Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

...maybe i've missed it somewhere as there certainly seem to be a lot of people who make maps. I am not looking for detailed instructions but more of an overview starting with how people usually get an image to how that becomes a map to figure out how i might get started one of these days.

Thanks

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Look for the "mapedit.pdf" in the doc sub folder in your dom3 folder. Then you read chapter 6.

Then you take a picture you made yourself or by someone else and apply the above.

Oh, and after that you can edit your map in the map editor to create a map file. Just place the picture file in the "maps" folder.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Well getting that image is the part you'll have to do all by yourself basically. Once you have an image the mapping comes into play.

Basicly there are a few options
- create the image yourself
- modify an existing image (from the net or something, a map or something else)
- completely steal the image :D

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Does anyone have any advice on how to create good wrap around maps? Like, what process should you follow so that it wraps nicely?

Jazzepi

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

personally I haven't done that much but the one I've made (whatever else you can say about them) wraps nicely.

Just make the borders be in the middle of a province, same for the corners. Then you just have to match the border on the left with the border on the right, most graphic programs have some sort of X/Y number for each pixel so that should be pretty easy.

My wrap around water map (not that much of a map for the rest) is a nice example IMHO. Of course I've hand drawn the borders so after they leave the edge it's not that nice and the rest isn't either but it wraps nicely :D

And of course you need to do the same for the edges of land, forest and all things drawn in the provinces but I'd avoid to much on the edges of the map where it wraps would only complicate things.. better to leave extra's on one side of the border.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

I guess it would be helpful if someone were willing to put together a bit more detail on the map creation process. A step-by-step would actually be ideal though I realize that might take a lot of work to do. But for example, when I mess around with Gimp, the first thing it asks is the image resolution, then more and more things that I have no idea. Seeing how someone has actually made a map from the start would be awesome.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Seconded!! :)

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

I just quickly threw this together. Does it help? I will try to fill in some of this later such as the specs on the image formats, and the specific steps in the map editor.

Basic How-To maps:
The image can be anything from anywhere. The map generator can be used. You can modify the colors and much about the generating but they can always stand some manual improvement. Or a map generator from another game might be a good starting point. Or a satellite image, a drawing, change the colors all to monochrome or sepia to get a drawn parchment look, even a picture of a famous movie star can be a map.
The Image format must be .rgb or .tga (insert specs) when you are done with it. The map info file must be plain text (ascii) and have the extension of .map

Image
-> change all white (255,255,255) on the image to something else. Maybe grey (250,250,250)
-> add ONE white pixel to the image for each province (where the flag pole will sit)

ImageOptional
-> add red borders to help the map editor find proper neighbors (you can change the color or delete them later)

.map file
-> add neighbor commands (do not need 2-way)
-> add terrain commands

use of Editor
-> create a bare .map file then load it into the Dom3 Map Editor under Game Tools
-> have it guess at neighbors (it cannot guess at terrain)
-> edit neighbors
-> edit terrains

.map optional:
-> set certain provinces as no-start (or set only the start provinces)
-> add names for provinces
-> set Victory Points for certain provinces
-> select provinces for special considerations on random magic sites
-> add magic sites for affecting temperatures or scales
-> select poptypes for certain provinces
-> select guardians for certain provinces
-> place forts, labs, temples
-> select gods, magic, scales, alliances for specific AIs

Mapping Quick Reference List
http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/map_qref.txt

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

This is done by "tiling".

There are many tutorials online, but the premise is this. You start with an image file, which I represent with this ASCII "map".

BCDEFGH
BCDEFGH
BCDEFGH
BCDEFGH

Then you copy a sliver from the left side (B) around to the right side (after H), like so:
BCDEFGHB
BCDEFGHB
BCDEFGHB
BCDEFGHB

Then you edit it until H lines up with the copied B (various clone, copying and smoothing tools help if you can't draw). Then you remove the "B", and your map tiles left to right (but not top to bottom).
BCDEFGA
BCDEFGA
BCDEFGA
BCDEFGA


You don't have to actually copy slivers and put them to the other end. Photoshop has a filter called Offset that makes the same thing, except easier, and I'm sure other image manipulation programs have something similar. They can turn ABCDefgh into efghABCD, both horizontally and vertically if you choose so. When you have removed the edges, do the offset again with inverted values to get back to your original map. If you see any new errors, fix them, too.

ABCDEF
ABCDEF
ABCDEF

DEFABC
DEFABC
DEFABC

If the ASCII representation was too confusing to be helpful, I can upload some images. It's probably faster to just search for tutorials on tiling textures. It's much simpler than it sounds.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

If you want to check if your map file is correct, you can use my online tool at http://dominions.realites.org/map_randomizer/

Juste uncheck the randomize options so the script doen't try to change any province, and if there are any unrecognized command, they will be listed.

