Map Mod Testing

[Cabezaestufa]

Nothing I'm really having trouble with, just that it's taking a long time. Is there any other way other than manually drawing borders and filling in with the colour?

Not that I know of.

And besides the provinces.bmp, terrain.bmp and topology.bmp, what other files do I need to edit to get the map working in the game(and preferably looking like yours. ).

To get it working, that and the necessary definition files (default.map, definition.csv) should be enough. Well, of course you'll need to modify history and localisation later, but for now it should be enough to delete any file that might reference a province that no longer exists. Basically, replace history\provinces with an empty folder.

To get it looking decent you also have to create rivers.bmp, trees.bmp and (maybe, not sure if this does anything) world_normal_height.bmp. And don't forget terrain\colormap.dds and terrain\colormap_water.dds.

I'm probably still forgetting something, but it should already take you quite a while to do all that

PS I reduced the number of land provinces to 275, though if once I have painted them in I need more, I will be able to just add some more. And i realise I'll need to do a lot of dull tedious work in the text files for provinces and positions related to them. :sleep:

Forget positions, at least until you have everything else done and working. Just use an empty file until then. And for the love of whatever gods you favor, don't fill that hellish file it by hand. I think there's a tool around the modding forums (the ones for EU3, IIRC) that can help you with that. Not sure if it's compatible with CK2, though.

 

[Camara]

YEEEEES

Finally, finally. Where's what I had to do with topology:

First, as known, the key is to save it as greyscale. However, when I do that the current map is darkened. So I can't adjust it to the level and convert to greyscale as it would made it wrong. Nor can I adjust it back and save it - the last action I have to do before save is to convert to greyscale.
So, I have to make the file lighter than it should be (e.g. coast around 120) and then save to greyscale. The convertion will make it darken, and then the file is ready. The trick is to get the lighten level before conversion so that it will be in the range of coast (~96) when it converts and darkens.

 

[Cabezaestufa]

YEEEEES

Finally, finally. Where's what I had to do with topology:

First, as known, the key is to save it as greyscale. However, when I do that the current map is darkened. So I can't adjust it to the level and convert to greyscale as it would made it wrong. Nor can I adjust it back and save it - the last action I have to do before save is to convert to greyscale.
So, I have to make the file lighter than it should be (e.g. coast around 120) and then save to greyscale. The convertion will make it darken, and then the file is ready. The trick is to get the lighten level before conversion so that it will be in the range of coast (~96) when it converts and darkens.

But you don't need to do any of that stuff, you just need to use the correct color table. Did you try the map I uploaded?

You can convert to grayscale if you want, but if you are using the right color table there won't be any darkening or lightening, the map will look exactly the same. And then, when you finish your editing, you should convert to indexed color again, using the right color table (you can save and load color tables, by the way. Just get the right one from my file or from vanilla topology.bmp).

 

[Camara]

But you don't need to do any of that stuff, you just need to use the correct color table. Did you try the map I uploaded?

You can convert to grayscale if you want, but if you are using the right color table there won't be any darkening or lightening, the map will look exactly the same. And then, when you finish your editing, you should convert to indexed color again, using the right color table (you can save and load color tables, by the way. Just get the right one from my file or from vanilla topology.bmp).

Haa.. I don't know how to do that Even with Photoshop help I'm clueless I can't find the tools.

Anyway, thank you very much for all the help. "My" method seems to work fine and the topology map is basically done so I can move on and start my mod

 

[Cabezaestufa]

Haa.. I don't know how to do that Even with Photoshop help I'm clueless I can't find the tools.

Anyway, thank you very much for all the help. "My" method seems to work fine and the topology map is basically done so I can move on and start my mod

Well, whatever works for you But in any case, It's pretty important to be able to work with color tables when modding paradox maps. It's actually pretty easy; you just have to select "Image->Mode->Color Table" when working with indexed images to access the infamous color table. In there you can save that image's table as a file or load another. You can also load custom tables when converting an image to Indexed Color mode from any other, which is what you should do when saving topology.bmp (using a previously saved table from the vanilla file).

 

[Arko]

I didnt read all the thread but I can point you to a tutorial on making greyscale map (for another game tough -openTTD). this method allows you to make a greyscale map of anywhere you want and the most important to adjust and limit the range of grey variations.

hope it will help.

link

 

[Arko]

I didnt read all the thread but I can point you to a tutorial on making greyscale map (for another game tough -openTTD). this method allows you to make a greyscale map of anywhere you want and the most important to adjust and limit the range of grey variations.

hope it will help.

link

 

[Tegus]

Note that modding the map to any other size than 2048x2048 will fail for now. We've found bugs with it and are working on solving them, but it will take a while.

Note that once the bugs are solved, the map still won't support custom resolutions, but most likely will be limited widths/heights that are multiples of 512.

 

[Nuril]

Note that modding the map to any other size than 2048x2048 will fail for now. We've found bugs with it and are working on solving them, but it will take a while.

