Map Editing manual for the Mission Editor - STARTER

[jollyjack]

I made a start, but i am absolutely new to this ...... Who wants to add to it, please do !!

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MAP EDITING for the Mission Editor IL2 Sturmovik Great Battles add-on
started © JollyJack 2020
WARNING: all map edits done are probably written directly to the existing map files, so back the originals up first !

(please correct me if not) When you update or reinstall game versions your edited map stuff will probably be overwritten.

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1)     Activate Enable Edit under Surface Edit drop down menu.

2)     Select shape or line, place the selected item on the map.

 

 

3)     Expand-draw the shape on the map and when OK press enter. Right click for properties.

         Select texture (this might be like preview files, you could try to add your own, but i haven't tested that so far).

 

 

4)     Left click with shift on the red checkered item to change the shape of border area, and you'll have to experiment what seems best in a situation.

 

 

5)    When red Right click on the red icon and select properties, and set various items.

 

 

6)    In properties set border size. Click Appearance, select town sands, and you'll get this:

 

 

(PS UNDO works here sometimes ... )

7)     When finished de-select Edit Surface and save file.  

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Remark: It seems possible to add roads to the map ...... how? Been experimenting but not enough yet .....  TO BE CONTINUED ??

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ADDED June 23. was trying to find some textures an their location in the game files, like town_sand.dds, for editing or adding stuff, but they seem to be GTP-ed.

Which probably means you cannot do that without a tool to re-GTP the lot. Any tips? They probably won't be accessable if i put them in .../data/graphics/textures folder

Edited June 23, 2020 by jollyjack

[Sketch]

Just want to comment that what you're doing right now is awesome. I surely haven't messed with any of the terrain stuff. My only (current) suggestion is you should add another warning that an edited map can only be played with mods on. I'm betting players would love to play Wake Island or something similar type map.

[jollyjack]

Well, got a little further. Tried to enter a very old canal canal onto the map of The Hague as tester ...

 

I found some Texture like water_color.dds in Maps.gtp, and extracted them into grapphics\textures folder. You can then import them

Then you can import them in to the surface textures loader.

Arrow 1 in the picture

 

However there is some hardcore stuff left behind (Arrow 2) i cannot find the cause (yet?)

 

[Habu]

Interesting.

[Juri_JS]

In which files does the game save these changes to a map?

[jollyjack]

i think in Surface.dat and/or SurfaceTex.txt in the forlder where the map resides ...

Edited July 4, 2020 by jollyjack

[Juri_JS]

Do the height editing options work? So far I wasn't able to use them.

[DN308]

Don’t think so

[jollyjack]

On 7/5/2020 at 6:10 AM, Juri_JS said:

Do the height editing options work? So far I wasn't able to use them.

 

Nope, asked about that before ...

Edited July 23, 2020 by jollyjack

[JG1_Butzzell]

Maps should be like skins and have their own folder. Stock maps that come with the game are read only locked. Maps that you make can go in this folder and be used by the game and are downloaded when you log in on multiplayer. That  way you could have modded maps that do not require you to play mods on.

[IckyATLAS]

All this sounds interesting. There are some wooden bridge errors (connection to the road)on the Kuban map. If we can change the elevation by 40 or 50 cm that could correct them.

[JG7_X-Man]

[jollyjack]

Maybe some one knows more about this ? I guess us Single Players suffer from the Multiplayers who all want the same map.

[jollyjack]

POSTED elsewhere too bout this issue:

 

PS i am still struggling to get rid of these embedded forest textures. They always seem to stay put ....

Where are the 'hidden' forest textures, and can you edit them partly out? Beats me alas.

There's talk of 50 to -50 numbered layers, and a move up and down function,

but it's not clear like in Photoshop how they are organized in the ME Surface Editor.

 

LUMBERJACK needed desperately ...:

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by jollyjack

[jollyjack]

On 7/5/2020 at 6:10 AM, Juri_JS said:

Do the height editing options work? So far I wasn't able to use them.

 

BTW, posted elsewhere too: it does, been creating dunes:

 

[IckyATLAS]

I admire your perseverance. To recreate by trial and error the user manual of such a complex and obscure map terrain editor is no simple feat. This will require an enormous amount of hours of work. Thank you to have gone the path of this perilous journey (The lord of the Rings type). From my side I cannot help you as after some tries I decided to invest my time on creating missions for my campaign. But if you succeed then everybody will be grateful to you and maybe start using it. Map creation can be as fun as missions or campaign creation, but on the condition that we have a tool with an acceptable user guide. We have an excellent one for mission building thanks to Jim, but we lack one for map building.

Frankly that would be much quicker and simpler if Jason would just give us some keys to the map editor. After all somebody insisted a lot to say that the editor was supported. It seems only partially for what we see. ? 

[DN308]

Huge work for sure.

It gives me faith in the ability to create missing airfields that would help me with my campaign creation.

