Map Mod Testing

[Keanon]

Map Modding​

Hello, this thread is for you guys who like playing with the map of CKII or who aspire to create you own.

Map related issues are discussed and tested in this thread and questions can be posted freely.

If you are having trouble, you should come by the IRC for modding and ask: http://qchat.rizon.net/?channels=ckii

Spoiler

[SUB]Original post:
So, I've made the map 50% larger, alle works except the graphics. No matter what I do, I can't make it also LOOK like it's supposed to, and I'm getting really bugged by this, because one of the problems seems to be this shadow of the original map in the background that I can't get rid of no matter what. If that is going to stick, then the Game of Thrones and Tamriel mods are as good as impossible. Have anyone else played with this?


Here is a screenshot of where I am at atm:

[/SUB]

 

[Cabezaestufa]

So, I've made the map 50% larger, alle works except the graphics. No matter what I do, I can't make it also LOOK like it's supposed to, and I'm getting really bugged by this, because one of the problems seems to be this shadow of the original map in the background that I can't get rid of no matter what. If that is going to stick, then the Game of Thrones and Tamriel mods are as good as impossible. Have anyone else played with this?

I'd say they are quite possible, man



First thing I'd check: did you change textures\colormap.dds and textures\colormap_water.dds too? These two files are the main suspects whenever something like this happens. I assume you enlarged all .bmp files from the map\ folder, but you might have missed these.

On a different subject, you actually changed the map's size and got it to load? When I tried that the game would crash, but it was in the demo. Looks like Paradox fixed that in the latest versions, which is good news.

 

[Keanon]

I've checked all files in the texture, had them opened and looked around, your map looks great, how have you escaped the shadow of europe as I'm calling it?

Also, I've tried changing textures in both my mod and my vanilla folders, I've also noticed that the colors from other map modes are where the old map was, not following the province borders which are correct. But yes, it loads, just graphics are completely glitched.

Edit: Map size went from 2048x to 3072x I couldn't get it bigger in first attempts at least, right now I'm struggling to get rid of all the blackness everywhere.

Edit2: Scandinavia in France, colourwise:

 

[Cabezaestufa]

So let's see, what you exactly did was:

- Resized all .bmp files in map\ folder from 2048x2048 to 3072x3072
- Did the same with map\terrain\colormap.dds and map\terrain\colormap_water.dds

Is that so? Anything else? Did you make sure you kept the .bmp files' color table intact and save them as indexed color pictures? Did you save the .dds files with the right format? (right now I'm using "DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha" + No MIP maps, and it seems to work OK).

If yes to all, maybe you could upload your files somewhere so we can take a look?

 

[Keanon]

I used the percentage option in my imageediting software, and made everything 150% bigger than it was, and did the same with the DDS files through GIMP, since then I've changed the files in various ways to see how it changed the map, this file is how far I've come with it:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/o5jbldcg3da5bc1/Horizon.rar

 

[Nuril]

Could someone take a look to see what might be the problem that makes mine not start in the first place (still crashing on "Loading Map(Creating Borders)...")? I expand the map westward, but it's dividable by 64 and I don't see anything I might've left out? D:

Download link for Terra Normannorum alpha!

 

[Keanon]

Personally I couldn't go above 3072, try and see if you can squeeze those pixels out and if it works.

 

[Nuril]

Personally I couldn't go above 3072, try and see if you can squeeze those pixels out and if it works.

..That would cut up half of my provinces. Why should this be the case? Sounds totally broken. :/

 

[Keanon]

Cut some of the sea, I'm sitting with your map open, looks possible, this is for testing, if it works then, then we know! And then we can either ask Paradox for more power in map modding or find a way to cheat it. Another possibility is that it has to be square, so you could try and make the map taller instead.

Edit: Yeah I'd start by trying to move Greenland closer to Iceland and America closer to Greenland, and then see if it starts. We'll only be wiser.

