Editor Questions

[Broadsword]

OK, I'm ready to plunge in and try making my first scenario(s).

I'm going to try and make a map for the El Guettar area (since I can envision several good March 1943 scenarios in that area: One where Patton advances and runs into the Italian Centauro Division, next when the 10th Panzer Division attacks Patton, and finally when Patton goes on the offensive and resumes his push eastward). Also, since we have Italian units now, these battles become possible. And there's a very thorough GHQ miniatures scenario for El Guettar posted at

http://www.ghqmodels.com/newsletters/julaug2002.pdf

that could serve as a basic guide for the map, OOB, etc.

Question: What is the scale of the grid in the 2D view of the Map Editor? How many meters is the very smallest square, and what do the white lines every 10 squares marked with "1.00...2.00...3.000" signify?

I found El Guettar on Google Earth, and I can use that satellite map to check elevations and be my guide for placing features. But I'm wondering what size "slice" of the terrain I should pick for my battlefield? Given the limitations on the number of units in TOW2, I need to keep the battlefield small enough for, say, a company-scale engagement. Suggestions?

[Sneaksie]

Smallest square (in zoomed in 2d view) is 1x1m.

[Broadsword]

Thanks for your help.

Next question: I want to start my custom map by loading the "blank map" into the map editor, and first changing the heights so I can get the correct terrain for my battlefield.

The most common height level of my custom map will be 266 meters. So, I'd like to raise the height of the entire map to 266 meters as a starting level, and then raise or lower specific areas as needed. How can I raise the entire map height to 266? It seems the horizontal areas terrain brush is the tool I need. But I can't seem to set it to any specific height -- and the sliders on the "Terrain Brush Options" box don't move when I try to change them -- the sliders are really small, and it seems as if the cursor isn't really located where I'm placing it.

[Broadsword]

How do I get the grass brush to draw grass on my custom map?

I followed the steps in the map editor manual, but after I set the tool parameters and start to drag the brush (holding LMB or RMB down), it doesn't draw anything. I have video setting enabled to show grass, so I don't know what the problem is.

[Broadsword]

OK, I got the grass brush to work, but for some reason it paints grass only on the fairly flat portions of my custom map. How do I get it to paint some grass on my hills?

Also: How do I paint a brighter sandy texture to show bare spots of ground or eroded areas around the peaks of hills? I notice there's a tool called Maintex Brush, but the map editor manual says nothing about it. Is it possible to create/save a texture from some other source and then use this brush to paint it onto terrain? Or is the Maintex Brush strictly a tool that determines the color (RGB model) of an area? If so, what is "Alpha" or "Color A" on the tool? CSpeed?

[Broadsword]

Working with th map editor has given me an even greater appreciation for what TOW2's artists accomplished to render the desert landscape -- How does one get that sandy, color on the terrain, the dusty texture, and that bumpy, cracked texture on rough areas of the hills? I've got to know!!

[Knokke]

To change the color of your maintex.tga texture and farmaintex.tga texture, you can edit them directly in your favorite paint program; there is no need to edit them from inside the editor for this kind of work.

[Broadsword]

But what are maintex.tga and farmaintex.tga, and what is their function?

Also, I notice there are commands to "clear main texture" and "blend texture layers." What do those do?

The texture brush just seems like a vitrual spraypaint can, and the RGBA parameters seem to control only the color of the "paint," not any texture (like bumpy or sandy or crackled stone).

[Knokke]

Maintex.tga is a texture used fo the ground color of the battle area; it is a 2048x2048 texture found in the /maps/name_of_your_map folder. Farmaintex.tga is a lower resolution 1024x1024 texture used for the ground outside the battle area. It is my understanding that the "color" texture brush is not working in ToW2; it was working in ToW1 though. It was only changing the color of the ground (modifying the color in the maintex.tga). It is a different brush that the one used to add bump texture on the map.

[Narses]

OK, just getting started on my Vista64 PC.

Where is the "Battle Generator" mentioned on pg 66 of the manual ? It says to try and use the file MissionGen.exe. The only file I see is MissionGen.exe.config.

Where is the "Editor." I get a map editor but there is nothing in the folders that I can click on other than the editor document to get started to create a mission & place units.

I had the same huge disappointment with TOW being told after the fact there is no editor if you use Vista. Great.

[Broadsword]

Knokke -- In that case, what brush is used to add bump texture to the map? And, how does one find a bump texture and load it into that brush to apply the texture to a custom map?

I have used the maintex brush to add color in TOW2 map editor, and it seems to work fine.

[Narses]

Are the Battle Generator instructions online in the game as well as in the manual.

I can't seem to find it although I see the Mission Editor online.

[Broadsword]

How can I paint those little greenish patches on the map to represent short grass?

And, how can I set the RGB color of those patches to 127, 200, 22 (the grass color I want)? I know I can place actual grass textures on the map with the grass types brush, but I want to have the green ground under the grass -- otherwise the grass always looks too brown or straw-like. Is there a tool that can act like a little spraypaint can, to apply color to the map ground this way?

[Knokke]

the grass takes the color of the ground underneath it. You don't really need IMFViewer for creating the Maintex.tga or the farmaintex.tga, unless you want to modify an existing texture. If I were you, I would use a picture of the real El Guettar area as a basis for the Maintex.tga (simply save it a normal 2048x2048 tga)

[Knokke]

For the bump map textures, you've to use the render type brush

[Broadsword]

OK Knokke, but how can I change the color of, for example, "undergrass" to make it more green (like the 127,200,22 color I mentioned) before selecting it with the render type brush? How did the original map makers create those brighter green splotches (color, not texture) on the maps in the grassy areas?

[Knokke]

the texture underneath the grass is going to give the color to the grass. If you paint sand on your texture, the grass you'll put on top of the sand will take a sandy color. If you paint your texture red, the grass you put on top of it will be red.

[Broadsword]

Yes, I understand that the texture color underneath grass will color the grass. But the question is, how to paint a texture color or change the texture color being painted?

Also: Can anyone explain the simplest and fastest method for building stone walls?

I figured out how to clone objects along a line using the F5 key. But all those wall segments are spaced apart. If I try to squeeze them into contact using the F9 key, as the manual seems to suggest, the numbers in the "distance between objects" counter changes but nothing happens to the actual wall segments. I resorted to dragging each segment into flush contact in 3D view, but for a long straight stone wall, this is very tedious. I'm sure there must be a more automated way to get a smooth continuous wall like the ones I see in the maps provided with the game. Ideas?

[Broadsword]

I made a discovery -- of sorts -- but still having problems.

What I'm trying to do is add some green areas to the texture of my map, to simulate grass and to make any renderbrush grasses placed there be green (instead of brown, the color of grass placed over normal sandy areas).

Although I've never been able to open or edit maintex.tga, I just discovered that my photo editing program WILL open maps\(mapname)\GameTypeMapGrassIndex.tga.

When I open it, I can see it showing the areas of the map that already have a green painted color. I'm able to close that color and brush it on the map just fine. But then I save the file, try to open the map in my TOW2 map editor, and the file won't open at all.

Any ideas why? Does this file need to be saved/converted somehow and then saved/converted back into something that will work in the game?

[Broadsword]

If we're trying to create our own maintex.tga and farmaintex.tga files for a map in the editor, should we save them from our paint program as 32 bit tga files? or 24 bit tgs files? should "compression" be checked or unchecked?