BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me - Page 2

Rahn · 08-06-2005, 08:27 PM

Got any tips about the size of maps and exactly how big the difference is between all the settings?

Forgive me if you said covered this already, I'm fooling around with it myself and am too excited to stop and read right now.

Nigelbland · 08-07-2005, 07:46 AM

No worries about not reading it fully, thats why I put alot of things in CAPS just so various points stick out, I waffle. :P

I'm not sure on the size difference on the maps, you have 3 different map sizes: 256, 512 and 1024 (each map size has a scale factor 1x 2x 4x which can make HUGE maps). When I tried the largest its crashed when rendering so I haven't used that again. I've only got 512mb of memory which is probably part of the reason.

I keep using 256 size as its the quickest to load. It seems to be big enough for a reasonable town/city. The only problem being is that in creating a RADIATION FIELD (you know the one, out of bounds) that is big enough to stop someone reaching the edge of the map before the time they die you would have to cut into the overall space of map. Which isn't much when dealing with Infantry, but I think Jets, possibly Helo's aren't the best idea for the 256 map.

I haven't played with the sizes too much and can't get the SOLDIER Cam working as yet

I think I either need to create a spawn point or a soldier model, however when trying to import a Soldier model into the Object Editor it crashed when I double clicked to view it, this may have something to do with either my PC, the fact that single player functionality isn't active or it doesn't like me and I wasn't supposed to import a player model in the first place.

Getting SoldierCam working would give a better feel of the overall map size.

Lagomorph · 08-07-2005, 08:40 AM

I know it would be horribly inefficient to do regularly, but I just built a basic level then loaded it up in the game as my local server map and looked around a bit. Just throw down a bunch of stuff even if you don't really understand how it effects the level. Then when you run through for 15-20 minutes in-game you'll go "hey, thats pretty cool" and "Wow...thats just ugly/worthless." Also I found out that my initial idea of the scale with which I was modifying terrian was horribly wrong.

Again, It'd be silly to do all the time, but simply loading up a test level in-game helped me quite a bit.

- I've mostly completed my "mash buttons" playing around phase, and am now working on a tight urban level which I hope will be able to foster some fun infantry battles. wish me luck, I've been having *some* difficulty with bugs/crashes. (Might have to do with the quantity of objects loaded for playing.) ;P

wushuhero · 08-07-2005, 10:26 AM

wow this is all very confusing, maybe if i download the editer and fool around with it i might be able to see your points. thanks for the great tips

Rahn · 08-07-2005, 11:30 AM

So, is there any plans for making a Modding/Mapping Forum? Apophis?

What are some of your plans and ideas for those of us that are making maps? I'm thinking about making a invasion of China using USMC...I don't have any specifics as to what the landscape will be, beach or otherwise.

Nigelbland · 08-07-2005, 12:33 PM

Using Terragen to make you maps.

Ok, create your terrain as detailed previously but don't alter it, so it should be flat, it doesn't actually matter if you've altered it or not actually

Google it, D/L, install it. As far as I'm aware its Freeware. On opening Terragen you should see a couple of windows, one is called LANDSCAPE! Click the import button on that window and browse and select the below file

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2(providing your mapping for BF2 otherwise your MOD name should be here)\Levels\YOUR MAP NAME HERE\HeightmapPrimary.raw

TERRAGEN picked up the RAW file details for me (but be warned don't mess with the structure of the RAW file too much or BF2 won't read it properly).

If its flat it'll import as a BLACK picture

N.B.
Were only concerned about the LANDSCAPE window, ignore RENDERING CONTROL, its only useful for having a quick render for us anyway....Oi stop looking at it

Click Generate Terrain, mess about with the settings, click the GENERATE TERRAIN in that window to render and you'll see the THUMBNAIL update in the LANDSCAPE WINDOWS.

N.B.
WHITE is absolute height
BLACK is absolute bottom
BEWARE when generating terrain! Without understanding this you can end up importing the entire Tora Bora mountain range into BF2. Which in all honesty would make a tough and enjoyable Infantry fight trying to route people out of nooks and crannies but you would be able to drive a jeep on it. Or maybe that'll be a new may of attack. Driving the jeep off the edge towards the US trying to make there way up the mountain!

Play around with the settings, remembering that you idealy want alot of grey. You can use the BF2 editor to smooth things out easily anyway.

If you get any water don't worry, we'll fix this now.

Once you have your idea map, CLOSE the GENERATE TERRAIN WINDOW.

Now in the LANDSCAPE windows select MODIFY

SET the SHOW HEIGHT AS to Terrain units and in the Height range below, the minimum entry should be ZERO, I would also recomend that the Highest should be 100. Then press the SET HEIGHT RANGE. Your map will change slightly, it may become more rough. Sorry, but having a negative value in the RAW file MAY upset BF2EDITOR, try it.

