i want to make an emormous one basically, dont worry about loading times and things
i set it in the TER/TRN file to 16384 or somthing... but it stayed at about 2000 metres
and can i set more than 14 textures to use in map editor?
must be a power of two...
I.E. 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, etc...
also, conventionally I've found that the two numbers above it are half of what the size is...
like this:
// I dunno exactly what these do...
MinX = 2048.0
MinZ = 2048.0
// map size...
Width = 4096.0
Depth = 4096.0
16384 is twice that of 8192 though... so how come THAT doesnt fit?
and yeh i noticed that too, i changed them but its okay
For making extremely large maps (and extremely small maps, too), there are a couple of extremely important parameters you need to know of in the "YOUR_CUSTOM_MAP_NAME.trn" file.
MetersPerGrid = 8.0
Maps in BZII are made up of polygons. This setting tells how big each polygon is. Settings beyond 512 cause computer crashes for me, regardless of how powerful the system is.
NOTE: Structures that take up terrain plates may cause terrain "holes" unless they are appropriately scaled.
HeightGranularity = 0.1
This setting tells how many meters goes to each increment of elevation. A value of .1, the default, means that a height of 100 in the editor amounts to ten meters. With this setting you can create some ridiculously high mountains, but it may be necessary to increase this setting on maps with larger grid scales.
It is quite possible to get some bloody massive maps with huge buildings in BZ2 if you scale everything correctly and well. :)
If only the Epic mod was continued...
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If only... I'm messing around with the .:]aRc[:. clan's planned mod.
Quote from: General BlackDragon on May 05, 2008, 03:25:50 PM
must be a power of two...
I.E. 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, etc...
also, conventionally I've found that the two numbers above it are half of what the size is...
wubish - the last qf mission is:
MinX=-1024
MinZ=-1024
Width=10000
Depth=10000
Everyone stand back, something might explode.
Aren't the width and depth the boundaries for the 'rubber band walls'?
the edge_path is the rubber band walls - i dont have a kloo what MinX and MinZ are
something to ask GSH methinks
Quote from: bigbadbogie on May 06, 2008, 12:27:03 AM
the edge_path is the rubber band walls - i dont have a kloo what MinX and MinZ are
Then what are width and depth?
And how far did Epic mod go into development?
Quote from: bigbadbogie on May 06, 2008, 12:27:03 AM
the edge_path is the rubber band walls - i dont have a kloo what MinX and MinZ are
I can't exactly remember where i got this information thats in a text file on my pc however I do remember GSH saying something about the trn.
Quote
Changing the map size
You can only change the map size before you start editing the map. First, you need to choose which planet you want to make it on. Say you want to do Pluto. You go to your Battlezone II directory, go to data\missions\multiplayer , and you go into a map folder that is on Pluto. For example, CTFPluto. COPY the .SKY and .TRN file , and drop them in the addon folder. From there, right click on the .TRN file, and hit "Properties" , uncheck the "read only" box. Then open the .TRN and edit this:
MinX = -500.0
MinZ = -500.0
Width = 1000.0
Depth = 1000.0
Change the wdith and depth to whatever you wish.(7168x7168 is the largest) And make MinX and MinZ half of what the width and depth is.(Must be square) Now save. Rename the two files. Then to edit hit, Start > Run, and in the path line you should have: "C:\PrgramFiles\BattlezoneII\bzone.exe" /edit mymap.TRN /nobodyhome
The "/nobodyhome" line will clear the dll path from the map. If you do not use it, you may get an access violation. When you edit this, you will get a blank map on Pluto. You could also put in a different .sky file from a different map to have a different sky.
***When you save this make sure it is saved as mymap.BZN , if it saves as mymap.TRN your map will be ruined. If you have to, type in the .BZN extension.*** And next time you call it up to edit, you will use the .bzn eztension instead of .trn
actually, you can change the map size after you are editing the map - i have done that a few times
and it can be a lot bigger than 7168x7168
When I look at that it makes me think that by making it half you are ensuring the center of the map is 0,0.
Winter let me do both of those things. But when I went beyond the "max" size, the map had a "buffer zone" of terrain that could not be edited or traversed. It was no more usable than the mysterious invisible substance that keeps you "afloat" beyond the edge of the map.
I did post a map that took about over 5 mins to cross the map. Very big and took the game to it's limits.
Sounds like very large maps could be useful for more global looking maps with like small continents, and then incorporating portals to make getting around it more efficient for both players and the AI. Larger maps must also make strategy planning a bit more interesting as well for both players and map makers.
