Map Mod Testing

[Cainrae]

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.

Is that Westros i lay my eyes upon?

 

[Camara]

I'm having some... water issues.

This map I'm working is basically the old world (Umbra Spherae will basically be Magna Terra's equivalent for CK2) and the game loads fine. However (excluding provinces.bmp which I didn't work yet) I have a problem with water.
Almost all the map is covered in water. I can see the colormap.dds file below the water, and the only things above the watery flood are the highest mountains - Himalaya, some parts of the alps, etc.

I picked topology.bmp and made it lighter to reflect more height but what happens is that everything turns black - except the said top of the world - and it seems to be stuck on the same level compared to these mountains.

Anyone willing to make my map work?

https://rapidshare.com/files/1038985618/Umbra_Spherae_pre.rar

 

[Keanon]

Topology is way too dark, Denmark, a really flat land, is 93(On yours it's 13!) or so in the original map, on yours it's lower than the water of the North Sea!

 

[Camara]

Topology is way too dark, Denmark, a really flat land, is 93(On yours it's 13!) or so in the original map, on yours it's lower than the water of the North Sea!

But like I said, I did that but the landmasses are black, they aren't the colour of the terrain. Something else is missing too.

 

[Cabezaestufa]

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.

You'll have to be more specific. Is there a particular thing you are having trouble with? But yes, tedious sounds like a good way to describe the process...

Is that Westros i lay my eyes upon?

Indeed, good sir

Topology is way too dark, Denmark, a really flat land, is 93(On yours it's 13!) or so in the original map, on yours it's lower than the water of the North Sea!

Indeed. In my tests I found out that sea level is 95. Anything below that will be underwater.

 

[Cabezaestufa]

But like I said, I did that but the landmasses are black, they aren't the colour of the terrain. Something else is missing too.

Well, in that case upload the modified topology.bmp so we can take a look. But your provinces.bmp is quite weird; I wouldn't be surprised if nothing works properly until you make one that at least corresponds with the shape of the continents, even if it only has like 2 provinces for now.

 

[vanin]

I have a map detailing Alexander's Empire (a past-time project of mine ) but I haven't attempted to implement it yet in game. Does the map have to be a square and not a rectangle shape? If so I could just resize it to 3048x (slips my mind the exact number, read it above) so no problems that way but I'd have to leave a very large part of the map as blank terrain which probably wouldn't be all to nice to look at.

 

[Keanon]

I have a map detailing Alexander's Empire (a past-time project of mine ) but I haven't attempted to implement it yet in game. Does the map have to be a square and not a rectangle shape?

Haven't heard of anyone successfully making one that could load.

 

[vanin]

Haven't heard of anyone successfully making one that could load.

Good to know, thanks!

 

[Camara]

Well, in that case upload the modified topology.bmp so we can take a look. But your provinces.bmp is quite weird; I wouldn't be surprised if nothing works properly until you make one that at least corresponds with the shape of the continents, even if it only has like 2 provinces for now.

I've been correcting topology.bmp (my file also had a problem where sea and lowlands were the same colour) and I noticed there is a lot of fine tuning in this.
I've been able to now see the terrain (unlike before which was everything black) BUT now the topology is reverse?? (e.g. himalaya are now a series of craters trololol). I see this will require some tuning, I think colour differences also make the trick.

 

[Camara]

Just to show how macgyver the map is: I can enter game with a vanilla province.bmp (Cabeza, I did use vanilla to load, the alternate province.bmp map in the folder is not used) even when all the remaining map files are different!

Now to discover why my topology is reversed and the correct water level.
And everything is very dark, it gets even darker when I zoom in. Clues?

 

[Cabezaestufa]

Just to show how macgyver the map is: I can enter game with a vanilla province.bmp (Cabeza, I did use vanilla to load, the alternate province.bmp map in the folder is not used) even when all the remaining map files are different!

Now to discover why my topology is reversed and the correct water level.
And everything is very dark, it gets even darker when I zoom in. Clues?

I'd say the darkness issue is because of your colormap.dds and colormap_water.dds. They are very dark, just compare them with vanilla and you'll see what I mean. Notice how the brighter places in your map correspond with the brighter places in colormap.dds? (Sahara desert, mostly).

No idea about the reversed altitude.

 

[Kaigon]

Some of my general findings:
topology.bmp
Decides what's water and what's not.
Grayscale, darker is deeper and lighter is higher.
Deep water: 0-88
Shallow water: 88-94
Coast/beach: 95 (seems to flicker on my machine when used on larger areas)
Land: 96+
For reference, the alps are around 213 at their top.

 

[Camara]

I think those numbers of greyscale are off in my map.

First, the topology is reversed, it was supposed the white areas to be mountains, but with the files I sent in annex they are actually the lowest points. The map is homogenous in this: the whitest the are, the lower the height. I tried to invert the file just because, but to no avail. The ocean are does not have ocean - although it has waves they don't move, and it lacks the cristaline waters of real sea. See in the corners that cristaline water seems way lower than the level of my map water - 90s in greyscale.

However, see the interesting area: the Dead Sea. In this file the Dead Sea is lower than the ocean (ocean in the 90s, dead sea in 0 I think - and yes, I tried with dead sea removed). It works contranatura like the map: the darker the area the highest in topology. But when it reaches the blackness of the sea, the map falls into the abyss and it reaches cristaline water.

