Making full jpg maps.

[Commander Rasseru]

How hard is it to making full jpg maps for the game?

Is there any shortcuts I can take?

Are there any rules?

Like matching height to jpg... or the scale on how many "Real Life" feet or cm on a pixel.

Because any map I want to make.. Is not flat or there lot of water.

This is kind of goal I'm aiming for....

This is what I want to have in EM4

[Ami89E1234]

hi,

the maximum size of a map underground is around 8192 pixels x 8192 pixels (or something like that)

the maps must be made in photoshop or some other image processing program, then saved as a 24-bit Targa (.TGA) in the em4 folder u want. then they must be converted to a .eft file and should then be able to be used.

[Commander Rasseru]

hi,

the maximum size of a map underground is around 8192 pixels x 8192 pixels (or something like that)

the maps must be made in photoshop or some other image processing program, then saved as a 24-bit Targa (.TGA) in the em4 folder u want. then they must be converted to a .eft file and should then be able to be used.

Thats nice to know... But need to know other things than photoshop image processing and saving files.

I need a real life scale to game scale...

Thanks for the help.

[MikeyPI]

Real life to game scale is dependent on the vehicles you use, obviously if you are using smaller vehicles your roads should be smaller to make the scale proper, same deal with people they should be to proper scale. If you are making a totally new freeplay map you should focus on the roads/sidewalks scaling to ensure the vehicles fit the road and do not appear to large or too small to it, same with the sidewalks... Buildings if you use default buildings are pre-scaled so you can make do with them, if you build your own that's alittle bit more difficult. I have a feeling you are focusing on the ground first, which means worry about the scale matching YOUR mod's people and cars.

Map Size to fill the whole terrain is:

8192x8192

ensure you save it as instructed previously, many programs can edit that format so you do not necessarilly need adobe photoshop. It is a great deal of work to make the ground maps, given the immense scale of the ground texture...

[Commander Rasseru]

Real life to game scale is dependent on the vehicles you use, obviously if you are using smaller vehicles your roads should be smaller to make the scale proper, same deal with people they should be to proper scale. If you are making a totally new freeplay map you should focus on the roads/sidewalks scaling to ensure the vehicles fit the road and do not appear to large or too small to it, same with the sidewalks... Buildings if you use default buildings are pre-scaled so you can make do with them, if you build your own that's alittle bit more difficult. I have a feeling you are focusing on the ground first, which means worry about the scale matching YOUR mod's people and cars.

Map Size to fill the whole terrain is:

8192x8192

ensure you save it as instructed previously, many programs can edit that format so you do not necessarilly need adobe photoshop. It is a great deal of work to make the ground maps, given the immense scale of the ground texture...

But what is the normal scale of EM4 game? Best for me to try to be normal size than too small or too big?

Like what the normal size of a person in game and normal size of truck?

[Guest em4_police]

This will be hard work

[MikeyPI]

@EM4_Police-Indeed

Commander I will not lie to you at all, it is not easy to figure out an exact scale since the EM4 game roads were designed for European Vehicles they are slightly smaller than america (which is what maps I work on are from) so I had to scale up the roads and try putting the original default vehicles on the road sections to see if they were large enough to accomodate them easilly, if they were barely fitting I adjusted them further to make them larger. In the downloads section there should be the original freeplay map for download which will work quite well if you are trying to replicate the original default scaling (but like I said that is for european vehicles, not american, japanese, greece, etc.).

My suggestion to you is to figure out if your vehicles will be larger/smaller than the default vehicle and adjust accordingly using the default vehicles or any mod for scaling reference to figure out a fair scale for your roads. Roads are by far the most important thing to assure are properly scaled to the vehicles otherwise they will run off the roads around turns and things like that. Most of the modders out there including myself make the vehicles lower scale than the people so that you can easilly grab the people and use them, since after all, this is a game. The sidewalks are debatable, depending on where you are making the map to simulate more or less dictates the size of the sidewalk, Some places have larger sidewalks than others, I have been to places where sidewalks=parking spaces while others they are more or less footpaths of the dangerous nature... So use what you know about the place to decide on your own judgement.

In the end there are no firm rules to making a decent map, the whole key is to try to do your best to retain a decent scale for your mod rather than reality since let's face it this game does'nt have a great perspective for scale to it.... Best of luck to you, perhaps you'll find your way at this task since there are not too many people willing to devote the time needed to make a complicated new map.

But what is the normal scale of EM4 game? Best for me to try to be normal size than too small or too big?

Like what the normal size of a person in game and normal size of truck?

[Commander Rasseru]

@EM4_Police-Indeed

Commander I will not lie to you at all, it is not easy to figure out an exact scale since the EM4 game roads were designed for European Vehicles they are slightly smaller than america (which is what maps I work on are from) so I had to scale up the roads and try putting the original default vehicles on the road sections to see if they were large enough to accomodate them easilly, if they were barely fitting I adjusted them further to make them larger. In the downloads section there should be the original freeplay map for download which will work quite well if you are trying to replicate the original default scaling (but like I said that is for european vehicles, not american, japanese, greece, etc.).

My suggestion to you is to figure out if your vehicles will be larger/smaller than the default vehicle and adjust accordingly using the default vehicles or any mod for scaling reference to figure out a fair scale for your roads. Roads are by far the most important thing to assure are properly scaled to the vehicles otherwise they will run off the roads around turns and things like that. Most of the modders out there including myself make the vehicles lower scale than the people so that you can easilly grab the people and use them, since after all, this is a game. The sidewalks are debatable, depending on where you are making the map to simulate more or less dictates the size of the sidewalk, Some places have larger sidewalks than others, I have been to places where sidewalks=parking spaces while others they are more or less footpaths of the dangerous nature... So use what you know about the place to decide on your own judgement.

In the end there are no firm rules to making a decent map, the whole key is to try to do your best to retain a decent scale for your mod rather than reality since let's face it this game does'nt have a great perspective for scale to it.... Best of luck to you, perhaps you'll find your way at this task since there are not too many people willing to devote the time needed to make a complicated new map.

Ok, I see... Well I'll just have to find some way... Thanks...

I even think some of the EM4 Civ Cars are not the right size to its people too.

Europe Roads a are kind of closest to Japanese Roads...

I guess I'll do a flat map test first...

[MikeyPI]

The cool thing about maps are that you can always remove them at first, just name the file something the game does not really use like TEST and when the game creates the base texture, nothing will be overwritten or anything like that so you can just delete the test map it created and try again with your original TGA file untill you are satisfied with your scale. You do not have to have a completed map in order to test certain aspects of the map for scaling or appearance in the editor, so what you can do (which is how I did it) would be to create 4-5 road segments that are a bit long and just make each one different than the ones before it in width untill you are happy with one of them, this allows you to figure out which you are happy with if like me you would rather make your own terrain textures rather than recycle the existing ones in the game originally.

[Commander Rasseru]

The cool thing about maps are that you can always remove them at first, just name the file something the game does not really use like TEST and when the game creates the base texture, nothing will be overwritten or anything like that so you can just delete the test map it created and try again with your original TGA file untill you are satisfied with your scale. You do not have to have a completed map in order to test certain aspects of the map for scaling or appearance in the editor, so what you can do (which is how I did it) would be to create 4-5 road segments that are a bit long and just make each one different than the ones before it in width untill you are happy with one of them, this allows you to figure out which you are happy with if like me you would rather make your own terrain textures rather than recycle the existing ones in the game originally.

I would maybe recycle and make new ones... I have to place Japaese Text in the streets.... lol

And many other things... Japanese Streets are a pain in downtown areas... So much details....

Thanks alot...

[Commander Rasseru]

Questions to some people....

Do you think that the roads should have dirt on the paint?

Do you think the paint need to look more real?

What do you think?

This is a Japanese Warning Turn road.

Japan do have nice roads... The paint on the roads look always new in major cities and highways.

[Ami89E1234]

looks nice, although it does look kind of Good, i mean, it shouldnt be THAT shiny. i would put a small dirtiesh paint thats noticeable but not to an extent, and make it a little more blurry.

gonna be fun to make those vehicles