdeen 6v6.
I stiched together two 16 by 16 tiles.
It is much simpler if the map is symmertical. Also, because the textures are so detailed and because light baking will fail at the borders, it is required that you also render the borders between the two stiched parts (like a 4 by 16 part) and then blend in photoshop. That is the suckiest part, working with 3 layers on an 8k by 16k image in photoshop is like having your teeth pulled slowly.
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REVENGE
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Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by REVENGE »

BaNa wrote:
REVENGE wrote:Hmm...so technically, I could make a couple of smaller tiles and stitch them together to make a larger than 16x16 map?
see aberdeen 6v6.
I stiched together two 16 by 16 tiles.
It is much simpler if the map is symmertical. Also, because the textures are so detailed and because light baking will fail at the borders, it is required that you also render the borders between the two stiched parts (like a 4 by 16 part) and then blend in photoshop. That is the suckiest part, working with 3 layers on an 8k by 16k image in photoshop is like having your teeth pulled slowly.
8 G of RAM + CS4 with GTX280 FTW!
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Jazcash
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Joined: 08 Dec 2007, 17:39

Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by Jazcash »

REVENGE wrote:
BaNa wrote:
REVENGE wrote:Hmm...so technically, I could make a couple of smaller tiles and stitch them together to make a larger than 16x16 map?
see aberdeen 6v6.
I stiched together two 16 by 16 tiles.
It is much simpler if the map is symmertical. Also, because the textures are so detailed and because light baking will fail at the borders, it is required that you also render the borders between the two stiched parts (like a 4 by 16 part) and then blend in photoshop. That is the suckiest part, working with 3 layers on an 8k by 16k image in photoshop is like having your teeth pulled slowly.
8 G of RAM + CS4 with GTX280 FTW!
32GB of RAM + CS4 Master Collection + GTX 280 SLI FTW.
BaNa
Posts: 1562
Joined: 09 Sep 2007, 21:05

Re: Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor

Post by BaNa »

JAZCASH wrote:
REVENGE wrote: 8 G of RAM + CS4 with GTX280 FTW!
32GB of RAM + CS4 Master Collection + GTX 280 SLI FTW.

I uh


i have 1 gigabyte of ram.

:(
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