IronTaxi's Mapping Tips and Tricks

[IronTaxi]

---Sticky this thread and edit into post 1 please---

Checklist to completing your first map start to finish

Introduction: The following is a checklist of steps to create a map from start to finish. It does not explain the entire process, but does list the process in order and links to some excellent threads on each subject.

A basic user guide to the editor can be found at "...\Battlefield 2\bf2editor\Help\Workshop\LevelWorkshop.doc"
1) Create the Terrain. There are a number of different options available to you, but the easiest and most recommended for your first go at a map is by following the tutorial "Creating the Basic Terrain", which can be found in the a wiki here. Once you know the basics, you may find it easier to create the layout of the terrain first in photoshop by editing heightmaps, a tutorial for which can be downloaded here. Once you want to get much more advanced with terrain creation and heightmaps, you may want to try out Terragen.

2) Texture the Terrain. Refer to the tutorial "Creating the Basic Terrain", which can be found in the a href="."/wiki/index.php/Creating_a_Basic_Terrain">wiki here. This tutorial should be read to grasp the basic concepts of color and detail textures, but you may find the actual texturing of your map much easier with TPaint, or BF2Ecomap.

3) Place your objects, spawnpoints, configure level settings. The official tutorial, "Creating the Basic Level", which can be downloaded here.

4) Overgrowth

5) Undergrowth

6) Roads

7) Water (Basically- extract the 'server' zip file of a bf2 map, then find the water.con file, and copy it into your map folder....)

8 ) Layers- 16, 32, 64 player map sizes
- Control Points
- Spawn points (in level editor, right click, add spawn point.)
- Object Spawners (in level editor, right click, add object spawner, choose object, press okay)
- Area around flag where it can be capped
- Combat Area
- Commander assets

9) Loading screen
- Background
- Music
- Map image thingy
- Intro of map
10) Ambient Sounds

11) Ambient Effects (birds etc)

12) Sky Settings (Basically- extract the 'server' zip file of a bf2 map, then find the sky.con file, and copy it into your map folder....)

13) Environmental Maps

14) Lightmaps, but i found that far too complicated for me, so i made this topic and mschoeldgen[Xww2] explained it simply for me....

15) Ticket Ratio

16) Minimap

17) Do all the Singleplayer stuff (if you want...) ( i have never done singleplayer... so if that info isnt the best.... tell me- i will change the link)

18 ) Pack Map- Mod Manager, Pack Map, then go into the Map folder, and delete everything apart from the server.zip, client.zip, & 'info'

edit- all links added
edit- edited the first half of the post with more information, introduction <- who edited this? (thanks)

[Griffon2-6]

Actually... Don't copy the water.con or sky.con from a stock BF2 map. It really depends what kind of feel you are going for in your map, as some skies aren't used in stock maps, and a copied water.con may not match your sky.

[IronTaxi]

point is to use the same maps sky and water i think...

is this a definitive list do you think? anything we can add..??

[PF-Greasy Monkey]

I think that there is a way to "automatically" add the overgrowth and the undergrowth with the temp. files that you get from bf2_tpaint...
It would be a real time saver

edit: if you are a terragen user this tutorial might help to speed up the terrain building phase
http://bfeditor.org/forums/index.php?sh ... l=terragen
unfortunately Im not a big fan of terragen

re-edit: Okay there is a way to put grass where your grass texture is with photoshop and b2_tpaint:

first in editor:

Go to Terrain Editor>undergrowth

Pick a color(I used 15 and it worked great, but you can use any color you want)
Set a material and a type, paint it a bit and save so that the undergrowth.raw file is created.

Now photoshop part:
First lets create a new psd the size of your map+1 in RGB.
Fill the layer with black.

Open the detailbig.tga (one of the temp. file that BF2_tpaint make) in photoshop.
Go to Image > Adjustement > Posterize: set it to 2.
Resize your image the same size of your map+1.
Go to Select > Color Range: select the green(grass) zone.
Drag the selection in the previous psd that you jst created(the one you filled with black).

No more working in RGB mode, converting to regular Grayscale, and having it not work properly in game (and then adjusting it in the editor again trying to get it to match).

