KOH Mapeditor

[elvain]

Later I will transport the important parts of the mod here... if someone could help me it would be nice. At least copy the most important posts if possible.

btw, there's interesting thing made by cool-toxic from EU forums who I cooperate with on Arabia Universalis mod for EUII. Look at this:
http://europauniversalis2.myfreeforum.org/forum145.php&sid=acec83d0b0a5ca5901b7db02d9586d02

Yet I don't know hoow did he make it and how/if it runs well with the game, but I hope he could once help us!

----EDIT-----
so I have finally succeeded in editing realm shapes on political map but there's still some problem.

The only diference I see between my and Cool-toxic's changes is that I didn't redraw all province borders while he did.
Eventhough I have edited all the .bmp maps and rotated them when necessary, it was all screwed up.
The problem is that the base map seems to be too large for the "realms" map. Anyone encountered this problem too? or anyone knows how to get rid of it?

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2161/realmsdz2.png

is it possible that it could be caused by diferent vertical and horizontal resolution of files/images? (base has 25 dpi while realms and realms.old have 24) or bite depth (possibly bad translation) which is 8 and 24 respectively.
These diferent paramatres are possibly caused by the resolution which is diferent (realms files have 256 colors, while base has more)

---EDIT---
finaly I found yout how to EDIT the political map.

I still don't know how to create new one.. but here is a screenshot with first step - borders of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Krakow changed (northern border of Bohemia)
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/6972/bohemiahk8.th.png (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bohemiahk8.png)

I hope that soon I will be able to bring you more news.

right now. What is important (at recent stage):
1) after you chzange borders in editor, try to catch the borders with your marshal (this is very primitive method, I hope that soon I will come up with some better)
2) edit realms.bmp and COPY the changes also to realms.old.bmp
3) to have the changes also in startmap do it also in introrealms.bmp
4) rotate the images 180° and then flip horizontaly
5) don't touch base.bmp (and also introbase.bmp) - changes in these 2, especially in base.bmp will make screen look as it looks in my previous screenshot.

That's for now, I hope that soon I will be able to bring more updates...

[Dobber]

Great news indeed! Maybe soon you will have the rest figured out!

[Mephistopheles]

Well done! :go:

[elvain]

Great news indeed! Maybe soon you will have the rest figured out!

I hope. At the moment I would like to edit the map and offer more accurate and challenging Holy Rome mod...
and later I will work on new maps if possible.. we'll see

[Doux]

Good work Elvain! :go:

1) after you chzange borders in editor, try to catch the borders with your marshal (this is very primitive method, I hope that soon I will come up with some better)What do you mean with this?

[elvain]

What do you mean with this?

I mean that you need to localize the borders somehow. The best way to make it as precisely as possible is to move a marshal on the border and watch him in the political map and localize some points in the realms.bmp

maybe there's easier way, but this is also some kind of fun :D

[Fiver]

Thanks for the tutorial elvain :)

Finally, I was able to add a new province :)
Here some screens of my work:

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/8601/screenvisbynew2ju4.th.jpg (http://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenvisbynew2ju4.jpg)

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/5526/screenvisby2new2hj3.th.jpg (http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenvisby2new2hj3.jpg)

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/7650/screenvisby3new2rb8.th.jpg (http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenvisby3new2rb8.jpg)

The only difficult thing is that every colour available in realms.bmp and realms.old.bmp is already used, so I had to use one of the colours from another province.
That means: if you doubleclick on the new province in the political view, you'll end at the province which originally uses the province colour.

And becuase you can't edit introbase.bmp and base.bmp , it looks kind of strange becuase the colour of the country which rules the province is just drawn into the ocean, but you can also see that on the screenshots.

Aside of that, everything works just fine :)

Later, I'm going to put a tutorial online on how to create your own provinces.

[elvain]

so now we only need to know how to make the game accept changes also in base.bmp ;)

[hunterHun]

why not ask someone, who make the game? on the old forum the people are very helpful.