 

[Cabezaestufa]

I used the percentage option in my imageediting software, and made everything 150% bigger than it was, and did the same with the DDS files through GIMP, since then I've changed the files in various ways to see how it changed the map, this file is how far I've come with it:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/o5jbldcg3da5bc1/Horizon.rar

Ok, I got it. Your files were fine, it was a shader issue. The values for map size are "hardcoded" into the shader files, so I had to go one by one fixing the sizes wherever they were being used. After some trial and error it mostly works now, even if it's still a bit rough around the edges (literally, the edges of the continents are a bit wonky, so it could still stand some optimization). Here are my changes:

http://cabezaestufa.opendrive.com/files/N18yODA2NTQ2X1pPeU9UX2JlYjQ/horizon.zip

Let me know if you encounter any further problems.

 

[Keanon]

Downloading now, thanks for this but could you explain what you did or will it be obvious from the files? Both for mine and everyone else trying to understand the map's sanity.

Eitherway thank you for your hard work!

 

[Cabezaestufa]

Downloading now, thanks for this but could you explain what you did or will it be obvious from the files? Both for mine and everyone else trying to understand the map's sanity.

Eitherway thank you for your hard work!

Not really obvious I'm afraid. At first I just changed all instances of 2048 to 3072 in the shader files, but it was not enough. I had to scale some things, and other values I just got from sheer trial and error. Further attempts to create a map of a different size will probably have to obtain their own numbers in the same way, but once we have at least another example, I'm sure a more general formula can be extrapolated.

 

[Keanon]

I'm looking through the files and can see the obvious number changes (2048>3072), but I'm wondering which you had to trial and error with? I'd like to play with it, see if I can further my understanding of it Again, thank you for it, I was totally stumbled on this.

 

[Cabezaestufa]

I'm looking through the files and can see the obvious number changes (2048>3072), but I'm wondering which you had to trial and error with? I'd like to play with it, see if I can further my understanding of it Again, thank you for it, I was totally stumbled on this.

I had... your files Everytime I changed something I'd just load your mod and see how it looked like.

 

[Camara]

I've played a bit on the sizes (with cabezaestufa's files), and 4096x4096 didn't work, nor did 3072x1856. The second one loaded until the post-checksum part, so I'm not sure if the map needs to be square or if there is some definition (like in the shaders) that makes it crash in that point.

 

[Keanon]

It seems to require square yes, and I tried making it frist 200% of original size, then 175% and then 150% before it worked. So, 3072 was the maximum I found, the problem here is only that when you zoom far enough out theres some shadow problems, however, this isn't present when you zoom in, so I don't mind it much. Only problem is now I have a pixelated ugly map and I am unsure how to proceed, but with the help of Cabezaestufa we have atleast made a map that is 50% bigger for all map modders to use as they please So you could call this a canvas for all the map mods to use for painting on.

 

[Camara]

Another question.

Is there any way to create a world_map_height.bmp file out of a topology one? Or is this file not that important and can be "blank"? It seems redundant with topology.

 

[Cabezaestufa]

Another question.

Is there any way to create a world_map_height.bmp file out of a topology one? Or is this file not that important and can be "blank"? It seems redundant with topology.

Yes, you can do it with the same NVidia plugin that lets you edit and save .dds files. If you use Photoshop I can tell you the settings that work for me. But to tell the truth, I'm not really sure it does anything, either... if it does, the effect must be really subtle.

 

[Evander]

I already tried with the demo version, you can let the "world_map_height.bmp" file blank, it is just here to give some more topographic display as a normal map.

 

[Vieira151]

I'd say they are quite possible, man



First thing I'd check: did you change textures\colormap.dds and textures\colormap_water.dds too? These two files are the main suspects whenever something like this happens. I assume you enlarged all .bmp files from the map\ folder, but you might have missed these.

On a different subject, you actually changed the map's size and got it to load? When I tried that the game would crash, but it was in the demo. Looks like Paradox fixed that in the latest versions, which is good news.

Hey, what steps did you do to get your own map in the game? I'm trying to it at the moment, but it's getting tedious painting all these provinces on my own map.