This thread is dedicated to map editing for HOI1, how it can be done and what are the limitations, as far as I can tell. 1st, see an attached pic of Before/After for Charleston, WV.
Before: Standard 1.06c map from 2004
After: New map with changes made to Charleston, WV province
Summary:
Many of the other original Europa Engine titles (EU2, HOI2, etc) have well-known map editing utilities, developed in the late 2000s. For whatever reason, HOI1's code was never compatible with the tools and AFAIK nobody has ever been able to edit the map. There haven't been any changes since Paradox's last release in 2004, making the map look increasingly outdated for newer players. For the very few still playing the game, this (along with a more competent AI) are some of the most pressing issues.
What you need:
Paint (or other graphic editing software)
How to edit the map:
1. Go to /HOI1 folder/gfx/map/landscape
2. Create a Bitmap file in this folder, named either mountainX/treesX/desertX/djungleX/hillsX/marshX where X is an integer (i.e mountain1010).
-This bitmap file is what you will be "inserting" into the map
-The pic can be as small as ~260px x180px up to as large ~575px x 691 px. If much larger or smaller, the pic will get stretched by the game to where it is unreadable.
-Parts of the pic that you want showing as transparent should be colored in neon green, cyan, or purple. See some of the other pics in the landscape folder, for the right transparency color. FYI, the transparency colors haven't changed in HOI2, AoD, etc
3. Open provinces.csv
4. Province terrain type should match the name of your Bitmap file
5. The relevant columns are Terrain x/Terrain Y/Terrain variant.
-Note there are at least (4) sets of these columns for each province. This means that up to 4 pics can be uploaded for that province (Choose the 1st one that is -100/-100/0)
-Terrain X -> X coordinates (from 0 to ~20,000), X = 0 around the International Date Line and goes east
-Terrain Y -> Y coordinates (from 0 to ~7,000), Y = 0 at the top of the map;
-X and Y are set to -100 for provinces with no pics
-Terrain Variant -> This the integer value in your Bitmap file pic (i.e X in mountainX)
6. Position your pic to overlay the existing map, by adjusting Terrain X and Y variables. You need to play around with this. Good starting point is the City XPos/City YPos, but then you need to finesse.
7. The game loads the map when the program is started, so you need to completely exit and restart the game for the new Bitmap file to show. However, finessing the overlay image (#6) can be done by just restarting the scenario, as the province.csv file is reloaded on scenario restart.
Limitations:
1.. Your pic just changes the appearance of the province on the terrain and weather maps. It's an overlay; it doesn't change the actual underlying. Below, I haven't split the Charleston province into 2, like it shows from the AoD map. It's still one province.
2. Plains and urban provinces don't work with this method, for whatever reason. Workaround is to insert the Bitmap into a neighboring non-plains/urban province, and just move the pic over via Terrain X/Terrain Y
3. Your pic automatically scales with different map zooms. However, you will notice that beyond a certain image size, the pic will look "jumpy" when you move the cursor. The reason is that your overlay pic is conflicting with the lightmap.tbl files. I would suggest to keep your images close to the ~260px x180px minimum, so you don't conflict with the lightmap file at the highest zoom.
Final Thoughts:
I am working on "extracting" the map file by taking Print Screen shots of each window view. By using the arrow keys, you can get exact fits to create a perfect match. From that, I am slowly piecing together a full, ~20000 px * ~7,000x map. It's a slow process of ~20 vertical screenshots to create a map slice (kind of like a time zone) by approimately 40 time zones. I will be sharing the final map, when it is complete.
Before: Standard 1.06c map from 2004
After: New map with changes made to Charleston, WV province
Summary:
Many of the other original Europa Engine titles (EU2, HOI2, etc) have well-known map editing utilities, developed in the late 2000s. For whatever reason, HOI1's code was never compatible with the tools and AFAIK nobody has ever been able to edit the map. There haven't been any changes since Paradox's last release in 2004, making the map look increasingly outdated for newer players. For the very few still playing the game, this (along with a more competent AI) are some of the most pressing issues.
What you need:
Paint (or other graphic editing software)
How to edit the map:
1. Go to /HOI1 folder/gfx/map/landscape
2. Create a Bitmap file in this folder, named either mountainX/treesX/desertX/djungleX/hillsX/marshX where X is an integer (i.e mountain1010).
-This bitmap file is what you will be "inserting" into the map
-The pic can be as small as ~260px x180px up to as large ~575px x 691 px. If much larger or smaller, the pic will get stretched by the game to where it is unreadable.
-Parts of the pic that you want showing as transparent should be colored in neon green, cyan, or purple. See some of the other pics in the landscape folder, for the right transparency color. FYI, the transparency colors haven't changed in HOI2, AoD, etc
3. Open provinces.csv
4. Province terrain type should match the name of your Bitmap file
5. The relevant columns are Terrain x/Terrain Y/Terrain variant.
-Note there are at least (4) sets of these columns for each province. This means that up to 4 pics can be uploaded for that province (Choose the 1st one that is -100/-100/0)
-Terrain X -> X coordinates (from 0 to ~20,000), X = 0 around the International Date Line and goes east
-Terrain Y -> Y coordinates (from 0 to ~7,000), Y = 0 at the top of the map;
-X and Y are set to -100 for provinces with no pics
-Terrain Variant -> This the integer value in your Bitmap file pic (i.e X in mountainX)
6. Position your pic to overlay the existing map, by adjusting Terrain X and Y variables. You need to play around with this. Good starting point is the City XPos/City YPos, but then you need to finesse.
7. The game loads the map when the program is started, so you need to completely exit and restart the game for the new Bitmap file to show. However, finessing the overlay image (#6) can be done by just restarting the scenario, as the province.csv file is reloaded on scenario restart.
Limitations:
1.. Your pic just changes the appearance of the province on the terrain and weather maps. It's an overlay; it doesn't change the actual underlying. Below, I haven't split the Charleston province into 2, like it shows from the AoD map. It's still one province.
2. Plains and urban provinces don't work with this method, for whatever reason. Workaround is to insert the Bitmap into a neighboring non-plains/urban province, and just move the pic over via Terrain X/Terrain Y
3. Your pic automatically scales with different map zooms. However, you will notice that beyond a certain image size, the pic will look "jumpy" when you move the cursor. The reason is that your overlay pic is conflicting with the lightmap.tbl files. I would suggest to keep your images close to the ~260px x180px minimum, so you don't conflict with the lightmap file at the highest zoom.
Final Thoughts:
I am working on "extracting" the map file by taking Print Screen shots of each window view. By using the arrow keys, you can get exact fits to create a perfect match. From that, I am slowly piecing together a full, ~20000 px * ~7,000x map. It's a slow process of ~20 vertical screenshots to create a map slice (kind of like a time zone) by approimately 40 time zones. I will be sharing the final map, when it is complete.
