[QUESTION] Map size and low res scale

[cat]

I have some questions about map sizes.


I intend to make a map of 1kmX1km


1. I have selected 1024 and scale 1 for the sizee. It says:
Level size:: 1024 m

Now how to use the correct Low detail size? Would 512 work? (Low res scale 2). I plowed through many tutorials on bf2editor, however I did not find a suitable explanation of this. Can anyone help with that? I do not want to make a mistake this early that will haunt the map.



2. Where can I find a tutorial explaining makinge usable terrain color textures (custom). I am not looking for a tutorial on painting, I am looking for info on how they are setup (folder structure, file type etc.)

[J.F.Leusch69]

a small tip, that maybe help you later/now:

just go through all the bf2/pr files you have on your system, and look into them, that way yo may find some general info about the game and stuff like that...

...and maybe in the pr files you get infos about stuff that will be in the 0.85 patch

[Nickbond592]

to make a 1km map in PR you'll need to pick 512x2

a 2k map is 1024 x 2
and a 4k is 1024 x 4

cheers,
nick

[Shadow51585]

It really is trial and error for all of this.

You really should make a new map, 512 x 2 (just big enough) and make it a "junk" map. You will never use the map for the game, but will instead use it to see how things work. Everything from basic operations to file structures to coding.

If you can run this "junk" map in your pr_edit setup, then you know you have things running properly. In mine, I can spawn in, but my soldier randomly dies exactly 10 seconds after spawn. Since it's a junk map, I can go and change things to see if it fixes it and try and figure out what I did wrong (I think it's a team setting or something). Plus you learn other things while trying to fix problems.

That's what I did after trying to start out with a real map and it helped so much. I had one or two dumb questions of my own on here recently, but after making a map that I didn't care about if it got wrecked, I know a lot more about the editor then I did before in a lot of ways.

Patience and persistance pays off. The editor is a steep learning curve in all aspects.

Also, to figure out file structures, use WinRAR to check out the zip files in already completed maps and in the pr_edit itself. Extract the zip files to a random folder so you can pick them apart. Reverse engineering can give you so much insight into where things are located if you have the patience to pick through it all.

Just wanted to give some help to another person starting out in the world of PR/vBF2 mapping. Hope it helps!

Oh, and before you do anything, be sure to read and apply Rhino's tutorial about setting up the editor for PR.

[Rhino]

Use the default low rez settings unless you want to screw up your surrounding terrain. Remeber when taxi made AoM and when he crated the map he tried a different low rez value, screwed up his surrounding terrain to ****, I had to go over the map and work out what was wrong then once I realized the low rez value wans't default had to hack all the files to make it default again and it fixed his surrounding terrain...

but for normal map, always use scale 2 unless its a 4km map.

256x2 is 0.5km by 0.5km map (Helmand or Street size if you ever played thous maps, really small.)
512x2 is 1km by 1km (OGT, AoM etc size)
1024x2 is 2km by 2km (Muttrah, Fools Road, Al Basrah etc size)
1024x4 is 4km by 4km (Kashan, Qinling size)

[cat]

Yes, I went for 512x2 and left the low res at the default. Guess using default value was a lucky decision. thanks for the advice shadow, however I actually did some advanced things with the editor 3 years ago. But I never released a map because back then the chance to have the map get public in some way that many would play it appeared very low to me. But now, I feel confident that (if I dont screw it up) the map I am planning to do can get some attention by PR players. So I am currently fighting some sillier issues like making the map on VISTA and having to copy it over to another PC that has XP. Oh and I do actually use a smaller 256 "pet" map for junk testing the setup. And for the patience, yes you are 120% correct. Being used to the cool real-time everthing Crysis editor, it was quite adventoruous to go back to this old editor.

Still I was wondering where the game keeps the textures used for painting. And how they are packed into the map.

[cat]

I found the textures in the staticobjects folder. However does a texture need any extra files? As in Source engine where it has a vmt file for the settings.

[Rhino]

I found a a folder named extraction in the gamemodes folder of muttrah

some one who has obviously not played the older versions of PR etc or bothered to look at the layers for the editor I put up...

[Rhino]

cos I had a layer with all the sounds in it etc and as it wans't a defined layer (ie, saves to all) it crated blank .con files for each game mode with them in and I didn't bother to delete them.

[cat]

btw is it normal that the editor needs a restart to show lightmaps?

[Rhino]

Tools>Options>Reload Settings

[cat]

Still needs to restart. Another question. Are there limitations or reasons against placing trees and bushes like static objects? If I want to exactly palce them using the overgriowth is not very practical

[CodeRedFox]

yeah I always have to restart.