For this example of how to add a command post to the game I will assume your new map is called “mytest�. So that your map does not conflict with others maps all the files for the command should be named after your map name.
First create a square .tga image and save it as “mytest_cc.tga� in the “levelshots� directory. (512x512 pixels should be enough.)
Create a new shader called “mytest_levelshots.shader� in the “scripts� directory.
Open the new shader file and create two new entries as follows:
The “automap� shader is used inside of the compass on the HUD and the “trans� shader is used for the pop-out version of the command map. The command map displayed on the Limbo menu does not require any shader features.
The command map is a critical element of the game offering players the chance to keep track of objectives, other team players and where health/ammo requests are coming from. The command map is usually a 512 x 512 pixel image on which all other information is displayed.
The command map can be 256 pixels square up to 1024 in size, the game will resize the image regardless. The command map picture (stored as a .tga) has to be created externally by a paint program of your choice. The gird size and co-ordinates are worked out from the min/max keys in the worldspawn entity for the map.
Key mapcoordsmins represent the top left corner (x / y map editor values).
Key mapcoordsmaxs represent the bottom right corner (x / y map editor values).
One of the easiest ways to do that is to create a square brush under your map. (Make sure it’s square!) Also make sure that everything that has to be on the command map is within the bounds of the square brush. Then move the cursor over the top left corner of the brush and you will get the x / y mapcoordsmins (first two values) from the little coordinate line in Radiant (bottom right). Repeat for the x / y mapcoordsmaxs with the bottom right corner of the brush and you’re done.
A quick way to create a temporary command map is to use the tracemap command and take the RED channel image and re-scale it to a 512x512 image.
Open the tracemap image in photoshop and have a look at the different channels (Red/Blue/Green/Alpha). Its all explained in the documentation. Got to leave some stuff for you to read!
Proof reading note: the word grid is mis-spelled in the last sentence of the above paragraph. Since its part of your documentation I thought you might wanna know.
If you are going to do a command map i suggest you use a program like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator and do the lines in vectors before making it an image.
This way you get full controll over the layout and colors. After that u can give it some touch via photoshop to make it look like a real map.
I think a tutorial is in order drakir! Nice work! How did you keep the scale right from the actual map to the image? I had imagined taking a screenshot from radiant and then using that as a base layer in photoshop.
That’s a cool technique, the vector solution works quite well, we made our versions completely in photoshop. One thing that may be useful is to include one of our *.psd’s in the tools release so you guys can see how they were constructed.
Basically as Sock has already mentioned, they were constructed from tracemap images, of which we used two types, one with just the terrain and one with just the structures. These were simply created from two different map files with the required brushwork left in to be traced.
From the red colour channel I then pulled out a greyscale image with which to work from:
For the terrain (the base of the map) I blured the image a fair bit and added fake terrain for where it didn’t exist. Then using Filter>Artistic>Poster Edges… I created the contour effect.
Next I filled the different rings with a colour, based on their height. Each ring on it’s own layer so I could add an outline stroke to each.
Finally I slapped the structures trace map on top and drew in the most common routes.
This is by no means a definitive how-to but it gives you an idea… expect a more comprehensive tutorial at a later date.
As a side note, the tracemap images I worked with were 1024x1024 which currently you can’t generate with the official release (you should be able to in the tools release though).
I used the tracemap as a base. As i am used to work with vector graphics when vectorizing logos and so for commercial prints, i found it very easy to do.
I took the tracemap and scaled it to 512x512 and then draw upon that using layers with the colors from a SD cc image.
Then i exported the image from Corel Draw to Paint shop Pro and added some effects to it and dusted it some.
I think that vector graphics are the best way to do the cc maps, the way SD did is a much more complicated way as the layers are more difficult to control in photshop than in a vector based program.
With a vector program u can choose outline with and so much more flexible when it comes to editing the outlines.
Well that´s how i did it…if anyone wants to know more contact me via e-mail, lindgrenrikard@hotmail.com
If you don’t alter the heightmap much in the editor, you can create the contours for the terrain easily. Posterize it, adjust levels to taste, duplicate the layer, color the bottom layer, use find edges filter on second layer, find a blending mode that looks decent (I forget what I used), then merge them. If you want to add fake terrain in the command map to make it interesting or something, just airbrush the heightmap a little before you posterize it. Here’s a sample one I did in about 2 minutes with just a random terrain. It would look better if I had scaled up the heightmap before doing the edges, and if it didn’t have the crappy compression artifacts.
What is a tracemap?
Is it a map over your map (the map you are making)?
Do you get a so called tracemap from the mapping editor (from GtkRadiant? Is it like a function, in the editor. Choose File > Export > Tracemap, and you get a nice 2D-map over your 3D-world?
// Loffy
