Difference between revisions of "Custom minimaps"
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It's possible to use a handcrafted minimap texture instead of the one posted by the level editor, which can be quite large and non-stylized. Sometimes you may not even have the LVL file to export a minimap with, necessitating this procedure. Take for instance the ''arena2'' level available in the toolset. There is no accompanying LVL file released by BioWare and this level has no associated minimap. | It's possible to use a handcrafted minimap texture instead of the one posted by the level editor, which can be quite large and non-stylized. Sometimes you may not even have the LVL file to export a minimap with, necessitating this procedure. Take for instance the ''arena2'' level available in the toolset. There is no accompanying LVL file released by BioWare and this level has no associated minimap. | ||
| − | Let's presume you wanted to use this ''arena2'' level for one of your areas (although there are some culling issues by the doors). The files you'll need to create can go under ''addins\[UID]\core\override\arena2\minimap'' or elsewhere as appropriate, but will do for working with the toolset. These files would be ''arena2_mmap_ph.dds'' and ''arena2_mmi.gff'', or <level name>_mmap_ph.dds and <level name>_mmi.gff. If you can't use an exported minimap from the level editor as a base, perhaps the easiest way to start creating your own minimap image is create a test area with the desired area layout, turn on/off real lighting or whatever other settings, and then use print screen to capture and save the image as a BMP. After you save your first screen shot, add two waypoints: one to the bottom left of your area and one to the top right. These two waypoint coordinates will be used constrain your minimap area. Record the waypoints' position coordinates in the toolset as we'll need them for the arena2_mmi.gff file later. Take another screen shot with these two waypoints visible, as we'll use them as a reference when cropping the image. Also, keep the area at its default orientation when you open it so the screen shot will match up in game. TODO: determine whether Area Map North affects this at all. Obviously this method is also less useful the larger the area and smaller your display, but the maps don't need to be that large to be good enough. | + | Let's presume you wanted to use this ''arena2'' level for one of your areas (although there are some culling issues by the doors). The files you'll need to create can go under ''addins\[UID]\core\override\arena2\minimap'' or elsewhere as appropriate, but will do for working with the toolset. These files would be ''arena2_mmap_ph.dds'' and ''arena2_mmi.gff'', or <level name>_mmap_ph.dds and <level name>_mmi.gff. If you can't use an exported minimap from the level editor as a base, perhaps the easiest way to start creating your own minimap image is create a test area with the desired area layout, turn on/off real lighting or whatever other settings, and then use print screen to capture and save the image as a BMP. After you save your first screen shot, add two waypoints: one to the bottom left of your area and one to the top right. These two waypoint coordinates will be used constrain your minimap area. Record the waypoints' position coordinates in the toolset as we'll need them for the arena2_mmi.gff file later. Take another screen shot with these two waypoints visible, as we'll use them as a reference when cropping the image. Also, keep the area at its default orientation when you open it so the screen shot will match up in game. TODO: determine whether Area Map North affects this at all. Obviously this method is also less useful the larger the area and smaller your display, but the maps don't need to be that large to be good enough. Many interior minimaps in the single player campaign are 256x256 textures. |
Using an image editor with layers, you can easily use the image with waypoints underneath the image without in order to crop the first screen shot from the bottom left waypoint to the top right waypoint and then save the file. Now you can rescale the image if required. E.g., if your cropped image is 1280x1024, then you may want to use a 1024x1024 texture and shrink the image to 1024x819. If not a power of two texture, then you'll probably want to at least make it a multiple of 4, which some DDS exporters demand. Now within the new texture, align your actual minimap image to the top left corner. Now would be a good time to record another value you'll need for ''arena2_mmi.gff'': basically how much of the texture is used. If your actual minimap is 1024x819 in a 1024x1024 texture, then you'll want 1024/1024=1 and 819/1024=0.799805 for ''ENV_MINIMAP_TEXTURE_MAP_COORDS'', which we'll get to below. Now you can export the file as a DDS texture, which may require a plugin. | Using an image editor with layers, you can easily use the image with waypoints underneath the image without in order to crop the first screen shot from the bottom left waypoint to the top right waypoint and then save the file. Now you can rescale the image if required. E.g., if your cropped image is 1280x1024, then you may want to use a 1024x1024 texture and shrink the image to 1024x819. If not a power of two texture, then you'll probably want to at least make it a multiple of 4, which some DDS exporters demand. Now within the new texture, align your actual minimap image to the top left corner. Now would be a good time to record another value you'll need for ''arena2_mmi.gff'': basically how much of the texture is used. If your actual minimap is 1024x819 in a 1024x1024 texture, then you'll want 1024/1024=1 and 819/1024=0.799805 for ''ENV_MINIMAP_TEXTURE_MAP_COORDS'', which we'll get to below. Now you can export the file as a DDS texture, which may require a plugin. | ||
Latest revision as of 19:28, 19 September 2010
It's possible to use a handcrafted minimap texture instead of the one posted by the level editor, which can be quite large and non-stylized. Sometimes you may not even have the LVL file to export a minimap with, necessitating this procedure. Take for instance the arena2 level available in the toolset. There is no accompanying LVL file released by BioWare and this level has no associated minimap.
