Mapping: How To Make the "Perfect" MiniMap

[Rhino]

In this tutorial I will exsplain how to make the "perfect" minimap for your map with all the objects, trees etc drawing on it, Turning your MiniMaps,

From this:


To this:


For this tutorial you will need the following:

• the good old BF2 Editor
• Photoshop (I use CS3 version) with the nVidia DDS plugins
• A Map with the editor colourmap/detailmap files etc that really needs to be finished for best results.
• Quite a bit of RAM, the bigger the map, the more RAM you are going to need

And have done the following Tutorials:

• Setting up the BF2 Editor for PR mapping/modding

Step 1: Getting Started
First lets install all the scripts you will need to make your "perfect" minimap

Download these files: https://files.realitymod.com/prbf2/pe...nimapfiles.zip

Once downloaded, you will need to install them into the correct places. You should have 2 folders with in that .zip file, a "BF2" and a "Photoshop", BF2 folder is BF2 files used by the editor, and Photoshop is photoshop files used by photoshop.

Lets install the Photoshop files first. Open the Photoshop folder with in that .zip, and you will see 2 files, "MiniMap 1024x2.atn" and "MiniMap 1024x4.atn". Extract these files too: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Actions" bare in mind that this path may be different if you have installed Photoshop in a different location, or have a different version and I'm not 100% sure if it will fully work with older versions but it should, if not, report back here (you will see what they are used for later on). Now Open up Photoshop and once its open, double click on both of these files to load them, should switch to photoshop each time but at first it will probaly look that nothing has changed. To check they are installed, go to your actions window, should be on the right hand side, if not go to "Windows>Actions" (Alt+F9) and you should see afew folders in there, 2 of which called the same names as the files you double clicked on, "MiniMap 1024x2.atn" and "MiniMap 1024x4.atn".

If they are there, they should be installed, if not, post below for help.

Now we will install the BF2 Editor files. Browse to: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Project Reality\Project Reality BF2" thou this may be in a different location depending if you installed it on another hard drive or in the non default location. Go into the BF2 folder of the .zip and you will see 2 files in there. A "makeMegaMap_1024x2.con" and a "makeMegaMap_1024x4.con", extract them into the "Project Reality BF2" folder.
Close Photoshop, we wont be needing it for abit and open up the BF2 Editor, loading your preferred mod etc. Once loaded, go to "Tools>Options" at the top, this will open the Options window.

Expand the "Miscellaneous" bit and in there you will see a bunch of boxes you can fill in. "CustomCommandFile1" put in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Project Reality\Project Reality BF2makeMegaMap_1024x4.con" without the quotes and also maybe a diffrent path depending where your BF2 is installed, and in "CustomCommandFile2" put in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Project Reality\Project Reality BF2makeMegaMap_1024x2.con" without the quotes and again maybe a diffrent path depending where your BF2 is installed. After you have done that, push Ok and you have installed them.


Before you do anything else, you will most likely want to start from a fresh restart, no additional programs running apart from maybe the odd music player, MSN etc but keep it to a min. Depending on your map size, objects in your map, how much ram you have etc you may or may not be restricted for memory. If you are doing a 256x2 or 512 map with over 1gb of RAM, you should have no problems, if you are doing a 1024x2 map, may be some problems, if you are doing a 1024x4 map you will need all the RAM you can get, min of 2gbs I would say cos my PC struggles with 3gbs.

Now, Open up the BF2 Editor and your Map with the Level Editor and we can get started.

Your map should be more or less complete, if it needs a lot of work then you are just going to be doing this all over again so you can do a temp one till then. I am btw going to use my WIP Map, Muttrah City (v2) to exsplain this tut on as its the best one as an example for this, besides Qinling but I have already done Qinling making sure this all worked


Step 2: Basic MiniMap, for temp/preview use
Just encase you do not know how to make a basic MiniMap already I will go though how to do that now. It's normally a good idea to generate one of these for just a preview of what it will look like before you might go though a lot of work depending on your map size and its also good for just a temperate minimap used for Test builds etc and when your map is final you can replace it with your "perfect" final minimap.

to do this, with your map open in the level editor and in the Editor>General Bar on the right, if you scroll down a little you should see a little minimap bit like this.



If you click on the generate button, you will probaly have to wait afew secs then will pop up a small preview in the top left corner of your main view of the minimap you have just generated.



