FAQ: Terrain has ugly squares (Solution)

[Ironchef]

Reinstalling the editor, and making a new map following the instructions on this site, I got this error:

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

This cleanly points to a missing texture for the surrounding terrain.

I guess you accidently chose to show the surrounding terrain, but never painted it (either manually or with TPaint). Either that or deactivate the surrounding terrain again. You could also copy one of the existing tx_sX texture tiles in /colormaps and rename it to 'tx_s3.dds' .

[Ironchef]

I totally have no idea what you just suggested. I'll just stop trying as I've spent a good 36 hours total trying to get a friggen map to load. I've actually had one of my maps open in multiplayer mode, but the tiles were black. I know I've seen that problem on these boards but the search tool is horrible so I've not been able to find it.

I also just tried using the paint tool found on this site, and now the maps crash sooner then my maps normally do. And for what it's worth, I'm not an idiot because i've followed the directions so perfectly and precisely..even having my wife watch and verify that I did it right..and when it doesn't work, it's just making us laugh now.

Maybe in a year there will be something a little more automated or better tested that i can try. Thanks for your help anyway.

Also, EVERY map I've made has been basically the same thing..just painting a 256 surface with grass_06 and one of the grass surfaces. Sometimes I'll make some rolling hills, sometimes just flat. I've made at least 15 maps now and I've got that down perfectly. I just want it to load and it's apparently too hard and there's apparently not specific enough intructions. You might add on this site that this is not for amateurs! lol

p.s. I did have tpaint paint the surrounding texture, for what it's worth.

[Catbox]

sorry to hear your quitting... you were so close...

If you had hit the surrounding terrain button on the lower right side of the editor you would have seen a blue tile with gray tiles(surrounding terrain) around the blue tile... then you right click on them and activate them if they are not already blue... then save and then run Tokens paint tool... then copy and paste the color,detail and lowdetail folders into your editor folder(delete the ones that are in there first)

then also copy and paste those three folders into your map folder itself...(delete the ones that are already there first again)... CB

[Ironchef]

and

Close, but no cigar... lol

And for what it's worth, I uninstalled all traces of battlefield, the editor, and any other files and registry entries for this game completely from my computer...reinstalled directx9.0c, my video drivers...defragged, etc.

reinstalled the game, played one round, exited, patched to 1.22, played a round, exited, then downloaded the editor and made a map 256 sized map according to the tutorial with grass only (texture and color), and I left it flat, and then used the paint tool to paint it. relaunched the map and put two control points and one spawn point for each cp..i also did the steps in the above post rerunning the paint tool after selecting the surrounding areas and recopying the folders mentioned above again.

Launched the game..and the above screenshots are what happened.

[Catbox]

did you look in your editor folder and see if there is a gameplayobjects.con?

CB

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

And keep in mind: After creating a brand new map ( i never do this, instead i prepare a map folder beforehand...) make sure to change the properties of the new map folder to be 'read/write' before trying to save something . This is an editor bug and explained in the bug thread :

http://bfeditor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=4571

Keep you hair on,lol

[Ironchef]

Ok, from the top since I've again started over...

Open editor, create new 256x2 map named "go." go to terrain, pick the brush icon, then go to layer 1 and pick grass_03 texture and grass_01color, select "both" and "texture" on the right.Save All, and exit from editor. Select default lowdetailtexture and click generate low detail texture button. Select all the surrounding squares in surrounding terrain field so they're all blue. SAVE ALL.

Copy painter program into "go" folder, launch paint executable and hit go. I copy the three folders into the editor folder as instructed (deleting their counterparts inside first).

Launch editor, go to "go" map, and it opens up showing the grass map i just made/painted. Going to levels mode, I put in a control point on one corner with two spawn points, and do likewise in the opposite corner making the second CP team 2. Save all, close editor.

Launch game in windowed mode, multiplayer> create game> select "go 16", start server...full progress bar, click on JOIN NOW..and poof! The window closes with no error.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This has happened about 6 times having repeated the above steps with small variances based on different suggestions about this topic on these boards that I've found.

[Catbox]

hey Iron... If you upload the map i will take a look at it... I know how frustrating mapping can be at times... CB

[Ironchef]

upload where? how?

[Catbox]

http://www.filefront.com/ ....set up a free account on filefront.... then just use winzip and zip up your map folder and upload your map

CB

[Ironchef]

http://files.filefront.com/gorar/;5001511;...;/fileinfo.html

I believe this is the link to my uploaded file. Let me know if it works.

My user id is: lronchef ("l" is the letter "L"), the file is "go.rar"

Oh, also, i just made that map real quick painting it by hand since it doesn't make a difference once it's created, still does same thing.

It's a 256x2 map, beach texture, sand color, surrounding tiles selected, two control points with 4 spawns each..nothing else.

[Catbox]

there is an error with the download... and its only 2mb? take your entire map... copy and paste it on yoor dektop... right click on the map on your desktop... scroll down to send to compressed(zipped) Folder...

