Creating an ST Map - Best Utility Tool?

[(AK)Sabre]

Hey, I want to create my own multiplayer Strategy map, but I don't know what tools are available for this.  What do you guys recommend?

[mrtwosheds]

ODLwinter.exe

[TheJamsh]

For that you need an image editing program. Hell you don't even need ODLwinter, it just makes symetrical or shimple shape maps easier to make.

All you NEED is the bz2 editor.

[Tylan Detinate]

The BZ2 editor cheat?

[Warfreak]

It was never a cheat so much that it was a hidden feature...
The reason the ORIGINAL way was to turn it on via the game.cheat in the console was that it is already coded to let you toggle those settings in SP ONLY!!! (Under normal circumstances)

Post 1.2 It was moved to it's own .exe (bz2edit.exe) and to open the editor you just run that, navigate to your map as you would in bzone.exe (the normal game) and
once in-map press the good ol' ctrl + e (That is pressing "Ctrl" and "E" simultaneously for those who dont know, and not pressing Ctrl, +, and e.)

HOWEVER, It should be known that using odl1winter.exe IS a viable option BUT ONLY to set up the terrain, basic color and alpha channels of the colors.
YOU MUST STILL USE THE INGAME EDITOR TO PLACE OBJECTS (pools, spawnpoints, scrap), WATER, AND TO TEXTURE YOUR MAPS.

[mrtwosheds]

You can use winter to do most of the texturing work too, Winter can save you months of work if you use it imaginatively.

[TheJamsh]

winter i can use, the programs to make images for winter... i cannot.

[Feared_1]

If you want your map to look real-life and personal to your design, make it using the editor. Don't use Winter unless you are having trouble starting it or if you want to change something big (like map size, or if you are having trouble making the map symmetrical).

[Zero Angel]

Nah, winter does an excellent job. I do recommend that you make a SUPER rough copy of your intended map design, export the shellmap, process it into layers using winter, do graphics stuff on it, then use winter to save it back into a BZN file.

I'd say winter is good for big changes only. Once you got the big stuff down, then you can feel free to add extra love into your map by tweaking the little things.

[mrtwosheds]

I think its great for getting through the rough work that takes allot of time to do in the editor, you can develop the basic layout, flat ground and hills.
You can paint textures into defined areas and on specific layers and colour the map in a way that is just not possible in the editor. After that you then do fine adjustments in the editor. It leaves you with time to do the things many people don't bother to do to maps, like make nice sky domes, pools that match the terrain and props to place on the map.

My favourite technique is with painting the map. After you get all the lighting set up how you want it, just take a colour.bmp with winter, adjust it, paint the map with it. Take a shellmap picture of it (May need to change the lighting to get it to come out well, and remove the edgepath), modify this to your liking, paint the map with it, set the lighting back to how you wanted it...Wow! now all the hills have shadows painted on in the right places and your map looks realistic even with lights on none and even better with them on full.
Give your map the paintjob it deserves with winter!

[Zero Angel]

Oh yes, maps with manually done lighting (where the terrain is shaded) look super polished.

[Warfreak]

Give your map the paintjob it deserves with winter!

Exactly what I meant by using Winter for everything not object-oriented. (What do you mean by being able to texture with winter anyway, thought you could only set color.)

[TheJamsh]

I recently used winter on and off to create a map, but the majority of the work was done by me in the editor.

i used winter to make it as symetrical as possible, as i did the first corner of the map first and it looked great. I did all the colouring in winter. Theres missed areas but still...

Textures i prefered to do in the editor, but thats because i was using the textures to semi-object like terrain (like large trees, base areas, natural walls etc).

[mrtwosheds]

(What do you mean by being able to texture with winter anyway, thought you could only set color.)

I mean using alphamap layers 1-3. Make a greyscale texture with the lighter areas being the places where you want a texture painted and the black areas clear. You can import and export these too and from maps with winter.

Create them from the height map to apply rocky textures to hilltops or sand to flat areas, or from the normals map to texture slopes.

[Warfreak]

 , I never knew that... Thanks for the Info Twosheds.