Need some help with a large map

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BBalazs
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:25 pm

Need some help with a large map

Post by BBalazs »

Hi everyone,
I've just found this nice place with lots of useful information on BF modding - having made a couple of maps for BF1942 earlier, I was wondering if you could help me tackle one of the problems that won't let me finish the last map I was working on.

I have acquired a nice, detailed heightmap of Europe. After a major deal of Photoshop tweaking, I managed to get it into Battlecraft, my editor of choice. Because of the sheer size of the map, it would only be playable at a world size of 4096x4096. The problem with this, however, is that I just can't texture the whole map. The Surface Map Assignments dialog will only let me cover a square the size of a quarter of the map.
Although this seems to be a problem inherent to Battlefield 1942, I've been reading through this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=489&start=30
and so that last post caught my interest. Perhaps there is some hope to getting a large land map to work? How does that patch map thing work, is that good for what I'm planning? If so, can anyone help me out with a detailed guide on how to splice together four medium size maps?
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fo0k
Posts: 1433
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:21 pm
Location: UK

Re: Need some help with a large map

Post by fo0k »

Hi BBalazs, welcome to the site.

Large maps (and larger!) are indeed possible but Battlecraft is not the tool to use for them. You will need to get familiar with editor42 which will permit working on large maps without the BC limitations.. (although its not a perfectly smooth ride even then..)

I have made a few large maps now mainly for racing mod style maps. Before I start going on too much on the matter.. have you used ed42 before? there's a bit of info I put together on ed42 here: http://bfmods.com/viewforum.php?f=40
It doesn't cover large maps specifically but just being able to use ed42 is 99% of what you will need to work out and then the large map bit can be worked out. (there is an option for a 'large map' in ed42 but it is sadly not quite that simple)
BBalazs
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: Need some help with a large map

Post by BBalazs »

Hmm, I think I see what you mean. I have been having editor42, yes, but I never managed to set it up to work correctly - simply because I only stumbled across this site yesterday or so and I haven't had any material for that ever since.
I'll try to give ed42 a shot, but I'd like to ask you to give me some guidance - what is the limitation of large maps (I'm thinking about AI perhaps?) exactly, and where is that option in ED42 which would help me? I've been digging through the con files, but haven't found anything useful.
BBalazs
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: Need some help with a large map

Post by BBalazs »

Okay, so I managed to get ED42 up and running. It does load my large Europe map just fine. I can edit height, texture, objects, anything.
Now, my problem is that I'd like to get started on getting that large map textured. No matter what I do, for the life of me, ED42 just won't texture anything that is outside the current "Surface Map Assignments" or so as it's called in Battlecraft. I mean, that 8x8 area. Not even with automated texture generation.

I need a bit of help on the theory behind texturing large maps and getting them to work - are there 16x16 textures used somehow? Or is it actually four separate "normal" size maps with 8x8 textures spliced together somehow? I'd really appreciate some help - I know the basic, general all-around things about making maps that actually work, but this is something that belongs to this "specialty map making" category that I don't know much about.
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fo0k
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Location: UK

Re: Need some help with a large map

Post by fo0k »

So I'm on the phone at the moment and hard to write much.

But in ed42 click the new map button and select large map. It will become greyed out but just ignore that.
So options should be 'full and large'

then save it.

That will create all 256 required textures for a large map.
Now add all these new additional textures to your map and you will be able to paint on them :)
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fo0k
Posts: 1433
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:21 pm
Location: UK

Re: Need some help with a large map

Post by fo0k »

Also.. You will always get a crash when saving a large map. This is due (I think) to a bug when the editor tries to create a minimap.. It can't handle large full terrain maps.

But your map will save correctly aside from the minimap. Just use 3dmax to create the minimap when the project is complete.. People here can help with that bit.

There's a few more issues that might arise with large maps but can deal with them when/if you get problems.
BBalazs
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: Need some help with a large map

Post by BBalazs »

Thanks. I'm still fiddling around with editability, but I'm getting the hang of it. As the whole texture will be created manually, it won't be too difficult to create a minimap.
Nevertheless, I am sure that I will have questions for you. As I'm planning to add AI to the map, I'm almost certain that's going to be a tragic bit, if even possible.
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fo0k
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Re: Need some help with a large map

Post by fo0k »

Ai on large should be no more technically complex than a small map. I'm not the ai man though :)
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