I need some airfields, which is not really a problem but I need them useable. That means and require a flat terrain instead of curvy, hilly swamp resulting in aircrafts unable of running even if I use the step on the ground level icon.

 

I still need to find the way to cut some trees and to add some railways tracks IOT add some marshaling yards

[jollyjack]

Marshalling yard, had to look that up. Well you need to have switches one can control, and active locs picking up wagons for train re-arrangements too.

Might be too far off the purpose of a flight sim. But a few more loctypes, tanks transport by rail, and things like signals would be nice.

 

Adding (missing) railways in the ME, and blowing them up again in the game could be a nice asset. The French resistance was quite famous for latter.

Good show for Normandy missions etc.

 

Vluki railway yard and switches is where i first started to understand how trains in IL2 work, thanks a helping hand of JimTM.

It's quite astonishing how the railways work in IL2. IMO even better than in a train sim like TSW etc. Latter you can never crash or even run a red signal.

This TSW game then is dead; in IL2 you can 'enjoy' the results and live through the day.

 

BTW I am still trying to figure how you save and reload edited maps, with the dunes as above and added airfields.

Also see them loaded in the game; thought i figured that out. 

Maybe you guys got a lead on that?

[DN308]

First, you can save the work as template in case of some buildings 

If this is an AF, you need to save the work as a group

But the trick is (and dunes should be the same) that you need to modify the four seasons map if you want to use it anytime.

I’ve found out that after adding some AF on the BoBP summer’s map.

Using the autumn’s one, it was impossible to see it...

[Deacon352nd]

But DN308, how did you level the area in which you placed your new AF, which I assume means airfield?

[DN308]

@Deacon352nd AF stands for airfield, yes.

Well, as long as I didn’t know how to, before seeing this thread, I tried to find a proper place where the runway could be flat enough to work.

I mean, at some locations, the ground was flat enough to be used for a concrete runway, and so, it worked well. In some other places, I had to play the trick and make my AI aircraft to start in the air from really low level...

But what works the best, it’s using (when historically accurate) some grass or rough terrain airfields. You should be lucky enough to make your planes taking off without be stuck in the « mud » created by the non-levelled terrain.

 

 I don’t know if you can understand my English but I’ll try to find the way to convert all these airfields in mid and post them in that section when finished

Edited December 2, 2020 by DN308

[jollyjack]

PS UPDATE

As i found out and understood later via various PMs and other discussions on this forum you can edit Heights and some Map affairs in the ME.

Alas you won't be able to save them for use in the game. Only some Surface edits are save-able.

 

For woodland modding you'll need to edit the files woods.wds, forest-map.wtr, and forest cut.wtr most likely, but i fond no way to access them. See picture.

You'll need Ortho view for that to see some changes made like heights (picture 2, added dunes), but you cannot save them alas.

 

My guess is that only an upgrade for this already very good mission editor could be a solution, and on my wish-list for sure..

IMO it might not be what the IL2 company wants in regards of a Multiplayer situation where everybody needs the same map.

 

It would be quite welcome regarding historical events especially as SP thing, with MODs enabled, like the fantastic  Kuban - Africa Desert mod by Off-Winters,  posted elsewhere. He found a way to remove ALL the trees, not just partly.

Latter i was after for Rheinland where trees are fixed in areas where they shouldn't be in the first place.

 

AEthelreadUnread has some nice village added stuff prepared for Rheinland BTW, seemingly quite useful for the battles around the Ardennes (Bulge?) ,

lets hope these works end up in a useful mod like the Kuban-Africa thing.

 

If i figure out more & useful stuff for tips i will post them. Alas for now i give it up.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by jollyjack

[jg123410]

Hi folks,

 

I realize this topic hasn't been posted to for a while. I just wanted to clarify:

 

I can modify a map in the mission editor, save it, checks mods enabled, and the map will be as I modified it when I use it in QMB, careers etc..?

 

I am playing singleplayer only and will only be making minor adjustments.

 

Thanks in advance - jg123410.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

19 hours ago, jg123410 said:

Hi folks,

 

I realize this topic hasn't been posted to for a while. I just wanted to clarify:

 

I can modify a map in the mission editor, save it, checks mods enabled, and the map will be as I modified it when I use it in QMB, careers etc..?

 

I am playing singleplayer only and will only be making minor adjustments.

 

Thanks in advance - jg123410.

Check my Surface Editing Manual

 

It's quite easy to add ground details like airfields, towns, (rail)roads etc. Adding water or forests is quite a bit harder and requires some hard-to-find programs (I think they're on the Russian forum somewhere), but is possible. Changing the terrain height is currently not possible (as jollyjack posted above, it is possible in the Mission Editor, but if you try to load a modified heightmap in the game itself it will throw an error).

[jg123410]

Thank you AEtherlraedUnraed!!

 

I missed that topic. I appreciate you taking the time to create the manual. That was eye opening for me. Should be very helpful!

 

Cheers - jg123410