Hello,

Am new to this particular modding gig and have decided to delve into the lesser travelled road of Cartography! to start. Know of the somewhat dated threads and Duke John's summary thread (incomplete???) and the old map library project (defunkt???). Have read much and forgotten more and request a few confirmations of defined entities, if you please:

1. Maptex.tga and Maptex2.tga -
The original or "picture" map - from handdrawn, hardcopy, or online source.
2048 x 1536 pixels (fixed?, max?), size in MB varies w/ content.
2. Lukupmap.lbm and Lukupmap2.lbm -
The outline map or "computer's" map - user created with region enclosures defined by color 0, sea regions with 1 unique color and land regions with 2 unique colors ea.
Fixed pixel???, size in MB varies w/ content.
There is an implied direct 1:1 scale relationship between the respective Maptex and Lukupmap, correct???
Reason for 2 maps each is for different display resolutions???
(I think I remember this from WesW MedMod d/l)

Two ways to generate:
A. Lukupmap is made from new layer placed on top of Maptex, edited for coords (pixels -> coords; 8x / 16x multipliers, or does LMM do this?), converted, and run thru LMM, etc.
--- OR ---
B. Lukupmap made from scratch (what?!?!) or simple scanned hardcopy outline map, edited, etc. Maptex made after the fact from Lukupmap or original?

3. Minimap, minilukup, FE..., FE... .bifs - First 2 are minimaps for Campaign, last 2 (FE) for Front End menu(s).
4. Wood... - Frames or window dressing - recycled, reused
5. Limit to number of regions - 100 or 108 land (Updated with VI??? or patch) and 40 sea
6. REGION_IDs are hard coded as such to specific palette position numbers. Mapper must keep a housekeeping list of his own as to which new region names (and colors) matches to the hardcoded MTW (or VI) REGION_ID. California = WESSEX_ID, etc. (Of course, with VI map IDs you're even further limited)
7. Are region names placed (painted) on the textured (or not) MAPTEX (if not already on the original)?
Did I miss any important specs??? Will deal with tweaking LMM generated scripted files incl. Startpos at later time.
Any help on above would be appreciated.

Oh Yeah, which paint program(s) works best with MTW maps (many opinions vary)..... Conflicted!