Is there a guide or overview on how to make a map?

[DonCorazon]

...maybe i've missed it somewhere as there certainly seem to be a lot of people who make maps. I am not looking for detailed instructions but more of an overview starting with how people usually get an image to how that becomes a map to figure out how i might get started one of these days.

Thanks

[Dedas]

Look for the "mapedit.pdf" in the doc sub folder in your dom3 folder. Then you read chapter 6.

Then you take a picture you made yourself or by someone else and apply the above.

Oh, and after that you can edit your map in the map editor to create a map file. Just place the picture file in the "maps" folder.

[Aezeal]

Well getting that image is the part you'll have to do all by yourself basically. Once you have an image the mapping comes into play.

Basicly there are a few options
- create the image yourself
- modify an existing image (from the net or something, a map or something else)
- completely steal the image

[Jazzepi]

Does anyone have any advice on how to create good wrap around maps? Like, what process should you follow so that it wraps nicely?

Jazzepi

[Aezeal]

personally I haven't done that much but the one I've made (whatever else you can say about them) wraps nicely.

Just make the borders be in the middle of a province, same for the corners. Then you just have to match the border on the left with the border on the right, most graphic programs have some sort of X/Y number for each pixel so that should be pretty easy.

My wrap around water map (not that much of a map for the rest) is a nice example IMHO. Of course I've hand drawn the borders so after they leave the edge it's not that nice and the rest isn't either but it wraps nicely

And of course you need to do the same for the edges of land, forest and all things drawn in the provinces but I'd avoid to much on the edges of the map where it wraps would only complicate things.. better to leave extra's on one side of the border.

[DonCorazon]

I guess it would be helpful if someone were willing to put together a bit more detail on the map creation process. A step-by-step would actually be ideal though I realize that might take a lot of work to do. But for example, when I mess around with Gimp, the first thing it asks is the image resolution, then more and more things that I have no idea. Seeing how someone has actually made a map from the start would be awesome.

[Tifone]

Originally Posted by DonCorazon

Seeing how someone has actually made a map from the start would be awesome.

Seconded!!

[Gandalf Parker]

I just quickly threw this together. Does it help? I will try to fill in some of this later such as the specs on the image formats, and the specific steps in the map editor.

Basic How-To maps:
The image can be anything from anywhere. The map generator can be used. You can modify the colors and much about the generating but they can always stand some manual improvement. Or a map generator from another game might be a good starting point. Or a satellite image, a drawing, change the colors all to monochrome or sepia to get a drawn parchment look, even a picture of a famous movie star can be a map.
The Image format must be .rgb or .tga (insert specs) when you are done with it. The map info file must be plain text (ascii) and have the extension of .map

Image
-> change all white (255,255,255) on the image to something else. Maybe grey (250,250,250)
-> add ONE white pixel to the image for each province (where the flag pole will sit)

ImageOptional
-> add red borders to help the map editor find proper neighbors (you can change the color or delete them later)

.map file
-> add neighbor commands (do not need 2-way)
-> add terrain commands

use of Editor
-> create a bare .map file then load it into the Dom3 Map Editor under Game Tools
-> have it guess at neighbors (it cannot guess at terrain)
-> edit neighbors
-> edit terrains

.map optional:
-> set certain provinces as no-start (or set only the start provinces)
-> add names for provinces
-> set Victory Points for certain provinces
-> select provinces for special considerations on random magic sites
-> add magic sites for affecting temperatures or scales
-> select poptypes for certain provinces
-> select guardians for certain provinces
-> place forts, labs, temples
-> select gods, magic, scales, alliances for specific AIs

Mapping Quick Reference List
http://www.dom3minions.com/docs/map_qref.txt

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Jazzepi

Does anyone have any advice on how to create good wrap around maps? Like, what process should you follow so that it wraps nicely?

Jazzepi

This is done by "tiling".

There are many tutorials online, but the premise is this. You start with an image file, which I represent with this ASCII "map".

BCDEFGH
BCDEFGH
BCDEFGH
BCDEFGH

Then you copy a sliver from the left side (B) around to the right side (after H), like so:
BCDEFGHB
BCDEFGHB
BCDEFGHB
BCDEFGHB

Then you edit it until H lines up with the copied B (various clone, copying and smoothing tools help if you can't draw). Then you remove the "B", and your map tiles left to right (but not top to bottom).
BCDEFGA
BCDEFGA
BCDEFGA
BCDEFGA


You don't have to actually copy slivers and put them to the other end. Photoshop has a filter called Offset that makes the same thing, except easier, and I'm sure other image manipulation programs have something similar. They can turn ABCDefgh into efghABCD, both horizontally and vertically if you choose so. When you have removed the edges, do the offset again with inverted values to get back to your original map. If you see any new errors, fix them, too.

ABCDEF
ABCDEF
ABCDEF

DEFABC
DEFABC
DEFABC

If the ASCII representation was too confusing to be helpful, I can upload some images. It's probably faster to just search for tutorials on tiling textures. It's much simpler than it sounds.

[Jack_Trowell]

If you want to check if your map file is correct, you can use my online tool at http://dominions.realites.org/map_randomizer/

Juste uncheck the randomize options so the script doen't try to change any province, and if there are any unrecognized command, they will be listed.

Moreover, the script will output a cleaned map file, with all infos grouped by provinces, and add comments about each provinces terrain types.

The tool has not been updated for a while, so there might be some new commands from last patches still not recognized, but it shouldn't be too hard to update

I had also started working on a map editor (see the beta http://dominions.realites.org/map_editor/) but both projects have been put on hold for a while.