The World Map Community Project

[Ketzerfreund]

@Multiball:
I thought so, too, at first, when I had seen those long lists of meshes. I though it'd be conceived like I had shown in post #18. But then came the heightmap experiment in post #110. As you can see, you can directly affect the heights of the landmasses. Paint around in the heightmap file, and your changes will be applied instantly.
I don't understand that land mesh, however; it does not outline what is visible on screen. It does not outline where troops/ships can or can't go (the landmasses are too cluttered for that). So what does it do? On the other hand, I've also seen meshes for the rivers and certain land features... Those might fill the gaps in the land mesh. Gotta look that up again to take a peek at it via the converter and Dxview.
The coastline meshes are not so low poly that they couldn't be used to enframe the landmasses. Too bad they are not properly named.

@Errabundi:
You're right. I'll send a notice to a mod. This pointless region talk is getting out of hand.

@Jynx:
The only campaign map texture I've found so far that looks "meaningful" is rocks1_diffuse.tga in ..\data\campaign\terrain.
There are two big files in supertexture.pack named world_.stpi and .stpd. I have no idea what these can be opened with. I had read something about those files somewhere and tried the suggestions, but to no avail.

[Mr.Jack]

I would like to help with this, is this organised in anyway or are you just finding things out for yourself then posting it on here?

[Ketzerfreund]

So far, it's the latter. We don't have proper access (=a converter to .rigid_mesh, for example) to some of the files, yet, and a lot of how exactly each file contributing to the campaign map shape comes into play.
That means we're not at actually making maps, yet.
If you find out something new, feel free to contribute.

That reminds me... I should finally edit the stuff found out into the opening post, already... We're approaching page ten and the thread is slowly getting tedious to comb through...
No thanks to the people blarbing about who should get what region and in what shape China was back then.

[Mr.Jack]

cool, i just figuring the pack manager thing out first, seems pretty easy to use.

[Baleur]

It definetly seems like it is a huge max model, that is later run through an exporter that seperates the coastlines from the world rigid.blaha file. This could be done with having the coastlines seperate mesh-id's and such, to allow the exporter to properly cut them up and name the new files.

However, it seems to be an extrrrrrrreeeeeeemely stupid way of doing it..
Why not just have a really high-res global texturemap, bumpmap, heightmap and snowmap?
I mean it makes no sense, why would you make a semi-flat wireframe of the continent shapes and coastlines, then export it and cut em up into hundreds of individual coastline meshes? Were the developers drunk or just preffer to make things needlessly complicated?

I have made really really detailed Earth models in 3ds max myself, and thats just the way you do it. You use really high res bumpmaps/texturemaps/specularmaps. You dont model the continents by hand, because first of all it wouldnt be accurate (compared to satellite images), secondly it would be utterly pointless..
Since there are crazy resolution heightmaps out there of our entire planet, down to a few km per pixel.
So again, i cant understand why the developers chose this method..

Especially how the regions seems to be SEPERATED in that global mesh, makes no sense either.
I think it is one huge mesh that is cut up by an exporter plugin/program.
Then the fact that the heightmap still has an effect ingame, as when you wrote "It works!", that may simply be for finer details such as hills and valleys, that have no immediate impact on the passability or gameplay. (notice how the city got pushed up on your lettering)

The mesh itself could be used for the actual shape and borders somehow, while the heightmap is used for visual goodies.
Because look at that mesh, it hasnt got the detail for the mountains in norway etc, just the basic shape outlines.

[Jynx]

Since world_.stpi and .stpd have 4 characters in the end bit instead of 3, they are probabby a packed file? With the Textures inside?

[Jammi]

I think so, and many others, too

[klesh]

Thank you Jammi.

[Actus Reus]

Please release the modding tools soon CA, I cant wait for things to really kick off here in this thread..

[Dradem]

Where do you get the files I don't have it in the Data folder

[Dud doodoo]

Which files...

All of the files are pretty much locked up in the .packs, so you have to use LtChambers pack file manager located in the mod tools section of general discussion.

[Dradem]

for example these (..\data\campaign\terrain\campaign_detail_mask.tga, original size 2048x1024px)
but I'll check LtChambers pack file manager tonight

[Ketzerfreund]

We don't know what exactly the mask tga/dds files do.
(At least, as far as I know; there are some people who don't like sharing info for the sake of bathing in their own magnificence)
Filling all black with green doesn't seem to make a difference.

I'd recommend going through the thread. Almost every page offers something new to those that are freshly diving into this matter.

[Croshy]

Hmm this all sounds like we can emagine what Addon might come in the future ... i am very excited

[Cynik]

Keep up the great work guys, it's looking very promising so far

[erasmus777]

They've figured out how to edit battle maps. Perhaps it's just another couple steps to do the campaign map.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=254170

[Ketzerfreund]

Unfortunately, the way battle maps work is not in the least related to the way the campaign map works, except for the height map. Being able to edit battle maps is cool, but it doesn't take us a single step closer to editing the campaign map, I'm afraid.

[demis14]

exactly what i was waiting for such an initiative!! Keep it up

Sooo, what do you think, will it ever be possible to creat/edit a proper world map? Im really looking forward to separating some regions!!

[Jammi]

Without a Model Reconverter the answer is no! -.-

[Dud doodoo]

exactly what i was waiting for such an initiative!! Keep it up

Sooo, what do you think, will it ever be possible to creat/edit a proper world map? Im really looking forward to separating some regions!!

It shouldn't be too hard for the community to produce a tool that allows you to create new regions, since we already know how to make them.

However, as they said we need a model converter to make a new map by hand, and we need a community created tool to make it realistically possible.