Note that once the bugs are solved, the map still won't support custom resolutions, but most likely will be limited widths/heights that are multiples of 512.

Thank you, Tegus.. ;_; *Grovels at feet*

That means I can still make it be rectangular rather than a square as long as both measurements don't create the pop-up error of not being in the correct range, right? Doesn't look very good to have a big blank section down in Africa for no reason. So then 3264x2048 wouldn't work, but has to be 3584x2048 to work? I seem to recall the error window mentioning something about a 64-multiples.

Or is it stricter than that now? It did stop showing that window after I changed the resolution from the original attempt to aforementioned 3264.

 

[Tegus]

The solution being worked on is probably going to be even stricter, yes. Note the "probably", since it's not actually done yet. But given the information I have now, a resolution of 3584x2048 will work in the future.

 

[Keanon]

But.. I'm playing on 3072x3072 right now :b

 

[Vieira151]

To get it working, that and the necessary definition files (default.map, definition.csv) should be enough. Well, of course you'll need to modify history and localisation later, but for now it should be enough to delete any file that might reference a province that no longer exists. Basically, replace history\provinces with an empty folder.

To get it looking decent you also have to create rivers.bmp, trees.bmp and (maybe, not sure if this does anything) world_normal_height.bmp. And don't forget terrain\colormap.dds and terrain\colormap_water.dds.

Cool, thanks man. Guess I'll just have to keep calm and carry on with the tediousness that is map making.

I'm probably still forgetting something, but it should already take you quite a while to do all that


Forget positions, at least until you have everything else done and working. Just use an empty file until then. And for the love of whatever gods you favor, don't fill that hellish file it by hand. I think there's a tool around the modding forums (the ones for EU3, IIRC) that can help you with that. Not sure if it's compatible with CK2, though.

Ok. Hahaha, I'll have a look around the forums for that tool, if it will save me a lot of time.

 

[Camara]

The solution being worked on is probably going to be even stricter, yes. Note the "probably", since it's not actually done yet. But given the information I have now, a resolution of 3584x2048 will work in the future.

Is there any idea what max dimension will it allow?

 

[unmerged(445219)]

Testing this.... quite interesting.

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.

I've attempted editing everything including map\terrain\colormap.dds and map\terrain\colormap_water.dds to 3072 dimensions but it is not working. The horizon files give a virtualfilesystem.cpp error when attemping to run this file on the latest patch 1.04c. I'm attempting to expand the map to include the American coastline and the Carribbean - is it possible right now or does Paradox need to fix something?

This would be ideal, but if its impossible, the following would work as well.

 

[RedRooster81]

I've thought of the same thing, Jason. I would like to expand the map into the Atlantic, at least up to the coast of Mexico, for my Iberian mod. I don't know if it would work, though.

 

[unmerged(445219)]

I've thought of the same thing, Jason. I would like to expand the map into the Atlantic, at least up to the coast of Mexico, for my Iberian mod. I don't know if it would work, though.

What land do you want to include? If it is deemed impossible to expand the map, I was considering cutting off Persia and the eastern lands in exchange for the coastline + islands of the new world.

 

[RedRooster81]

What land do you want to include? If it is deemed impossible to expand the map, I was considering cutting off Persia and the eastern lands in exchange for the coastline + islands of the new world.

Those were my thoughts exactly. I have my hands full currently, but I thought that I would show interest in such a project. Let me know if you get started doing that. I'm currently reorganizing the Iberian provinces but I would like to add some content on XV-XVI century explorations and colonization. Too bad we don't have temporary terra incognita, so far as I know at least.

 

[unmerged(445219)]

Those were my thoughts exactly. I have my hands full currently, but I thought that I would show interest in such a project. Let me know if you get started doing that. I'm currently reorganizing the Iberian provinces but I would like to add some content on XV-XVI century explorations and colonization. Too bad we don't have temporary terra incognita, so far as I know at least.

I was thinking of adding the land there for a mod where the Phoenicians explorers not only landed in the Americas, but migrated there. Further down in history, as their Carthaginian cousins lost the Punic wars, they also migrated to form colonies in the new world. When we reach the games start date, these colonies have created a feudal system as well and begin to meddle in European affairs again.

 

[Nuril]

Has anyone had to solve this? What are things that could be causing it? You can't click on the provinces, walk through them or raise troops etc. from them, they're just there with the province-names on top (so presumably it understands the colours in Provinces.bmp). It's especially odd considering it's just the case with 2 out of 10 provinces added in one go, the others work fine.

 

[RedRooster81]

Has anyone had to solve this? What are things that could be causing it? You can't click on the provinces, walk through them or raise troops etc. from them, they're just there with the province-names on top (so presumably it understands the colours in Provinces.bmp). It's especially odd considering it's just the case with 2 out of 10 provinces added in one go, the others work fine.

I think it's a missing title history. You might want to check c_meore, if all the map information is complete. I've dealt with it before and I think that was the solution. Also check to make sure that the RGB color code for the province matches what is in the definitions file.