As you can see, it looks pretty crap in its current state, lots of objects missing and just a load of shadows on the ground. You can also use this for navigation as you can see, there is a little green box on the map with the location of your camera, click on a diffrent location on the MiniMap and your camera will warp strait too there. I tbh don't use it much as a navigation tool as it blocks too much of your view, need to generate a 2048x2048 image and keep it loaded which kinda defeats the point, but its up to you, there if you need it

After this MiniMap is generated, it saves it (and overwrights any previous MiniMaps you have unless backed up) to the editor folder of your map (\Project Reality BF2\mods\*your mod*\levels\*your map*\Editor\minimap.dds)

Now if you want to make this into a temp minimap for WIP tests or w/e, you can open it with Photoshop and skip to Step #. Otherwise continue with the tut


Step 3: Advanced Tweaks
The following steps we are about to take will make your minimap look that little bit nicer. Most of them I have added to the scripts you have installed so you do not have to type them in each time, but there are a few that you need to do manually before generating the final minimap.

NOTE: Do Not save any of these map changes made from this point, they are only made to make the minimap look better, and will not necessarily make your map look better.

First tweak that needs to be made is with your roads. Switch to the Roads Tool and then in the Editor bar too the right, click on the "Build All Final Roads" Button.



This will "snap" your road texture dead onto the terrain without effecting the splines, and how the road will look in-game. Its just much slower for the editor to edit the splines when its like this, why it doesn't do it by default. This basically means that none of your roads on the minimap will be going under the terrain, and will always be on top
After that's done come out of the road tool, back into something like the move tool.

Second Tweak we need to make is to the water. For some reason when rendering the minimap the water virtually rises by 1m (or abouts), so to keep the same water level on the minimap as it is in-game, we need to move all the water down by 1m.

Go to your tweaker bar, switch to your map settings, water settings and then lower your "sea water level" by 1m.



So my Sea Level after that will be 25.8
Bare in mind we are not going to be saving these changes on exit, this is only to make the minimap look correct.

Now if you have any waterplanes in your map, you need to move these down by 1m as well. Best way to do this is to select all your water planes on the map, then in the tweaker bar check what the "y" position is (as in x, y and z cordints) and just drag it as close as you can get to 1m below where it was.

Third tweak we must do is to make all the overgrowth show up on the map as static objects. This means they will draw on your minimap in the positions they really are, tweaking your overgrowth draw distance will rearrange the positions of all your overgrowth, and then your overgrowth wont line up with the shadows on the terrain.

To do this, all we need to do is lightmap one object in the map. This dose not work for all users but I think what you need is some sample files in your mod path which if you have the PR lightmap samples installed, it wont be a problem. Best thing to do is pick a really simple, small object to relightmap. I always choose the 1m crate where ever possible, just select it, and go trace selected item(s), and lightmap at the quility it was before (ie, should be final unless there is some reason why not). After that objects lightmaps are done, you should now notice all the overgrowth on your map has turned to static overgrowth, turn your overgrowth off thou you should have not had it on before to check. Good way to check is to drag a selection box around it, if you can select it and you did not place it before, then thats good news and you are all set

Added by AFsoccer: If you have problems after lightmapping an object (like the crate that Rhino mentions), then another option is to lightmap the closest terrain grid. So if you lightmap an object and your cursor turns into a hundred move arrows or you can't move your screen afterwards, then try lightmapping the terrain, using "terrain / primary / closest / final" as your settings. You'll want to have a backup of your terrain lightmaps so you can swap an old one for the one you're about to do, but it will accomplish this task and the new terrain shadows won't show up until you re-open the map (so the minimap will look the way it should). Hope that helps.


(ignore the fact the bush aint cast any shadows, long time since i did my last terrain lightmaps)

Forth thing we need to do depending on your map is too run its texture mode. Lots of statics like tents have Desert and Woodland textures and maybe others that you will want to show on your minimap as it will in game. Some maps may also use there own custom textures which if they are for big objects that will show on the minimap and will make a difference you will want to load. Muttrah for example has its own textures to make all the buildings nice and white like they are in the real muttrah, which I am going to need to load for this. So all you need to do is load the correct Texture Suffix and then your set


Final thing you need to do is switch to the "Detail Texture Mode" (if you are not already in it) by going to Render>Detail Texture Mode at the top, or press Ctrl+F4 (not Alt+F4, that will close the editor )


Step 4: Generating the MiniMaps
Now depending on what size map you have, you will have some different paths to take.
Step 4a: for 256x2 (0.5km²) and 512x2 (1km²) sized maps.
Step 4b: for 1024x2 (2km²) sized maps
Step 4c: for 1024x4 (4km²) sized maps

Step 4a: 256x2 (0.5km²) and 512x2 (1km²) sized maps.
This Step is for 256x2 (0.5km²) and 512x2 (1km²) sized maps, do it on maps bigger than this size and objects will be missed out in the minimap generation but it is still possible and a good alternative if you do not have enough RAM to generate very large minimaps that you need to in 4b/c.

