Dawn of War 2

So i've put together another tutorial which goes into greater detail about how to use the map maker, parts 1+2 are the basics of map making, whilst part 3(and any further parts) contain alot more advanced stuff, generally used for editing the map you've made to look more awesome.

If you have your own hints/tips then let me know! I'll add them in!

(Warning: This tutorial contains a copious amount of me talking/creating my own words)


- Making a new map ## (Part 1)
- Where to save your maps ## (Part 1)
- Why you should be careful about map dimensions ## (Part 1)
- Why height is important ## (Part 1)
- Descriptions of Map making terms ## (Part 1)
- General Object placement involving items such as:

Starting positions ## (Part 1)
Requsition points ## (Part 1)
Power points ## (Part 1)
Destroyable cover ## (Part 1)
Buildings ## (Part 1)
Exploding objects ## (Part 1)

- General Texture introduction ## (Part 1)
- How to create different layers ## (Part 1)
- What textuers are used for ## (Part 1)
- Altering object height ## (Part 2)
- Altering terrain height ## (Part 2)
- Automatic smoothing ## (Part 2)
- Manual smoothing ## (Part 2)
- General water placement ## (Part 2)
- Passable water ## (Part 2+3)
- Explanation of water height/depth ## (Part 2+3)
- Splat placements ## (Part 1+3)
- Different types of splats ## (Part 1+3)
- Spline introduction ## (Part 2+3)
- Usage of splines for roads and long walls ## (Part 2+3)
- Grass introduction ## (Part 1)
- Grass/Foliage placement ## (Part 1)

- Additional object placement techniques, and editing features, such as:

Additional Spline info ## (Part 3)
Quick-Copying Objects ## (Part 3)
How to rotate/flip an object ## (Part 3)
How to make invisible cover wherever you want ## (Part 3)
How to make parts of water you can wade through impassable ## (Part 3)
Additional Splat info ## (Part 3)
Drawing straight lines with Splines ## (Part 3)
Making straight chasms with heightmap editor ## (Part 3)


Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:








hope this helps any of you would-be map makers

This post has been edited by Grizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz: Oct 22 2012, 20:15 PM

So far so good. Everything seems nice and clear.

Well, with the exception that I get a lot of black flashing during the video.

This post has been edited by Syphus: Jul 8 2009, 20:00 PM

Yep, it's very annoying.


It's insanely hard to get a full screen capture + audio capture to a decent enough quality + remain in sync whilst remaining a small enough file size to upload.


I'm still quite pleased how it turned out , the black flashs don't happen that often and even when they do they don't really stop you seeing anything required.

Cool stuff! Will checkout.

Brilliant! Thanks again.

updated with abit more info of what i cover in part 3

edit: added part 3

This post has been edited by Grizzzzzzzzzzzzz: Jul 9 2009, 03:35 AM

Excelent . thxs very much 4 putting this 2gether

Added additional information about height splines in the form of a Tip, if anyone has anything they'd like to contribute please post and i'll add it up for you

Thanks for this grizzzzz, It has helped a lot. If you can explain how to make the Tyrranoform weather effect with the stuff flying through the air in number 4 that would help immensly, because I can get rain but can't seem to get it to do the tyrranoform weather effect.

yep, i'll be covering the majority of atomsphere settings in the next one.


Quick answer for your Tyranno weather problem(floating biomass) is making the rain particles larger, as they are very small by default

eg:

That helped alot, thanks.

Good walkthrough.

Learnt alot from it

Also does anyone know how to get a waterfall to work in game? The waterfalls I used wouldn't animate in game, or in the worldbuilder.

thanks, very detailed, thanks for putting this togheter =)

quick update explaining how to rotate objects on their side etc...


Part 4 will be done this week


edit:


maybe next week, depending on when i get internet sorted in my new house



This post has been edited by Grizzzzzzzzzzzzz: Jul 14 2009, 14:04 PM

Hmm.

What I'm still having a lot of trouble with is heights. I can't find an efficient way of creating even something on the level of what you did outside of the outer-wall in your test map.

Do you just go with additive mode and click here and there?

*ignore me*

This post has been edited by ITSSEXYTIME: Jul 14 2009, 02:02 AM

for outer cliffs, i'd usually just set the brush size to ~10, set LMB to 'Set Value' and set the height to about 40 above the height of the map, set feather to 0, and just brush away for 10mins.


after you've done what you want, just use the smooth terrain button if you havn't done much other work, or then set LMB to smoothing, set feather to ~50 and strength to ~10 and then just smooth away until its not an eyesore anymore



You could always use heightmap splines...but they look like an eyesore seeing as you can't smooth them ;/





kay

This post has been edited by Grizzzzzzzzzzzzz: Jul 14 2009, 09:39 AM

Frickin good job. I wish I had some spare time to put my hands on map maker.

Great set of tutorials so far. Well thought out and well presented. Only thing I'd add is that sometimes when you say which key is used you might want to articulate or add a quick visual cue in the editing process. For instance, "H" for varying object height could sound to some non-English speakers as "8", and "Alt" for camera rotation also wasn't very clear.

A few questions about setting terrain height.

1. Is it best to texture an area before or after heightmapping? I've been having a few problems with applying textures to cliffs next to dips (i.e. a bit of terrain higher than my baseline directly next to a bit of terrain sunken below my baseline). I have a raised urban section directly next to a river that's sunken below the baseline. Basically an entire 32x32 square of my map suddenly renders black (and flat/opaque) when I try to texture along the side of it. I am on a medium-low spec PC using the World Builder, though. Perhaps turning feather down to 0 will help.

2. Can splines be used to make perfectly straight lines? They always seem to interpolate to create curves if I try to draw the outside of a squarish raised section I'm trying to make.

3. Is there any way to designate areas of your map you don't want to be affected by terrain smooth, or do I need to draw in the edges of my raised terrain in the final art pass after doing my final terrain smoothing?

4. Is there any way to make diagonal straight lines? I can't seem to get a snap-to angle option for height mapping. Is exporting the heightmap to image editing software the only way to do this?

This post has been edited by Crispy: Jul 14 2009, 21:06 PM