Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[agracier]

I am learning how to manipulate the RGB values... but even then, for exampe when I apply a Airfield texture with RGB... 20, 21, 22... I get an errant tree or two...
how do you remove trees by hand?

First I'd have to know which kind of trees you are talking about. Trees as objects? Or trees as game generated forests which appear on pixels of RGB value 24 on map_T?

As objects, you need to install the map making version of il-2 and then open a particular map and then zoom in and start selecting objects and deleting them. Not hard to do, but you need a map maker. I don't have a link handy, but there are several posts that will explain how to set it up. It is not difficult.

As forest, as a result of rgb 24 pixels, you must change the rgb values on map_t.

If you are referring to the randomly generated trees that you can fly through, but which appear over the map seemingly randomly, then there is little you can do to stop them from appearing, except to rename the texture file designated to that particular pixel value into something that contains the word 'field' at the end.

For instance texture file 'europe_med_01.tga' should then be renamed 'europe_med_field_01.tga' - this will normally result in no more random trees appearing on those pixels. The renaming is done in the load.ini file and of course on the texture tga itself as well. Both entry and file must have the exact same name ...

[smg13]

Thank you for all the information agracier, very useful.

I am a beginner at map making, so I undertsand basic and mid-level stuff... I am learning the more advance stuff now, specially the manipulations of textures. I made two maps already, a huge one that goes from Tokyo, to the Ryuku Island chains, to Saipan (it is huge... 5 hours of flight time on average), and I am finishing one that goes from South Italy, to North Africa, including Malta and Pantelleria.

RGB 24 is the forest texture, correct?

The problem I am having is when making airfields in Malta and Pantelleria. I am using a texture based on "mrz_pantell_air_Fields.tga" that came with the Central med map... I used it as a base to see how it was made, and made my own, and I did name it using "_Fields" at the end. But I still got one or two trees popping up in the middle of the airfield!

I'll try again and see what happens, I might have made a mistake... and I did nto fully understand what the "_Fields" was for until now.

Thanks!

[agracier]

another useful little trick for making sure that no trees appear as random objects on a map is to place invisible ground plates on that area (this is done in map maker). Objects apparently inhibit the appearance of random trees for a certain diameter around them and since you can't see invisible groundplates they do no harm or affect anything ..

and yes, on map_t, the rgb value 24 is the value that makes game generated forest appear on a map ... a tip if you're making a map_t in layers. For RGB 24 I would not suggest it be above the (conventional) city and airfield textures (16-19 and 20-23) as the numbers would suggest ... rather place it UNDER the layers that will be acting as city/airfield layers ... that way when merging everything to a tga, you won't have to worry about airfields or cities being obscured by woods ...

[smg13]

AAaahhhhhhh.... now I see why map makers place invisible ground plates all over the place! I was wondering why.... they did not seem to do anything.

Now that is a tip worth a gazillion bucks agracier, thanks!

Ok, so now I have another question: how to place bridges that can be crossed? Is there a tool to make them, or do you use the MB auto-tool, or do you place all of them by hand? The problem I am having is the bridges I place by hand or the ones autoplaced by MB, seem to be uncrossable by vehicles. They travel down the road up to the bridge and stop.

Thanks.

[agracier]

Ok, so now I have another question: how to place bridges that can be crossed? Is there a tool to make them, or do you use the MB auto-tool, or do you place all of them by hand? The problem I am having is the bridges I place by hand or the ones autoplaced by MB, seem to be uncrossable by vehicles. They travel down the road up to the bridge and stop.

Now that is something I'd like to learn how to do as well. I have never ever succeeded in making crossable bridges, not once ... the game generates bridges but apparently only where the height is 0m ... which is all good and well on flat maps but of little use in mountainous areas. And moreover, when trying to generate bridges it is possible that you may end up messing up an existing actors.static file completely, so that it is no longer usable ... so be careful and always always keep backups of your actors.static file in case something goes wrong. Imagine a 5mb actors suddenly messed up beyond repair. It's enough to make you volunteer for a suicide mission ...

I've always used bridges as objects. They need to be placed by hand and are not crossed by vehicles in the game honored manner ... but since vehicles can cross rivers anyway (under water) it works out more or less ...

Sorry I couldn't help you more with this.

But here's another tip in conjunction with bridges - make maps of desert areas, if any, there are very few rivers to begin with in such places, and so no need for bridges ... ha ha

[smg13]

Thanks agracier! I am staying away from making missions where vehicles cross bridges...

