WIP: Eritrea Map Makeover

[thedrummerguy]

Hello!

 

though id share a few pics of my latest work in progress: a revamping of the Eritrean map in the download section :)

 

im just starting out with modding..have been making aircraft skins, and started messing round with this maps terrain tiles and .ini's.

 

eventually i want to make my own maps, but slowly working though the mapping tutorials!

 

The source material for the tiles are the Madagascar AE tileset, but i have increased the resolution to 512x512 and completly revamped them..would love to add trees and other objects to the tiles, but currently dont know how!

 

hope you like the pics!

 

Regards

 

 

 

 

 

[Silverbolt]

Looking good!

 

So sad that cities in mountains in TW don't lookg properly at al....

bu anyway....

 

Flanker X Fulcrum

Edited June 25, 2009 by Silverbolt

[+PureBlue]

Hey good start

You just got to hand tile those cities. Or if still at the autotexturing stage, and got your cities defined, perhaps set the "check slope" in texture types menu (TE), this will help in not texturing those mountains with city tiles.

 

There's another function that you might try and see; "smooth height field". It's a compromise, kind of kills all that rugged mountainous terrain and smooths it down. But then you don't have floating trees and other weird stuff.

 

The texture type settings (altitude, slope..), and the smooth height thing is the most important thing you want to experiment and find the balance, just at the beginning of the project.

 

Here's Deuces' tod tutorial, http://www.sfmods.com/tutorials/terrtut/trees.html

[thedrummerguy]

thanks for the link and comments guys :)

 

i haven't been able to use the terrain editor so far..as 1 out of 10 times I open a texture list the program crashes!! certainly using the auto tile feature would be a lot less painstaking than by hand!

[+PureBlue]

i haven't been able to use the terrain editor so far..as 1 out of 10 times I open a texture list the program crashes!! certainly using the auto tile feature would be a lot less painstaking than by hand!

 

There's two versions of TE. I recall the zip here in the downloads section, came with both of them, if not I can upload again. One version was suitable for WOV textures and the other for the rest.

TE never crashes for me, it's solid but could use some more features..

[Wrench]

Like PB said, there are 2 version of the TE; the oldest is for SF ONLY and terrains using the desert tile naming conventions. You cannot use terrains built in that one with the newer, WoV/WoE/WoI version. It will cause all kinds of unwanted "issues" and problems. And vice-versa. Although, you CAN import the WoV/WoE tiles into the desert set, but you'll need to majorly edit the desert_texturelist.ini.

 

Adding trees and city building can be done several ways...

 

following Big D's turotials, to create your own or

use existing TODs, and their asssciated terobjects_buildings.bmp and terobjects_trees.tga. That's the easiest and laziest way (in other words, how I do it!!! )

 

There's some very cool TODs for the desert-style terrains by either CA_Stary or Brain32 in the d/l section ... skyscraper cites, trees and farms, etc. There's also a butt-load of custom TODs in my ASW terrain for the farms, rivers, etc.

 

EDIT: once you get the hang of adding just 'stock' trees and the 'generic' buildings to the TODs, you can actually have a little fun with it ... or if you have too much time on your hands ... see pic below. Yet another style of Easter Egg!! And one that most people would never notice, or see.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+Crusader]

LOL

[thedrummerguy]

hiya thanks for the info wrench i look froward to playing round with this!!

 

maby it is because i am using WOI the editor crashes?

 

even so, if i download, say the Eritrea map, open its HFD, then proceed to open its texture list...it loads to about 90% the editor still crashes!?

 

 

if i try to use the texture lists than come with the editor, it dossnt load and i jsut get a white screen in tile view :S

Edited June 26, 2009 by thedrummerguy

[thedrummerguy]

gah got it...was usign wrong version....freaking n00bs!!! :blush:

[Wrench]

all the names must match too, so if it's "AE.hfd", etc, and all the inis, you'll have to rename to 'eritrea', place all bits IN the TE as a sub-folder, and open from there. Can't work the TE from anywhere's else (ie: terrain folder MUSt be in TEs folder)

 

and don't forget to COMPLETLY rebuild the city.ini, cause if you add stuff to the targets ini, they MUST match for you airfield flattening.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[thedrummerguy]

hiya!

 

 

now ive got the map editor working, the fun has begun! :D

 

started on my own map of the horn of africa: set it at 1300km - think it should be OK for such a vast area?

[+LloydNB]

Oooooooh!! Somewhere for my East Africa campaign skins to fly around in.

 

LloydNB

[Wrench]

I'd move it east at least 100km (maybe a bit more), to get the whole "Horn" on the map, and have some room on the right (eastern) edge to allow for the 80km "no fly zone" AKA The Wall

 

wrench

kevin stein

[thedrummerguy]

getting there ever slowly :)

[+LloydNB]

thedrummerguy

 

Just a plea for you to consider doing a version with the frontlines for a WWII conflict (ie. British (Somaliland, Kenya, Sudan and Aden Protectorate), Italian (Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland) and Vichy French (Somaliland)).

 

LloydNB