CB

[Ironchef]

The uncompressed folder is 53mb, and compressed it goes to 2.98mb..though when you go inside, and select all the contents and view the size, it's around 9mb. Not sure why it's doing that.. Winrar made it 2mb..probably not measuring hidden or write protect files? lol

http://files.filefront.com/gozip/;5001611;...;/fileinfo.html

Actually, try this one.. http://files.filefront.com/go2zip/;5001645...;/fileinfo.html

By the way, this is what my map looks like in the editor after I open it once it's been saved...

[Catbox]

I just ran BFTpaint... then copied and pasted the color,detail and lowdetailmap folders into the editor folder... then opened the map in the editor... and added texture choices for the first three layers... then generated lowdetailtextures... then saved... map loaded no crash...

a good way to look at the textures in your map folder is the .dds thumbnail viewer... then you can see if they them...

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_thu...ail_viewer.html

heres a link to your working map

http://files.filefront.com/gozip/;5001783;...;/fileinfo.html

CB

[Ironchef]

Ccccccrrrrrrashola...

Hehe, great. So now I get to figure out how to have my game configured to not crash (since there's no errors in window mode when it crashes).

Any ideas? I've done default settings, and I've done low graphics settings (which leaves textures at medium), and I've done it so all graphics settings are low.

Any tips now?

Oh yeah, thanks for redoing my map. But a question..do I really need 3 layers or can i just do one layer for a playable map? I did a bunch with the three layers (rocks, grass, sand, like specified in the bftpaint tutorial), and i didn't see the need unless i was going to pass the first test of getting a map to load. Once i get a map to load, then i can start making real maps that I'dlike to play, etc.

[Catbox]

I just played your map the way you gave it to me... without the surrounding terrain painted and it didnt crash either... what are your graphics card settings on... and what type of graphics card? CB

[Ironchef]

Well unless a simple 256x2 map with no objects or altitude difference requires an abnormal amount of graphics rendering above the normal maps I've played (all on medium), I don't see how my graphics card is in issue. But who knows. Maybe creating a map manually with the editor really bloats the map.

I have a Radeon x300 adapter in my lattitude d610 laptop, and a gig of ram. The processor is a 2ghz mobile pentium 4. Again, I play this game on medium with no jumps, and i play other games (americ'as army which requires more than this) with it as well. But again, maybe building a map bloats or "de-optimizes" the rendering engine.

[Catbox]

what are your graphics card settings? CB

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

Ok, from the top since I've again started over...

Open editor, create new 256x2 map named "go." go to terrain, pick the brush icon, then go to layer 1 and pick grass_03 texture and grass_01color, select "both" and "texture" on the right.Save All, and exit from editor.  Select default lowdetailtexture and click generate low detail texture button.  Select all the surrounding squares in surrounding terrain field so they're all blue.  SAVE ALL.

second CP team 2.  Save all, close editor.

This is your basic problem: Don't SAVE ALL ! Only save the things the editor suggest saving. 'Save all' will also save things you didn't even start, like overgrowth, undergrowth and other unwanted things, leaving you with half finished stuff.

[Catbox]

He meant save all surrounding terrain tiles... Im pretty sure its his laptop thats making his map crash... CB

[Ironchef]

So is there someone with a hardware guideline to confirm my hardware requirements? And is it safe to say cutsom maps are much heavier in graphics rendering than retail maps? Because mentioning something like that would save people alot of time and headaches.

[Catbox]

Yeah, BF2 itself is a huge resource hog and the editor is just as bad or worse...

CB

[mschoeldgen[Xww2]]

Not necessarily custom maps pose a higher graphics load on the comp. Its just that DICE exactly knew the limitations of the engine and carefully designed their maps to conform with the specs. Things like fog range, heightmap design , number of vehicles, surrounding terrain scale, number of texture layers and so on all contribute to lag.

What we have to learn the hard way was only a short question from the DICE mapper to the DICE graphics engine programmer....

If you take the copy of a vanilla map, subsequently change it without altering the basic setup, it has exactly the same performance as the original.

System specs to run the editor are harder to meet than those for the game. You'll need at least 1GB of RAM and a GC with Pixel shader 1.4 in hardware to run the editor. Large maps (>1024 scale 2) require even more RAM. 2GB is not so bad to have....

[deceit]

]There are other non-obvious reason why a map would crash at pressing 'Join'.

There is an easy way to sycronize your mind with this problem. All you need to think about is what processes will be run when you click the join button.

Hell, here's an easier way of putting it;

BF2 says: Ok, the user pressed join; beginning final set up;

• 1. Make go renderring thinggers. (interface)
  2. Get/Set spawn camera (just found out how to set that)
  3. Spawn things
  4. Spawn player
  5. Lag a few seconds whilst retaining control from player, and spawn bots.
  6. Return control to player, and cease sparking up hard disk with intense heat!~