[elvain]

why not ask someone, who make the game? on the old forum the people are very helpful.

we were already askink (or at least I was) several times before. And no reply came.. I think it's right upon modders now.. we're very close...

and all who can help are here (it were people from BSS who made the game, not from SF)

[hunterHun]

ok, I don't know that.
and the maps are useful? :rolleyes: :D

[Fiver]

ok, I don't know that.
and the maps are useful? :rolleyes: :D

You mean if you can play the edited maps?
If that's what you meant: Yes, you can.

Now, as promised, the tutorial:

1) Create an island or whatever you want to create and put a new realm on it.
2) Edit the borders however you want and name the province and give it a kingdom which rules it.
3) Elvain's described steps
4) After you edited the maps and try to start a new game, you will get an error message. To make it all work, do the following things:
-Add the province to all regions.ini's (regions_800, regions_1000 and regions_1200 [choose the nationality you want])
-open the map folder and for every playable time (kingdoms_800, kingdoms_1000 and kingdoms_1200) add it to a kingdom (for my island, it's ruled by Sweden in all three periods)
-add it to the realms_religion.ini (map folder)
-add it to the towns.ini (map folder)

Now, the province should work properly. But don't forget the last, and also very important step:
To make all the changes appear in the game, copy the europe folder from the created Temps folder (you need that folder to edit the map) back into the maps folder.

If it doesn't work or if something's not clear, please say it. Maybe there is another way to do it, but this way is the only one I know.

p.s: In the realm, just the kingdom's special units can be trained. To make normal troops like peasents etc. buyable in that province, add it to the TrainUnits text data in the map folder.
p.p.s: If you want to make it an independent kingdom, you will have to add it to several text data's in the texts.pak .

[elvain]

Fiver, have you tried to add a land province?

coz I have some problems with land provinces (caused by the fact that the province perhaps has to be somehow added to the base.bmp or somewhere else. The problem has to be somewhere between base.bmp and/or something else)

----EDIT-------
oh, can I have a question? have anyone succeeded with rivers? how to put them in and delete them if placed bad?

Frujin, could you leave a word about it if possible please?

-----EDIT-------
Hm, the editor was never meant to be published and made accessible. So, it was more like internal tool. There are a lot of weird key combinations used for this and that. I know it can be irritating a lot.

Well, I will try asking our programmers to create some kind of sumarry (or FAQ, or How-To) document for what steps are needed for succesfuly creating a map. To be honest, I do not know how long it might take, so ... please do not expect it tomorrow. :(

As far as I remeber, new realm is created automatically when you place a castle on the world-type map. So, you can start editing the realm borders with that special brush.

Also, the game will not work if there are even a single "tile" that is not included in at least one of the realms. There only pieces that are allowed to be realm-less are those water type.

I will try to dig more into it ..
I know you are very busy right now with other things, but have anything changed in last 6 months since november last year? any development of the "tool", even partial "tool" is more than nothing so it helps so much..

I think we moved forward enough even without it, but there still are many "mysteries" for us.
F.i. there is still no way to place rivers on the map etc.

could you say at least how to place them (normal rivers, not just creeks)

----EDIT-----
Frujin, please, does anyone in BSS remember how did you place rivers?

I think I tried all keys on my keyboard in combination with clicking left/right mouse buttons but still I am able to put only creeks which really are not enough.

what combination do I have to use to place rivers please?

[Fiver]

Tutorial on how to create a creek:
1.) press F10
2.) Click on a point in the map where you want the creek to start
3.) Click on a point in the map where you want it to end.

That's for a creek which goes just straight.
You can also get curvey creeks, but that's a little bit hard for me to describe (especially because of my bad english), but I'll still try to.

1.) press F10
2.) click on a point in the map where you want the creek to start
3.) click on a point in the map where you want the "curve" to start
4.) click on a point where the curve should lead to

I guess nobody actually understands what I'm talking about, so I'm gonna explain it through a screenshot:

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/8213/river1tutorial2wq4.th.jpg (http://img256.imageshack.us/my.php?image=river1tutorial2wq4.jpg)

You start in the black box, and click to the place in the red box, where you want to have the curve. Then, you want to let the creek go north, and click on the place in the yellow box, etc. etc.