I was thinking that maybe one can "cheat" a little bit with map_c, making a "land bridge", giving it a water-like texture, and putting a bridge exactly on top.... maybe then vehicles will cross? I have no idea if it will work...

Your submarine crossing tip also works...

[agracier]

Thanks agracier! I am staying away from making missions where vehicles cross bridges...

I was thinking that maybe one can "cheat" a little bit with map_c, making a "land bridge", giving it a water-like texture, and putting a bridge exactly on top.... maybe then vehicles will cross? I have no idea if it will work...

Your submarine crossing tip also works...

You could perhaps make a water-like texture and use it on land, but it would look different from game generated water ... and you'd also have to sacrifice a slot in the load.ini for that particular texture ... and sometimes, or often, slots can become scarce and you'll be needing all you can get ...

And it will also mean very close and detailed work getting map_c and map_t to fit exactly how you wish it to be. Since map C is 4x the size of T the enlarging or shrinking (depending where you would start) causes accuracy to suffer when trying to align these things up ...

A tip for aligning in map making: when working in layers or importing layers or pixels from one type of map to another. Anchor the layer by placing a square pixel in an upper map corner ... that way when you copy/paste layers you won't need to go looking for coordinates where to place the selection. With a map corner as part of the selection, you'll already have a quick and easy anchor point in which to place the selection ... this saves oodles of time and frustration ...



I placed an extra and far too large pixel square in the upper left corner so it is visible ... but the principle is the same ... now I can accurately and correctly place the whole selection by simply moving everything until the anchor pixels fit in the upper lefthand corner ...

This works when enlarging and reducing selections as well ... but the rgb colors may get smudged and shift values... so always check this out if rgb values are important for what you are doing.

[mandrill]

Thanks agracier for the info.

I am learning how to manipulate the RGB values... but even then, for exampe when I apply a Airfield texture with RGB... 20, 21, 22... I get an errant tree or two...

how do you remove trees by hand?

Rename your airfield texture as a "fields" texture and create an all-black "trees" texture to go along with it. That way, you block all trees occurring on that texture.

[smg13]

I hate to come back crying for help. but I was not able to get rid of the trees using a blank plate. It is about four or five trees in the middle of the field and one singl,e annoying tree, on in the middle of the runway! Argh, I wish there was a virtual ax to take to that tree...

I must be doign something wrong agracier, how do you use the blank plates to get rid of the trees? I am just laying them all over "covering" the ground where the trees are.

mandrill, I don't understand what you mean... my textures are already names XXXX_fields.tga. How do you create an all-black trees texture? You can get photoshop or gimp technical-language on me to explain, I know those programs pretty well, I am just behind the technics in the IL-2 MB.

And thanks for all this help guys.

edit- nevermind, I figure it out... the trees are still in the map-building MB, but once you load the map in the "normal" MB they are gone. I guess the blank plates do work. I found out by pure chance... I made a misison to fly around the field where I was going to "pretend to" blast the trees with bombs... and work some of the frustration out, but then the trees where gone already...

[agracier]

mandrill, I don't understand what you mean... my textures are already names XXXX_fields.tga. How do you create an all-black trees texture? You can get photoshop or gimp technical-language on me to explain, I know those programs pretty well, I am just behind the technics in the IL-2 MB.

There is a type of texture that can accompany a fields texture. It is also a tga, and is 50% of the size of the fields texture it is accompanying. It has the exact same name with the addition of a .tree in the name at the end.

For example the field texture 'fields2.tga' would have a tree texture thus:  'fields2.tree.tga'

The tree texture is all black, rgb0, and in places where you wish trees to appear, you create pixels of white rgb 255. Usually you place these white pixels so that you can create a pattern of trees matching the pattern of fields or roads on the texture itself, making an irregular outline for instance.

An all black texture will allow no trees at all to appear, an all white texture will give a profusion of trees so thick it will interfere with the frs. The trick is to graphically manipulate the original file so that you can extract some sort of pattern of white that correspond to how the field texture itself looks, how it is shaped re. cultivated fields, woods, roads etc.

Note that one white pixel does not necessarily mean that a tree will appear, a square of 3 white pixels works better, but this quickly ends up being an unsightly profusion of dense trees ...

[UP~Boomer]

Bump.... 

Everything you would ever need to know on " How to make a map" by KevinP
Map Building Tutorial v4 - Updated,thanks Kevin 
http://www.gamefront.com/files/20333194/Map_Building_Tutorial_v4_rar

First post has updated link for latest and greatest map tutorial by KevinP
Thank you KevinP 

[Benno]

Boomer
Thank you very much !
Benno