Some Mapping Questions from a Noob

[Ewokinarmor]

Hey guys, I'm in the process of creating a PR map for the first time (will post official thread when I feel I've fleshed it out enough to be presentable, unless you wish otherwise). However, before I start, I have some questions I should probably get answered:

1: When I made a small scale test map in vbf2 to learn how to use the editor, I noticed that when I stepped into a crater I created and looked up or viewed terrain from any odd angle, it appeared semi-transparent(I could peer through the crater walls and the undergrowth and stuff I placed at ground level was visible). Is this an editor thing or did I mess something up?

2: When I converted the bf2editor for PR modding using the tutorial posted, I saw no "bf2editor" folder inside \Battlefield 2\mods\pr\readme, and thus was not able to swap out the object spawner templates that it said I should. Could this prove problematic?

3: For the map I'm making, I thought the best approach would probably be to mass-paint the texture that is most likely going to be used the most in the map, and then fill in the greater detail with additional layers later when I know exactly which areas should have grass/sand/gravel. Could the multiple layers cause optimization problems?

4: Just to make sure my method is sound, is this a good order for making a map?
1) Create the terrain/topography
2) Texture
3) Add Undergrowth/Overgrowth
4) Add statics
6) Add Gameplay stuff (Vehicles, CPs, Spawns, etc.)

Thanks.

[Ason]

3. Don't think it should be any problems, I guess that's how most people do it.
Isuggest learning how to use t-paint, it's not that complicated and there are many tutorials.
It saves you the trouble of having to manually paint the base textures:
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189-m ... paint.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCedRSMbtEY (from 3:40 if you only want to learn t-paint)

4. Yes sounds good.

tips and tricks:
If you ?re having problems with placing objects (lagging when moving them) try to open photoshop, open a file and close it, the editor should be getting alot smoother. This works for me, not sure it will for you or if you even have this problem.

you can move objects in any direction using shift+arrows/pgdn/up, the camera speed controls the lenght of the steps the objects will move (be careful if having more than one object selected, if their axis are not pointing in the same direction they will move in different direction.

you don't need to always drag objects out of the list, if you need an object that you already placed you can select that object, hold Ctrl then click and drag on one of the axis to make a duplicate.

Just wanted to mentioned this since these are the things I never learned from the tutorials and I basically made my entire first map without knowing this..
Happymapmaking and good luck!

[Ewokinarmor]

Thanks. Also, how do I add water? None of the tutorials explained how. I know that I can raise the water level, and I've done it before, but its essentially just a dark blue plane. How do i get it to look right?

[BroCop]

Tweaker bar|WaterSettings>SeaWaterLevel (default -1000)

[Ewokinarmor]

Tweaker bar|WaterSettings>SeaWaterLevel (default -1000)

Well yes, I know, but how do I get it to not look like a dark blue plane?

[BroCop]

It will look whatever color you set from the tweaker bar until you do lightmaps. Until then its just a plane.