I hope now it's clear - if it's not, please tell me then I'll try to explain it again.

Here another screenshot to prove that it works:

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/585/river22zi9.th.jpg (http://img503.imageshack.us/my.php?image=river22zi9.jpg)

[Mephistopheles]

That is what Elvain referred to as a creek. What Elvain wants are rivers.

[Fiver]

Oh well, then I'm sorry.

See, my bad english made me get elvains comment wrong.

But at least other modders can use it as a tutorial on how to create creeks^^

[Frujin]

http://forums.blackseastudios.com/showthread.php?t=59

[Carbon]

I seem to be having trouble saving a map, can anyone help me find a way to save? I think I am ready to start drawing the real thing.

[Bellum]

I just tryed to make my own political-map of one of my created map...

But its strange...the game crashed :D so I think, I still got to learn it :)

But finally creating a new map is very easy I think...the hardest part is scripting (making your own political maps...etc)

But I got 2 question:

1. How to create rivers on your map? (I read, that you got to presse Ctrl + F10 and then click on river tool, but it didnt work)

2. Anyone (or Elvian) knows, how to create the 3 time-periods? (800, 1000, 1200)

[Bellum]

Ok this is the question of the questions ;)

This question goes spacialy to the guys from BSS who made KoH!

Ok:

How can I create my own political map, for my own map?

If you edit base.bmp the game crashs...so? :bash:

Can't you help the whole world of BSS Modders? :go:

[Carbon]

Oh well, then I'm sorry.

See, my bad english made me get elvains comment wrong.

But at least other modders can use it as a tutorial on how to create creeks^^

Hello Fiver,

I just spoke with Elvain, he told me that you and I are making very similar mods, what mod are you planning to create? Perhaps we could work together, or not, whatever you want.

[elvain]

1. How to create rivers on your map? (I read, that you got to presse Ctrl + F10 and then click on river tool, but it didnt work)

2. Anyone (or Elvian) knows, how to create the 3 time-periods? (800, 1000, 1200)
1. press F10 (or F10+F8) and doubble click where you want the spring to be and then click once (all clicks with left mouse button) where the river should flow

2. very easy: load save the map as 3 diferent maps and edit kingdoms in each.

Then create new folder and make it look like KoH folder: put there at least defs(for quests etc.), maps (for all maps folders) and texts folders and copy all necessary files there


HOW TO MAKE POLITICAL MAP

1) when testing the map from editor, make a screenshot with minimap and save the minimap separately. (also when the map is finnished delete all castles and make another screenshot without castles on the minimap)

2) stretch the minimap to 1400x1400 pixels

3) while testing the map from editor move knights on borderlines and draw provincial borders according to net of castles and other physical diferences on the map

4) when all provinces have borders, use colours from original realms.bmp and use one colour on one province only (so this way you can have only 168 provinces)

5) THE MOST IMPORTANT!! - this is the key to have normaly looking political map
when the image is finnished save it with absolutely same properties as the original realms.bmp has (1400x1400 pixels, horizontal and vertical resolution both 25dpi, bite depth: 8 - everything except bite depth can be done in photoshop, if you know easy way to decrease bite depth down to 8, let me know), of course the colours should be same as in the original realms.bmp - if the colours have changed during setting the right properties, copy the right colours back

6) could also be before you start to draw province borders
- use the minimap without castles and make it be di-chromatic with land and seas holding each one diferent colour. Save it as base.bmp (and possibly use black sea as sea-frame for realms.bmp)
- again the properties should match to original base.bmp (everything the same like realms.bmp, except bite depth which is 32!!! )
(this is the key why changes in base.bmp were making everything screwed up because I wasn't able to save it with same properties)

- note: when saving the images make sure they are flipped verticaly (upside down) so the game reads them correctly

- this is truly complicated way to make political map, I believe some of you will be able to shorten the process of making it. If you do, please let us all know.