Close the TERRAIN MODIFICATION window. Click EXPORT in the LANDSCAPE window.

In the EXPORT box that comes up, select: RAW 16 BITS INTEL BYTE-ORDER, select the same HeightmapPrimary.raw as above, and click YES to over write.

Now RE-load up the BF2 editor and have a look at your map.

N.B.
Your map will need some amendments, probably as it will be difficlut to play on and quite a rough surface. Heres a few tips.

BLUR the terrain in your favourite GFX package. I use GIMP as I can't afford Photoshop. GIMP doesn't open RAW files by default and I couldn't get any of the plugins to work (ANY IDEAS ON FIXING THIS WOULD BE APPRECIATE). However for those who have Photoshop, there a tutorial on loading the files and editing them here: http://www.planetbattlefield.com/bf2...ingheightmaps/

In the BF2EDITOR you could set the maps TERRAINHEIGHT to a lesser amount thus lowering and smoothing out those Everests among us. To do this. In the TWEAKBAR there is a TAB with your MAP NAME on it. Click that and on the entry for TERRAIN HEIGHT, experiment! The value 20 made a nice flatish but varied terrain for me. HOWEVER! This causes limitations meaning that your map will never be Higher than 20(meters I think). If your aware then this isn't a problem if planned.

The other thing you can do is manually alter the terrain using the BF2EDITOR. You will notice that TERRAGEN makes some funny artifacts at the side of the map. I don't think you'll notice these ingame but you may want to IRON them out.

ALSO, any one know any free webspace I can host pictures and a document or two regarding this let me know. With PICS it'll be easier to follow.

Later.

Ragged · 08-07-2005, 01:47 PM

The tutorial give incorrect instructions on placing a static object.

In order to get the object into the static objects folder you need to click on the little blue + icon in the very top left of the resources pane. That will give you a list of objects you can import and use. Once you have it loaded you can continue with the tutorial directions as they appear.

Not sure if that was mentioned or not but I just discovered that the hard way.

Rahn · 08-07-2005, 02:36 PM

Ragged, which tutorial are you talking about?

I just found and just began reading this tutorial and I don't know if any of you have seen this or followed it but I thought I would post it up for the people who haven't seen it.

http://totalbf2.filecloud.com/files/..._file_id=40580

That site is just horrible though, it's slow as hell but still works.

Ragged · 08-07-2005, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahn

Ragged, which tutorial are you talking about?

I just found and just began reading this tutorial and I don't know if any of you have seen this or followed it but I thought I would post it up for the people who haven't seen it.

http://totalbf2.filecloud.com/files/..._file_id=40580

That site is just horrible though, it's slow as hell but still works.

Sorry, I meant the official one off of the bf2 website here: http://www.eagames.com/official/batt.../downloads.jsp

Still can't find the MAX tools that supposedly ship with the editor. Anyone know where they are?

Rahn · 08-07-2005, 03:58 PM

I'm not sure about the MAX tools but the Tutorials in the link I posted, which maybe and probably are the same as the official ones, are VERY good and I am having a blast.

Now, if anyone is interested in creating a map together, brainstorming or maybe creating a sort of "map series" that can connect some how I would be very interested.

Contact me on XFire, rahn0, or AIM, Rahn EZ.
I'm looking forward to collaborating with someone so if anyone is up for the challenge, lets get started and contact me.

Clorox · 08-07-2005, 04:11 PM

Nigelbland-

Could use USGS Dems for mapping and importing into terragen also I think. This would allow for some real world elevations.

wushuhero · 08-07-2005, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahn

What are some of your plans and ideas for those of us that are making maps? I'm thinking about making a invasion of China using USMC...I don't have any specifics as to what the landscape will be, beach or otherwise.

invade china, noooooooo
cant you people invade japan for once

j/k

hmmm, this post is off topic
sorry

Rahn · 08-07-2005, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wushuhero

invade china, noooooooo
cant you people invade japan for once

j/k

hmmm, this post is off topic
sorry

lol, wtf?

Rin · 08-07-2005, 09:30 PM

How about some maps set in the US - where the MEC/China is invading us? I think that would be neat, and so far I see nothing to that effect.

wushuhero · 08-07-2005, 10:18 PM

sorry mate, by the time I posted there were already 3 or 4 posts about something else, my post seemed to be randome

I had an outburst there lol

but I stand by what I said

woot

08-06-2005, 08:27 PM	#16 (permalink)
Rahn Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: USA Age: 23 Posts: 127	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me Got any tips about the size of maps and exactly how big the difference is between all the settings? Forgive me if you said covered this already, I'm fooling around with it myself and am too excited to stop and read right now. __________________ I'm not the Killer Man... I'm the Killer Man's son... But I'll do the killing... Until the Killer Man comes...

