[Question] Help with question on map making

[JerseyJihadest]

I was looking to start making a map and wanted to know how most people start out their map. Do you start with the terrain and then put down everything or do you build everything off a map picture(which I've seen a few people do in the community map thread)?

Also if I where making a map that was relatively flat(little terrain) which option would be better?

Lastly if the answer to one of my questions was building off a map picture, is there a tutorial around on how to make such a map off the picture?

Thanks for lookin'

[[R-DEV]J.F.Leusch69]

Welcome JerseyJihadest to the Project Reality forums.

nice to see you being interessted in mapping.

i will just post some links to the subjects, so you can just read them and get into the material

a list of tutorials for beginners:
http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189...t-mapping.html

how to set up the BF2 editor for PR mapping:
http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189...g-modding.html

how to get a "picture" as ground texture:
http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189...colormaps.html

further information on how to set up GameplayPbjects (flags, spawnpoints, vehicles etc)
http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189...map-audit.html


and the best thing to do is google all your issues before posting a new topic about them. almost all mapping issues are somewhere explained on the net.
your best address is the Official BF Editor Forums (Powered by Invision Power Board)

keep up and if you think you have worked something out, feel free to let the community know about it and get feedback/comments you your project here Community Maps - Project Reality Forums
(make sure to follow the guidlines )

cheers

[Sniper77shot]

Start with the terrain, then the road intersections and then the roads, next objects/statics and then textures and final details, then place the flags.

As well after the terrain you could do the layout, all of what you choose to do first.

[JerseyJihadest]

I have a little problem now.
What I did after I downloaded the BF2 editor was
http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189...g-modding.html

Then I opened the editor and loaded pr_edit

Then I made a new map 1024x4 size, 256 low rez, 25 default height, "mymap" map name

Then I followed this tutorial(to make the map and export the texture) http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189...img-heavy.html

and this one(to get 4km map to work) YouTube - Battlefield 2 Editor Tutorial- Fix 4km map texture issues

and this one to get tpaint work(only part I followed) YouTube - Battlefield 2 Editor Tutorial- Make map with terrain generator and get textures with bf2tpaint

The problem I got from this is shown below(the terrain is wrong and how do I set the view distance farther?)
Image here

[[R-DEV]Amok@ndy]

to get a better view in the editor you can do a lot things ...

1. Disable Fog (Render Menu)
2. set FogRange to a higher value (Tweakbar / yourmap / lightsettings)
3. go to the options and set the viewdistance fo the editor higher (sry im not exactly sure where to change this will have a look laters and post it again)

your terrain problem looks like you have a wrong size of the Heightdata ... did you use a terrain generator ? if yes is your PrimaryHeightmap.raw 1024x1024 ?

[[R-DEV]Rhino]

You shouldn't be working on a 1024x4 map for your first map to get to grips with the editor...

I always advice learning on a 256x2 map, much smaller, less chance of the editor crashing at any point, much faster to save and generally more user friendly.

Once you have got to grips with the editor then you can start to think of making a bigger map.

[JerseyJihadest]

I will start small but for future reference this was the error message it gave me when trying to load my height map.

Ignored Warning[Physics] : Heightmap filesize does not match expected size. 2097152 != 2101250
Ignored Warning[Physics] : Could not read expected size

[[R-DEV]Amok@ndy]

yeah you exportet the terrain from the terrain generator in the wrong size / or format

if you create a 1024x1024 map you need to have a 1024x1024 (16Bit) PrimaryHeightmap.raw

it seems like you exportet a 512x512 or a 256x256 to a 1024 map

[Rudd]

To learn stuff I worked on my own map audit instead, its a good way to learn - though that foundation has led me to learn ALOT more.