Map Maker Beta ...

[Stridor]

LATEST UPDATE v0.9e

- Adds support for maps on PCK installs without MM

LATEST UPDATE v0.9d

- Fixes several bugs found in 0.9c
- Adds smoke plume particle effect

LATEST UPDATE v0.9c

Requires the full v0.9a installer

Changelog from v0.9a

- Way too many changes to document here
- for an instruction manual of sorts see the Map Maker tutorial thread.

LATEST UPDATE v0.8b

Changelog from v0.8a

1. show stopper Bugfix found and fixed

Changelog from 0.3d

- See readme for version 0.8a which canbe found in the large distro file.

LATEST UPDATE v0.3e

Changelog from 0.3d

1. show stopper Bugfix found by redleg


LATEST UPDATE v0.3d

Changelog from 0.3c

1. Adds map renaming support, simply load your old map and then rebuild it under a different name. All saved masks and scene xml changes should come across pereserved.
2. Will recenter map in order to prevent some cases of illegal colors and to prevent an illegal map build.


LATEST UPDATE v0.3c

You will need to have the base Map Maker installed first.


Changelog from 0.2b

1. Now supports height map blur (smoothing). You enter in a value 0 (no smooth) to 32 (max smooth) in the new H/Blur box. This smoothes your heightmap if you find that you made it too "bumpy". You can do a similiar thing in your paint program but this is non destructive to allow you to see what different values do. When you smooth you hide the AI map so use the mouse scroll wheel to bring it back again.

2. This new version will not overwrite your work if you generate a new map. So any work you have done on your masks will be preserved. The map maker also produces a logical object heirarchy for the scene. Note how if you expand the object tree in scenedit there are headings for each object type prefaced by the map name:

eg

mapname_cows
mapname_craters
mapname_trees

(where mapname = the name you gave your map in MM)
etc

I have provided a new heading called

mapname_structures

If during your map edits in scenedit you put your structures (eg houses, fences, foxholes, trneches, etc) under that heading then all your work will be saved if you need to go back into map maker to make changes to the scenexml. Eg you wanted more trees or different textures but had already done quite a bit of work in scenedit and didn't want to lose it. There you go, provided you keep it under mapname_structures all will be well and well organized to boot.
Item 2. Allows you quite a bit of freedom to move between scenedit and the MM without destroying any of your work [;)]

3. Height map and AI map validation routines. I added this because of the number of posts about trees no appearing or odd heightmaps n' stuff. What happens now is that all the maps are scanned (does add a little time to the load) and any error in color depth, resolution or color items are brought to the users attention.

4. Support for brushes + external mods provided they are indexed in resources.xml files in the mods directory as I have explained previously.

5. Is facing camera (billboard) support for trees / brushes. This is a check box on the tree line called C:[ ]. Check this if you want the selected tree / brush to behave as a billboard.

6. PCOWS trees problem is fixed. Please rename TreeX.bmp in the Map Maker/Trees directory to Tree0X.bmp as has been previously mentioned.

7. Status line now shows you which terrain feature the mouse cursor is over

8. All data files are now human readable again at no processing performance cost.

Enjoy

S.

[RyanCrierie]

noooo! Don't tease us like that!

[Mad Russian]

Okay, so trees will slow down a machines computing time?

Why is that?

Many parts of the world where combat occurred in WWII were heavily forested. More than a dozen major campaign places come to mind. In fact, IMO, for the most part there are more trees on average in WWII combat areas than less trees.

So, we really need a way to tone down the horsepower of running alot of trees. Almost the entire area encompassed by the fighting in NWE wiill be no less than moderately forested and much of it is what would be considered heavily forested.

Is there anything you can do to reduce the drain on lower end machines?

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

Do you intend this as a mod or as a patch directly into the game code?

Good Hunting.

MR

[rickier65]

Attached is pic showing number of cows and craters exported. Should the number exported match the number slected, or is this a case where it only exports unique entities and some of the cows and craters get re-used?

I tried just pluging an old height map in and AI map then applying an test scenario - the result was very pretty. I guess I'll actually have to do more than randomly click buttons *:-).

In all seriousness - took it for a quick test run just to see what it would complain about - it caught me out a couple of times for not selecting one thing or another - but then went ahead and generated a map - unfortunately - I hadnt' really told it how to calculate relative heights - so map didn't really turn out too well.

I'll be going through this a little slower now.

The cranking time wasn't too bad - I think from start to finsih was about 10 minutes - of course the result wasn't too good, but like I said I was actually just checking the physicla buttons at this point.

I'm going to go back through and re-read the thread now and start out a little more deliberately.

Thanks Stridor!
Rick


Thanks Stridor -

[Stridor]

All the values for the cow and tree density are in objects / square kilometer. If you hover the mouse pointer over an input field it will tell you that. If you hover the cursor over the cows: or craters: label field then it will tell you how many of those objects will likely get generated.

Because craters get evenly generated the value in the box roughly corresponds to what will be made.

For cows and trees as these only get generated on specific AI map colored areas (ie cows go in fields) then if you have no fields defined then you will get no cows. No tree areas defined = no trees.

For trees the computer will tell you in the tree selection box how many of each type it expects to generate. This may be slightly different to the final amount depending on random fluctuations but it should be pretty close. I did it this way becuase there are data tables on how dense (eg trees/unit area) each different forest is.