08-07-2005, 07:46 AM	#17 (permalink)
Nigelbland Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 85	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me No worries about not reading it fully, thats why I put alot of things in CAPS just so various points stick out, I waffle. :P I'm not sure on the size difference on the maps, you have 3 different map sizes: 256, 512 and 1024 (each map size has a scale factor 1x 2x 4x which can make HUGE maps). When I tried the largest its crashed when rendering so I haven't used that again. I've only got 512mb of memory which is probably part of the reason. I keep using 256 size as its the quickest to load. It seems to be big enough for a reasonable town/city. The only problem being is that in creating a RADIATION FIELD (you know the one, out of bounds) that is big enough to stop someone reaching the edge of the map before the time they die you would have to cut into the overall space of map. Which isn't much when dealing with Infantry, but I think Jets, possibly Helo's aren't the best idea for the 256 map. I haven't played with the sizes too much and can't get the SOLDIER Cam working as yet I think I either need to create a spawn point or a soldier model, however when trying to import a Soldier model into the Object Editor it crashed when I double clicked to view it, this may have something to do with either my PC, the fact that single player functionality isn't active or it doesn't like me and I wasn't supposed to import a player model in the first place. Getting SoldierCam working would give a better feel of the overall map size.

08-07-2005, 08:40 AM	#18 (permalink)
Lagomorph Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Redmond, WA Age: 22 Posts: 277	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me I know it would be horribly inefficient to do regularly, but I just built a basic level then loaded it up in the game as my local server map and looked around a bit. Just throw down a bunch of stuff even if you don't really understand how it effects the level. Then when you run through for 15-20 minutes in-game you'll go "hey, thats pretty cool" and "Wow...thats just ugly/worthless." Also I found out that my initial idea of the scale with which I was modifying terrian was horribly wrong. Again, It'd be silly to do all the time, but simply loading up a test level in-game helped me quite a bit. - I've mostly completed my "mash buttons" playing around phase, and am now working on a tight urban level which I hope will be able to foster some fun infantry battles. wish me luck, I've been having some difficulty with bugs/crashes. (Might have to do with the quantity of objects loaded for playing.) ;P __________________ Combat is very simple, there is a first place and a second place. Second place is laying face down in the mud...sometimes, so is first place. [age-c1] [eng][air]

08-07-2005, 10:26 AM	#19 (permalink)
wushuhero Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 722	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me wow this is all very confusing, maybe if i download the editer and fool around with it i might be able to see your points. thanks for the great tips __________________ "The Taoist sage has no ambitions, therefore he can never fail. He who never fails always succeeds. And he who always succeeds is all- powerful." -- Lao Tzu ingame name: Zuiquan1

08-07-2005, 11:30 AM	#20 (permalink)
Rahn Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: USA Age: 23 Posts: 127	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me So, is there any plans for making a Modding/Mapping Forum? Apophis? What are some of your plans and ideas for those of us that are making maps? I'm thinking about making a invasion of China using USMC...I don't have any specifics as to what the landscape will be, beach or otherwise. __________________ I'm not the Killer Man... I'm the Killer Man's son... But I'll do the killing... Until the Killer Man comes...