Let's presume you wanted to use this arena2 level for one of your areas (although there are some culling issues by the doors). The files you'll need to create can go under addins\[UID]\core\override\arena2\minimap or elsewhere as appropriate, but will do for working with the toolset. These files would be arena2_mmap_ph.dds and arena2_mmi.gff, or <level name>_mmap_ph.dds and <level name>_mmi.gff. If you can't use an exported minimap from the level editor as a base, perhaps the easiest way to start creating your own minimap image is create a test area with the desired area layout, turn on/off real lighting or whatever other settings, and then use print screen to capture and save the image as a BMP. After you save your first screen shot, add two waypoints: one to the bottom left of your area and one to the top right. These two waypoint coordinates will be used constrain your minimap area. Record the waypoints' position coordinates in the toolset as we'll need them for the arena2_mmi.gff file later. Take another screen shot with these two waypoints visible, as we'll use them as a reference when cropping the image. Also, keep the area at its default orientation when you open it so the screen shot will match up in game. TODO: determine whether Area Map North affects this at all. Obviously this method is also less useful the larger the area and smaller your display, but the maps don't need to be that large to be good enough. Many interior minimaps in the single player campaign are 256x256 textures.
Using an image editor with layers, you can easily use the image with waypoints underneath the image without in order to crop the first screen shot from the bottom left waypoint to the top right waypoint and then save the file. Now you can rescale the image if required. E.g., if your cropped image is 1280x1024, then you may want to use a 1024x1024 texture and shrink the image to 1024x819. If not a power of two texture, then you'll probably want to at least make it a multiple of 4, which some DDS exporters demand. Now within the new texture, align your actual minimap image to the top left corner. Now would be a good time to record another value you'll need for arena2_mmi.gff: basically how much of the texture is used. If your actual minimap is 1024x819 in a 1024x1024 texture, then you'll want 1024/1024=1 and 819/1024=0.799805 for ENV_MINIMAP_TEXTURE_MAP_COORDS, which we'll get to below. Now you can export the file as a DDS texture, which may require a plugin.
So now we have addins\[UID]\core\override\arena2\minimap\arena2_mmap_ph.dds finished, and now we need to edit the GFF for it. We'll use a preexisting file to edit in the toolset. Open the following file in the toolset C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\packages\core\env\brc505d\brc505d.rim and extract brc505d_mmi.gff. Now rename this file addins\[UID]\core\override\arena2\minimap\arena2_mmi.gff and open it up in the toolset for editing.
Edit ENV_MINIMAP_TEXTURE_MAP_COORDS to 1,0.799805,1 as calculated for the example minimap above, with the third coordinate always 1. Edit ENV_MINIMAP_LOWER_LEFT_POINT to the coordinates of your lower left waypoint, but with the z-value being -500. Edit ENV_MINIMAP_UPPER_RIGHT_POINT to the coordinates of your upper right waypoint, but with the z-value being 500.
You can seemingly round off the decimal for the lower left and upper right coordinates, as the map and minimap don't seem to require that much precision, and the toolset isn't that precise either when creating the GFF in the first place.