One other final tip I should have mentioned. You need to add at least one other mask/texture to the list otherwise the terrain won't be visible. This is not a problem as you would really need to do that anyway.

Whenever you build a map all the data points get saved as mapmaker.xml, so to save time for a future run, just type the name of your map in the name: box and press load and all your data will be reloaded saving you a lot of time.

My work flow was to build a map, (leave the map maker open), then load the map up in scenedit check it out, then make changes in the map maker as needed and rebuild etc.

Any mask layer which you have defined will be found in the map diretcory as "mask name".png . For example "road.png" This is a transparent png. Load it up in your paint editor draw on your roads and then save it again (use the AI map as a base layer so you can see where they should go). You draw in plain white! PCK will then apply the texture you defined in the map maker for that mask to those white areas hence making a "road".

Special note:

The AI map is 1000x1000 but the masks are 1024x1024. This was done for video memory performance reasons. If you want to use your AI map as a background layer whilist working on your mask pngs, you should resize it to 1024x1024 (but don't then resave it as it must remain 1000x1000 for PCK to work).

I have also added support for objects like trenches which are effectively bedded into the terrain mesh, but we can talk about how to make those after everyone has a handle on how the basics of the map maker works.

S.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Rick
The cranking time wasn't too bad - I think from start to finsih was about 10 minutes

Just for reference my C2D at 3GHz does map / walls / water / 2000 trees / 30 cows / 250 craters in just over 2 minutes.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

Do you intend this as a mod or as a patch directly into the game code?

Good Hunting.

MR

???

I am not Koios, I have no game code. Sadly.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

Okay, so trees will slow down a machines computing time?

Why is that?

Lots of trees are possible.

The computing cost of lots of trees is as follows:

1. It takes a while to build the map (this is a one off cost however)
2. It takes longer to load the map into the game
3. More trees = more geometry to render = more load on the video card (so FPS will be lower)
4. More trees = more LOS obstructions = more load on CPU during turn calculations (so processing phases will take longer)

Simpler tree models will help point 3.
Shorter zFar will help point 3 and 4.

Apart from that there is not much more you can do performance-wise unless you have indivisible tree "Blocks" to give you the illusion of a lot of trees but with no actual trees.

The engine handles several thousand trees fine on my 18 month rig, In fact I dare say that you can have realistic forest density for most maps (unless you wanted to fight in the middle of the amazon [;)])

Regards

S.

[Stridor]

I should also note that all the map maker assets are found in the main PCK directory under the Map Maker folder

These are skyboxes, textures and trees. So obviously load the appropriate asset into the appropriate fields. If you don't the MM will complain.

[Stridor]

Another tip: Use the mouse wheel whilst pointed at the map to move between the heightmap and AI map views

[Mad Russian]

ORIGINAL: Stridor

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

Do you intend this as a mod or as a patch directly into the game code?

Good Hunting.

MR

???

I am not Koios, I have no game code. Sadly.

Obviously that question didn't come out right. I meant is it to be a mod or to be loaded right into the game file...hence the reference to being run in the code.

Now, about you not having a game code and your not being Koios, since when has that stopped you from doing all the support things you've done for PCK up to now............[&o] [&o]

Thanks from all of us to you for everything that you've put together for this game system!

Good Hunting.

MR

[RyanCrierie]

What does this mean:

For improved performance, this application can set the maximum script limit in the registry.

Do you want to allow this (recommended)?

What specifically does it change in the registry? Yes, I do get worried when applications say they're going to change registry settings.

And I can't see the entire editor, thus I can't access the "build map" button.

[benpark]

I'd like a look-see at this map editor, if you don't mind another meddler.

[RyanCrierie]

I get this error, what does it mean



And when I load my map in Scene.edit, I get nothing but a blank light blue screen [&:]

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

What does this mean:

For improved performance, this application can set the maximum script limit in the registry.

Do you want to allow this (recommended)?

What specifically does it change in the registry? Yes, I do get worried when applications say they're going to change registry settings.

And I can't see the entire editor, thus I can't access the "build map" button.

It changes HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Styles\MaxScriptStatements. It is not necessary to make any changes if you don't want to. However it will run slow and you will be pestered to click on "this script is running slow" dialog boxes all the time.

Strange about the visual display on your pc I take it you have XP + IE6. I haven't yet tested it on that config but will do so and send you out an new copy which fixes your display glitches.

[rickier65]

Stridor -

I'm running in on XP with IE6 - But I'm able to see the whole mapmaker screen, so Ryans problem must be something else, perhaps his screen resolution?

Rick

[Stridor]

Ryan,

I just tested it on my XP IE6 VPC and it works fine?

What DPI are you running? Do you have any other 3rd party display mods like windows blinds? Can anyone else with ryan's problems please post.

[Stridor]

Actually I found the problem it is because you are running in "Windows Classic" theme.

I will post an updated version to support that. (or you can run in standard XP theme for the temp fix)

I also noticed that I forgot to add the eyedropper cursor to the beta files so here it is. Install it into PCK/Editor. This will give you a better visual confirmation about setting height values.

[Stridor]

ORIGINAL: RyanCrierie

I get this error, what does it mean



And when I load my map in Scene.edit, I get nothing but a blank light blue screen [&:]

In terms of this error???

Is anyone else seeing this?