Zero Map Making...

[Zero]

Thanks Folgore, I'll have a closer look...

Wasn't sure if it would still work, but I sort of transferred all my previous files into my new installation of BK and all of a sudden I managed to get the BK map editor to work again... And on a more exciting news, I even managed to load up the map I showcased above and took an overview screen of it all;



I'm actually thinking that perhaps I should continue on it...  However, that said I'm considering leaving out all units as far as military concerns - except for the ones that will mainly act as eye candy, (neutral player - was it player 2 or...?), and basically focusing on maps that may be used by those of you more eager to add military units, scripts and what not...

Any thoughts?

[Zero]

Major Pain said:

You might find my Blitzkrieg "How To" Tutorial helpful.

Also you can find most of my models on my MediaFire page.

When you learn how the data and file system works, you can create your own maps and missions.

Thank you!  I'll have a look at them!

Major Pain said:

The Rolling Thunder game engine serves as an excellent base for creating new maps and missions. Burning Horizon is less suitable so I would not spend much time adding mods or new objects and models to it. Rolling Thunder can be expanded by adding numerous mods, models, objects. I use it as the base for my work. Most BK releases and versions use the RT game engine and some offer additional game engine advancements.

In other words, rather than using the BK map editor in my BK Anthology installment, I should use the BH-RT map editor instead? In that case I believe I need to move all extracted files to the BH-RT run/data folder instead.

Major Pain said:

If you plan to share your work with others, you must pay attention to objects and models that are in your project that may not be in use by other players... so you must create the map and and provide the models and objects within the released project. This would not be considered a so-called mod as such. Care must be exercised as to models and objects that may be part of a specific add-on, and might be protected under copyrights. It is important to secure permission to share objects and models.

Not to worry. I'm very well familiar with all of these issues actually.

Major Pain said:

If you project included objects from specific mods, you can state this in your project; This map requires the following mods: x, y, z, etc. In this case you do not have to include the models and objects in your released project.

As noted earlier I sit on a vast number of different objects downloaded during the past years that I'm able to use when and if creating a custom map. These are from all the various games I have purchased, but also single custom downloads on former BK-sites. However, it may be more convenient for me to actually skip all those and make a clean install and instead add only custom files which has been released for free usage - or perhaps settle with the original files along with any of the mods available. Need to think about this...

At the moment though I seem to have problems extracting maps from a BH-RT.  I'm using an excellent tutorial made by Leon about extracting maps from the games data.pak, and while there aren't any problems with maps from BK-campains, it's a bit more problematic with BH-RT campaigns.  In this case I'm trying to extract the Pilsen map but I can omly locatethe .BZM-file, not the .LUA-file.  Reason be is that I want to test out some changes and test the Pilsen map as a single custom map instead.  Anyone who's able to help me on this one?

[Ocelo]

Very Nice.

Could use the map for a spy/covert mission, or perhaps for MP.

However, the custom objects could be a problem, and converting to a specific mod would be difficult. But you can try; load the map with, for example, the GZM-7.77 mod, and see how may objects/units get deleted in the log file. If its not too many, perhaps you could replace them with analogous objects from the mod.

[Zero]

Well, counting now I have almost 52000 files, (2.58Gb), in my Run/Data folder - which obviously includes all .dds-files.  Counting sub-folders I'd say we're talking about 2720 files altogether.  Some of them are custom files which has been downloaded from various BK-sites during the years - all of them free to use for non-commercial use.  And additionally there are files from the following games;

¤ Blitzkrieg Anthology, incl. Burning Horizon and Rolling Thunder
¤ Stalingrad
¤ The Day After
¤ Cuban Missile Crisis
¤ World War I
¤ Talvisota

Not sure what the rules are as far as the listed games concerns, but since they all are BK-games usable for the included map editors I presume they can be used in some ways as well - for as long as it's non-commercial.  I have in fact noticed that in many mods available there are objects included from all these games...

I'm slowly starting to find my way back to the map editor and the objects handling, (modobjects.xml), but I'm not sure if creating a map or a few may also list the included objects, and if so possibly add them in a .pak-file.  What I do know now is that I won't be making maps that includes military units or scripts. I'll create the maps and leave the final outcome to those who have a better experience at adding warfare...

Ocelo wrote;

Could use the map for a spy/covert mission, or perhaps for MP.

Yes well, it's a 20x20 map and I tested it in game and I have to say that it didn't run too smoothly... perhaps too many objects on it...   But I can always keep to the recommended 16x16 at the most...


Updated;

Forgot to mention that I also have a few of my own textures in there, such as roads and stairs...

[Zero]

Thank you! Happy to be here!

[Zero]

A quick question about the city map showcased in here already;

It's a 20x20 map, but is it possible to reduce the size to let's say 16x16?

[Deleted]

Jan 1, 2014 19:41:24 GMT 1 Zero said:

A quick question about the city map showcased in here already;

It's a 20x20 map, but is it possible to reduce the size to let's say 16x16?

I am afraid not.

[Zero]

Crap! 

Well, I'll make a new one then...

Thanks Kevin! 

[ariete]

excuse me, i tried to make a global picture of a map pushing ctrl + shift + F9 during game, but i was scary because visualization continue to round and round ... and didn't stop ... i press esc but didn't stop, at the end i found an empty tga file in game folder. the question is : how many time it continue to round around ? my tga was empty maybe because i've push esc (but it seemed to continue equally the process)

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2014 13:21:57 GMT 1 ariete said:

excuse me, i tried to make a global picture of a map pushing ctrl + shift + F9 during game, but i was scary because visualization continue to round and round ... and didn't stop ... i press esc but didn't stop, at the end i found an empty tga file in game folder. the question is : how many time it continue to round around ? my tga was empty maybe because i've push esc (but it seemed to continue equally the process)

It depends on how big your map is (remember the maximum size a map can be if you want to take a global picture of it is 15x15), but it can take up to half an hour depending on how fast your core processor is.

[Zero]

Showing the last images before I'll send this map into the trashbin;









Enjoy! 

[Deleted]

wut? No!!! Why would you do that?

[Scyooff]

I'm agree with Kevin.

[Zero]

No worries, I'm making new ones! 

The thing is, the map showcased is 20x20 and VERY detailed, and when playtesting the map in game it doesn't run as smothly as it should.  I think it's better to create a town like this on a smaller map, perhaps 16x16 at the largest.  Besides, there are also some obstacles in there that I want to get rid of as far as units passabilities concerns.

[Folgore]

Well, it could depend on the computer you are running the map on. A powerful computer could make the map running smothly.