I think I have to make all the topology map darker.

What weird stuff, I'm very confus.

Now with a better topology map.
https://rapidshare.com/files/1047875271/Umbra_Spherae_pre2.rar

EDIT: I've changed the file from indexed colour (like vanilla topology.bmp) to greyscale, and now the topology seems to be working much better. I just have to adjust the coastal level it seems (it should be adjusted already but oh well).

 

[Cabezaestufa]

I think those numbers of greyscale are off in my map.

First, the topology is reversed, it was supposed the white areas to be mountains, but with the files I sent in annex they are actually the lowest points. The map is homogenous in this: the whitest the are, the lower the height. I tried to invert the file just because, but to no avail. The ocean are does not have ocean - although it has waves they don't move, and it lacks the cristaline waters of real sea. See in the corners that cristaline water seems way lower than the level of my map water - 90s in greyscale.

However, see the interesting area: the Dead Sea. In this file the Dead Sea is lower than the ocean (ocean in the 90s, dead sea in 0 I think - and yes, I tried with dead sea removed). It works contranatura like the map: the darker the area the highest in topology. But when it reaches the blackness of the sea, the map falls into the abyss and it reaches cristaline water.

I think I have to make all the topology map darker.

What weird stuff, I'm very confus.

Now with a better topology map.
https://rapidshare.com/files/1047875271/Umbra_Spherae_pre2.rar

EDIT: I've changed the file from indexed colour (like vanilla topology.bmp) to greyscale, and now the topology seems to be working much better. I just have to adjust the coastal level it seems (it should be adjusted already but oh well).

Now I know what your problem was, you messed up the color table. The game doesn't care about the actual colors, but their position in the file's color table. You had a screwed up one and the color positions didn't correspond with their luminosity, as should be the case. Try this one: http://cabezaestufa.opendrive.com/files/N18yODcxMTMzX0JRVWhkX2VjMDY/topology.zip

EDIT: Oh, it looks like you fixed it already. Just be careful with color tables, they can be the cause of all manner of weird stuff if you change them.

 

[Keanon]

Yeah, if you screw up the palette or forget to save with it you run into trouble.

 

[Camara]

Now I know what your problem was, you messed up the color table. The game doesn't care about the actual colors, but their position in the file's color table. You had a screwed up one and the color positions didn't correspond with their luminosity, as should be the case. Try this one: http://cabezaestufa.opendrive.com/files/N18yODcxMTMzX0JRVWhkX2VjMDY/topology.zip

EDIT: Oh, it looks like you fixed it already. Just be careful with color tables, they can be the cause of all manner of weird stuff if you change them.

Yeah thanks, greyscale made things better.

But it isn't over yet: now I can't get the proper sea level without getting some odd black coastline. In the file you sent me the lower parts of landmasses are underwater (the darkest spot of them was lv 77) but the transition is smooth, from land to water.
When I try to put them at the correct level, I see a black coastline in some places.

Also, water height can be changed in pdxwater.lua in

waterHeight /= ( 93.7f / 255.0f );

But in my case I get the black coastline. I guess I have to have another anti-alising transition from coast to sea?

 

[Cabezaestufa]

Yeah thanks, greyscale made things better.

But it isn't over yet: now I can't get the proper sea level without getting some odd black coastline. In the file you sent me the lower parts of landmasses are underwater (the darkest spot of them was lv 77) but the transition is smooth, from land to water.
When I try to put them at the correct level, I see a black coastline in some places.

Also, water height can be changed in pdxwater.lua in



But in my case I get the black coastline. I guess I have to have another anti-alising transition from coast to sea?

It might have to do with textures. First, make sure your coastline is exactly the same as your other .bmp files, that every single land pixel (over the sea level) is also a land pixel in the other files and viceversa. If it is, consider making new colormap.dds and colormap_water.dds files that are closer to the vanilla ones (again, making sure you are precise with your coastlines). If it still happens, I wouldn't disregard the possibility that it may be happening because of my changes not being as optimized as they should.

 

[Vieira151]

You'll have to be more specific. Is there a particular thing you are having trouble with? But yes, tedious sounds like a good way to describe the process...

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?

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. ).

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:

 

[Camara]

It might have to do with textures. First, make sure your coastline is exactly the same as your other .bmp files, that every single land pixel (over the sea level) is also a land pixel in the other files and viceversa. If it is, consider making new colormap.dds and colormap_water.dds files that are closer to the vanilla ones (again, making sure you are precise with your coastlines). If it still happens, I wouldn't disregard the possibility that it may be happening because of my changes not being as optimized as they should.

The coast of topology was based in the other maps (terrain, rivers) and colormap isn't completely irrelevant? It just shows how pretty it is.

When I save in greyscale the colour always come to the same level, in which my lowest coast is RGB 77-77-77. The file after the greyscale save has a perfect coastline - perfect. But it is at a wrong sea level so I have to either make the water level lower or the terrain map brighter. In any way, it will create those bad black coastlines in some places. What a weird thing again :sad:.

I need to sleep, too many hours in this :sleep:.