Author Topic: All About Map Making (Tutorial)  (Read 17830 times)

Offline hugrf2

  • Purple Derple
  • Honored Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,314
  • Country: us
  • Floof-O-Meter: 120
  • wrow
    • hugrf
    • channel/UChLphw5s3-hS8EFAgnNv6FQ
    • hugrf
    • hugrf
    • Ain't nobody got time fo' dat
    • View Profile
All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« on: May 01, 2013, 03:53:38 pm »
Want to make a map, eh? Unique, not just a plain old place with meshes and derpy sturf, huh? You've come to the right place. *Puts on shades* Prepare.
This tutorial includes:
Sky making
Getting other meshes
Terrain and masks, including 6 masks
Ground texture making
Water textures
MP3's and music groups
This slot is going to be Exporting if this thread helps anyone.
Oh god... It's going to be a long, bumpy ride. Hang on.



Sky making

Includes custom clouds, suns, moons, and custom sky. Particles not included sadly because I do not know how to make sky particles.

Don't know how to make a sky for your map? Then read this little tutorial right here. :3 It loves you.
Okay, first, open up FH. See something called Tools, correct? Click it and go to Sky Maker. Your screen should look like this.

Of course a bit different from my screen, though.
See that list counting to Dawn (Top) to Day (Bottom)? Scroll down, and you can see more. Mess with the bars to color the sky! Then save it if your happy with it. When you reach Sun and Moon, Dawn and Dusk, you will notice a little box with "Material" written above. This is a different look of the sun/moon. I'll explain later.
Now, the next stage is where you can max a particle and name it, or make a sky particle with just particles, really.
It's called Weather. Skip it if you just want a normal type of weather, not going faster or slower.

This is your screen on Weather. The list of colors of the sky shows how dark the sky is when this weather is here.
Ignore the list of weathers ^^' forgot to blacken that. Now, when you load a weather, like Snow, Rain, LightRain even, you can speed up or speed down the amount. Take LightRain for example.
This should be what I mean.

You can speed/slow down things next to Rate. Next, save it and move to the last stage! Finally. 3:<

This is your screen at first. Leave Duration at 0. Now scroll down one the list on the left, and look for "default".
You see those blue things? Good! We're almost done here. Now, move the slider under the blue things until the first part of a blue thing is yellow. It should look like this.

Now, the list on the bottom right is where to can choose a weather. If you saved a Weather from the last stage, then you can find it in this list and load it. Continue choosing what you want as your weather on all stages of yellow blue things :U
If you don't want any weather at all, no rain or snow or anything else, then just keep your sky file and leave, and continue reading until you see the word "Map maker" k?
Okay, save your weather file! Remember the name of your sky and weather. Weather alone is okay, and sky alone is okay too.
Now, go to Map Maker and select your map your want your sky and weather to be in.
Click World and type your Sky under Sky File and your weather under Weather File. Now save :D
Enjoy your map, now with weather and/or sky! :D
[/size]


Getting other Meshes (Mini tutorial)

This is just a basic thing to map making. Just a short tutorial, really. Go here and search for meshes, particles, and all kinds of sturf for yo map. And now I have to show you how to get them in-game if they don't have a .object, don't I? *sigh* Okay, go in-game, tools, Object Maker.
Go to Mesh, type in the mesh file and INCLUDE .mesh okay? Good. You can type in the material under Material if you want to retexture it~
"I want it to glow! :D" Glowing, eh? this is le fun part! :D But first, save your object in a object group, a NEW object group, not a default one, and stay here in Object, the first stage!
Clicky Effect Maker now! go to the third stage called Light.
Apparently, Tinypic ain't wanting me to upload any pictures now, so let's say we want a rose to glow.
Mess around with the sliders to color the light. Let's say I want it to glow red. I then click Add new when I get a red where it used to be white on default.
Now, add new. You cannot have more than 2 or 3 lights. Now you can position it with those position arrows.
Save your glowy object and make a glowy army of roses that shall blind you all! Wait, never mind.
Yay, congrats, you made a glowing object! :D Save et, if you want to keep the non-glowy one, then save your glowy object a different name in the same object group (to save space).
Now put it in your map if you like. Hooray! :D



Terrains and Masks[/color]


