Layers For Maps (16, 32 And 64 Size Maps Etc)

[Rhino 0]

I couldn't find a tut in the Tutorials form about this when I needed to help a fellow mapper out with this so I thought I would make one.

Layers can be used for many things in the level editor, but the main thing they are used for is to split up different game modes, with different sizes of maps.

Now I've quickly made this map up here for this tut.

Very simple map, basically 4 islands. Now we want to make this map have layers for each size of map on the conquest game mode (16, 32 and 64).

So I plan that I want the 16 man to be confined to the South West island. With around 4 flags lets say, the 32 man to be confined to the South West, and North east islands, and the 64 man to be a fight over all 4 islands (the tiny little rock of land doesn't count as a island ).

So I'm going to take you though step by step with what you do.

1. You can start with any size first, but for this tut I'm going to do the 16man size first. The first thing you need to do is set up the layer. On the right hand toolbar (the editor toolbar), scroll down to the layers tab and click it to expand the window so it looks like this.

tip: you might want to close the "General" tab first to save space

2. You will see one layer that is there at the mo and that’s the default layer where all your static objects go etc. Just ignore it for now and right click below it, will pop up a little menu and click on "Create Layer" to crate a new layer.

3. This will pop up a new window where you get to name your layer. As this is our 16 man layer for the conquest game mode, let’s call it "Conquest_16". This is just so that if you add in any other game modes for a mod that has more than 1 game mode etc it will come in handy to see which game mode is which. Click Ok after that and it will bring you to a new window where you choose all the options for your game mode. At the top is your layer name which will already be filled out from the last window you did. then below that is your Game Modes you want to have in this layer. Now we only want Conquest so uncheck them all apart from conquest. Under this are the Player sizes we want. Now for this layer we only want the 16 man size so uncheck the 32 and 64 leaving the 16 checked. It should look like this:

After that, push Ok.

4. Now if you look on the right you will notice that you new layer is in the list. Make sure it is selected, if it is selected, any thing you do in the editor after that like place a new Control Point, Spawn point etc will be put into that layer. We don’t want it to be put into the Default layer or any other layers so each time before you do anything, make sure it’s highlighted like this:

Now we can make the 16man layer. first let’s set up our first Control Points on the map. Place the control points where you want them and put spawn points and object spawns around them as you see fit for the 16 player version. I'm going to have my version so that it is infantry only with no vehicles etc. Don’t forget to also put the combat zone on

5. So now I've set up all my CPs, Spawn points etc I want for my 16man version of the map.

If you look on the left, you will notice I've put 2 red arrows pointing towards the control points, and spawn points. But you should notice that they are in a folder, with the layer name. This shows that they are in the correct layer we want them to be

Now if you go back to the right, where you will notice a little tick box next to the layer, if you click that now you will notice when you uncheck the box all the stuff in that layer will vanish from the screen. If you check the layer again to turn it back on, it will all come back

This is useful when you want to only work on 1 layer at a time. Now turn off the 16man layer, and we will move onto the 32man

6. Now for the 32 man version, we want to just have the SW and NE islands in with CPs on them. so let’s do the same again, go to the layers bit, right click in an open space and crate a new layer. Call it "Conquest_32" and this time in the options, select all the same but in the players this time only have 32 selected out of the 3 sizes. make sure you have it selected then place your CPs, spawn points, object spawns and the combat border on the map for the 32 man layer

At the end it should look like this. Take note also, that now my CPs for the 32 layer have there own folder, and that my 16man layer is unchecked on the right in the layers tab.

7. For the 64 layer do the same again, you should have the hang of it now. Call the new layer "Conquest_64", set it up so that it saves for only the 64 size and place your objects away! I’m going to include all 4 islands for this version and put a chopper in for both sides as well.

8. This now basically is just the advanced stuff. Little tips, tricks and tools of the trade. Now if you right click in the layers window, above a layer you will notice some options in there I aren’t yet talked about. I will go though them one by one.

• Add to Layer ~ This feature is quite useful. It allows you to move items from one layer, to another. Simply select which items you want, maybe a static, a combat border etc, right click on the layer and click this button and the object(s) you had selected will be moved to that layer.
  
• Remove from Layer ~ basically the same as above, I don’t use this one much, use the above one if you need to its a lot easier.
  
• Select All in Layer ~ Dose what it says on the tin. It will select every object that is in that layer. This can be useful at times.
  
• Delete ~ Deletes the selected layer.
  
• Lock Layer ~ This tool I use a lot It is very useful and every time I am working on the gameplayobjects, I lock the default layer to stop me moving or select any statics by mistake but still view them at the same time. It also makes sure that you don't add anything new to that layer if you selected it by mistake. Very useful tool
  
• Disable Layer ~ To be honest I'm not 100% sure what this layer dose, but I'm 60% sure that if you do this, it will not save anything that’s inside the layer to the gameplayobjects etc when you save your objects on the map.
  

Other useful notes is that if you doable click a layer, you can edit its properties like what layers it saves to etc. You can also set up a layer to save to more than 1 size, and more than one game mode. A good example of this is if you want the 64man border to save to both the conquest and bla bal game mode, you can crate a new layer that will save it to both, then move the combat zone, using the add to layer tool or crate a combat zone, and when you save it, it will save to both.

