A Map Editor

[lav_coyote25]

kthnksbai.... xD

[Olrox]

I haven't found anywhere in the compiled map files that takes a height multiplier, so as far as I can tell it doesn't do anything - that's why I disabled it and left it at 2 (what I guessed it should be)

Hmm, I don't know if it is something that modifies the file itself. But the Height modifier is necessary to determine the difference between the highest/lowest points of a heightmap, when importing.

Taking this screenshot for example:
http://i61.servimg.com/u/f61/14/81/76/39/topogr10.jpg
The lowest depression there is black in the height map. I've left the texture-painting grid for the other relief to be visible. In the proccess of making the height map, I was using tones of grey with a fixed balance. That is, if you must go from black to white, that's a 100% difference to work with. Then, by the number of levels I wanted in the map, I've decided to go down 10% each level, and then 40% in the last transition (the river is supposed to be on a canyon).
The height scale determines how much this 10% actually is, because in the height map, everything is based on the white-black 100% difference.

With height scale set to 2, the "cliffs" between the levels are barely visible, and the steep cliff that takes to the river level doesn't even look like a real cliff.

In fact, even the small height changes there are meant to be more significant than the lower "slopes", which are meant to be much higher and much more steep themselves. That's why Height scale is mostly important

[Flail13]

warzone is limited to a height range of 0-255. even if i allowed the editor to show a larger height range, it would still be scaled back in-game. big height ranges afaik aren't possible.

[KukY]

I really don't get how to rotate tiles...

[Olrox]

Aww... that's really sad.
Just a thought, to the devs:
Would it screw up with something, to make the limit bigger? I mean, adding an aditional digit to the height variable (I guess, ignore this if I'm wrong) or something? Or is it really unfeasible?
Because with this piece of software, we'll be seeing really good maps around, it'd be great to have some with more dramatic terrain.

[Per]

Just a thought, to the devs: Would it screw up with something, to make the limit bigger?

Yes, unfortunately. There are two problems: The first is how VTOLs and artillery will deal with increased heights, and the second is that the savegame format itself will break backwards compatibility if the value is increased.

[Rman Virgil]

.

Even with the 2 height limit Vtol problems will arise - if their flight path encounters angles approaching 90 degree sheer cliff face the vtols will tend to a vertical stall in flight most of the time (& it can last for several seconds) unless you do some topographic "tricks" to lessen the shortcomings of how the /* primitive 'bang-bang' */ height controller works at present.

Regards, RV
.

[Olrox]

But are those drawbacks un-fixable, too hard to be avoided or something that won't really allow those changes? I really don't know, I' don't mean to doubt the prudence of a possible "no-go"(if that was one, I'm sorry I couldn't read between the lines).
I think that artillery problems could be avoided if the maps aren't made in a bizarre way (there are other intriguing problems with maps even in the current state, and those with serious problems are really not used, at least thinking logically about it).
I don't know what to say about the VTOL issue... ignorance about it won't let me. The compatibility problem sounds bad also, but worthy the headache when I think about all the new possibilities.
I don't know for other people, but I'd be disposed to go across those compatibility problems, if that will allow for maps with a great relief. But if the developers reckon that the cost/benefit or unfeasibility won't let this happen, I really trust you - I'd rather stick with the limitations rather than keep insisting on something that more experienced people say it's not going to be a good deal.

Again, sorry if I couldn't interpret the real meaning of your statements or the severity of the mentioned problems, Per!
I'm completely lame at determining coding/scripting issues, so have mercy on me!

[Per]

We will eventually fix those limitations, they are quite annoying also for other reasons, but they are not easy to fix, so it may take some time. Don't hold your breath

[Olrox]

We will eventually fix those limitations, they are quite annoying also for other reasons, but they are not easy to fix, so it may take some time. Don't hold your breath

That's good to hear! It'd be great if you considered the possibility of "preparing ground" for those map changes in the proccess: Those would greatly improve the depth of gameplay with good maps, I think.

I'm working on another map (using barely the same topography as one of the first I've tried to work on). The height map is like this:

OM4P-2

Map-2.PNG (57.57 KiB) Viewed 7546 times

It is a 256x256 map, for four players: It'll have places for secondary bases, with 4 oil resources concentrated in them, but no assigned starting positions on them (so that they are really unnoccupied). The main objective is to promote a real dispute for those strategical positions, instead of the usual full attacks for the central bases I see in most MP games.

I was wondering if tere's any way of making a tool that , within a set radius, detects the lowest and highest points, the tile with the steepest inclination, and concentrates all the inclination into that tile. I was thinking about that for making less weird cliffs (my original idea was to make 2-tile wide cliffs, but those look really bad in most cases).

Another option to make those 2-tile cliffs less weird would be to implement a tool that allows the player to select the texture for cliffs (then he selects the entire and diagonal tile for use, and the editor already places those instead of the regular cliffs). After that, it's a more a question of good sense on separating a ground type for cliffs only.

What do you think? I'd love any of those features, if both, even better!

While I wait for an answer, I'll use a trick to make all the tiles before the cliff the exact same difference of height in relation to the ones after the cliff, all along the cliffs, via heightmap. Don't know if it'll work, though.

[Olrox]

I'm testing version 0.5, I is VERY good! Absolutely awesome, well done!
The undo feature is the right stuff

[KukY]

You could post a new post when you release a new version...

[Olrox]

You could post a new post when you release a new version...

I agree, something like "A new version is available, check the first post" would be more than enough. I found out that 0.5 was already out when searching for 0.4

[KukY]

Is there any way to place a shortcut to unistaller?
Or could you make setup able to overwrite?

[Flail13]

Version 0.5 is out!

I was wondering if tere's any way of making a tool that , within a set radius, detects the lowest and highest points, the tile with the steepest inclination, and concentrates all the inclination into that tile. I was thinking about that for making less weird cliffs (my original idea was to make 2-tile wide cliffs, but those look really bad in most cases).

Another option to make those 2-tile cliffs less weird would be to implement a tool that allows the player to select the texture for cliffs (then he selects the entire and diagonal tile for use, and the editor already places those instead of the regular cliffs). After that, it's a more a question of good sense on separating a ground type for cliffs only.

I'm not sure what you mean. For the first part, if you want it to only put cliffs on the steepest tile, you could set the cliff brush radius to zero and only click on that tile. For the second part, do you mean you want to be able to create your own brushes?

Is there any way to place a shortcut to unistaller?
Or could you make setup able to overwrite?

Windows control panel uninstall doesn't do it?
The installer is generated by VB, so i dont have much control over it.