Tutorial - Mapping/Tex with the World In Conflict Map Editor
Posted: 02 Jul 2008, 18:00
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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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
-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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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
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