Now this way I can't put in a bunch of commands automatically for you just before the minimap generation like i have for 4b and 4c as we are going to go off the editors normal creation, but with a few tweaks. So first you will want to put in these extra commands into the conceal to make the objects draw and look nicer.

• renderer.minCullDistance 2000
• staticMeshRenderer.noLods 1

Then after that, generate your minimap with the normal editor script by clicking the "Show" button in the minimap editor bar.



Now skip to Step 5.

Step 4b: 1024x2 (2km²) sized maps.
This Step is for 1024x2 (2km²) sized maps, do it on maps bigger or smaller than this size and it will probably not turn out very well, ain't tested but in theory it will miss out some of the map, or will capture the surrounding terrain but overall, will not be accurate. This step is pretty much the same as 4c apart from 1 small difference where you need to run a different minimap generation script.

NOTE: This is where you require the ram as here you are in fact generating 4 different minimaps.

All you need to do (providing you have set them up already which you should have in Step 1) is go to "Tools>Custom Action>Execute Custom Command File 2 [C:\bla bla bla\makeMegaMap_1024_2.con]" and let the script do its work.



Step 4c: 1024x4 (4km²) sized maps.
This Step is for 1024x4 (4km²) sized maps, do it on maps bigger or smaller than this size and it will probably not turn out very well, ain't tested but in theory it will miss out some of the map, or will capture the surrounding terrain but overall, will not be accurate. This step is pretty much the same as 4b apart from 1 small difference where you need to run a different minimap generation script.

NOTE: This is where you require the ram as here you are in fact generating 16 different minimaps.

All you need to do (providing you have set them up already which you should have in Step 1) is go to "Tools>Custom Action>Execute Custom Command File 1 [C:\bla bla bla\makeMegaMap_1024_4.con]" and let the script do its work.





Step 5: Editing the MiniMaps
Here we are going to do some editing of the minimaps to make them look as nice and possible.

First of all, its best you exit the BF2 editor at this point, and if you have done a 4km map is is probably a good idea you also have a restart before going on.

Going to have to split this up into a a, b and c again due to different map sizes.
Step 5a: for 256x2 (0.5km²) and 512x2 (1km²) sized maps.
Step 5b: for 1024x2 (2km²) sized maps
Step 5c: for 1024x4 (4km²) sized maps

Step 5a: 256x2 (0.5km²) and 512x2 (1km²) sized maps.
This Step is for 256x2 (0.5km²) and 512x2 (1km²) sized maps. For these sizes you only need to do some very basic edits to the minimap if you want to make the water look better, but this is really more photoshop skills.

First open the minimap.dds in "/levels/*yourmap*/editor/minimap.dds" with photoshop, then do any photoshop edits you want on-top with only to make it look better (don't use any filters) and then that's really it, you can skip to Step 6.

Step 5b: 1024x2 (2km²) sized maps.
This Step is for 1024x2 (2km²) sized maps, do it on maps. For this size you need to combined the 4 minimaps you have generated with my photoshop batch files (or you can do it by hand) and then any water on the map you will need to blend in.

With photoshop open (with also the Action files installed which you should have done in step 1), first you need to open up or crate a small file, any file will do as long as its open and then you need to do is go to "File>Automate>Batch..."


This will bring up a new window and you will want to set the settings to be the same as the pic below (note you will want the 1024x2 one instead of 4 thou):



Then once that is all set, click Ok and let it run its magic, shouldn't take too long.

