modding campaign map

[BigDogDavis]

I disagree. It would be possible to make a mod for anywhere between, say 600 BCE and probably all the way up to 16th Century (I've course, there would be a huge amount of work, but the mechanics would work well with the AI)

Late medieval seems fairly impossible due to the lack of guns, unless for some reason they leave FOTS and Shogun 2 resources in the game for some reason.

[MathiasOfAthens]

I disagree. It would be possible to make a mod for anywhere between, say 600 BCE and probably all the way up to 16th Century (I've course, there would be a huge amount of work, but the mechanics would work well with the AI)

Not if the provinces are more situated to the 3rd century. If we cant change regions we cant make new era mods.

[Charsi]

1) CA get moaned at for years to release modding tools that can do the complicated stuff
2) They release tools that can do the complicated stuff
3) People don't bother because the tools are complicated
4) CA don't release tools for the next game
5) Go to #1

Hilarious really.

Oh don't get me wrong. I am in essence agreeing with you for exactly the reasons you state here (and citing my own laziness in support of such an argument!).

I'm just hoping #4 doesn't come to pass and that CA realizes that yes, these tools were a good thing and should exist for Rome 2 as well.

[BigDogDavis]

Oh don't get me wrong. I am in essence agreeing with you for exactly the reasons you state here (and citing my own laziness in support of such an argument!).

I'm just hoping #4 doesn't come to pass and that CA realizes that yes, these tools were a good thing and should exist for Rome 2 as well.

How will they know they're a good thing if nobody is using them?

[wangrin]

Instead of complaining that no modders want to use those tools and mod S2TW/FotS, that CA will never release any tools due to modder lazyness, etc., maybe could you try yourself to learn to use them, and, if successful, you could explain to people how to do.
Your example could, maybe, inspire TWC members and future modders.

As La Fontaine said : "Aide toi et le ciel t'aidera" ("The Lord helps those who help themselves.").

[BigDogDavis]

Instead of complaining that no modders want to use those tools and mod S2TW/FotS, that CA will never release any tools due to modder lazyness, etc., maybe could you try yourself to learn to use them, and, if successful, you could explain to people how to do.
Your example could, maybe, inspire TWC members and future modders.

As La Fontaine said : "Aide toi et le ciel t'aidera" ("The Lord helps those who help themselves.").

I'm lazy and I prefer playing games over making them.

[wangrin]

Questions to Spartan Warrior :

1. Do you have try to export data from ArcGis as .shp (shapefile) ?
   I've read that 3ds max is able to import such file format.
2. What sources do you use to create your maps in ArcGis ?

[spartan_warrior]

Questions to Spartan Warrior :

1. Do you have try to export data from ArcGis as .shp (shapefile) ?
   I've read that 3ds max is able to import such file format.
2. What sources do you use to create your maps in ArcGis ?

1. I tried importing a shapefile into 3ds max but I kept getting an error, ArcGIS also supports exporting to a AutoCAD file, that works well so that's the way I have been doing it since.
2. For sources you can find some decent global scale files on Natural Earth. The 1:10m datasets should be suitable for any maps, though ones covering larger areas the 1:50m maybe better.

[wangrin]

Thanks

ArcGis use Esri shapefile file format (.shp), but 3DS max use 3D Studio Shape (.shp too).
Theoretically, they should be the same... but they are not.
For instance, it is not possible to import an ESRI shapefile containing elevation values because Autodesk product only read X and Y value from imported objects.

File formats incompatibilities are a real nightmare !
I HATE proprietary file formats...

[ls612]

In the campaign maps folder there are a bunch of .cs2 files for various map details. What program can open those?

[spartan_warrior]

In the campaign maps folder there are a bunch of .cs2 files for various map details. What program can open those?

To do any campaign map modding you need 3ds Max. And when you are modding the map you don't open those, you use the .max file which is supplied, the files you export to are the .cs2 files.

[spartan_warrior]

Just to let others know, I received a message from Crux3D today, he has updated his supertexture tool. I have run some preliminary tests with this updated version and it definitely seems to be a lot more stable when handling Shogun's version of the supertextures. He has also added the ability of create new sizes for the supertextures, I haven't quite yet tested this function in full but it sounds promising. The final piece required for creating entirely new maps may finally be in place, which is very good news.

[wangrin]

A very good news, indeed.
Thanks to Crux3D for his tool and to you Spartan_Warrior for your work on CA Campaign Map tool.

[BigDogDavis]

Just to let others know, I received a message from Crux3D today, he has updated his supertexture tool. I have run some preliminary tests with this updated version and it definitely seems to be a lot more stable when handling Shogun's version of the supertextures. He has also added the ability of create new sizes for the supertextures, I haven't quite yet tested this function in full but it sounds promising. The final piece required for creating entirely new maps may finally be in place, which is very good news.

Let us rejoice, for finally we may be able to actually make .

[ls612]

Just to let others know, I received a message from Crux3D today, he has updated his supertexture tool. I have run some preliminary tests with this updated version and it definitely seems to be a lot more stable when handling Shogun's version of the supertextures. He has also added the ability of create new sizes for the supertextures, I haven't quite yet tested this function in full but it sounds promising. The final piece required for creating entirely new maps may finally be in place, which is very good news.

Stupid question, what are supertextures?

[.Mitch.]

Stupid question, what are supertextures?

The very large texture file that is used to cover the terrain of the campaign map.

[Raftor]

Keep up the good work spartan and crux.

[spartan_warrior]

I have been playing around with the supertextures today. And just to show what the supertexture actually does here is a little comparison, without the normal maps of the supertexture and with:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And of course the other function of the supertexture, which is the parchment map:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Slaxx Hatmen]

Wow! That's quite a difference! Did you get the data for all those mountains from the Natural Earth site? Also, how much closer are we to adding new regions?

[spartan_warrior]

Wow! That's quite a difference! Did you get the data for all those mountains from the Natural Earth site? Also, how much closer are we to adding new regions?

Actually for the heightmap and the normal texture I used some data I found in the USGS website, it was a much better resolution than what the Natural Earth website had.

As for adding new regions, that has been possible since the release of the assembly kit.