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[Kanttori]

Hello!

I am just retexturing the Gulf Of Finland map and after it I am going to update Suomussalmi and Karelia maps' textures. I have Jami's and Kapteeni's permission to do those updates. Here's one screenshot from the Gulf Of Finland DEMO fields textures before bump mapping them:



I have created maps earlier to the Aces High and I was the member of the AH Terrain Team over 10 years. Making maps is little different in IL-2 1946 with the FMP but the philosophy is the same: using grayscale pictures with the elevations, terrain textures and watermaps etc. But now I have one problem and hope you can help me:

I am going to texture the old and famous (early Finnish) Viipuri town with the Flash Earth aerial photo. I am going to use there three (unoccupied) textures: Mount2, Mount3 and City3 and maybe a fourth one if I can make room to it. Everything is ok, but how I can remove those gray ""factory-objects" away which are covering the new town textures? I suppose they are objects or object groups? After that I am going to place and rotate all the town objects (houses, factories, bridges etc.) again. As you see the "Viipuri" is on process:



I have checked admiringly Cyberola's and other map makers towns for ex. in Ardennes and Stalingrad maps. They're awesome but how they are done, because I don't find any key commands to delete, rotate etc. those objects in FMB? Are there any instructions to manipulate objects and object groups?

[Gumpy]

Umm I believe what your talking about Kanttori is unlocked Fmb,if that's the case you'll need to go here read and download the unlock Fmb mod.    http://ultrapack.tuttovola.org/index.php/topic,1977.msg19384.html#msg19384

[Kanttori]

Thanks Gumpy! I just checked your link. I noticed that I must at first download and install the UP3, am I right?

[vpmedia]

1. create a folder in your game root called maps\ag_kt_Karelia, this will be the output folder of your unlocked fmb, after you save the edited map you need to move the actors.static file from maps\ag_kt_Karelia into your #SAS folder, correct folder structure is important (#SAS\Mapmods\maps|ag_kt_Karelia\actors.static), if you change textures you'll also need map_t.tga

2. backup your bldconf.ini

3. use this text for unlocked bldconf.ini

[builder_plugins]
  (builder.PlMapLoad)
  (builder.PlMapActors,sectFile=com/maddox/il2/objects/static.ini)
  (builder.PlMapAirdrome)
  (builder.PlMapLabel)
  (builder.PlMapText)
[builder config]
  bShowGrid false
  bShowName true
  bViewRunaway true
  bShowTime true
  bShowArmy [3,true,true,true]
  iLightLand 255
  iconSize 16
  bViewBridge true
  bAnimateCamera true
  bActorOnLand true
  bSaveViewHLand false
  bShowLandscape true
  iLightDestruction 128
  iWaterLevel 191
  defFullDY 24.0
  defFullDX 32.0

Once you finished editing you need to revert to the original bldconf.ini.

It seems complicated at first but the editor is really good and its easy to get hooked on mapbuilding/editing.

[Uufflakke]

That tutorial by UP~Boomer is very instructive and useful. Besides deleting, rotating and adding objects you can do basically everything you want to do with the map:
Changing heights, pasting textures, adding railways, bridges, changing colour of water.

Remember: when saving the map click SAVE and not SAVE AS.
It is recommended saving the map during the mapmaking procedure. Just in case you made a huge mistake, pressing EXIT button by accident or power outage, it saves you a lot of time in redoing things. And copy paste the changed file(s) somewhere else. We can not say it enough: backup, backup, backup.

Probably you have already seen this thread, a list full of mapmaking utilities.
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,33463.0.html

Don't forget to read KevinP's tutorial about surf and shallow waters and how to change colour of water.
Zuti's Actors Management is also useful. For instance, in case you decide to delete a particular object which has been added already a 100 times all over the map.
Instead of scrolling the whole map to delete them his Actors tool let you do it with a single entry.

By the way, your retextured Finnish Gulf map looks very promissing. 
Glad to see you want to get rid of the 'old skool' city textures.

[Kanttori]

Thx from the answers fellas!

I have installed the UP3 and followed UP~Boomers's instructions. Now the game opens with the Ultra Pack 3 and as version 4.10 (?), is it correct? Unlocked FMB works now very much like Aces High Terrain Editor but many things are different. I can now delete objects as town buildings, but those gray areas stays still there...

I have colored those town areas in map_T.tga with the correct grayscales 10 and 11 (which I use as Viipuri textures) and only the roads' and rails' colors are different in it. What the heck are those gray "things" and how I can remove them away?

[Kanttori]

I found it, those gray areas were tiles and I removed them away with "Tiles" in Object list. Can I also edit coastlines straight in the FMB? If I can then eveything is fine!

[Uufflakke]

In Unlocked FMB you can edit textures of coastlines. Or changing the amount of surf.
But not changing it's shape like making bays, creeks or peninsulas. That goes by editing map_C.tga in Photoshop/GIMP
All this info is in Boomers link and in KevinP's tutorial. I would take some time to read through it and you will find out that there is more possible than you might have thought of.

[Kanttori]

Ok, thx Uufflakke. I must read those instructions now and stop asking everything!

[cyberolas]

Hi Kanttori! I could see that you are learning many things about il-2 map creation. Gray areas - it is one from slots in load.ini (default textures) with some degault name. There you can wrtite (or rewrite) next textures. You are great talent!!!

[Kanttori]

Thx Cyberolas, your maps are great and I have checked for ex. Bastogne town in Ardennes map. Are you really made those towns and villages setting them building by building? Maybe have you first created some object groups with many houses and then rotated them together and put them dow to the map?

[Kanttori]

I have edited tiles and a little bit of coastlines (map_c) in Unlocked FMB running the game as UP3 (SAS) mode. Everything is ok, I can edit, save and reload the map and I have also moved the files (as you told me) from IL2/Maps/Finsgulf to the jsgmemods/#UP#_FMB_Finsgulf/#UP#/Mapmods/Maps/Finsgulf folder and continue editing. So that the last modifications are visible.

But when I copied the edited Finsgulf files to my second Il-2 folder where I have version 4.12.12 and HSFX 7.03 (I play with it) I cannot open the edited map in FMB because it crashes the FMB. It works if I take the map_c.tga away from my MODS/Mapmods/maps/Fingulf folder but the my new coastlines are not visible... I am making something wrong but what? I have read many forums but I didn't find the answer... 

Edit: Because I'm newbie in Il-2 but old veteran in Aces High ( ) all these different oods are sometimes very strange and difficult to me. I just learned to use HSFX modded systems but this UP3 is a new. For ex. when the game starts it is different looking in UP3 SAS mode as in HSFX mode...