• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Hello,

I've finally gotten around to messing around with the map editing tools and have finally gotten a handle on the basics without messing things up. A general question to the people currently making maps using Inferis' tools:

1) What layer do you generally start editing first? Is it different if you're modifying as existing map or starting from scratch? In all my tests so far I've first altered the "Boarder" layer, then the "Shading" layer then finally the "ID" layer. (What are the official or general consensus names for these layers btw?)

2) Which of these layers needs to be edited at all? Is there any option in the tools that I'm missing that will automatically generate these layers? (Specifically I'm thinking about the "Boarder" layer)

3) What block size for PSDs to you most commonly find yourself working on?

Or, ramble about anything else that comes to mind.

Anhierd
 
Hi,
I have already asked Xie for that but i forget the answer.

How did you use the ocean layer in your script in photoshop ?

Thanks
 
a PRAYER

could be possible to have a guide step by step to build a map?
i downloaded every tool but i was unable to use it.
maybe i'm stupid but a "making of " ste by step would be useful.
 
XieChengnuo wrote some kinf of a tutorial on mapmaking in the past, sadly the link does not seem to be in that thread... you might try browsing this forum and look for threads from may/june or so (flag/shields forum is not such a busy forum so that should not take that much time ;)).

Fast tips though, in regard to the use of magellan tools I can give is:
* make sure you installed the Net Framework package that Inferis points to on his site
* the magellan tools, other than mcolor, have to be started from command prompt (doubleclicking the icons won't work). Start ms-dos console, change to dir where you put it and use the relevant command.
* magellan seems to be lazy with finding the installed eu2-dir itself, so for export/import it might be necessary to specify the directory manually. For that it is practical to have a rather short name of dir, w/o spaces which confuse dos-consoles.
* magellan tools are for export only, actual modifying of the map requires a graphical tool like photoshop (preferable), paintshop pro, or perhaps GIMP

edit: hmm, I actually found it, only the link does not work...
relevant post:
http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3894841&postcount=24
 
Last edited:
Ok thanks
the site is out of order and Xie didn't answered me...
:(
So il''fight my incompetence and i'll win (maybe)
 
With specific questions i can help, but for writing a whole tutorial I kind of don't have the time... It helps if you can specify which part of the mapcreation-process you have problems with... Magellan? Actual graphical editting in photoshop?
 
Everything...
So tomorrow i have holyday and try some experiment.
So after i'll tell you.
Thanks a loth!!!!
 
Kaigon said:
Where can I get hold of all the fancy actions, templates and other nice tools that helped you making all those nice maps?
Thanks in advance.

That would be interesting. I finally know how to operate Magellan but I'm lacking the necessary Photoshop skills to modify the map. :(

And Xie's tutorial page seems to be down ...
 
send to him a message.
he's very polite and 'll try to hel you.
 
ok so..i am way behind and have spent the last year or so playing so much CK and Vicky and HOI to realize how great it all started with Europa. And now i'm about to catch up with the times and get EU2(nice timing right? just after the announcing of EU3). But anyways this whole map-making thing has got my mind going nuts. i've always hated the Eu map..the HRE for starters is terribly innacurate. However just looking at this thread i realize i don't have the graphical skills and knowhow to do it myself.
Thats why i was wonderiring if there was some sight or thread im not seeing that gives a list of all the custom maps players have made. I've poked around only to find a few...the AGP-EEP one really did well by Germany and England, but i feel like it got carried away in other coutnries and ROTW. So, if there isn't like a huge gallery where i can look at all the ones made down the years, would anyone know of one that focused more on Europe(primarily HRE) and didn't go overboard on provinces?
 
SOS from an aspirant mapmaker

Greetings to everybody,

I hope I am in the right thread...

