Re-Sizing a campaign map

[Thurnor]

A couple of questions:

I was looking to resize my campaign map, and was wondering what are the maximum dimensions for a campaign map? I looked in the hardcoded limits thread above but there was no figure for map dimensions.

I use corel paint shop pro, does anyone know of any guides for map modding using that? I looked but they are all for Photoshop.

[Makanyane]

Biggest you can have is 1021 x 1021 map_heights.tga size i.e. 510 x 510 map_regions.tga If you go anywhere near close to that though watch out for problems with sea size. The landmass CTD isn't to do with ratio of land/sea its more to do with absolute size and shape of seas and hence gets a lot worse the larger the map (with RTW/BI, M2TW seems to have fixed problem)

PaintShopPro is actually quite easy to use for basic map files as its less inclined to give you merged colours than Photoshop, just make sure your brush controls have 'paper texture' none, and opacity, density and hardness 100%. To re-size anything you should use 'pixel resize' option - to avoid merged colours. You will still have to manually sort out city and port pixels which will need reducing back to 1 pixel square. Rivers in map_features will also have to be redrawn manually - to check game launches initially just replace map_features with an all black version (no rivers)

Only problem with PSP is if you re-size your map_heights to compare it to regions to determine coastline, it doesn't do it accurately so you can end up trying to put cities in the sea! Once you've got something basic loading, a new corrected_regions.tga will be generated from your map_heights (you'll find that at same folder level as the .exe's) copy the corrected_regions in to replace your map_regions and you'll have accurate coastline.

[Thurnor]

PaintShopPro is actually quite easy to use for basic map files as its less inclined to give you merged colours than Photoshop, just make sure your brush controls have 'paper texture' none, and opacity, density and hardness 100%. To re-size anything you should use 'pixel resize' option - to avoid merged colours. You will still have to manually sort out city and port pixels which will need reducing back to 1 pixel square. Rivers in map_features will also have to be redrawn manually - to check game launches initially just replace map_features with an all black version (no rivers)

Pixel resize, of course, thankyou!! I was wondering how to stop my self getting blurred provinces.

I'm still not sure what other files I have to edit.

I was going by this guide from Myrddraal found in the Scriptorium:

Section four: Resizing the campaign map (in detail)

Resizing your campaign map is a fairly easy procces. First, open up map_regions.tga. Resize the canvas to the dimensions you want.
I recommend that you resize from the top right hand corner, as all measurements in descr_strat.txt are measured from the bottom left hand corner. If you want to resize in another direction, you will have to change all the co-ordinates in descr_strat.
I recommend you fill this new area with sea colour. You can always edit it later.

Now take a note of the new dimensions (in pixels) of map_regions.tga.

Open up desc_terrain.txt. Here you should see the x and y dimensions of the map. These are the dimensions of the map_regions.tga. Edit these so that they match the size of your map. Save and Quit.

Now you have to edit these files:
disasters.tga
map_climates.tga
map_features.tga
map_ground_types.tga
map_heights.tga
map_regions.tga
map_roughness.tga
map_trade_routes.tga

You have to resize them to the right proportions. Remember to resize from the top right hand corner (i.e. add canvas to the top and right hand sides).

Remember the dimensions of the files:
disasters.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
map_climates.tga - Twice the size of map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_features.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
map_ground_types.tga - Twice the size of map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_heights.tga - Twice the size as map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_roughness - Twice the size as map_regions.tga.
map_trade_routes.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
radar_map1.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
radar_map2.tga - Twice the size of regions.tga

As in map_regions, you should make this new area sea colour. This is not the same for every file, and some files do not require a specific colour for the sea. It should be easy enough for you to do.

Delete map.rmw, and run the game.

I'm not sure exactly how what to do though; basically I'm just aiming to increase the Munus Magnus proportionally to the maiximum limits; I thought it would be easy, but the rezining of map heights and other stuff is proving difficult.

[Makanyane]

That guide by Myrddraal is for adding a new chunk of map but leaving the existing bit the same size - hence he's talking about canvas re-size and not image re-size.

disasters.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
map_climates.tga - Twice the size of map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_features.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
map_ground_types.tga - Twice the size of map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_heights.tga - Twice the size as map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_roughness - Twice the size as map_regions.tga.
map_trade_routes.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga

those dimensions given are the right relative sizes for your new maps, but don't increase the size of the radar_maps, large ones actually crash game on campaign loading bar.

Write down what your map_regions size is going to be, put max length (510) in resize width box and let PSP tell you what proportionate height is with 'maintain aspect ratio' ticked, calculate all the other sizes off that. The other sized maps you will probably have to put both dimensions in so untick 'maintain aspect ratio' for them. Map_heights.tga should re-size OK but that wants to be on pixel_resize too, so the blue and black don't merge.

On the landmass / sea issue looking at MM map I think you could possibly have problem with the Indian Ocean area at the bottom right. If you get instant CTD without it generating map.rwm put a big blob of land RGB 1,1,1 in there on the map_heights.tga

You're going to have fun with all your army and resource co-ordinates unfortunately; you could try working out what proportion expansion is and applying percentage to them all, but you're still likely to get lots in wrong place. You might need to simplify descr_strat down so you've only got one army per faction and can place them somewhere safe while you figure rest of it out.

If any of this is putting you off - you could always try finding a version of IceTorque's WarMap you like, that is already at max size, though I'm not sure it ever had so much of the east on the map...

[Thurnor]

Thankyou once again...will use another weekend to try and make this work.

I would use IceTorque's WarMap, but want the expanse of land that MM offers.