Map Mod Testing
- Thread starter Keanon
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That black between Silesia and the rest of Poland? That's how Silesia used to look. It's amazing how wrong a map can be. Just a funny screenshot from me trying to nudge eastern Europe in the right direction in Patrum Terrae, I think the only places with provinces that I trust (and which do look right) are the British isles, Scandinavia and France.
Of course, this is modern borders, but it's easier to make correct medieval borders from correct modern borders than something as bended and twisted as was before.
Also, Bohemia looked even worse than Silesia did.
All in all, much to do, but eh. It looks fun
How do you make sea provinces that don't allow ships or ports, like Aral, Caspian, etc?
Inland seas you mean?
Simply put; same way as normal seas, just enclose them entirely in land.
Make it not touch a coloured sea province, if the sea is white on province.bmp it won't give them sea access.
I got a question. I have been getting some crashes the moment I edit terrain.bmp in my mod and all I do is play around with the colours already there. Am I missing something?
I should be. It breaks during the pathing stage.
Edit: Apparently it was paint screwing the entire thing up. Thanks.
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I doubt that'd work, since the original ocean isn't written in continents either, and since regions are for island path finding and continents for events, so no matter how I square it it seems like a plain and irritating limitation that won't be broken unless Paradox changes something.
Hey everyone! I'm considering to create a map, but I would like to know some things first:
While you can't create new terrain textures, you can use that colormap.dds to make, for example, a desert red, mars-like instead of "common" saara-like? Is it even possible to don't use the default terrain textures and simply use the colormap texture? I tested a little and it looked sort of possible, though I would like to know from those who already created a map.
Also, what is the best way to create a map from scratch? Can I make it only a one province, one sea as a placeholder, or will it crash?
What files are completely necessary for a new map to work?
While you can't create new terrain textures, you can use that colormap.dds to make, for example, a desert red, mars-like instead of "common" saara-like? Is it even possible to don't use the default terrain textures and simply use the colormap texture? I tested a little and it looked sort of possible, though I would like to know from those who already created a map.
Also, what is the best way to create a map from scratch? Can I make it only a one province, one sea as a placeholder, or will it crash?
What files are completely necessary for a new map to work?
You can just use the colormap, but I can't off the top of my head remember how to do so. I have a feeling the map has to be flat if you do that.
As long as you're not using more than 16 textures, you can overwrite the default with your own , which may be the best option (as that'll allow you to retain the 3D sand effect among others you may need). Downside is you'll need to remember which colour corresponds with which texture (you can see proof of a custom texture if you follow my sig and look at the Coruscant screenshot).
For a new map to work, you'll need provinces.bmp, topology.bmp, terrain.bmp, default.map (very important to get right as can cause many crashes) and definition.csv (if I remember correctly). If you haven't done much mapwork before, a tip is to remember to save in the correct format and to use the correct compression (DXT5 seems to work). Also, in files such as terrain, ensure the correct palette is saved with the image.
Edit: If you search for the dune mod earlier in this thread you'll find how the creator of that ended up just using the colormap file, if that's the route you want to take.
You can use custom terrain textures, the file is atlas0.dds. It's also quite possible to change the look of deserts using the colourmap; the deserts of Elsweyr in the Elder Kings mod are more traditional sahara-like deserts, while those up in Hammerfell are more like the nazca desert/south american deserts.
You can get a map to load if you follow the correct methods without any provinces what-so-ever (just land black, sea white).
To load a custom map into the main menu (but not "playable"), you need a custom terrain.bmp & I think rivers.bmp. A flat topology can't hurt either, otherwise you'll get europe still with your custom land forming an outline in the seas
You'll need to blank out positions.txt and then it should load. To make it playable you'll need to make at least 1 land province in a custom provinces.bmp, but don't make it cover the entire world, that was, for me, causing crashes when I painted ancient Mesopotamia as a single land province.rivers.bmp, terrain.bmp and trees.bmp are indexed, they have a specific palette that must be preserved and followed to function properly.
topology.bmp should be greyscale.
provinces.bmp is fine to do whatever you want, but each pixel not exactly alike another pixel is treated as a seperate province (so use hard pencils, not brushes)
world_normal_heightmap.bmp is a normal map, if your map is over 2048x2048 it won't have much of any effect on the map, and should just be painted in a single light colour and the size preserved at 2048x2048 (else you'll get black rivers), if your map is 2048x2048 then you can make use of the normal to make your map look nicer, to create one you'll need the Nvidia normalmap filter, and then just take your greyscale topology, tweak it somewhat and voila, almost-instant normal map.
for region.txt, if I add a region_cuba for example, do I need to add it anywhere else or can I just leave it like that and the AI will still optimize path finding fine?
If it's added to the region file it's treated as an island for routing, so that's enough.
Actually, the Sengoku map is not dark because the "colors are wrong" in terrain.bmp. It's the textures in atlas0. If you use the default ones, the colours are fine, but it looks very bad.
By the way, there's a pretty good entry in the GIMP manual on how to use colourmaps http://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-indexed-palette-dialog.html
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Just for the after report, I have fixed this issue although I don't know why I could do it. I would show the map in a Sengoku mod someday.
Ah, do you have any idea how you fixed it because I'm having the same issue?
So I'm trying to make a new map from scratch, and I want to set up one test county just so I can open the map in game and look at it.
I'm getting a crash, though, and my graphics.txt log reads:
I've got one county, and one sea province. My definitions.csv looks like this:
... and my default.map lists 3 max provinces, and sea provinces start at "2"
My provinces.bmp looks like this:
(note that I made the image small so I could fit it here, and I renamed it just for use here, the original has the proper name), original size is 2048
As far as I can tell, all the colors line up. The image is indexed, etc... I have no idea what the issue is.
I'm getting a crash, though, and my graphics.txt log reads:
I've got one county, and one sea province. My definitions.csv looks like this:
... and my default.map lists 3 max provinces, and sea provinces start at "2"
My provinces.bmp looks like this:
(note that I made the image small so I could fit it here, and I renamed it just for use here, the original has the proper name), original size is 2048
As far as I can tell, all the colors line up. The image is indexed, etc... I have no idea what the issue is.
Copy positions.txt into your mod\map folder and then erase it's contents (so it's a blank file sat in your map folder).