Some of you may have known that I have a map editing tool in the work. It is ambitious project which started long ago but met some obstacles - with the main one undoubtedly being the lack of time and (I will be honest here) another one is my waning interest unfortunately.
Anyway, I think it is time to present some results of my work, especially since there are some ongoing mapping projects.
Although the tool is called "editor" in its current state actual editing is to be done in Photoshop (preferably, because it uses Photoshop specific features) or any other image editor. The tool just converts game data to editable bitmap and vice versa.
Download it here MapBuilder.20140331.zip and extract somewhere.
As always it requires Microsoft .NET 4.0 which you most likely already have and Microsoft XNA Framework 4.0 which you can get here http://www.microsoft...s.aspx?id=20914" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.microsoft.../en-us/download … x?id=20914 if you haven't installed it before.
Some instructions.
When you load a map you will be presented with its overview which you can pan while holding the right mouse button and use mouse wheel to zoom in and out.
Channel map is only partially supported - the editor will not save global forest properly and special care must be taken while editing masks there to avoid mixing colors.
As you know buildings, bridges and other static stuff are not a part of the map, but stored in missions files. To populate the map with them you should use Objects menu. It has two options: load standard groups from template files (for-trunc/no-trunc.group) or import your own mission or group file.
Find your area of interest on the map, let's say it is Pomacle on the main summer map and draw a selection rectangle around it while holding the left mouse button.
After you release the mouse button a dialog with area settings will appear.
There you must enter a name for the area and choose which layers you want to work with.
SelectArea.jpg 205.25KB
1356 downloadsI hope layer names are obvious, perhaps except "Forest Cut" which is a special layer used to completely remove all trees at specific areas like airfields.
After you click OK the editor will saved exported bitmaps into MapBuilder\Areas subfolder inside your map folder, i.e. Rise of Flights\graphics\LANDSCAPE\MapBuilder\Areas for the main map.
Exported files include (assuming area name is "Pomacle"):
Pomacle.area - text file with some metadata.
Pomacle.tif - main bitmap file, more about it below.
Pomacle.Height.tif - height map, 16 bit grayscale tiff, 50m per pixel.
Pomacle.Objects.png - overlay image containing flat view of building and other objects.
Pomacle.RoadSystem.png - overlay image with roads, railways and trenches drawn as lines.
Pomacle.Substrate.png - overlay image with substrate textures.
Both TIFF images are editable. This means that any changes you do there can be applied to the actual map. PNG images are for reference only.
Now, the most interesting part - open Pomacle.tif in the Photoshop:
MainImage.jpg 316.36KB
1353 downloadsIt contains carpet data as RGB and other layers from Main Image section as extra alpha channels, all scaled to the same resolution. And everything is editable!
Note that for usability purposes alpha channels are actually inverted - for example if you are going to draw a river you should use black brush over white background.
Also make sure to use the brush of adequate width - you can't draw a river with a width of 3 meters, because water data will be scaled down to actual ingame resolution (10m/pixel). This is especially important for global forest layer which has resolution of 175m/pixel.
You must not rename channels, but you may reorder them or change their color for better visibility.
To simplify the editing, you can add layers with PNG images to see where roads and buildings are currently placed. All images have correct relative DPI so the easiest way to add new layers is to use Place command in Photoshop.
Overlays.jpg 378.87KB
1353 downloadsJust make sure you turn these layers invisible (or just delete them) and use "Discard Layers and Save a Copy" option when saving an image, otherwise they will be imprinted on textures.
Of course, alpha channels must be saved unlike layers.
Now, assuming you have painted something useful and saved the tiff, go back to my editor and select "Load Image into Map" for Pomacle area.
The editor will process the image and show results:
LoadIntoMap.jpg 180.83KB
1357 downloadsIt is smart enough to decide which carpet and mask images were updated and which were not so it will not produce redundant textures which waste memory.
Save the map. And see the results in game.
Result.jpg 263.46KB
1349 downloadsOoops… Global forest didn't appear although I tried to paint it (you can see it faintly to the left of airfield in previous image). This is an example why it is important to make sure you use wide enough brush!
Carpet textures are saved as TGA instead of DDS. They consume more memory but more suitable for editing, because DDS compression degrades image quality. It is up to you to decide when you want to convert TGA into DDS.
Important note. Verdun and Lake maps share some data with the main map, as well as winter and autumn versions share data with summer one. This means that there is a good change you will break something else if you edit the main map, or vice versa - break the main map if you edit verdun or lake. There is relatively simple workaround, but I will explain it later if needed. Of course any changes only affects "mods on" mode and can be reverted with my mod removal tool (for example).