At the end of which you should have something looking a little like this, apart from much, much higher rez and your layers looking something like this too:


As you can see, all fits together nicely apart from the water which with the sun reflecting off it at different parts don't look too good. So what we are going to have to do is some photoshop editing. I'm not going to write a photoshop tut but the best way I find is to select the area, then just use clone stamp tool to make it all blend in nicely. w/e you do, best to do all your edits on a new layer, so if you do update your minimap later, you can just slip the new minimap under and the editors you have done before should work, and may only require minimal tweaks or none at all.

after which you should have something looking like this:


I've only done a very basic one just to show you but you should get the picture

After that, you should save up what you have done and go onto Step 6.

Step 5c: 1024x4 (4km²) sized maps.
This Step is for 1024x4 (4km²) sized maps, do it on maps. For this size you need to combined the 16 minimaps you have generated with my photoshop batch files (or you can do it by hand) and then any water on the map you will need to blend in. I'm also going to be using Qinling for this example instead of Muttrah.

With photoshop open (with also the Action files installed which you should have done in step 1), first you need to open up or crate a small file, any file will do as long as its open and then you need to do is go to "File>Automate>Batch..."


This will bring up a new window and you will want to set the settings to be the same as the pic below:



Then once that is all set, click Ok and let it run its magic, you may want to go make a cup of tea or something cos it takes a bit to put together 16 large images

At the end of which you should have something looking a little like this, apart from much, much higher rez and your layers looking something like this too:


As you can see, all fits together nicely apart from the water which with the sun reflecting off it at different parts don't look too good. So what we are going to have to do is some photoshop editing. I'm not going to write a photoshop tut but the best way I find is to select the area, then just use clone stamp tool to make it all blend in nicely. w/e you do, best to do all your edits on a new layer, so if you do update your minimap later, you can just slip the new minimap under and the editors you have done before should work, and may only require minimal tweaks or none at all.

after which you should have something looking like this (ignore the creases between each minimap you can just see, don't look like that on the high rez just that I've shrunk the image from 8194px² to 512px², looks fine when shrunk to 1024px² and above):


I have also painted in other things like the river rapids as the minimap would not capture them

After that, you should save up what you have done and go onto Step 6.


Step 6: Saving the MiniMaps to be used ingame
Now we are going to be saving our MiniMaps in the best format to minimize there impact on performance while still keeping them looking as nice as possible

While playing in-game, like any other texture the minimap has to be also be loaded and stored in the ram, just like a tank texture etc and there has been noticeable performance drop when saving the minimap in the wrong format or too high rez.

Now EA's Minimaps are really low rez, saved in DXT1 and only 512x512 but they have also for some reason saved it with 10MipMaps which are not used and decrease performance. Still there MiniMap is only 170kbs which is nothing.

We are going to be saving in DXT1, 1024x1024 and with No MipMaps, and for 1024x4 maps it is maybe a idea to save with the same settings, but at 2048x2048 which will make the minimap 2mbs, but will be the same detail as a 1024x2 minimap. That bit is up to you and how much the extra detail means to you, but really when a user has over 1024mbs of ram normally 2mbs of that is not much, thou 1/2 the size cuts it down to 1/4 of the file size (512kbs). What ever you decrease you minimap too it MUST be a power of 2, otherwise there is a bug with ATI cards that it cant handle textures out of that rez and will screw up. so the texture must be either 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 etc, etc.

So first thing we need to do is decrease the size of our MiniMap to 1024x1024 or 2048x2048. Go to "Image>Image Size..." at the top, this will open a new window.


In that window, put in your new Width and Height Pixel Dimensions and let it do its work.


Now its time to save this minimap. Go to "File>Save As..."


Browse to "/levels/*your map*/Hud/Minimap/" and in there you will see 3 .dds files (if you cant see them, switch the format to "D3D/DDS (*.DDS)"):

1. ingameMap.dds is the main MiniMap seen by all players in there minimap view.
2. commanderMicromap.dds is a minimap that DICE was going to use for the commander view, but must have decided against it later on in the development stage and couldn't be asked to fully get rid of it, like many other things in BF2. Best not to delete it, it "may" cause a CTD but tbh, ain't bothered testing.
3. commanderMap.dds is anouther minimap that DICE was going to use for the commander view, but must have decided against it later on in the development stage and couldn't be asked to fully get rid of it, like many other things in BF2. Best not to delete it, it "may" cause a CTD but tbh, ain't bothered testing.

Anyways back to saving! first we are going to save up the "ingameMap.dds". Double click on it to save over the old file, and match the DDS settings below.


