ORIGINAL: benpark
I have it sorted, the forest was off by one point-be careful to not use the eyedropper to select, do the numerical color input manually!
Yes I thought that was the case [:D]
Back to texturing the map from the other thread- there must be some naming method so that the program knows to put the "road" texture over the black line I have drawn on the map. Should the naming convention that is on the file itself dictate what is put into the map maker?
Also, you said they will be edited by "drawing on them in white" in the other thread. Is this in the scene editor, or do we make masks ourselves in Photoshop, then compile them another way?
Ok this is how the maps work in PCK and the map maker
1. You need a heightmap which is a 65x65 256 gray scale bitmap. This is used to generate the terrain mesh in MM.
2. You need an AI map which is a 1000x1000 24 bit color bitmap. This is used by the AI to determine where things are and the MM uses it to see where forest, fields and structures are and where to place them.
3. You need a texture which is tiled (drawn) on the base terrain mesh. In the MM this is called the "terrain" layer and you can pick any texture you like from the list (this defaults to grass like Ryan's last SS above, more textures will be added in time or you can add your own). This texture gets painted over your whole terrain. If you left it like that it would look rather flat and boring.
4. You can now add more ground textures in layers as you like. For this you need 2 things. The first is a texture and the second is a mask. The mask tells the program how the texture should be applied to the layer directly underneath. Note: these have nothing to do with the AI map!
Example
Base terrain texture is set to grass in the MM.
I add a new layer and call it "roads" and associate a road texture to it in the MM.
I add a new layer and call it "fields" and associate a field texture to it in the MM.
Build the map.
Now in the map directory you will see all the map files but also two mask files called
roads.png and fields.png.
Open the road.png up in photoshop. You will notice is is mostly transparent except for the words "Placeholder 'Mask.png'" written in large white letters. This is to remind you to delete this text and start drawing your roads on.
What I do at this stage is to load up the AImap I was using into photoshop as well, scale it to them same size as the masks (which are 1024x1024 not 1000x1000) and then use that as a background layer to "trace" my road onto the road.png mask layer. Use a white brush. You can alter the opacity of the brush if you like to alter the ulimate texture draw density (so you can achieve cool blending effects). Save your road.png (without the AI background). It will be mostly transparent still but have white pixels where your road will go.
Now when you load up your map in scenedit you will notice that your road will now be correctly drawn onto your map. If you used the AI map to trace over it, the road should line up with AI road.
Now do the same with the field.png file but this time draw the fields.
Rinse and repeat for all mask layers.
Congratulations you have completed your map!
Thanks a MILLION. This certainly has gotten easier.
Pleasure! I am just glad people are starting to get the hang of it.
