The Canvas Worldmap for Victoria 2

[Alexspeed]

Alexspeed´s Canvas Worldmap for Victoria 2

Also try out:
Alexspeed´s Untransparent Map Mod for Victoria 2.
Alexspeed´s SexiiColours Intense for Victoria 2.
Alexspeed´s Clear Map Overlay for Victoria 2.
Also included in:
Alexspeed´s MIP - Map Improvment Package for Victoria 2.


Ladies & Gentlemen,
hereby i present you another modification that could improve your Victoria 2 Map.
When i first saw the Victoria 2 Map, i thought, well... thats alot of green.
I decided to do something against that

Dont get me wrong, Paradox did a great job with their V2 Worldmap, and it looks great,
but for my taste its too intense after a while, and i wanted something else,
something that looks alittle more artistic and like its drawn maybe.

So i did my best, and after much work its finally done, the Canvas Worldmap!

I had a lot of trouble making the texture borders dissapear,
dont ask me how i did it (it involved alot of patience and some black magic ).

Sadly the engine itself sometimes shows this borders anyway,
you can notice them too on the vanilla map if you look closley,
theres not much more that can be done about it i guess,
but i really did all i could to make it as unnoticable as possible.

This first (to my knowing) World Map Texture modification shows also that it is possible to mod this map completly,
and its just a beginning, there could be much more done to it,
and i hope i can get you another one thats even more altered in some time

The Textures themself are not bigger than the original ones,
so your performance shouldnt be affected at all.
You also dont need to rebuild your Map cache, all you have to do is to replace 3 files.

Also its compatible with my SexiiColours Intense Mod and my Clear Map Overlay Mod.
Danevang's V2 Map Fertilizer, is compatible too in its current version 1.01.

I hope you will enjoy the Canvas Worldmap

More Pictures in the following posts.




The Mod:

This Mod replaces all world textures (near and far zoom) and the world colormap with modded ones,
therby providing a completly new map experience.

The changes are discreet, all textures are lower saturnated and have now
a slight sepia tone, also there is now a slight canvas pattern on them
and the actual texture is alittle rougher, more like painted.

I wanted to create something thats easy on the eye, while still looking decent.
I think it also looks alittle more realistic in the far zoom.

Its hard to describe, and the pictures that i made dosent do the mod really justice, the best to see it is to try it

I did test it on my machine without any problems.

If you want to give feedback or encounter any problems with this modification, please let me know in here


The Work:

The first Version of this Mod was created on Sept. 05, 2010
It is intended for use with Victoria 2 - 1.1 & 1.2

This mod is tested and works fine with Victoria 2 - Version 1.2!

You are free to use this mod with your original of Victoria 2
You may redistribute freely, but dont claim it as your own work nor charge money for it.

The latest release is Canvas Worldmap 1.1

Included in this Release:
- 1 folder with subfolder
- 1 .dds-file
- 2 .tga-files
- 1 readme.txt file


Please note that this mod is currently untested by the creator with the Victoria 2 Expansion - A House Divided.

As Paradox changed alot on the UI and some of the map modes, its likely that it wont work as its intended to if you use it with the Expansion.
So if you choose to try it out, do it on your own risk and be prepared to reinstall the game/uninstall the mod in case it dosent work.
If you do try it out, please report back if you had any issues.

I plan to get back on the mod eventually to make it work with the expansion if its needed, but i have no timefrane yet for this in mind.
Thank you in any case for your interrest and support =)


UPDATE 23/07/2012: Iulius Agricola reported in this post that the mod works with the Victoria 2 Expansion - A House Divided




The Download:

click here: Canvas Worldmap 1.1

Mirror1.1 (not jet ready)



To Use:

Go to your "..\Victoria 2\map\terrain" Folder,
make a backup of the "colormap.dds", "texturesheet.tga" and "texturesheet2.tga" files that are in there,
save them at a secure place or rename them, in case you want to revert to the original map textures.

Then copy the 3 files from the mod archive in your "..\Victoria 2\map\terrain" Folder.

Launch Victoria 2 and enjoy!


Changelist:

1.0: initial release

1.1: changed .dds file compression format + brightened the colormap.dds alittle.


Old Versions:

Canvas Worldmap 1.0, Mirror1

------------ Pictures in the following Postings --------------

[Alexspeed]

Pictures for the Canvas Worldmap Mod:

Version 1.0

Details, max zoomed in, you can see the pattern:






Middle Zoom:










Far Zoom:

[Alexspeed]

Reserved

[takedown47]

i got a question, how do you make the political make not transparent. by that i mean when you zoom into select an army it is looks really bad how the underlying terrain shows through the political colouring. in vicky1 it didnt do that. is there any way you can see alexspeed that this can be corrected?

also the borders would look better i think if they were just a straight red line and not dashed.