I am an Eu2 player from some year and my interest in this beautiful strategic game increased with time... Recently, I made a new exciting discovery: it's possible modify the map and make it more realistic... I am very grateful to the people involved in the project of "hacking the tbl files", Inferis, Hive, Xie Chengnuo, WiSK etc. Your work is beautiful, useful and very intriguing!
So I downloaded the Magellan set of tools, and searched on Internet for the necessary training to alter the map of Eu2. I read a large part of the forum devoted to this task:

http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.
php?t=31631&page=1&pp=25

the page of Inferis:
http://www.inferis.org/eu2/magellan/

the pages of Lord Ederon and WiSK and also the good tutorial for the Magellan tool: http://xie.dyndns.org/~flagdir/maptut.php

I tried to realize some changes in the Eu2 map, but I failed, because I have a minimal knowledge about Adobe Photoshop 7.0... I need some hint to perform my task and understand how to modify the map. Is there someone that is so kind and willing to help me? Thanks!

The Problem.
I have an Eu2 Map. I use Magellan to extract the map (mview and mextract) and create a psd file to edit (mimage): e.g. the region is Central Italy (I am Italian and my policy is to put in order my country before invade and upset the others...). Then I opened the psd file, with the four layers (Borders, IDs, Shading and Map Info) and I loaded the Magellan.atn file with the actions that the skillful Xie Chengnuo created (thank to you, Xie!).

I want to modify the shade of a single province (e.g. Romagna): which layer I change? IDs or Shading? Ids change seems easy: using the Eyedropper and Pen Tools I modify the shade of Romagna, but then... what shall I do? could you explain me step by step the method to change the shade of a single province (and redrawing the border of the adjacent provinces)? I presume that one must follow this sequence:
1) modify the shade of a province in the IDs layer;
2) select this province (with the Magic Wand Tool? How?);
3) load a specific action (which?) to modify the shade in Shading layer;
4) load a specific action (which?) to modify the borders (one can make this change directly on the Borders layer with the Brush Tool? how?);
5) load a specific action (which?) that merges all the changes and reproduces four new layers with the correct shade of that province...

Is it the correct sequence? maybe I was wrong...

I will be grateful to anyone want to give an answer to me.

Thanks again!

Best Regards,

PS Sorry for my imperfect English...

The Regent of Bohemia

Lord Admiral of the Bohemian Navy,
High Commissioner for Development and Advancement of the Utopian Confederation of Balkans,
Member of the Siberian Senate,
Minister of Science and Culture of the Kingdom of Presbyter Johannes,
Minister of Truth of Eurasia,
Deputy President of the Republic of Bananas,
Lord Major of the City of Sun,
and more other...
 
A new appeal

Greetings to all the expert mapmakers...

I need some help, because I made many attempts to edit the map, but I did not reach any result... I used the superb Inferis' Magellan Tools, the good Xie Chengnuo's tutorial and Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (I am not very familiar with this program, but I can learn!).

First step, I extract the map from line command with the command:
mextract.exe newmap.eu2map D:/Map
This is ok!

Second step, I use the Mimage tool to select a square of the map:
mimage.exe newmap.eu2map testmap.psd /R:11720,1500,500,500
This is ok! It's a square centered on Orenburg (Russia) province (456).

Third step, I open testmap.psd with Photoshop and I edit it. I have 4 layers, but the last one is untouchable... with the Eyedropper tool I select Orenburg color (brown, RGB = 96,32,32) on the ID layer and with the Pen tool I modify the border between Orenburg and Irghiz: this action creates a new layer that I merge with the ID layer.

Fourth step, I use the Xie Chengnou's Magellan.atn, to modify the other layers: Creating New Shading Set, Update Provinces and Update Borders. These actions create new layers and the map assumes strange colours, but the adjustment seems to be achieved.