Moreover, the script will output a cleaned map file, with all infos grouped by provinces, and add comments about each provinces terrain types.

The tool has not been updated for a while, so there might be some new commands from last patches still not recognized, but it shouldn't be too hard to update

I had also started working on a map editor (see the beta http://dominions.realites.org/map_editor/) but both projects have been put on hold for a while.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Some notes which might be of interest:

The "wrappable" command only affects how a map is displayed. It tells the game to wrap the image when scrolling. Unfortunately there is no X Y options on that command so there is no way to make it act correct for proper global maps. But its the #neighbor commands that make it work.

You can use ParadoxHarbringers map gen to create a wrappable map, then touch it up with some artwork and sprites. It does support XY on the wrap commands if you want to make a globally correct map.

I would recommend not using the Scendario command at this time. It does not do what its meant to do IMHO. Also the #computerplayer command is semi-broken. It works for server games but not for local games.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

that jack trowell thingie I need to check out.. having a note on terrain types etc could be nice

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Does anyone have a good idea on how to remove provinces? I went to remove some provinces from a map, so I erased the white dot at the center of two of the provinces, and just joined them up together by creating a new white dot in the center of the two.

I did not edit the map file, however, and then I opened up the map in the map editor. All the province connections are crazy now. I was hoping there would only be a few problems restricted to a select number of provinces, but the entire map is basically borked.

So is there a better way to go about removing a province from a map that has already been created?

Jazzepi

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

yes that sort of stuff will kill your map.

I have got no easy solution. I've had this multiple times (every map I work on except the last one which I didn't work on... Rdonj got the only good map .tga I ever made right in one go.)
I usually copy whatever I need/think I can use from that file and then just load it in the editor again and set connections and landtypes again.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Ive been meaning to try this (I dont use the Map Editor much) but Johan says that you can create a bare-bones .map file and allow the editor to fill in neighbors.

Changing the map border color to something with red in it is supposed to help that function. So MAYBE if you make a backup copy of the map image and file, change the borders to pure red in the image, delete the neighbors in the file, and load it into the map editor then it will renumber the provinces and make intelligent guesses on neighbors for you. Im sure it wont be perfect and would still need editing. But it might be closer than what you have now.

If it works for you, please post about the steps and the results.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Jazzepi,

See this thread:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...281#post673281

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

In addition, all white pixels will be province centers, so you should just remove the original pixel and then use Ballbarian's utility.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

I realize this is *simplistic* - but helpful to note.. right click to set a province, then left click on each desired neighbor.

I have no idea how to delete a neighbor relationship, except manually.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Control + Left Click

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

No - but I lost a lot of time to this problem on my last map. The Map Editor seems to have a built-in function to allow you to remove a province, but I have tried using it several times, and it has never once worked.

Try doing things in this order:

1) Make your map using a graphics program - as long as you can save the output as a .tga file. It is also greatly advantageous to use a program that allows the use of layers.

2) Make SURE you have your map the way you like it before you go on.

3) Change all the white in your map to something else - it can be indistinuishable from white, it just cannot be the color 255-255-255.

4) Place a 1 by 1 white dot in the center of all your provinces.

5) Save as a .tga file in your Dominions 3/maps folder

6) Open the Map Editor and Select "New Map". The Editor will ask you what file to open - enter the name of the map you saved above.

7) When you save your work in the map editor, it creates a .map file in the Dominions 3/maps folder. The .map file and the .tga file are both necessary parts of your map, so keep them together.

8) Add province names - save your map - and a back-up copy.

9) Add province characteristics - save your map - and a back-up copy.

10) When everything else is right, add neighbors and save your map. This is because neighbors are the easiest thing to mess up.

P.S.

If you must remove a province... you may be out of luck - unless you can add a province as well. This happened to me when I had already added names and neighbors for 260 provinces and I realized that I had accidently placed 2 white dots instead of one, and the map editor had interpreted this as being two provinces. (Be careful about this.)

The editor assigns a number to each province by scanning line by line from the bottom up, so my workaround was to draw another province on my map, delete the extra white dot, and add a new white dot over my new province - on the exact same horizantal line as the white dot I deleted.

When I reloaded the map editor, my new province had the same province number as the one I had deleted, so none of the other provinces were messed up at all.

Re: Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?
 

Personally I think that's topology, and making a big hole in the middle of the map so it looks like a donut makes it a wrap around map so you don't have to bother about sides. All you really want is to get rid of corners.

As far as I understood, the process looks for all white pixels and if there's more than one red region line in between, it thinks they aren't neighbours, which removes false neighbours.
How it decides to actually find neighbours (or remove non neighbours) without the red lines I have no idea.

I think when making a map, using something way bigger than a white pixel to identify your provinces is very helpful should you ever want to move them around. Just put that thing in a separate layer that you'll never render, and the white pixels in yet another layer that will get rendered.