[Alexspeed]

i got a question, how do you make the political make not transparent. by that i mean when you zoom into select an army it is looks really bad how the underlying terrain shows through the political colouring. in vicky1 it didnt do that. is there any way you can see alexspeed that this can be corrected?

also the borders would look better i think if they were just a straight red line and not dashed.

I know what you mean (i personally like that the terrain map shines through on the political map),
but i donk know if there is somewhere a value you could change so it isnt transparent any more,
maybe somewhere in "..\Victoria 2\gfx", but i havent seen jet something that would relate to that.

I could think of a workaraound, like making all textures and the worldmap the same solid colour,
but that would logically give no information then on the terrain map and this mapview would look plain and bohring.
But jeah, then there wouldnt be anything there that could shine through and it would look solid on the political map.

If i come across such a value to change that, i will let you know.

The Borders are not in the scope of this specific mod,
i might give them a try at a later time, not sure what can be changed there,
borders are delicate, at least they allways where in former Paradox Games.

What do you think about the new textures?



EDIT:

After a closer look at the files i think i found whats responsible for the transparency,
I bet its the "colormap_political.dds" in "..\Victoria 2\map\terrain". (my best guess)

I havent done jet anything with that, but i might give it a try and see if i can erase the transparency.
But thats for another mod...

EDIT2:

No, the "colormap_political.dds" defines the shadow on the political map,
must be something else...

[takedown47]

i also noticed the colormap_political and thought it might work so i went ahead and painted europe from grey to black but it only had an effect on the darkness of the map when zoomed right out. when zoomed close in it made no difference.

[San_Felipe]

Great mod, but what don't understand is why there isn't any tundra or snowy regions in Scandinavia or Russia? Would be nice to see a more varied terrain, slightly more green for Jungles, tundra and snow for the northern hemisphere and mountainous regions. Everything else look OK.

[Alexspeed]

Great mod, but what don't understand is why there isn't any tundra or snowy regions in Scandinavia or Russia? Would be nice to see a more varied terrain, slightly more green for Jungles, tundra and snow for the northern hemisphere and mountainous regions. Everything else look OK.

Thank you, glad you like it

To your question:
Because there arnt any tundra or snowy regions in Scandinavia or Russia in the unmodded game either. This mod dosent change the clima or terrain features of any region. Its purly a graphical mod.

To change the clima or terrain of any provinces wasnt my intention at all,
but i am sure it can be done.

[Sentinal 6]

Very nice looking graphics. A considerable improvement IMHO.
Have a great day.

[Alexspeed]

Very nice looking graphics. A considerable improvement IMHO.
Have a great day.

Thank you Sentinal 6, glad you like it.
Good day to you too

[Olaf the Unsure]

Nice work.

[Alexspeed]

Nice work.

Thank you Olaf

I am happy i get replys, i wasnt sure if such a mod yould be wanted at all

[Alexspeed]

Mirror Link to Strategyinformer hosting added

[Nabobalis]

Could you merge all 3 of your mods into one? I think they would go great together :P

[Alexspeed]

Could you merge all 3 of your mods into one? I think they would go great together :P

Thank you for the suggestion

I will do that, but i also want to include something more and still need the permission to include it, till then, just install them one by one.

[Nabobalis]

Thank you for the suggestion

I will do that, but i also want to include something more and still need the permission to include it, till then, just install them one by one.

That is what I've done. It is some really nice work

[Alexspeed]

That is what I've done. It is some really nice work

Thank you, i have now 2 other map ideas in my head allready to change the worldmap even further

[Alexspeed]

Canvas Worldmap 1.1 has been released:

All who downloaded the Version 1.0, please update to Version 1.1

I changed the .dds file compression to use the one the original game file uses.
I also tinkered a bit with the colourmap.dds and made it a littlebit brighter, so the World isnt looking all so dark any more, but its a minor difference.

Besides the small optical difference its the same to 1.0, but the compression i used with 1.0 could mean a difference to the game engine, so its better to use the same compression format the original file has.


changes in 1.1:

1.1: changed .dds file compression format + brightened the colormap.dds alittle.


The Download:

click here: Canvas Worldmap 1.1


Image:

As you can see the changes are minimal, its a little brighter,
therefore you can see the pattern also a little better

[Leviathan07]

It might be my LCD screen... but to my eyes the map looks very unformly brown. Did you test how it shows up on different monitors?

[Alexspeed]

It might be my LCD screen... but to my eyes the map looks very unformly brown. Did you test how it shows up on different monitors?

I have only one Monitor at the moment connected, so i did only test it on that one, its a bright LCD so it could be that it comes out darker than i intended it to on less bright Monitors.