Fifth step. I save the psd file as testmap1.psd, then I use the Mimage tool to import the modified file in the eu2map file:
mimage.exe /i testmap1.psd newmap.eu2map

The process starts but suddenly stops with a long list of error about invalid IDs... The lines are:

Checking ID map... Error: Found invalid ID 2640 at (313,268). RGB value = 3A4D11

Error: Found invalid ID 2696 at (313,269). RGB value = 58291D
Error: Found invalid ID 3208 at (314,271). RGB value = 483C17
Error: Found invalid ID 3664 at (315,273). RGB value = 385110
Error: Found invalid ID 2696 at (315,274). RGB value = 562C1C
Error: Found invalid ID 2072 at (316,276). RGB value = 464015
Error: Found invalid ID 2696 at (317,279). RGB value = 552E1B
Error: Found invalid ID 2696 at (318,282). RGB value = 5A271E
Error: Found invalid ID 2072 at (319,284). RGB value = 414514
Error: Found invalid ID 2696 at (319,285). RGB value = 5A271E
Error: Found invalid ID 2640 at (320,287). RGB value = 3C4B12
Error: Found invalid ID 2640 at (321,291). RGB value = 3C4B12
Error: Too many invalid IDs found... Stopping.
Error: Invalid IDs encountered. Cannot import. Please fix.

Which is the problem? Which is the treatment?

I will very grateful to anyone who explains me how to resolve this problem... There is a lot of positions, charges and offices in the Republic of Bananas and I could assign one of them to this willing persons... :D

Thank you!

The Regent of Bohemia

Lord Admiral of the Bohemian Navy,
High Commissioner for Development and Advancement of the Utopian Confederation of Balkans,
Member of the Siberian Senate,
Minister of Science and Culture of the Kingdom of Presbyter Johannes,
Minister of Truth of Eurasia,
Deputy President of the Republic of Bananas,
Lord Major of the City of Sun,
and more other...
 
Your problem is that you use a brush, they have anti aliasing meaning, it makes the colors smooth. But you need to do it in the right color, because of the ID.
So you pick the pencil, right clicking on the brush and choose pencil.
Then you need to export a newpiece of map again and then color again. The piece of map you got now doesn't work.

EDIT:
I modify the border between Orenburg and Irghiz: this action creates a new layer that I merge with the ID layer.
What do you mean by this?
If you just pick the ID layer and paint you shouldn't get a new layer :wacko:
 
cool-toxic said:
What do you mean by this?
If you just pick the ID layer and paint you shouldn't get a new layer :wacko:

I see, thank you very much. This evening I will make some experiment with the Pencil Tool. My mistake was the using of Pen Tool, that creates a new layer containing the modified part of the picture... I noticed the smoothing along the boundary of the modified part, but I did not understand the real problem...

The Regent of Bohemia

Lord Admiral of the Bohemian Navy,
High Commissioner for Development and Advancement of the Utopian Confederation of Balkans,
Member of the Siberian Senate,
Minister of Science and Culture of the Kingdom of Presbyter Johannes,
Minister of Truth of Eurasia,
Deputy President of the Republic of Bananas,
Lord Major of the City of Sun,
and more other...
 
Thanks to Cool-Toxic Shah, I resolve my first problem, but I have another problem...

I modified the boundary between Orenburg and Irghiz with the Pencil Tool. Now I use Xie Chengnuo's Magellan Actions in this order: Create New Shading Set, Update Provinces, Update Borders. Then the map assumes the correct form, but I have new layers: IDs copy and a Folder named New Shading Set containing Oceans, Lines and Flats. I save the file with a new name, "testmap1.psd". Then I return on command line and write:

mimage /i testmap1.psd newmap.u2map /L

The image is correctly imported ("import successful"), but when I open newmap.eu2map with mview, the boundary between Orenburg and Irghiz doesn't change: the only thing that is changed is the red border... and when I open the Eu2 program with the modified files in the Map folder, it doesn't work, but it stops during the loading of a game after the choice of the nation... where is my mistake? Shall I delete o merge some layer, before the command mimage?

Thank to anybody wants answer to my boring questions... gutta cavat lapidem :)

The Regent of Bohemia

Lord Admiral of the Bohemian Navy,
High Commissioner for Development and Advancement of the Utopian Confederation of Balkans,
Member of the Siberian Senate,
Minister of Science and Culture of the Kingdom of Presbyter Johannes,
Minister of Truth of Eurasia,
Deputy President of the Republic of Bananas,
Lord Major of the City of Sun,
and more other...[/QUOTE]