Pictorial Map Building

[Mad Russian]

After getting the right structure set we select one of the house structures that looks like what we want.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Once we've selected the building of our choice we click on name and it shows us which one we got. Then we select the type of structure drop down menu and decide what kind of building we are going to create. This determines the kind of structure to the degree if it is a light or heavy building, the number of floors the building has in it and the number of squads that can occupy the building.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Once the structure type has been selected for the building you then click the save check button. Once you save the structure you can place it on the map. You do this by moving the cross to the place you want the building and clicking on that spot.

As you can see the building is now situated on top of the trees. That's exactly what you want to see. Otherwise that part of the map will be considered forest by the game and not a building. The main thing means is vehicles can drive into your buildings.

Unless you want that, and I seldom do, the buildings need to go on last.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

We now have a 1 story house capable of being occupied by a single squad on the map. But what about a bigger house? Let's go get a larger building.

We'll go to the same folder for Middle European buildings and this time pick a larger building.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Once we select the building we select the name tab to put it in MM. Then we select the structure type. This time we will tell MM that this building is a heavy building 2 stories high and with a capacity of 2 squads.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

We save our selections by selecting the check button and then place the building on the map in the town.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

The textures are all on the map, the trees and buildings have been placed, it's time to do a Mega Texture save to see how the map looks in the game.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

Time to move down into the last section of the MM. That part in the lower left hand side that deals with the finalizing of the map. Where we add the sky, the lighting, and the terrain features associated with the colors.

First we'll go to the sky box and pick a sky texture.





We'll take skybox 4 since this is April in Northern Germany. We want an overcast sky. We double click the picture of what we want our sky to look like and we've got it.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

It displays in the last box in the Skybox row.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

I then want to reduce the light from a bright summer day to a washed out rainy spring day. So I will reduce the strength of the light down from 200 down to 140.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

For now I'll leave diffused and Ambient light at default. I'll reduce the distance that a unit can see from 500 down to 300.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

Next we will put our labels on the map.

The letters/words for the label go in the box just to the right of the label tab in the Label section of MM. Once you are done typing your label name you can click on the save check to the right of the label box. This will give you the placement cross and you can then click on the map wherever you want your label. There will be a marker that shows where the label is on your map.


Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Here is our second label. I personally use a naming system that allows me to identify names that are actually on the map vs those that are destinations from the map.

In this case To Strausberg is a destination and it only has the first letter of the destination capitalized. Whereas, Bollersdorf is an actual map location and it's done in all capital letters.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The last thing I'll do to this map is to select the terrain types for all the colors on my map.

I'll click the drop down arrow on the Map Colors Drop Down Menu to see all the colors I have on this map. I'll start at the top of the list and work my way to the bottom. You can do this in any order you like. I like going from top to bottom so I get them all done the first time.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

After I select one of the map colors by left clicking on it I want to select a terrain type for it. To do that I select the terrain list from the Terrain Selection List drop down menu.




Once a color has been selected it shows in the color box to the right of the map colors list. To the right of the color box is the terrain list which usually shows Rocky Ground until you select something. You select the drop down list arrow to open the terrain selections.

These are color coded to the color that will display on the mini-map in the game.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

As an example of the first selection, the gray color is for a dirt road.

You see my selection of the color gray and next to it the word Dirt Road and the color that will be displayed in the mini-tactical map in the game.




We go down the colors list assigning terrain features to each one. There can only be one terrain feature assigned to each color. Each terrain feature can be used on the same map to represent any number of the colors.

For instance. I have many of the colors on this map in the fields to represent mud, light mud or soft sand. All 7 different colors of fields will either be mud, light mud or soft sand to represent the soft ground conditions of April along the Baltic Sea. The game will look at the terrain type I assigned each color and apply the terrain effects to each one according to the terrain type I've chosen for it.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

This map is now done in the Map Maker.

It is now time to do a final Mega-Texture save for this map.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

Here's what it looks like in the SceneEditor.

So for now we are done with the terrain side of Map Maker. We work with the height side of the map next, then the Tactical Mini-map and finally we'll play the scenario on the map to check the overall look and feel of the map.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

The entire right side of the Map Maker is devoted to the Height Map adjustments.

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MR

[Mad Russian]

To activate the Height Map adjustment selections click on any tab on the Height Adjustment side of MM. To get back to the Terrain side of MM click on the Navi tab in the upper right hand corner of MM.

When I click on the Adjust tab MM turns on the Height Map and the gray scale. It still shows where all the structures are.

Good Hunting.

MR