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DH Province Editor

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You might ask in the E3Mod thread if there's a colorscales map available (each province painted in unique color) and a file with province id <-> color matching. These are not files that normally come with any mod installation because the game doesn't use this format.
 
Does anyone have a colorscale map and the province id color matching file for DHFull? I feel like if someone were to make those, that along with this program would allow lots of people to work on mods who wouldn't normally have the skills, or simply to save enormous amount of time. This thing could really make the amount of mods explode.
 
RealityGuy, first of all you need your map (vanilla or other) in two files, one for province borders, like this one:
map46845colorscales2kopsq0.png


And another, color-coded one, like in this window:
scrlbetteryx4.png


Do you have such files? If yes, I'll give detailed instructions for sure :)

DinodudeEpic, I made an error in the link and put "https" rather than "http". Surprisingly it works but there's no valid certificate, that's why the warning. I'm changing it now.
 
Bizon said:
RealityGuy, first of all you need your map (vanilla or other) in two files, one for province borders, like this one:
map46845colorscales2kopsq0.png


And another, color-coded one, like in this window:
scrlbetteryx4.png


Do you have such files? If yes, I'll give detailed instructions for sure :)

DinodudeEpic, I made an error in the link and put "https" rather than "http". Surprisingly it works but there's no valid certificate, that's why the warning. I'm changing it now.
Click to expand...

and where do I find those maps? I want to mod E3 map to a modern day borders
 
Does this allow you to easily add province coordinates to the id.csv? Stuff like where the capital symbol will be located, where division will stand, etc.
 
Miihkali said:
Does this allow you to easily add province coordinates to the id.csv? Stuff like where the capital symbol will be located, where division will stand, etc.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can show the current coordinates as well as click the map and set them to new values.

EmperorWillham said:
What files, and were do I put them?
Click to expand...

They are customarily called 'colorscales' and 'idmap', AFAIK. I think you can convert between binary map files used by the game and those graphics files e.g. by using Inferis' tools (http://www.inferis.org/eu2/magellan/) but I won't help you much with them, I haven't ever used them.
 
I'm sorry but you're being vague.
All I want to know was how to get this thing working, or at the very least maybe you could recommend another tool I can use to edit the map?

Sorry, I'm just a little frustrated.
 
Sorry, I just may be not the best person to introduce you to map making :)

But I'll try better:
1. In your 'Darkest Hour\map\Map_1' folder you will find map definitions. Small part of it is easily readable (stored in csv files) but most of it is encoded inside binary files in a format read only by Europa Engine games (those tbl files).
2. Some inventive people at these forums reverse engineered this encoding (with some small help from Paradox AFAIK) and allowed those tbl files to be decoded and widely readable files to be extracted. The most interesting files are index.tbl and lightmap*.tbl and if I'm not mistaken, they contain, respectively, colorcoded ID map (one color = one province) and map that appears to the user (with province borders, names, etc.) - there are several files because there are a few zoom levels.
3. I gave you a link to one such program (Magellan). There's one probably better program, better suited for DH, i.e. Jamie's Map Utility (there's a long guide with links here: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?366310-Noob-s-Guide-to-Map-Modifications).
4. The programs let you extract PNG files from these tbl binaries. When you have those PNGs, then my program comes in handy. You can import extracted PNGs, click on the map and edit properties of each province. Some are easy to edit anyway (energy production, name, etc.) some are less straightforward otherwise (icon positions). The program doesn't let you to do any heavy-weigh editing of the map itself (moving borders, changing visible descriptions).
5. When you make all edits - those in my program and those outside, in graphics editor, you can recompile the tbl files and get your edited map.

The caveat is that I never walked through the steps above because I don't do map editing. That's why I don't have any PNG files at this moment - I think I never had original DH files, I had files for an alternative modded map once, when I coded this app, but that was some time ago.

My program is only a small helper when compared to Jamie's utility for example and if you are really interested in map editing then:
1. Read the guide I linked to above: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?366310-Noob-s-Guide-to-Map-Modifications
2. Ask in some thread concerned with map modding, this thread is especially formidable: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...ject-for-Darkest-Hour-1000-s-of-New-Provinces

If you want only the PNG files, the E3 thread may give you some pointers or you can use the Jamie's app to extract then yourself.
 
Oh, so your program doesn't do the heavy duty stuff?
Ok, thank you for all your help!
I'm sorry I gave you some trouble.... Thanks for the links, I'll go and check them out checked them out.

I still would like to use your program, you don't mind if you can give a more detailed description as to what features your program includes?

PS: I can't wait to see what other things you have cooked up.
And Thanks!:)
 
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