I hope you all have found my tutorial useful

Edited January 18, 2007 by Rhino

[Bensta 0]

Nice work Rhino, i hated linking people to other tutorial that wasnt on this site

[Rhino 0]

Nice work Rhino, i hated linking people to other tutorial that wasnt on this site

hehe, i think i learnt the basics from just reading afew forum posts deep in this forum a very, very long time ago, and just taught the rest my self. then when i couldn't find a tut I just thought i should make one

[Catbox 0]

nice and easy to understand... thanks for the tutorial.... CB

[Harry 0]

ooh stickified, you lucky guy:P

I still dont understand why you need layers anyway. Cant you just put all on one layer or do you then get all the objects after a few maploads? Or is it just something for the editor to make mapmaking easier (which is very plausible:P)

[Bensta 0]

Its so you can make all the gamemode sizes 16, 32 and 64 and to place a diffrent gameplayobject.con in each of the 16,32 and 64 folders inside the gamemodes folder in your map. But you could always do it manualy anyway without the editor layer function.

Edited January 18, 2007 by Bensta-IDF

[Rhino 0]

ooh stickified, you lucky guy:P

I still dont understand why you need layers anyway. Cant you just put all on one layer or do you then get all the objects after a few maploads? Or is it just something for the editor to make mapmaking easier (which is very plausible:P)

you could do it manualy but it would take alot of time and effot where the editor, can save everything in the right place etc over and over, as long as you set it up correctly.

[SynystrGates 0]

Awesome tutorial. Quick questions -

Would the best time to add layers be after you have added all the object and before you added all the spawn points?

[Rhino 0]

crate your layers as soon as you want to add Game play objects like flags etc. Personly by the time i want to hop in and have a run round ingame i aint got nay where near the amount of objects i plan to set down, so i crate a small "test" layer with just 2 basic flags, spawn points, a jeep, jet and chopper so i can get around and then just hop ingame. Later on when i get to the final stages of my map, then i crate the real layers i want to use then

[NadeMaster 0]

Do u add static objects and stuff like that in the default layer?

[1/2Hawk 0]

You dont need to, anything on other layers will not appear in certain maps just like the flags and whatnot.

Hey, one thing that bugs the crap out of me is that once I put in a few layers it always starts out on the last one (layer 4) when I start my editor and I have to manually reset to Default before placing statics. Is there something simple I can do to make the Default layer the default layer? (Youd think itd be pretty obvious given the name but whatever).

[Rhino 0]

You dont need to, anything on other layers will not appear in certain maps just like the flags and whatnot.

Hey, one thing that bugs the crap out of me is that once I put in a few layers it always starts out on the last one (layer 4) when I start my editor and I have to manually reset to Default before placing statics. Is there something simple I can do to make the Default layer the default layer? (Youd think itd be pretty obvious given the name but whatever).

ye there is a thing you can do, first open up your map in the level editor, go over to your layers, dobble click on 1 layer and just check and uncheck any box, just make sure its the same settings as before but the editor will think you have changed it, press ok, then select layer 1, and turn off all the other layers, save your objects and next time you load it should all be ok

[1/2Hawk 0]

Oh I see... hey, that's a great idea - thanks for the tip!

[[SG:BFM-Dev]Hangman 0]

I know this is a bit of an old topic but has anybody ever encountered where the editor does not give any options for game mode and player numbers, this is happening to me right now.

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

If that happens you should perhaps copy a 'LayerInit.con' from /bf2editor/mods/bf2 to /bf2editor/mods/<your mod> folder.

Edited August 13, 2007 by mschoeldgen[Xww2]

[[SG:BFM-Dev]Hangman 0]

where would I find this .con file exactly?

Edited August 13, 2007 by [SG:BFM-Dev]Hangman

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

I posted the location How many /bf2editor folders do you have on machine ?

[Coronaextra 0]

Sorry to bring up an old thread but it was relevant to my problem..

I am working in reg bf2 (not my gaming machine so doesnt matter if I mess it up). I unpacked Dalian and turned off read only for all the files. Opened up the map in the editor and its loads onto the default layer with all the static objects (no control points, spawnpoints or vehicle spawners). I made sure that render > gameplay objects was enabled.

If I go to layers in the edit window It only shows 1 layer available (default) which holds all the static objects and is applied to all game modes. The problem is that I can not seem to get the editor to display the different game modes. Changing the show/player size options has no effect. Could someone tell me what I am doing wrong? maybe someone could open up Dalian and see what I mean?

[bergerkiller 0]

Bad news for you: layers are not in the packed levels.

As example:

For texture layers the editor creates the file "level_name\editor\groundproperties.con"

For gameplayobjects it created the file "level_name\editor\gameplayobjects.con"

So what I suggest is to back all your gamemodes up, place one "gameplayobjects.con" in level_name\editor and edit that one.

Don't know much of the gameplayobjects layers though, but I do know the gameplayobjects must be in the editor folder.

[Coronaextra 0]

Well, I guess my next question would be... How do I strip down a DICE level so that all that is there is the terrain and static objects. I want to remove all game modes, control points, spawn points, and vehicle spawners so that the level is "bare".

What I am tring to do is this:

I compete in the 2v2 chopper circuit. I am trying to make a version of Dalian plant for 2v2 scrims because to my knowlage it doesnt exist. I have made a basic map for this that works by deleting /levels/dalian/gamemodes/ and adding my own gameplay objects to the default layer. And this worked. I can load into the map and play. I even added some fog for fun

The problem is that Bf2 still thinks that there is 3 versions of this map when there isnt. The objects I added were on the default layer so they appeared on 16/32/64. This is not what I want. I only need a single version of this. So how to I get rid of the 32 and 64 player versions?

Is it better to try to find where this code is and remove it, or is it better to use import dalians terrain to a new map project and start fresh (possible?)

[mschoeldgen[Xww2] 0]

1. You cannot have two maps with the same name in the game. Remove one of tthem and/or rename the other .

2. Why don't you read a tutorial about ripping maps ? We even have a link in there which restores the different gameplay layers for all vanilla maps :

http://bfeditor.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=13672