Let's get this party started. Now, this is the first thing you must learn in Map making if you want it even more unique :D
Let's say, I want mountains in a huge ocean/lake. No problem. Download GIMP or photoshop for this.
I use GIMP, since it's free. Photoshop CS2 might be free too. Gimp
Now, select your brush, and go to File>Open>Local Disk C:(SOS C:)>Feralheart>media>terrains>Watermill>watermillterrain.png and open dat. Quick journey, really.
Now make it all black, baby! Just make your default brush bigger on the left with the slider! PARTY HARD!
Yeah, yeah, and then select that little black box on the left, above the brushes, and find the white one. NOTE: Make sure you're on grayscale!
Now, change your brush to a smoother one by selecting the paintbrush looking tool, where you are currently at.
See that black dot on the left, not square, but a tiny little round dot, not that tiny? Click it. Do you see those smooth little dots? Click one of them apples and guess what's next? Wait for it... Make it big and and clicky, clicky...
PARTY HARD! *Clicks everywhere* Oops, too much whitening. Oh well. Anyway, save et as a png.
Save it as YOURMAPNAMEterrain.png and done. Now, click Edit>Copy and open up File>Open and yay, we're still here.
Click watermillmask.png now. Paste, and color with red, green, and blue. 1. Red 2. Green 3. Blue
That's the order of the arrows in map maker! Color everything with those colors. You pasted so you can see your terrain and sturf. Party hard with this too if you just want a random jelly map.
Now save it as YOURMAPNAMEMask.png and done!
You want 6 textures, not 3 in your map, you say? Ohh, this is going to be a lovely ride. >:3
Okay, make the places where you want to be the other 3 textures in your map black. Now save that, and then make the green, red and blue black after coloring the former black area white, so you don't get confused and mix random spaces.
Now, make the white area green, blue and red like I said before. Save it as YOURMAPNAME2Mask.png and now let's go in-game and see the bootiful randomness. Now, load your map. Under Terrain, replace "default" with your terrain's name.
Did it load? Good, good. Now, under Mask, do exactly as I say.
Replace "default" with your first mask, and clicky the textures you want on the terrain textures list.
Now, we're on number 3. Click the right arrow again, and you should see the Terrain Mask box blank.
Type in YOURMAPNAME2Mask.png in it and choose le map textures. You got 6 now! Congrats!
Now save your map! Note, spaces are only allowed in the Display name when naming.
Good luck~



Ground Texture Making


Hello floofs, today I am here to show you how to make your very own ground texture! First of all, you can download them. And second of all, it's hard to make seamless sometimes. Hurr.
But let's just derp up something herpy. Just a mini tutorial really.
Ruby has made a few ground textures, though. Right here![url=http://Okay, let's make a custom one now! We need Gimp of course. Now go to Feralheart>media>terrains>textures and play with one of the ground textures. Save it, and see it in your map when you select it. It automatically goes in the list by itself to me.
Note, if you upload your map with the ground texture you have to include it in the map's download. Just like water textures.



Water Textures


Not happy with your water in your map? Well well. You've come to the right place.
Courtney has some magnificent water textures here]
Okay, let's make a custom one now! We need Gimp of course. Now go to Feralheart>media>terrains>textures and play with one of the ground textures. Save it, and see it in your map when you select it. It automatically goes in the list by itself to me.
Note, if you upload your map with the ground texture you have to include it in the map's download. Just like water textures.



Water Textures


Not happy with your water in your map? Well well. You've come to the right place.
Courtney has some magnificent water textures here.
Want to make your own, you say? Okay. :D
Just make a water texture in gimp and save it in FeralHeart>media>textures and perhaps as a .png?
Gimp has filters that can make good art, and maybe even water as cool as that. Okay, save it, of course.
Now, right click FH and open file location. media>materials after that. Open any of the .materials in notepad, and delete everything. Then, copy this code.
Code: [Select]
material WaterMat
{
technique
{
pass
{
ambient 0.1 0.1 0.1
cull_hardware none
cull_software none
scene_blend alpha_blend
depth_write off

texture_unit
{
texture waterTex1.png
scale 0.4 0.4
scroll_anim -0.05 -0.05
}
texture_unit
{
texture waterTex2.png
scale 0.5 0.5
scroll_anim -0.08 0.1
}
}
}
}
waterTex.png is your water. waterTex2.png is another texture mixing with your water or just type waterTex and it's not mixing.
WaterMat is your material. Change WaterMat to the material name you want.
Change waterTex to your water texture's name.
Save it as WaterMat.material or anything, and go in-game and type it in map maker, as either an ocean or a plain old water square to re-size. Type WaterMat, or your material's name. If you're happy with it, save your map! :D
Pretty sure Courtney said how to download them too.
[/size][/color]


The Last Tutorial: Music!


We all like music, so why not have music in a map? Just find any MP3 on your computer and put it in sounds and type it in your map. "But I want others too, like plains3.mp3 and caves2.mp3!" Ohh, really?
Okay then. Now, we have all our mp3 names, right? Okay, so in the MAIN FeralHeart folder go in music.cfg
Then you see [Sacred] right? Okay, replace Sacred with the music group's name.
Now, write under it this.
Code: [Select]
media/music/MP3.mp3It should be in media>music now. All mp3's. It could be a .wav too. For example, plains3.mp3.
media/music/plains3.mp3 get it? Okay, repeat until you have all of the music you want attached.
Then, go in your map. under music, type your music group's name. For example, it was [Sacred] in the music.cfg
We type in Sacred. Okay, test it out to see if it's working, and save if it is. If it isn't, try and point out the issues in the music.cfg and see if all mp3's were in the correct folder, music. Okay, now we shall enjoy~[/color][/size]


Now ask questions, give me advice perhaps, tell me what I should have another tutorial on in here about, and all that stuff. Tankies for reading~
Hugrf
« Last Edit: May 01, 2013, 03:56:21 pm by Hugrf »

Offline SilverTW

  • Finest Floof
  • ***
  • Posts: 855
  • Country: 00
  • Floof-O-Meter: 54
  • Inactive account
    • View Profile
    • DeviantART
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2013, 11:23:17 pm »
Nice job. You worked hard. And may those who need help with maps etc understand your tutorial!