08-07-2005, 12:33 PM	#21 (permalink)
Nigelbland Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 85	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me Using Terragen to make you maps. Ok, create your terrain as detailed previously but don't alter it, so it should be flat, it doesn't actually matter if you've altered it or not actually Google it, D/L, install it. As far as I'm aware its Freeware. On opening Terragen you should see a couple of windows, one is called LANDSCAPE! Click the import button on that window and browse and select the below file C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\bf2(providing your mapping for BF2 otherwise your MOD name should be here)\Levels\YOUR MAP NAME HERE\HeightmapPrimary.raw TERRAGEN picked up the RAW file details for me (but be warned don't mess with the structure of the RAW file too much or BF2 won't read it properly). If its flat it'll import as a BLACK picture N.B. Were only concerned about the LANDSCAPE window, ignore RENDERING CONTROL, its only useful for having a quick render for us anyway....Oi stop looking at it Click Generate Terrain, mess about with the settings, click the GENERATE TERRAIN in that window to render and you'll see the THUMBNAIL update in the LANDSCAPE WINDOWS. N.B. WHITE is absolute height BLACK is absolute bottom BEWARE when generating terrain! Without understanding this you can end up importing the entire Tora Bora mountain range into BF2. Which in all honesty would make a tough and enjoyable Infantry fight trying to route people out of nooks and crannies but you would be able to drive a jeep on it. Or maybe that'll be a new may of attack. Driving the jeep off the edge towards the US trying to make there way up the mountain! Play around with the settings, remembering that you idealy want alot of grey. You can use the BF2 editor to smooth things out easily anyway. If you get any water don't worry, we'll fix this now. Once you have your idea map, CLOSE the GENERATE TERRAIN WINDOW. Now in the LANDSCAPE windows select MODIFY SET the SHOW HEIGHT AS to Terrain units and in the Height range below, the minimum entry should be ZERO, I would also recomend that the Highest should be 100. Then press the SET HEIGHT RANGE. Your map will change slightly, it may become more rough. Sorry, but having a negative value in the RAW file MAY upset BF2EDITOR, try it. Close the TERRAIN MODIFICATION window. Click EXPORT in the LANDSCAPE window. In the EXPORT box that comes up, select: RAW 16 BITS INTEL BYTE-ORDER, select the same HeightmapPrimary.raw as above, and click YES to over write. Now RE-load up the BF2 editor and have a look at your map. N.B. Your map will need some amendments, probably as it will be difficlut to play on and quite a rough surface. Heres a few tips. BLUR the terrain in your favourite GFX package. I use GIMP as I can't afford Photoshop. GIMP doesn't open RAW files by default and I couldn't get any of the plugins to work (ANY IDEAS ON FIXING THIS WOULD BE APPRECIATE). However for those who have Photoshop, there a tutorial on loading the files and editing them here: http://www.planetbattlefield.com/bf2...ingheightmaps/ In the BF2EDITOR you could set the maps TERRAINHEIGHT to a lesser amount thus lowering and smoothing out those Everests among us. To do this. In the TWEAKBAR there is a TAB with your MAP NAME on it. Click that and on the entry for TERRAIN HEIGHT, experiment! The value 20 made a nice flatish but varied terrain for me. HOWEVER! This causes limitations meaning that your map will never be Higher than 20(meters I think). If your aware then this isn't a problem if planned. The other thing you can do is manually alter the terrain using the BF2EDITOR. You will notice that TERRAGEN makes some funny artifacts at the side of the map. I don't think you'll notice these ingame but you may want to IRON them out. ALSO, any one know any free webspace I can host pictures and a document or two regarding this let me know. With PICS it'll be easier to follow. Later.

08-07-2005, 01:47 PM	#22 (permalink)
Ragged Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Winston-Salem, NC Age: 38 Posts: 153	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me The tutorial give incorrect instructions on placing a static object. In order to get the object into the static objects folder you need to click on the little blue + icon in the very top left of the resources pane. That will give you a list of objects you can import and use. Once you have it loaded you can continue with the tutorial directions as they appear. Not sure if that was mentioned or not but I just discovered that the hard way. __________________ Never lock the dogs when the wolf is in the darkness. [age-c1][conduct]

08-07-2005, 02:36 PM	#23 (permalink)
Rahn Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: USA Age: 23 Posts: 127	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me Ragged, which tutorial are you talking about? I just found and just began reading this tutorial and I don't know if any of you have seen this or followed it but I thought I would post it up for the people who haven't seen it. http://totalbf2.filecloud.com/files/..._file_id=40580 That site is just horrible though, it's slow as hell but still works. __________________ I'm not the Killer Man... I'm the Killer Man's son... But I'll do the killing... Until the Killer Man comes...

08-07-2005, 03:58 PM	#25 (permalink)
Rahn Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: USA Age: 23 Posts: 127	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me I'm not sure about the MAX tools but the Tutorials in the link I posted, which maybe and probably are the same as the official ones, are VERY good and I am having a blast. Now, if anyone is interested in creating a map together, brainstorming or maybe creating a sort of "map series" that can connect some how I would be very interested. Contact me on XFire, rahn0, or AIM, Rahn EZ. I'm looking forward to collaborating with someone so if anyone is up for the challenge, lets get started and contact me. __________________ I'm not the Killer Man... I'm the Killer Man's son... But I'll do the killing... Until the Killer Man comes...

08-07-2005, 04:11 PM	#26 (permalink)
Clorox Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 91	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me Nigelbland- Could use USGS Dems for mapping and importing into terragen also I think. This would allow for some real world elevations.

08-07-2005, 09:30 PM	#29 (permalink)
Rin Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 58	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me How about some maps set in the US - where the MEC/China is invading us? I think that would be neat, and so far I see nothing to that effect. __________________ leejo: "I'll stop shooting at medics when they stop reviving people who are trying to kill me."

08-07-2005, 10:18 PM	#30 (permalink)
wushuhero Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 722	Re: BF2 editor for the Noobs among us..like me sorry mate, by the time I posted there were already 3 or 4 posts about something else, my post seemed to be randome I had an outburst there lol but I stand by what I said woot __________________ "The Taoist sage has no ambitions, therefore he can never fail. He who never fails always succeeds. And he who always succeeds is all- powerful." -- Lao Tzu ingame name: Zuiquan1

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