Author :: Damage.Ex

In Advanced Tutorial I well tell you how to use Console and alot of it's Defrent Command's,and other stuff to help ure Map stuff out.Read on.I well not Explain thing's as thoroughly as I did on other page sense I figure you may figure it out ureself.
Console is Simply Activated by goin into a game and hitting Ctrl+~ and you well get a list on lefter part of Screen.Type LS for a List of Defrent Command's,As a Example I well use Dome,Dome is the Sky Space Basically.

Start off I well say type Dome and you well get a sub-section of commands,Say you want to bring down Dome's Height you'd type:


The ** being the Height you want it,forsay I thought 50 Though you may do as you like.

So you put a . in the middle of the commands except the Change's you plan to do as the ** show'd,hope ya Understood.


Now if you start off on a Rend Map you may notice that Scrap looks weird,or this may be me but I hafto Edit Scrap.If you're doing the same thing type 'chrome' and you well see Toggle and Texture.

Toggle leave on Normal,or else it well make all Morphing ship's look like they are actually Morphing.

If you want to fix the Rend Problem type this:

And that well fix the Proplem the Dark one is like all around Scrap Texture,but in case you want to know all of the TGA's for Scrap they are:

Also all these well Reflect there Respective Object's,like Tree's for Mire and such.This is Little but nice thing for the Professional part of it.

Made you read so much for so little but that is a good Start.

Let's try Sky editing in Console,you can controll Fog,that is simple and you can figure it out.Say Tile Size is Cloud Size basically.1000 is nice size for Cloud's if you have any.You can figure out all of Sky stuff mostly.Though Sky has a Sub Dir at:

Which is Lighting of course,I just Figure Id mention it,you may figure that out too.

UVSpeed is how fast Cloud move,kinda Nice using at Higher Cloud cover.

And also more that sky.load can load any Map Sky,just find one you'd like to use and type in it's sky filename.

Sun is where you may set the Angle of Sun Light and make it look like Middle of Night,but Be Carefull because it well make the Big Radar Map totally Black almost,you may get it so you like it though.

Also this well say where Shadow's should go from South to north at Angle of Sun I believe.

Rain and Splat are 2 good thing's to make Rain Effect's of Course.Texture's for Rain are:

Though you may use whatever you wish that you use.You may Figure out Rest of that.Also these can go together with Lighting of course.

OKAY now that everyone knows that Sky Texture's like on Pluto are very good eye Candy,here's how to add them,type:

The * Symbolic of 0-Infinity.Select one usually there is a lightflare.tga with 0 Size,go Higher tell you find one of these or just use Existing one.
Once you Select one you want to Edit(like Layer-ing)type:

This * resembles what Texture you want,these are all the ones I know for the Sky.Here the Texture's for sprite's:

Find one you'd like to use and you may Col or it,this is really how Bright the Texture well be,you can move them left and right by type azim and elev to the Command.Azim is horizontal and Elev is you know Vertical.

Size usually a good size is around 10-40 but that is up to you.Roll is making the Texture Rotate from 90 Degree's.You can work on everything else,pretty self explanatory.

OK Notice that Dome's are Defrent,like IA Iceberg or Chill has that Sky,that is Actually the Dome.Like Pluto with no Cloud's to Mire with the kinda Sky Texture.If you would like to do this effect on your Map,or what ever your need of Dome Effect is just type:

Here are Dome's you may use,also XSI is the filename of Model of BZII,like Tank's,Building's Frame is a XSI.This isn't relevant to Editor but incased you wondering.


They have Defrent Effect's,you'll see if you do them.I think these are the only 4.

OK now Remember I put of Texture stuff tell now here are how to Correct any of the Boo Boo's or just to make it easy to Edit a Map to make it Blank,OK type:

And you well get alot of option's,select the Texture you'd like to use in Editor.

Select layer and all,forsay you want to make the layer completely Clean to use,find some Blank Spot with no Texture,Eye-Drop it,and select the layer you'd like to use(I wouldn't Recommend Blanking 0 Layer)and type this Command:

It well take a few Seconds but this well fill the entire layer into a Blank,now see what happen's when you follow my Command's,don't lead you on huh?

You can do this with all layer's before you start Texturing your Map and you can Paint in Blank Spot's without no weird stuff happening.

You can also use:

Same as you did Texture,Just Eye-Drop the Color/Height of Terrain you want to Fill and it well happen!Very usefull starting a Map.

Also If your making a Strat,or AI/MPI type:

Make that * 1-4 to get Defrent View's in First Person Tank,most usefull is 4 on that Command,it well show all Green Spot's that you well be able to Build in as if you Selected a Constructor and tried to Build a Relay Bunker/Spire sense you can build them in any flat Green spot's.

Usefull indeed.

OK now here is a Link to a txt Document that has all Map making TGA's,including ones in TRN(I copied and Pasted those BTW).