This account is no longer in use, and any messages sent to here will not be read. If you need to reach me, head to https://softdiamond.net

Specialized in FeralHeart Maps,Presets,Objects,Mods,Markings,Textures and MORE.
Video Maker and more!

Offline LordSuragaha

  • The Karen Slayer
  • Immortal Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 11,027
  • Country: 00
  • Floof-O-Meter: 1052
    • View Profile
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2013, 11:31:23 pm »
Wow fabulous tutorial! Thanks for sharing it with us all :3 You really did work hard on this and it's kind of you to that for other users. I'm sure this will help a lot of people.

Offline hugrf2

  • Purple Derple
  • Honored Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,314
  • Country: us
  • Floof-O-Meter: 120
  • wrow
    • hugrf
    • channel/UChLphw5s3-hS8EFAgnNv6FQ
    • hugrf
    • hugrf
    • Ain't nobody got time fo' dat
    • View Profile
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2013, 01:02:39 am »
Thanks guys. <3 Like more than a half hour of typing an entire tutorial when I was just sitting there, thinking of it.
Also, I apologize for the thread coding mistakes. Hurrhurr. Most funny little mistakes ever to crawl up my leg.
Also, thanks Suragaha, means a lot to me to hear someone say that. :3
Hurr, users shall be helped~



~Hugrf

BouncyLion101

  • Guest
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2013, 02:27:07 am »
Nice of you to make this tutorial for the community. c:
It must have taken a lot of effort to put it all together like this.

Offline starlet

  • Forum Newcomer
  • *
  • Posts: 5
  • Country: 00
  • Floof-O-Meter: 2
  • Don't judge. Just don't...
    • View Profile
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2013, 02:53:00 am »
If you don't see the blue things on the cycle, what did I do wrong?
Ohai

Offline hugrf2

  • Purple Derple
  • Honored Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,314
  • Country: us
  • Floof-O-Meter: 120
  • wrow
    • hugrf
    • channel/UChLphw5s3-hS8EFAgnNv6FQ
    • hugrf
    • hugrf
    • Ain't nobody got time fo' dat
    • View Profile
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2013, 04:33:55 am »
If you don't see the blue things on the cycle, what did I do wrong?
You didn't load default on the list of the left perhaps. If you did, I'd suggest restarting the sky maker or restarting FH and coming back. You can come back to the last stage, since stage 1 and 2 were already done and saved.
If your slider is under a blue area where I meant, which the blue parts are right above the slider and lists, then it turns yellow, or if you downloaded a interface mod including something like that, then it might be different.
There should be something called "default" in the left list. Also, something I forgot, click "Load" after selecting default.

Offline cookiesincrem

  • Curious Wanderer
  • *
  • Posts: 46
  • Country: 00
  • Floof-O-Meter: 0
    • View Profile
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2013, 03:34:37 pm »
First of all, nice job! Second, I tried making a map of my own. I didn't add any special meshes or different sky/water/weather into my map, because this is my first one and I wanted to start out simple. But, it used to work fine until I tried making it so others could get into it. I made a compressed folder (putting the files from the map I made into it), then put it up on mediafire for others to download. Before I gave others the link, I had a friend try it out. She went in, and FH said it wasn't responding and shut down. Then I tried going in, and the same happened to me when it never did before :( Do you know what's wrong or how I could fix it?
Smile... it will either warm their heart or piss them off... either way you win!!

Offline hugrf2

  • Purple Derple
  • Honored Hero
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,314
  • Country: us
  • Floof-O-Meter: 120
  • wrow
    • hugrf
    • channel/UChLphw5s3-hS8EFAgnNv6FQ
    • hugrf
    • hugrf
    • Ain't nobody got time fo' dat
    • View Profile
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2013, 06:56:05 pm »
First of all, Melody, it could be a mesh problem. Also, check your particles folder to see if there is any 1_0 for example, bonfire_1_0.particle or something like that. Delete the duplicates, basically.
If it is still not working, I'd suggest checking to see if the heightmap is greyscale, for example, it could've glitched or changed somewhat, not that I know though.
Also, it could be a problem with the exporting. Check the files, and see if there is anything wrong.
That's all I can think of. It could be a problem with any small thing in the map truly, maybe even the coding of the files of the map.
Might want to post your problem in Game Help, perhaps? Uninstalling and reinstalling is on the bottom of the list in my opinion, but try it perhaps, if nothing is working.


Offline Morqque

  • A Positive Nihilist
  • Community Champion
  • ****
  • Posts: 2,134
  • Country: us
  • Floof-O-Meter: 123
  • In the shadow of the light from a black sun
    • View Profile
Re: All About Map Making (Tutorial)
« Reply #9 on: December 02, 2013, 12:06:33 pm »
Holy Magikarp thank you .O.