Go to Image > Mode > Indexed Color
In the Palette drop-down pick Custom
In the window that pops up in the Table drop-down pick Grayscale
Now in the Indexed Color window you should see that it's goign to use 256 colors.

The NUMBER you choose for your material in the editor corresponds to the RGB grayscale value (that's what I call it).
So for material #1 (blue in the editor) you want to paint with R, G, and B values of 1 each.
And for material #15 (darkest gray) you want to paint with R, G, and B values of 15.

Use the Color Range selector to select your grass part and fill it with it your corresponding undergrowth color.

Save as Undergrowth.raw in your level folder (remember to make back-ups).

The Undergrowth.raw file dimensions are the same as the primary heightmap, except 8-bit instead of 16.

TADA! You just saved a ton of time AND your map looks good.

NOTE: You can use this method with overgrowth too.

[PF-Greasy Monkey]

about the terrain, there is also L3DT
a very simple yet usefull tool explained here:
http://bfeditor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7315

[Pantera]

....

I use Photoshop then handtweak them in the editor and photoshop some more! lol

Thats the way forward.......And also with terragen and L3DT you can never get the terrain the way you want it. (ive spent a few hours on both to no avail!!). Hand Tweaking ftw

[Gyberg]

this might be a stupid question.... but here it goes: Where do I download bfeditor and does it cost anything?

[duckhunt]

http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/ ... loads.jsp#


scroll down to MOD Files

it costs no money, but takes your social life, sanity and health.

[Griffon2-6]

I wouldn't get the EA provided one, get 1.3 from FileFront.

[Gyberg]

thx for the help guys..... but Im having some troubles.... as soon as im trying to create a new map the editor crashes... it creates some of the files necessary but not the files i need to render heightmaps and stuff... please help...

[Dylan]

I wouldn't get the EA provided one, get 1.3 from FileFront.

Im gonna start a new mapping journey again. Are you certain it is 1.3? Also, do I want the big lightmap file?

[DJJ-Terror]

yes you need big lightmaps (cca 700mb) from vBF2 and reality's as well...

[IronTaxi]

yeah you need the big one for sure dylan..but as you know thats not the "first" thing you need so no rush...what kind of map are you gonna work on? Id like to see a new and very original city map..all the urban maps are pretty much the same..i wonder if their is anythign original left to be done (of course there is but what ?)

[Outlawz7]

By the way, some links are corrupt...loads some weird page, nothing related to what the link is supposed to be....example is the link to "Water" stuff...

[[SpecOps]Shadow]

Ok I am new to mapping and this is my first attempt so I have probably made some stupid mistake somewhere. But anyway my problem is that when I create a local game and try to load my map it CTDs when it reaches 15%. At this point it says that it is loading objects, although when I checked what happens when loading other maps it also switches to loading sounds at 15% so I am guessing that the error is something to do with these.

I guess the best thing for me to do is explain what I have done and if anyone has suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

1. Firstly I made a copy of pr called pr_edit and followed the tut instructions you guys put up to setup all of the files for mapping bf2/pr maps.

2. I used the BFeditor to create some basic terrain and painted it

3. I placed a control point for each side with a spawn point (set up one layer for 64 players) as well as a selection of objects (destructable bridge, sandbags, huts, rocks etc)

4. I set up my Sky, Fog, Sun, Sun Flare and Water settings using the tut on bfeditor.org (the one for beginers lol)

5. Generated lowdetail map, lightmap (using lightmap samples from bf2 and pr) and envmap (only have one environment object thing in the map atm)

6. I then edited the init.con file as done in the 'map audit' tut you guys put up (just did the 3 lines to get the kit spawner thing working and the kits for each side)

7. Finally I packed the map using the bfeditor

I've done my best to find whats wrong but I am offically stuck so if anyone has seen this before or has an idea that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

[IronTaxi]

Shadow;509874']Ok I am new to mapping and this is my first attempt so I have probably made some stupid mistake somewhere. But anyway my problem is that when I create a local game and try to load my map it CTDs when it reaches 15%. At this point it says that it is loading objects, although when I checked what happens when loading other maps it also switches to loading sounds at 15% so I am guessing that the error is something to do with these.