The winter utility looks very interesting as well, but I'm still having some problems getting my maps to match the size of the BMP files the're created from. I originally made a 512x512 map okay, but when I increased the BMP size to 1024x1024 the resulting .TRN file still came out more like 512x512 again. Do I need to delete the .TRN file again to get it to be 1024x1024?
It's kind of neat though to be able to create such custom looking maps like those I've seen in some other peeps maps using images like skulls and bones. Kudos to those that take time to create such cool looking maps. BNG
PS: What I'd really like to see, are some land and sea maps that integrate both land and sea vessels as playable options in future maps/mods. TV has some really cool sub types that are currently under utilized. He has probably one of the coolest recyclers I ever seen, and it's nothing more then a simple sphere object that produces some of the most unique water vessels I've ever seen or played.
I remember that map, Shane. Huge, interesting, different, and well done.
QuoteDo I need to delete the .TRN file again to get it to be 1024x1024?
Yes, the terrain is only created once, after that it is simply modified. If you are using winter it is based on the .bmp size.
I go through a process of modifying the .bmp and then creating the map in bz2, then delete the .trn and repeat until I get to something I like, It is worth putting some effort into this phase of map creation with winter in order to reduce the amount of manual sculpting to be done in the editor.
Making the height map, the texture maps (greyscale) and the colour map (colour!) from variations of the image can produce stunning results.
Once you have a set of .bmp's that make a map you like, you can /shellmap 256 it. ( replace 256 with the size of your map) (without edge path!)
This produces a new .bmp that also has terrain shadows on it, It will need some tweaking (brightness contrast etc), but this can be used as a final colour map to paint all the terrain shadows in the right place so they are still there even with lighting off.
You need to decide where the sun will be before you do this, setup the sun.color 255 255 255 and the ambient.color as the shadow. set up the maps actual lighting colours afterwards.
Careful and patient use of this technique can save weeks of manual editing and produce great looking maps.
(http://www.bzcomplex.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10062/terrainlite.png)
You can also make the sun rise and set using the DLL, which is cool. There's an FE map that does that; Trent?
Does that have any noticeable performance hit?
And can you get the sprites and lights to move reliably together?
Awsome MTS, I'll give your suggestions a try. Winter sounds like an awesome map generating utility over just making maps in the BZII editor. I began wondering if there were other map generating utilities like the one that came with CNC Red Alert 2 which basically makes flat land maps with water when blue is used as a color in the BMP file. I'd like to make series of 1024x1024 maps for some IA missions I'd like to make for BZII.
There seems to be some confusion as to how to use the winter editor with BMP's.
Take the map size and divide by 8. That's how big the BMP should be, IIRC.
I would think each pixel is for each vertex point on the map, so, how is the size listed?
nice pikky 2sheds - i love the tree
what exactly IS 'winter' and where can i get it?
I thought bzscrap, but I can't see it...
A google search revealed that some f**kwit has made a virus with the name winter.exe...
hmm try this...
http://www.4shared.com/dir/6953059/863c220e/sharing.html
Its just a little utility made by silverb1rd, it converts .bmp into bz2 terrain.
I think overminddl1 made one too..It may be better to use that, winter is a bit weird and non visual.
Yea, mine is around somewhere, it supports everything the original does, plus is not limited to 8-bit maps (mine supports 16-bit, which is exactly what BZ2 supports, just need a 16-bit editor to edit those without destroying them back to 8-bits), and a few more capabilities that vastly simplify a few normally difficult operations for people. Just search around for ODL1Winter and you would probably find it.
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turns a bitmap into 3D terrain? HUH :S?
Back then BZ2MD was phpBB2 and used a Smartor photo album mod, there was a screenshot of a BZ2 terrain editor that was in full 3D, but had amazing features and ease of use tools. Since we can clearly edit BZ2 terrain code, why has this program not been released or one like it?
OM i think youre sites down... or is it because im using IE?
and what about my question involving textures? is it possible to have more than 14 slots now?
More than 14 slots....!
I try to keep the number of textures on the map down, 4 textures is perfect as there are only 4 layers (making a winter rebuild easy), mixing textures on layers is something that has to be done by hand in the editor and of course using allot of textures does lower the performance of the map. Using high quality textures is a better way to improve the look of a map rather than using lots of different textures. Its an old game, putting on allot of make-up wont make it young and sexy.
No, my server is having issues, really hate shared servers at times...
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