How To Avoid A Lot Of Editor Crashes When Working With Undergrowth

[Dr Rank]

If you're familiar with mapping you will find the editor likes to frequently crash the moment you start working on undergrowth, even with a decent amount of RAM. Here are some tips that can help.

Tip 1

This is particularly relevent for anyone working on a large scale map (2km+). Its basically a way of setting up/making changes to your undergrowth outside of your main map, very useful if you want to edit one of your undergrowth types or set up some new ones.

All you need to do is:

1. Create a new map in the editor (I've called this temporary small map 'undergrowth' to help organise it a bit) - choose the smallest size possible to save on memory i.e. 256 scale 1. (the editor is still vulnerable to crashing when working with an empty map of this size but it should happen a lot less frequently.)
   
2. Close the editor then copy all of you undergrowth files from your main map folder into this new map folder (you can also copy the sky.con across to help you see what the undergrowth will look like)
   
3. Reload the editor with this new 'undergrowth' map (you can quickly paint a section of the terrain in the same texture as the one you wish to put the undergrowth on so as to give you a better idea of what it will look like in your main map)
   
4. Set up your new undergrowth, make changes to you existing undergrowth setup etc (NOTE you cannot change how the undergrowth is painted onto the map here as that data is saved in the .raw file which we don't want to edit here. This process is only for setting up new undergrowth types/making changes to current types, adjusting densities, meshes, textures etc. However make sure you paint away so you can see what your new undergrowth looks like.)
   
5. Save the changes, close the editor
   
6. Copy all of the undergrowth files EXCEPT the undergrowth.raw file from your 'undergrowth' map to you main map (make sure you've backed up your main map first in case anything goes wrong)
   
7. Load up your main map in the editor. Bingo, your new undergrowth is set up ready to be painted!
   

NOTE: Make sure that when you load your main map in the editor in the final step you must re-save you undergrowth before you try to test your map in game otherwise it won't correctly update your undergrowth atlas.

Tip 2

ALWAYS save your map before you do any work on your undergrowth, then save it regularly when your working on it and save it again before you work on anything else in the map. That way you minimise the risk of losing work.

Tip 3

If you've forgotten to save your undergrowth and have made other changes to the map that need saving make sure that you deselect the undergrowth the first time you save. Once you have safely saved all of your other changes run the save again and save the undergrowth separately.

Tip 4

Whenever you are making changes to the undergrowth make sure you are not rendering it in the editor as it is more likely to crash.

I hope this helps!

[Catbox]

that's a cool tip... thanks

[jedc53]

I have read all the tips of undergrowth.The main issue I ran into was at under and overgrowth.I got the map files done easily enough, but I edit won't render any under or overgrowth.In feature I will be used this tips.