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Inferis said:I hate it when something not works like it should.
Look on the bright side: it's better than if it didn't work at all.
Just checking to tell you, keep it up!
It looks promising and could mean a whole new experience.
It looks promising and could mean a whole new experience.
How do you edit the lightmap?
Just one question though, for editing the lightmap. How would one produce shading and borders that look like the ones in EU2? The province text seems straightforward, but what sort of effects/tools would one use to draw the boundaries and shade the provinces?
I've tried copying and pasting, which seems to work for the borders but not the shading. Do you have to shade by hand, or does photoshop have some kind of gradiant tool that can reproduce the lightmap shading, given an irregular province?
Just one question though, for editing the lightmap. How would one produce shading and borders that look like the ones in EU2? The province text seems straightforward, but what sort of effects/tools would one use to draw the boundaries and shade the provinces?
I've tried copying and pasting, which seems to work for the borders but not the shading. Do you have to shade by hand, or does photoshop have some kind of gradiant tool that can reproduce the lightmap shading, given an irregular province?
if you guys want i can do a bit of testing and produce a gradient that will nicely match the provinces... infact i'll go do that now, gimme a sec...
I was working in getting the Shrink code to work as it should, and I found this.
It's about the block highlighted below:
After shrinking, I get a problem encoding this block. The encoder couldn't find an adjacency between "Krasnoyarsk" and "Ob". Of course not, because there isn't any.
Quite weird... So I started looking, and found this:
It seems the id map generated from the lightmaps contains a bug (and maybe more).
This is the original idmap (supplied with EU2). Same block highlighted. Nothing wrong here.
This is the generated idmap, from lightmap1. Apart from missing the black borders (which is as it should be), you'll notice 2 stray pixels in the highlighted block, right in the middle of the river.
Guess what?
Yes, they're 2 pixels of "Ob".
I'm a bit puzzled on how to solve this. I guess I should change the extract routines so that they combine both: generate an idmap from the lightmaps, but check it up against the original idmap. If there's a mismatch, use the id.tbl value instead of the generated value (except for the black borders).
I'll try that, and see what gives.
Unless somebody has a better idea.
Normally, this shouldn't be a problem for our own generated maps. I hope.
It's about the block highlighted below:
After shrinking, I get a problem encoding this block. The encoder couldn't find an adjacency between "Krasnoyarsk" and "Ob". Of course not, because there isn't any.
Quite weird... So I started looking, and found this:
It seems the id map generated from the lightmaps contains a bug (and maybe more).
This is the original idmap (supplied with EU2). Same block highlighted. Nothing wrong here.
This is the generated idmap, from lightmap1. Apart from missing the black borders (which is as it should be), you'll notice 2 stray pixels in the highlighted block, right in the middle of the river.
Guess what?
Yes, they're 2 pixels of "Ob".
I'm a bit puzzled on how to solve this. I guess I should change the extract routines so that they combine both: generate an idmap from the lightmaps, but check it up against the original idmap. If there's a mismatch, use the id.tbl value instead of the generated value (except for the black borders).
I'll try that, and see what gives.
Unless somebody has a better idea.
Normally, this shouldn't be a problem for our own generated maps. I hope.
James Fox said:
It's the shading layer I have problems with as well...
If anyone knows how to turn the ID layer into a nice shading layer with that grey colour all around, I'd be happy to know...
Oh, and what's that nice little interface you got there, Inferis? I see it shows coordinates...
Hive said:It's the shading layer I have problems with as well...
If anyone knows how to turn the ID layer into a nice shading layer with that grey colour all around, I'd be happy to know...
Oh, and what's that nice little interface you got there, Inferis? I see it shows coordinates...
Well, I have been rather succesfull using this tactic while using PSP:
1: I first drew the borders like ex. the image you posted of Japan in one layer, with the width of 2 pixels, using a dark shade of grey.
2: Then proceded to colour the backgroundlayer in the darkest shade of grey in the shading of the provinces (RGB value: 134).
3: Selected each new province on the map with the "magic wand" (the thing that selects an area of the same colour) so that the borders where not selected. (In the background layer)
4: Contract the selection 12 pixels, and expanded it 10 pixels (just contracting it 6 pixels will produce sharper corners on the shading)
5: Use floodfill to fill the selected areas with a lighter shade of grey (RGB value 140)
6: Contract the selection 17 pixels, and expanded it 12 pixels (just contracting it 6 pixels will produce sharper corners on the shading)
7: Use floodfill to fill the selected area with a lighter shade of grey (RGB value 145)
8: Continue this process until you reach the lightest shade of grey on the map (RGB value 190)
9: Select all provinces and use gaussian blur (5) to smothen the shading.
10: Copy the layer of the province outlines, and invert the colours of it. Then select the entire layer, and move it one pixel to the east and two pixels to the south.
11: Finally arange the layers in following order:
1 - Shading layer
2 - White border
3 - Black border
It should now look about right! – Not exactly but close enough for me!!!
Don’t really know how to make a webpage, but I am trying to put out my changes on the web, so that you can see which result this method produces.
Could anyone make like a Tutorial on this, or a readme.doc because I haven't been this confused since I tried to figure out where the other sock goes.... :wacko:
This is close to how it will look like.
This is how the entire map looks
I have taken in to consideration some of the experiences I had while making this image, and included them in my previous post - this was made contracting the selection 18 and expanding it 11, but these are rather large provinces, and they are a bit darker than they should be around the corners. However as far is I've tried them in the editor, the looks OK to me!
Hopefully you like it
This is how the entire map looks
I have taken in to consideration some of the experiences I had while making this image, and included them in my previous post - this was made contracting the selection 18 and expanding it 11, but these are rather large provinces, and they are a bit darker than they should be around the corners. However as far is I've tried them in the editor, the looks OK to me!
Hopefully you like it
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Oh, Kong Skjold has it right on the money.
I've only been able to produce a rough match using my technique:
Hey wait a minute!! I never recall learning about THAT province in my Geography class!!!
I've only been able to produce a rough match using my technique:
Hey wait a minute!! I never recall learning about THAT province in my Geography class!!!
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I'm going to try Kong Skjold's method on the same province and see what I get...
OH, BTW: I forgot, when you edit, make sure that the last thing you do is the rivers, otherwise the provinces around them will become lighter on the border to the rivers.
You know as well as I do there are loads of bugs in the lightmaps. Your program may hiccup on two pixels in Russia, but more serious problems are in California/Mexico. The river between Altar and San Bernardino is referenced as province #900 (Californian Gulf) - which isn't even a river!Inferis said:
Ideally I don't think you should have to rely on the original id.tbl file - since it is just an artefact from Johan's conversion process. However, in theory it does contain data which is closer to the original source maps. And as you say, id.tbl files generated by your program will be from source rather than from the lightmaps. So seems like you have the right solution.Inferis said:
OK I've studied his method, and I think that while my province shading is better, his province borders might have some potential. I'm going to work on them to see if I can get them to match up beter.
For my province shading, all you need (in Photoshop), is to add an Inner Glow layer. it matches it pretty darn close.
For my province shading, all you need (in Photoshop), is to add an Inner Glow layer. it matches it pretty darn close.
Kong Skjold said:Hopefully you like it
I do! it looks wonderful, can't wait for the custom-made AGCEEP map
Whoa! That is a lot of provinces all of a sudden! They do look nice thoughKong Skjold said:Hopefully you like it