I guess the best thing for me to do is explain what I have done and if anyone has suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

1. Firstly I made a copy of pr called pr_edit and followed the tut instructions you guys put up to setup all of the files for mapping bf2/pr maps.

2. I used the BFeditor to create some basic terrain and painted it

3. I placed a control point for each side with a spawn point (set up one layer for 64 players) as well as a selection of objects (destructable bridge, sandbags, huts, rocks etc)

4. I set up my Sky, Fog, Sun, Sun Flare and Water settings using the tut on bfeditor.org (the one for beginers lol)

5. Generated lowdetail map, lightmap (using lightmap samples from bf2 and pr) and envmap (only have one environment object thing in the map atm)

6. I then edited the init.con file as done in the 'map audit' tut you guys put up (just did the 3 lines to get the kit spawner thing working and the kits for each side)

7. Finally I packed the map using the bfeditor

I've done my best to find whats wrong but I am offically stuck so if anyone has seen this before or has an idea that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

you are probably using a bad object...ie one that doesnt work...common culprits are any objects that are in directories by themselves.. there is one strange fence with a gate for example that will cause the problem..

best way to find out is to run bf2 in windowed mode (right click the pr desktop icon change the properties on full screen...0 to 1 or 1 to 0 i forget)

then load your map and it will give you an error message

[[SpecOps]Shadow]

Wow fast response you guys are awesome!

Ok thanks for that tip.. I now have the error it gives:

*****
Debug assertion failed!

Version: 1.1.2965-797.0 Buil date:2006-9-26 17:53
Module: TextureAtlas
File: D:\Aphrodite\BF2_1.4\Code\BF2\RendDX9\TextureAtlas\TextureAtlas.cpp
Line: 62

Text: Couldn't open TAI file "levels\Seige_of_Doboj\overgrowth\OvergrowthAtlas.tai"

Current confile:Levels/Seige_of_Doboj/Overgrowth/Overgrowth.con
*****

I haven't as yet done anything about overgrowth or undergrowth. Most of the tuts seem to suggest that you can load a map without having to do that stuff.

I've looked in the client and server zip files and there isnt an 'OvergrowthAtlas.tai' file ... there is an undergrowth one which is strange seeing as I havent even looked at undergrowth or overgrowth yet.

I'll try specifying some overgrowth see if that changes anything.

Ok that has fixed it. Thanks IronTaxi... I think I owe you a beer.

[DJJ-Terror]

if you did not created overgrowth than simply try ro delete/remove that dir. and try again.

Doboj you say?
People from around the globe are more familiar with srebrenica or sarajevo... fancy a change to one of them?

[LekyIRL]

Shadow;509885']Wow fast response you guys are awesome!

Ok thanks for that tip.. I now have the error it gives:

*****
Debug assertion failed!

Version: 1.1.2965-797.0 Buil date:2006-9-26 17:53
Module: TextureAtlas
File: D:\Aphrodite\BF2_1.4\Code\BF2\RendDX9\TextureAtlas\TextureAtlas.cpp
Line: 62

Text: Couldn't open TAI file "levels\Seige_of_Doboj\overgrowth\OvergrowthAtlas.tai"

Current confile:Levels/Seige_of_Doboj/Overgrowth/Overgrowth.con
*****

I haven't as yet done anything about overgrowth or undergrowth. Most of the tuts seem to suggest that you can load a map without having to do that stuff.

I've looked in the client and server zip files and there isnt an 'OvergrowthAtlas.tai' file ... there is an undergrowth one which is strange seeing as I havent even looked at undergrowth or overgrowth yet.

I'll try specifying some overgrowth see if that changes anything.

Ok that has fixed it. Thanks IronTaxi... I think I owe you a beer.

Did you tick the "Overgrowth" box when saving your map?

[[SpecOps]Shadow]

I hadnt created any overgrowth when I tried packing and playing the map.

I have since put in some overgrowth and undergrowth and the map loads fine now.

.... as for the name of my map its just a working title atm. Im hoping to get the quality high enough to try and get it included in a future PR release so i guess the DEVs can vote on a name .

Cheers for all the help.