Making my first ABII map, and I have questions!

[benpark]

Thanks for opening up the thread for mapping and modding.

Where I'm at in the somewhat tortured journey to figure out the map creation for this engine - I am making a test map to learn the ropes of the area around Munster. I have created a map with heights and layers in QGIS that correspond to what I imagine I may need in ABII based upon the terrain colors (and having played the game). I'm now testing the map in the game, and my Preview map shows up, and I see the ma in the map list. I have toggled the editor setting to activate the Map Editor in the development.ini file, and loaded up the game. On to my current struggle:

-The map editor seems easy enough to figure out as a refining tool once the game starts. I have to load it as a scenario, however which means you always have to Save and Exit. I moved some stuff around on another map. I may see that again someday if it did save. How do I edit my entire map without doing it in this manner?

-My heights are all showing when in the 3D portion of the map editor (the DEM loaded), but none of my underlying terrain textures (and no 3D structures, roads, trees, ect). My swatch file was lifted right from the one provided, and I did color check between a stock map. That seems good. Anything else that would stop that from showing? It is a 2048x2048, 72PPI, BMP file.

[Veitikka]

-The map editor seems easy enough to figure out as a refining tool once the game starts. I have to load it as a scenario, however which means you always have to Save and Exit. I moved some stuff around on another map. I may see that again someday if it did save. How do I edit my entire map without doing it in this manner?

It's not possible to edit a larger area than 512x512 pixels in the game. Any image editor can be used to edit the full map if needed.

-My heights are all showing when in the 3D portion of the map editor (the DEM loaded), but none of my underlying terrain textures (and no 3D structures, roads, trees, ect). My swatch file was lifted right from the one provided, and I did color check between a stock map. That seems good. Anything else that would stop that from showing? It is a 2048x2048, 72PPI, BMP file.

If the terrain .bmp fails to load it's usually because the height and terrain file dimensions don't match, or the terrain file is not saved as a 24bit .bmp.

[benpark]

I found the culprit- The "Names" file. I had a blank in. I've got to remember how to grab them from the cut-out area in QGIS.

It is a mess! I'm going to start a new map, based upon what I have learned up to now. Maybe by the third one or so, I'll have something to show for it. I'm going for less detail in QGIS, as it does seem to come down to hand-painting the terrain file to some degree.

Thanks for the game, and the help.

armoredbrigade2.exe Screenshot 2025.01.10 - 12.20.32.22 - Copy - Copy.png (2.21 MiB) Viewed 127 times

[benpark]

A few useful QGIS links that have been helpful:

UTM Zone finder:
https://mapscaping.com/utm-zone-finder/

OSM Finder:
https://mapscaping.com/openstreetmap-category-viewer/

Data for most of the earth:
https://download.geofabrik.de/

[benpark]

I've started on a new map, now that I understand how the roads are laid down. I see that the edits are being saved in the game editor when I go in and out of it to manually place things, but my "terrain.bmp" file isn't updated with the changes. I do see that there's a "Map is Locked" warning, though the file seems read/write.

[Veitikka]

I've started on a new map, now that I understand how the roads are laid down. I see that the edits are being saved in the game editor when I go in and out of it to manually place things, but my "terrain.bmp" file isn't updated with the changes. I do see that there's a "Map is Locked" warning, though the file seems read/write.

Custom maps must be in 'Documents\My Games\Armored Brigade 2\data\map', not in the game installation folder.

Changes must be saved by pressing Ctrl+S before exiting the map editor.

[benpark]

Thanks, I'll move it.

I see that there is an overlay function (after reading the Discord AB mapping thread). I'll try placing that in the same folder, and return to ask where it goes if that isn't the place.

[benpark]

abscreen - Copy.jpg (1.87 MiB) Viewed 43 times

Things are coming together. A tip for anyone starting out, and re-drawing the roads, etc from the QGIS output- Use the Shape tool (in Photoshop), set to 1 pixel, and hold down the SHIFT key to get the angles for the roads when they can adhere to that. Once I realized that was like Combat Mission mapping (terrain also drawn on a grid), I figured it out.

These are big maps. This could take a while, but nice to see results.