Download Map Maker 0.9x

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Stridor
There are a total of 91 tiles which cover all possible WW2 battles we could ever be interested in ~ 3 GB of data. This is why I think that Matrix should get the data (I can tell Erik where and how to start stockpiling it) and then serve it up to all players as they need it. Or do people want a 4GB PCK install on their machines?

Ok, yeah, too big to include in the installation but we could set up a server for this just for the map maker.

Regards,

- Erik

[rickier65]

I'm going through some of the new features in MM (version .9y)-

One of them is the import changes from Scene Edit. This doesnt seem to be working for me.

I loaded an MM project. Did a build, and viewed map in Scene Edit. At that point I added a building, and fleshed out a windbreak along side a road. Then saved. Exited everything, reloaded MM, reloaded the MM project, then pressed the import from Scene Edit button, saw msg flash by status area. No evidense of building or new trees in MM. Did another build, and viewed in Scene Edit, building still not there.

Repeated this process a second time but entered Sene Edit independently of MM. Made edits (added building and some trees), saved and exited MM. Loaded up MM, loadedup MM project. then pressed import button. Did a build, and viewed. buildings and added trees were gone.

(this is curious - since in the old 9h version, I was able to do this with success).

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong?

Benpark, could you confirm this perhaps? To see if it's just me?

Thanks,
Rick

[benpark]

Rick, I just did a test by opening a map I am working on and then moving an object within the Scene editor. I closed the MM before opening the SE, I don't know if that is necessary. When I applied the changes within the MM, they were adjusted to what I had done in the Scene Editor correctly. It seems to be working.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Rick


I'm going through some of the new features in MM (version .9y)-

One of them is the import changes from Scene Edit. This doesnt seem to be working for me.

I loaded an MM project. Did a build, and viewed map in Scene Edit. At that point I added a building, and fleshed out a windbreak along side a road. Then saved. Exited everything, reloaded MM, reloaded the MM project, then pressed the import from Scene Edit button, saw msg flash by status area. No evidense of building or new trees in MM. Did another build, and viewed in Scene Edit, building still not there.

Repeated this process a second time but entered Sene Edit independently of MM. Made edits (added building and some trees), saved and exited MM. Loaded up MM, loadedup MM project. then pressed import button. Did a build, and viewed. buildings and added trees were gone.

(this is curious - since in the old 9h version, I was able to do this with success).

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong?

Benpark, could you confirm this perhaps? To see if it's just me?

Thanks,
Rick

Rick I should have explained a bit more.

Getting SE and MM to talk to one another on the level you are hoping will be impossible until SE gets updated. This is because MM keeps a whole lot more data about the map in its files than SE does. So how import works is like this.

You need to still place all your structures in MM as normal. Then when you review your work in SE if you want to move stuff around (in SE) you can. Then save the SE map. Then back in MM if you hit the import button you can bring those changes you made back into MM. The good part about this is that only the X,Y & rotation coords get brought back, so height is recalculated (something that SE doesn't do so well even with the "G" key).

Notes:

1. You can't add stuff in SE and then bring those back. But then why would you? Much easier to add stuff in MM.
2. This only works with non-autogen structures. Autogen structures by their very random nature can't be fiddled with in SE. But then again, why would you?

The rationale for doing things this way is that it allows you to more accurately get a feel for the relation of objects in 3D in SE, make small changes there and then save those updates in MM. Things like laying down connected rail lines or telegraph poles are easier to do this way.

Regards

S.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: benpark

Rick, I just did a test by opening a map I am working on and then moving an object within the Scene editor. I closed the MM before opening the SE, I don't know if that is necessary. When I applied the changes within the MM, they were adjusted to what I had done in the Scene Editor correctly. It seems to be working.

No you don't need to close MM.

Just build your map. Review in SE, move stuff around in SE. Then save your map. exit SE and then press the import button in MM and there you go!

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Stridor
There are a total of 91 tiles which cover all possible WW2 battles we could ever be interested in ~ 3 GB of data. This is why I think that Matrix should get the data (I can tell Erik where and how to start stockpiling it) and then serve it up to all players as they need it. Or do people want a 4GB PCK install on their machines?

Ok, yeah, too big to include in the installation but we could set up a server for this just for the map maker.

Regards,

- Erik

Well Erik you have a working server now. I suggest you drawing bounding boxes over as many historical battles as you can think of and start saving those dems.

XTile 38-46 (=8) x YTile 1-7 (= 7) ~ 56 Maps will get you virtually everything in WW2 ETO except North Africa. I have 24 of these maps. It wouldn't take long to get the whole lot. If Matrix had an ftp site for them then all you would need do is to type the name of that server into the server dialog box and it would be saved.

Regards

S.

[Mraah]

Stridor,

You are using this website (by itself) to get the tiles you need, correct?

http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SELECTION/inputCoord.asp

(note it has 4 servers to choose),

thanks,
Rob


Edit note : ... hmm, seems to need a login to d/l still (from that site above)

Edit note #2 ... Disregard ... I see MM gets them from the xftp ... ftp://xftp.jrc.it/pub/srtmV4/tiff/ ... <--- this works better anyhow.

Edit Note #3 ... I'm going to start archiving on my end as well ... over time I want the entire world but will focus on your tile sets in previous posts.

Edit Note #4 ... the JRC(IT) server from srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SELECTION/inputCoord.asp works fine too ... sorry for all these edits

[Stridor]

Remember to all map makers out there that you can use the lighting and skybox tinting controls to really add ambience to your maps.