Once this all is finnished have fun with all that editing name positions of kingdoms, realms and everything ;)
I hope it helps at least a little

PS: big thanks to Cool-Toxic from Paradox and EU2 forums (who taught me how to set up the properties necessary to make the political map running properly) :go:

[Bellum]

Hey elvian, thx.

Maybe I know an easier way, to drawn the real borders of the provinces:

You can use white snow in the editor and drawn it on the borderlines. So in the minimap the borders will be white! Maybe it would work =)

If yes, it will be an easier way I think! :go:

[Doux]

[...]
4) when all provinces have borders, use colours from original realms.bmp and use one colour on one province only (so this way you can have only 168 provinces)[...]
Since it is an 8-bit image, I would expect that you can have up to 255 provinces, since there are 255 free colours and black for the sea. Did you try a 'new' colour?

By the way, Photoshop should have an option to save the image as 8-bit - even Irfanview has that option!

Lastly - great work Elvain! This will be very helpful to other modders! :go:

[Mephistopheles]

I investigated on the political map a while ago by watching at it byte-wise. The third byte of the 3-byte color-code of each province's color is the ID-number of the province.
So the province with ID 0 must have 0 on the blue-byte. However, I don't know what the other two bytes do. That is where my development of the jpg-to-KoH-converter I planned stalled.

That means we don't know how to come up with province-map-colors for IDs beyond 168 since we don't know what the other two bytes have to represent.

[Bellum]

Hey elvian?

Can you send me your Empty Europemap?

Because I can't create new realms and kingdoms on my Empty Europemap.

[elvain]

Doux: no I didn't try to add more yet

Maphisto: That's great you even found a way to understand what at least one byte means :go:
I don't know if it has any connection to this (I really don't understand a language of numbers in programs) but I was first worried that the province no.1 should always have colour of province no.1 in original map (so Granada), etc, but I did it all randomly and it didn't mind ;)

Bellum:
1. that could be good way to catch up the provnce borders :go:

2. ok, so PM me your email adress and I will send you "blank Euromap"

[Bellum]

Hey elvian I've got problem...

I've made a map...so

I edited files: base.bmp, namepos.txt, realms,bmp and old.realms.bmp...

And I made correct bitdep... base = 32 bit
realms and old.realms = 8 bit

But when I test my made, game crash after 2 seconds...
And one time, when it didn't crashed I watch political view...and it looks shitty :D

Not like I've made it...

So what could be the problem

[Mephistopheles]

You could use filemon (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/filemon.mspx) to investigate in which file KoH is working on while it crashes. That might give you an indication of what went wrong.

[elvain]

When you open the editor, select "RANDOM MAP" and if you are lucky, you'll have your very huge map like Europe map.
I did so, and I was lucky :)
I wouldn't be very sure. I don't think that "Random" really is random at all. When I chose Random I always get the same size which is little smaller than when I load Europe map.

Here are screenshots to compare:
Tiny:
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/2812/minimap1rs7.png

Small:
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/8906/minimap2pq3.png

Medium:
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/4258/minimap3xq1.png

Large:
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7931/minimap4largexn4.png

Gigantic:
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/1871/minimap5giganticts9.png

"Random":
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/1939/minimap6randommw8.png

"Europe" size:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/129/minimap7europerm9.png

you can see the diference between last 2. It may not seem to be so dramatic, but it really makes BIG diference on the map!

[chalicek]

Hmmm, very nice, hard job. I would like to ask you, how to close the "system console" in MapEditor? I pushed Enter and then I didn't know, how to close that window System console. I see, that I must hardly teach, how to make so professional map as elvain. Greetings and thanx chalicek

[elvain]

anyone has blank map?

[Mephistopheles]

You can generate one using the MapGenerator I wrote. Just load a plain green file and let it generate a texture.dt from it.