Now you can just leave the other 2 minimaps, but the best idea is too just resize to 32x32pixels, keeping the same DDS settings as above and save over the top of them to keep the overall size of your map down as that makes them only 1kb each and keeps them there encase it will CTD if you deleted them, thou I don't think it would but this is just as good as deleting them.

All you need to do is pack it up with your map and you will end up with something like this:



And then you are done, you should now have a "perfect" MiniMap for your map

Here you can find the Grid overlay used on PR maps:
https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f35...-template.html

[McBumLuv]

Know it's old, but any CS 2 users will have to extract their "MiniMap 1024x2.atn" and "MiniMap 1024x4.atn" to "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Photoshop Actions\". However, it doesn't then seem to show up in my Actions window, only the files in my "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Workspaces\" appear there, and the file types are only recognized as "File" :/

[AFsoccer]

Thanks Rhino!

Btw, my CS2 didn't know how to open a .dds file, so I found a plug-in that was needed:
NVIDIA Plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop (Normal/Cube Maps, DDS)

I have an nvidia video card so this plug-in worked like a charm, but not sure if you'd need something else if you have an ATI card, etc.

[know15]

Thank you for the help I was looking for something like this

[Rudd]

if you open Yamalia's minimap there are these white lines, do you know what causes these as I'm getting the same, they suddenly appear when I resize the minimap, it is also a 4k.

[Rhino]

humm, did my tut not go into that?

Try merging the layers of each part of the map into one layer and if it still happens after that just paint over the lines unless someone else has a better suggestion. Forgot excatly what I did to get around it

[Amok@ndy]

i found a solution

i modified your scripts rhino and i make more screens from different points and then have a look on which version i have the best result and then do a lot of photoshop work ...

for the minimap of Silent Eagle i did around 50 shots

Edit:

thats your code:

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap1" 1536/1000/1536 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap2" 512/1000/1536 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap3" -512/1000/1536 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap4" -1536/1000/1536 1024

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap5" 1536/1000/512 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap6" 512/1000/512 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap7" -512/1000/512 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap8" -1536/1000/512 1024

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap9" 1536/1000/-512 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap10" 512/1000/-512 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap11" -512/1000/-512 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap12" -1536/1000/-512 1024

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap13" 1536/1000/-1536 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap14" 512/1000/-1536 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap15" -512/1000/-1536 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap16" -1536/1000/-1536 1024

thats the code i use:

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap1_1" 2048/1000/2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap1_2" 1024/1000/2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap1_3" 0/1000/2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap1_4" -1024/1000/2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap1_5" -2048/1000/2048 1024

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap2_1" 2048/1000/1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap2_2" 1024/1000/1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap2_3" 0/1000/1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap2_4" -1024/1000/1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap2_5" -2048/1000/1024 1024

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap3_1" 2048/1000/0 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap3_2" 1024/1000/0 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap3_3" 0/1000/0 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap3_4" -1024/1000/0 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap3_5" -2048/1000/0 1024

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap4_1" 2048/1000/-1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap4_2" 1024/1000/-1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap4_3" 0/1000/-1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap4_4" -1024/1000/-1024 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap4_5" -2048/1000/-1024 1024

renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap5_1" 2048/1000/-2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap5_2" 1024/1000/-2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap5_3" 0/1000/-2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap5_4" -1024/1000/-2048 1024
renderer.maketopworldscreen 2048 "C:\Minimap\Megamap5_5" -2048/1000/-2048 1024

[dunem666]

To anyone who Has ATI graphics cards... this TUT may cause some issues with generating the minimap when pressing show. To fix this, delete your minimap.dds in editor folder, then open catalyst control center and make sure your @Catalyst AI is disabled. When back in editor do your minculldistance and your nolods to 1 will work just fine when u press show.

[sevenbravo]

Hi there guys,

Looks like a great tutorial but I'm having issues seeing any images, is it just me or are they missing for you too?

I'm just getting into PR now, I remembered waiting for it years ago and finaly the other day came across it again. Fantastic job guys!

I'm hoping to do some African urban maps, hence looking at this tutorial.

Wonder if anyone can just confirm if those images are gone?
Kind regards
Brad

[Rudd]

Welcome to the forums Brad

the images do appear to be gone

http://www.rhinorage.co.uk/

This account has been suspended.
Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources.