Map Editor General
While there already exists an official Map Editor, it can't be run on modern Intel CPUs (i3 and later). Moreover, it can't modify maps provided within SpellForce installation (which means you can't edit campaign maps, for example - only open and view). At least not without special modification. SpellForce Editor comes with Map Editor, which bypasses both issues completely.
Here's a short description of the Map Editor interface.
- Menu bar
- Main panel
- 3D display
- Inspector
- Editor Status
Menu bar contains the following menus: File, Tools.
Choosing the option will bring Map Creator tool into view. More on creating maps on page Creating maps.
Loads selected map into the editor. If you have a map already open, you will be prompted to save the current map. Loaded maps are stored in-memory, so there's no risk of accidentally overwriting existing maps.
After you load a map, and only if GameData Editor is open, Map Editor attempts to synchronize with GameData Editor. If you have another game data open in GameData Editor already, you will be prompted to save it. Cancelling this operation fails the synchronization attempt and closes the currently loaded map. After synchronization succeeds, you can edit GameData.cff currently in data folder of your SpellForce directory.
Saves currently open map under specified name. If GameData.cff was modified meanwhile, it will also be saved.
Closes currently open map. You will be prompted to save the map before closing.
Closes the editor. You will be prompted to save the map before closing.
Here you can find additional tools/options for the map editor.
You can import BMP or PNG heightmap files to replace the currently opened map's heightmap, and export currently opened map's heightmap as PNG file. More on Terrain page [todo].
This tool allows you to automatically texture the map, depending on the local slope. It's meant to speed up the process of painting the map, as they might grow large in size and painting every bit of terrain manually might be tedious work. More on this tool in Textures page.
Here you have access to visibility toggles for the following visual elements: units, buildings, objects, decorations, overlays and lakes (more on those later). Additionally, you can force editor to visualize heights on the map, and to display grid with user-defined color.
Main panel contains many switches and options which alter the editor behavior. There are 5 main modes which you can switch to within the panel, and each mode may contain additional submodes (selected on the left of the main panel whenever available).
Terrain (Ctrl+1)
Terrain mode governs heightmap geometry, lake placement and additional flags which determine where you can move your units to in game.
Textures (Ctrl+2)
In addition to height data, each map is provided with texture data. In this mode, you can paint terrain with a variety of textures. You can also specify base set of textures available on the map, and create custom tiles.
Entities (Ctrl+3)
Entities are anything that stands out from base terrain. In particular, those are: units, buildings, objects, monuments, bindstones, portals and monster camps (coop mode). This editor mode allows you to create, modify and delete entities on the map.
Decorations (Ctrl+4)
While textures paint the map terrain, decorations - mushrooms, patches of grass, plants - give it a lively look. You can place and edit them in this mode.
Metadata (Ctrl+5)
In here you will find everything that functions over the usual gameplay - global spawn parameters, player starting locations, and multiplayer team compositions.
Taking over half of the editor interface, 3D display shows you what your map looks like at the given moment.
Display controls:
- Left, Right, Up, Down - control position of 3D camera
- Home, End, PageUp, PageDown - control angle of 3D camera
- Insert, Delete - zoom in/out
- Hold and drag Middle Mouse Button over the 3D display - control angle of 3D camera
- Mouse Scroll - zoom in/out
Each mode uses a different inspector, which usually contains parameters you can edit to alter appearance of selected entities, or behavior of 3D cursor. Each editor mode page describes its own inspector.
It shows you current cursor position, as well as map height (H), tile ID (T) and decoration type (D) under the cursor.
Written with StackEdit.