Map Editor Questions --- Trying to Scale Down Waterloo Map to 1/3rd

[Mr. Doran]

Greetings,

I have been trying to learn and familiarize my self with the map editor the past few days. My goal is to create maps of historical battles at smaller scales than the vanilla game maps are based off of; the first map I am trying to bring to fruition is Waterloo at around 1/3rd scale to the current one we have. I am currently too incompetent to figure out how to create a map file from scratch without the editor crashing instantly so I started playing around with the vanilla Waterloo map files. I eventually scale down the topography to what I am looking for and scale down the the RGB jpegs to fit the new map size.

I compile the file in the editor and see it spits out a single lsl file; looking at the file structure in the scourge of war folder at other maps and with what little I can find online it is clear to me there is more to a functioning map than the single lsl file. I am not sure what to do at this point besides replacing the Waterloo lsl in the base game to try to test the map in game. Results are the topography works fine along with the ground texture painted in the places where they should be but the trees, roads, and other decals are on the same place they are on the vanilla map. The Landscape Studio help documentation says the vegetation map is controlled by vegmap.tga but have been unable to locate any file named as such. From what I can see from the file structure and various postings on the internet there are other elements such as csv files for roads and such that I have also been unable to locate or know what to do with them even if I did.

Situation for me at this point is basically a standstill at my current knowledge level. Any level of help would be greatly appreciated. I have included the files I have been working with as a dropbox link if they can be of any help.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jazr7orboisyx ... s.rar?dl=0

My steam profile if anyone wants to contact me in a more direct fashion: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198014028214/


Edit: screen shots of what the topographical scale looks like.

Only three brigades are necessary at this scale to make a visually appealing and practical representation of d'Erlon attack on the Anglo Allied left flank

https://gyazo.com/6e7ac1abeade1ce166921cafcd33b1aa
https://gyazo.com/ecbeca3d9d141ae806491ccb7b113345
https://gyazo.com/476d76ca2c275dfa4725bbb7bf69e334
https://gyazo.com/7ca208785ee4b7402fe830744a6258ec

[Davinci]

Missed this Post - I Sort of stay in the SOWGB Forum.

You have probably figures out a lot of this considering the time that have past.

To My knowledge the only way to scale down an existing Map is to start at the Top-Left-Hand-Corner.

This is due to the fact that the Games-Coordinates start at ( 0-0 ) from that point.

The (height,tga) file that is located in the (lsl) file controls the size of the map.

So - You would first Crop this file to the size that you are trying to achieve, starting in the top left hand corner.

Then - Crop the four (rgb) files to match the size of the height file that you have cropped.

Then - Crop the (bmp) file located in the Maps folder to fit the size of the other Map files.

Basically - the (bmp) file controls where the roads and the terrain will be place on the map.

The (rgb) files tells the game exactly what ground textures to place in the game.

The (height.tga) file tells the game the size of the map in question.

SO - it is possible to Crop the Center of an existing map if you choose.

The problem with that is that you will have to redo all of the objects that are currently on the existing map, since doing it this way you have changed all of the coordinates starting at ( 0,0 ).

** The (vegmap.tga) - never seen this file and doubt that the game even use it, it was probably left over from the original Power-Render Program.

davinci

[Mr. Doran]

You have probably figures out a lot of this considering the time that have past.

davinci

Yes, I should have probably made an edit at this point stating progress; figured the reply chance after a week had passed was probably near 0% so did not bother doing so. I very much appreciate the reply anyways.

** The (vegmap.tga) - never seen this file and doubt that the game even use it, it was probably left over from the original Power-Render Program.

davinci

Thank you for clearing this up. Was wondering if it was some kind of redundancy or what I was just not understanding about it.


Current progress update if anyone see this and then cares to see it.

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterl ... for-ks-mod

[Davinci]

The Map Making Process - is a little bit hard to understand at first, but gets easier depending on how many maps that you work with.

There has always been a very small group of Modders that have learned the process.

You are going about it the right way, the easiest way of understanding it is to Edit an existing map, and getting that map to work in the game.

The default game will use four ( rgb ) files in the ( lsl ), but that is not required, the game will still work if you use only One ( rgb ) file.

It will just reduce the amount of terrain that is shown in the game.

Most of the crashes in the game is probably not due to the ( lsl ) file, but probably the (mapname.bmp) file.

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***** Correction - I was wrong - The game will accept a ( vegmap.tga ) but it has to be the exact size of the ( height.tga ) file in the (lsl) or the game will crash.

After making one and putting it in the game, I can see no visual difference in the terrain.

Not sure exactly what the purpose of that file is. Guessing Here - it was probably designed to give the ground texture a more bumpy look. But, there is a listing for it in the LSL compiled file.

davinci