[rickier65]

Stridor,

Thanks for explanation. I'm going through new buttons so I can put in guide update. (the new features had more impact on guide than I expected - so it's taking a little longer to finish than I expected) I wanted to make sure I did each one to avoid writing guide that doesnt work!

Probably one time I'd want to add items in Scene Edit though is to fill out a roadside tree line. Depending on the auto gen to do that isn't releable. But I can do that by creating using fixed tree structures in MM. So that works.

Thanks!
Rick

[benpark]

Stridor,

I've noticed one thing that may be a bug, but may not. While doing a map, I decided to change in PSD some of the "terrainmap.bmp" map to clean up some of the roads and grass areas around houses. When I reloaded the map, and then proceeded to look at these changes in the SE, I noticed that these changes were not applied to the underlying ground texture.

I figured I needed to rearrange the layer order, but that wasn't it. I realized that each of the textures I had changed needed to be reselected (with the eyedropper) and assigned as if I had just added them. It seems that the MM doesn't do a re-check of the terrainmap.bmp at start-up, and it goes with the last incarnation.

This is really a small thing, and most people won't run into this issue. It's also easy enough to fix on the user side of things, although if it were an automated feature it would be great...

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Rick

Stridor,

Thanks for explanation. I'm going through new buttons so I can put in guide update. (the new features had more impact on guide than I expected - so it's taking a little longer to finish than I expected) I wanted to make sure I did each one to avoid writing guide that doesnt work!

Probably one time I'd want to add items in Scene Edit though is to fill out a roadside tree line. Depending on the auto gen to do that isn't releable. But I can do that by creating using fixed tree structures in MM. So that works.

Thanks!
Rick

Rick you can use the autogen to do a tree line reasonably well even now. Just draw a tree line in a unique color near to the road on your terrainmap and then in MM select this color as the autogen and start placing trees on it. Set your density. This is what I did for the tutmap. Hopefully I can add a minimum distance control in the future so that you can even get evenly spaced trees (like orchards, telegraph poles, houses which don't overlap etc).

If you wanted to do the trees as fixed structures this is how I would do a fixed tree line really fast.

Select your tree model you want to use. Make sure that the density = 0 so that it doesn't auto gen. Zoom the map in so you can see up close. Then Shift-Click on the map where you want each tree. This way you can add trees at a really quick clip. Build your map and then in SE make any fine-tune changes and then save and import back into MM.

Please keep those SS of work in progress coming.

Regards

S.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: benpark

Stridor,

I've noticed one thing that may be a bug, but may not. While doing a map, I decided to change in PSD some of the "terrainmap.bmp" map to clean up some of the roads and grass areas around houses. When I reloaded the map, and then proceeded to look at these changes in the SE, I noticed that these changes were not applied to the underlying ground texture.

I figured I needed to rearrange the layer order, but that wasn't it. I realized that each of the textures I had changed needed to be reselected (with the eyedropper) and assigned as if I had just added them. It seems that the MM doesn't do a re-check of the terrainmap.bmp at start-up, and it goes with the last incarnation.

This is really a small thing, and most people won't run into this issue. It's also easy enough to fix on the user side of things, although if it were an automated feature it would be great...

Ben,

I will look into it.

If ever you find MM gets out of sync (ie a change you expect to see doesn't happen with a build), then just hold down the shift-key and click the build button. This will force a whole new build and should fix your little issue.

Regards

S.

[Stridor]

Actually Ben, I think I know exactly what that issue is and I will provide an auto fix for the next build. For now just shift-click to build if you do that again.

Regards

S.

[benpark]

Zoom the map in so you can see up close. Then Shift-Click on the map where you want each tree. This way you can add trees at a really quick clip.

Does this add multiple instances of the same object? Ya learn something new every 5 minutes around here.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: benpark

Zoom the map in so you can see up close. Then Shift-Click on the map where you want each tree. This way you can add trees at a really quick clip.[/quote]

Does this add multiple instances of the same object? Ya learn something new every 5 minutes around here.
[/quote]

Yes it is a great short cut to adding stuff to the map.

With an object selected if you shift click on the map then it

1. Adds the object where you clicked
2. Copies across any object data from the object box
3. Gives the object a new random name
4. Picks up the color (where you clicked) and associates it with the object (usefull for autogen stuff).

Example

Imagine you want to place 20 foxholes quickly.

1. Select your foxhole from the browse dialogs.
2. Select "Foxhole" in the building type drop down (so that the MM know to color under these foxholes "green")
3. Select you alpha,H,N and B options. Autogen to off

Then just start shift clicking on the map everywhere you want foxholes [:D]

[RyanCrierie]

I've installed 0.9y and I get the following

And then the MM exits [:(]

[benpark]

Ryan, delete every old mod in the mod folder "Benpark". The new install will give you all the new models. This should solve the issue.

[RyanCrierie]

Yeah I just realized that lol

[benpark]

Two more for the wish list (that may be in already):


-Placeable trees that can be autocoded as light trees/obstruction etc. (maybe this can be done as setting an individual tree as such in the drop down menu)

-It would be great to have the MM import info from the SE such as yaw and axis changes. I have tried to sink a telephone pole into the ground as a "sign", but lose it every time I load into the MM. This can be saved for last, but it might be nice to have the MM "remember" these changes.

[RyanCrierie]

I'm seeing some problems with the heightmap; for one, the GET GOOGLE MAP HEIGHT data on a 1 x 1 km bounding box returns a height data file about 14 x 11 pixels; that comes out to a whopping 71 meters per pixel resolution resulting in: