Req Tutorial: How To Make 8k Size Map

[gunslayer201 0]

Im interested in learning how to make an 8k size map. If anyone knows how a text tutorial would be nice as i would be willing to learn it and then make a video tutorial of it. Thanks!

[TNE26 0]

x8 maps are not supported by the BF engine as far as i know. x4 is the largest, and they have a lot of problems. What the h*** do you need an 8 km map for anyway?

[gunslayer201 0]

well there is a way to make an 8k map because i just played one in combined arms, and just to make a really big training map.

[TNE26 0]

No there is not. BF2 supports a maximum size of 1024x4 = 4096x4096 map, aka. 4km.

If you are serious that you've seen a map in 8km size, link me to it, and I'll check it out. (but the BF2 engine doesnt support it)

[gunslayer201 0]

yea man just download combined arms a mod of project reality and play seethed waters im telling you its 8k size its wake island but 8k size they did some coding to it, its basically all water.

[Freeze 0]

Not entirely sure, but maybe it's possible to manually make a heightmap pass the limits.

I say this because the Heightdata.con has lines like these:

heightmapcluster.setHeightmapSize 2048

heightmap.setSize 1025 1025

heightmap.setSize 257 257

etc. and I wonder what would happen if you were to manually change these. Don't really see the point, though.

[Catbox 0]

8x map would be beyond huge... You would get lost trying to find someone to shoot at...lol

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

8k maps are possible , but they are only suitable for maps full with water , no visible terrain as the shadow bug gets really annoying. You have to manually edit all related .con files and should not open this map in terrain editor and save anything from it.

A tutorial is out of the question as an 8k map really has nothing to do with the editor. You can use the editor only to create a basic skeleton of such a map and do the rest manually. You will need profound knowledge of maps before attempting anything like that.

Edited August 20, 2009 by mschoeldgen[Xww2]

[TNE26 0]

Ahh.. so it's the editor that has a (buggy) limit of 1024x4.. thought that was the games as well..

But yeah.. it would be 4x the size of battle on quinling.. Now that's huge.. 64 players can get lost alltogether..

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

Indeed , the BF2 Editor is really only working reliably with scale 2 maps - and nothing else. Any other scale ( although the editor offers them ) will cause a lot of trouble and should probably better be coded manually. A beginner should surely stick with scale 2 for the first 2 or 3 maps.

[Chael 0]

I've been wondering, does the shadow bug appear on statics?

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

Not that i know - it happens with plane shadows when the plane reaches a certain height = distance to the ground.

[gunslayer201 0]

so it is possible, does anyone know how to do it?

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

Its nothing for the faint hearted - but if you insist all you have to do is to edit terrain.con and heigthdata.con for the new scale 8 ( and probably follow the hint about terrain lod stitching )

Be forewarned - nobody will help you and the editor cannot edit those maps once the new scale is set. You have to paint and sculpt the terrain by other means than the editor. Placing statics and gameplay stuff might be impossible - or only can be done manually.

[Freeze 0]

Placing statics and gameplay stuff might be impossible - or only can be done manually.

The Sandbox mod might be helpful here.

Do some modding to include all objects in bf2 at your disposal and place them on the map. Then save your creation as a staticobjects.con file format and you're good to go.

You'll have to manually place them with grid snap and what not, but it'll be much easier than converting your map every time you want to use it in the editor to place objects.

Edited August 25, 2009 by Freeze

[Chael 0]

I just set the values in my Heightdata.con to:

heightmapcluster.setHeightmapSize 8192

and

heightmap.setSize 4097 4097

When I loaded the map it gave me some errors about a sanity check. I told it that I'm perfectly sane (I pressed continue) and to my amazement, the map loaded! I didn't bother messing with the terrain as I'm using a staticmesh instead (converted SRTM data to obj, cut it up, etc.). It's freakin' huge! Can anyone tell me what scale the above numbers represent (how many square killometres)?

Edited August 26, 2009 by Chael

[clivewil 0]

that's about 67 square kilometers if my calculations are correct and your map's sides are 8.192km long (a scale x2 is 2.048km across, scale x4 is 4.096km across)

[Chael 0]

Hey, thanks man! I wasn't sure if the numbers actually represented the full size of the map. My static terrain is about 4000 square meters so now I have enough room for 3 more sections of my SRTM data! This thread rocks!

[Freeze 0]

When I loaded the map it gave me some errors about a sanity check.

I've gotten one of these when adding a file way too huge to the clientarchives.con.

[Chael 0]

Well I only get it when I use this scale. Actually it comes up several times during loading. I get the feeling it has to do with this line: "heightmap.setSize 4097 4097" as it comes up in pairs (twice in quick succession) and probably the same amount of times as this line appears. Could someone explain exactly what this line does? The only reason I need this scale is so I can have more space on the map and in the combat area; I don't need any terrain.

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

Keep in mind to also change the scale :

Heightdata.con :

heightmap.setScale 2/0.0014/2

heightmap.setScale 8/0.0014/8

If you have surrounding terrain adjust it accordingly.

Terrain.con:

terrain.primaryWorldScale 2/0.0014/2

terrain.primaryWorldScale 8/0.0014/8

[Dwane Diblie 0]

"heightmap.setSize 4097 4097"

Could someone explain exactly what this line does?

I assume you mean the above line.

it tells the engin what size in pixles the heightmap will be so it knows how to arange teh RAW data. The higher the number the more detail the heightmap has. I havent actualy played around with it but I assume you can have a scale 8 map with a heightmap of 2 by 2. This would give you exactly one squair for terain detail and being flat would suit your perpose. Some one somewhere out there actualy got away with no terain what so ever. You should be able to track them down some how. Mey be that can help.

[Chael 0]

Here is my Heightdata.con:

heightmapcluster.create HeighmapCluster
heightmapcluster.setClusterSize 3
heightmapcluster.setHeightmapSize 8192

rem --- primary ---
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap 0 0
heightmap.setSize 4096 4096
heightmap.setScale 8/0.0025/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 16
heightmap.setModified 1
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapPrimary.raw
heightmap.setMaterialScale 1
heightmap.loadMaterialData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapPrimary.mat

rem --- secondary ---
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap -1 -1
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_L1U1.raw
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap 0 -1
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_U1.raw
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap 1 -1
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_R1U1.raw

heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap -1 0
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_L1.raw
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap 1 0
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_R1.raw

heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap -1 1
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_L1D1.raw
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap 0 1
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_D1.raw
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap 1 1
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 8/0.64/8
heightmap.setBitResolution 8
heightmap.setModified 0
heightmap.loadHeightData Levels/ChaelTestMap/HeightmapSecondary_R1D1.raw

heightmapcluster.setSeaWaterLevel 0
rem heightmapcluster.setSeaWaterLevel -10000

With these settings I was able to reduce the sanity errors from 19 down to 1. I still don't know what most of this stuff means. As far as I can tell, this is the only setting that I care about: "heightmapcluster.setHeightmapSize 8192". Getting rid of the terrain entirely would be ideal; short of that I'd just need to know what settings will give me a scale 8 map that doesn't freak out the engine. If anyone has a scale 8 map that works (perhaps from a mod) could you please post the Heightdata.con?

Edited September 6, 2009 by Chael

[A13X 0]

I've made a 16k map. There are however a few drawbacks:

* 3 sanity check warnings pop up at 100% but after saying it's ok the map loads perfectly fine, even on a dedicated server

* The map is completely filled with water, as I want to recreate a naval battle. Water's physics work fine but projectile collision don't

 

For anyone interested all I did is to create a map in editor and then edit the Terrain.con and Heighdata.con as metioned above, in my case:

heightmapcluster.setHeightmapSize 16384

rem --- primary ---
heightmapcluster.addHeightmap Heightmap 0 0
heightmap.setSize 1025 1025
heightmap.setScale 16/0.64/16

 

Edited January 13 by A13X