OK if you are thinking your Map is too Small/Big or what ever you want to change that it is quite easy.Hold Shift and hit F9 and now your in some what of a Satellite View,you can Zoom in and out and Scroll around. You should see 2 Little Box's with a Line around goin to each other,this should also say 'edge_path' this is how far user can go,if there isn't one on Map you can ad it by hitting the One key and then 2 Key. And place the Box where you want and select it and on very left/bottom of screen you'll see a Text box,double-click this and type in 'edge_path'.Once you do that keep that one Highlighted and make another somewhere same as you did above. You can also Delete one like a Nav by hitting Selecting it and hit the Delete Key & can move it around when you select it and Drag it around where you want the border of User to be for Map. Now this is tell you reach the Border of the Map,then this well not work anymore,Also this is how you placed Spawning stuff in BzI,quit neat huh?


Now here is how to Add more Texture's that you can use to a Map you'd like to use,in other editorial I mentioned Later on this part,here is Later. Open a TRN of your Map,Before Id do this I recommend Backing up this file in another Directory. If you are Running Window's and Click on you're Map's TRN you'd proply get a Window that Says 'Open this file with'.I have mine to Permanently Open TRN's with Notepad,Id tell you to do same as me if you'd like. OK You'll see alot of Stuff you may have Edited with Console,this is just before they made the map to tell it to use this. Schroll Down to '[Texture]' It should be there,say if you're Editing Mire here is what it should say:

And you'd like to add a Bane Texture for a Snowy Mountain,or what ever you'd like find that Texture(s)on the Above Link.

I chose "Bane1.tga" for this.You may use what you'd like.

And put it under the last Texture(or Texture you would like to replace)like so:


You should get the Idea,Once your done Save and Exit,start up BZII and try the new Texture with you're Map and see if it work's.
If not or any Complication's accure just revert to the Back-Up TRN.
Also I would not tell you to Change a Entire Texture that you already placed on the Map,This May make a Weird effect.
In addition this may not always work too,for Some Reason it well not work always on all Map's from like Mire to Bane Texture's or any combination's.
OK now for some Good ol' fashion'd Tip's:

Terrain Editing.Make Terrain Smoother with Blend,or else ya are tryng to get a certain look,but for Natural Terrain blend it Bell.Make's it easier to go over and such,and looks nicer.Alway's great effect.

Also let's say you want to make a huge hill kinda like I've done with some Map's,I say work on main part and get it as high as you want it,then work on anything else you want effect's,kinda 'Texturing' Terrain.
I do this alot when I'm making Map's,for Base's that are raised and have more elevation some where in them,maybe for Pool or Scrap.
I say make basic Height you Desire and for Terrain that is Center Piece as I call it.Then make the other Raised/Lower's Scrap/Pool Area,or Power-Up for a DM possibly.
Whatever you do just say it like Texturing a Area of Map.Take it as Layer's,I find it more effective to do Hill's with Border's around them,or what I am making.May not work well if you got a Effect TOO close to another try'n to get it to look right though.Look at Pic Below to see how I did mine.

I also like to look around and see any Grid like Downspot's and fix them,just make's it look better,though this isn't really need'd.Just better looking.

Water is one thing alot of Map's look good with,you cant's make it actually do a Waterfall,but look like Rain on a Map could Raise water so it would come down,I have done this in DM: Lagoon's.
And I just had 2 layer's,one on top of a hill and one below it,look at this Picture and see how I've done this,Additionally this is idea I had on making hill's uptop,is what I thought of when I wrote that.
Also I colored that Blue coloring to finish the Effect,look at Pic to see what I mean.

Water can also be Mirror by typing in 'mirror' and Enabling it in Console,you can do rest.

Here is that Picture I been goin on about:



Now Object list,there are alot of good Object's in BZII,but I won't list the Bane and Mire and whatnot Terrain Object's,but here are the name's of Weapon's to place on a DM/Whatever Map, please check out the Document page for the list.

You can guess what they are basically,so I leave it to that.
You can make a Object Spawn by typing Spawn in Object Box and below it the weapon ODF name,like this:

apmini_30 the 30 Stand's for Seconds till respawn.


Finishing up a Map all there is to do is to assign and make a few files.
To start I just copy n paste a Respective Ini's from a BZII Map Folder's and find a Ini,if it is a Strat just copy and Paste a Strat Ini if it is a Strat Map or what ever you want and Copy and Paste it to a Folder may have made your Map in.

This is easily known,MissionName is name of Map.
MapTGA is Pic of Map,and Desc is ODF.
mySide is 0-1 for 1 for ISDF or 0 for Scion's.Only in IA though.
Copy and Paste ODF and open that like a TRN and just edit the Map ODF(Id recommend Copy and paste both these and Rename them to your Map,where that is located).Just type in Description of Map in ODF and before you start game it is there.
You can guess what all the Option's are for Map.


To make a Bitmap(considering you installed BZII to Default folder)for your Map go to run menu and type:


The ***** is the name of your Map,You well find the Picture in the Addon folder.
-Thanx to Menacer for Reminding me how to do that Map Picture-

After you do Everything just make a TXT(BTW don't call it readme)and Zip up all the file's and send'er into a site or on your site.Map Room is a huge Bz Map Collection and a good place to put ya'Map's.

Cheers!

Website Design © 2004 David "Zero Angel" Bobb