Crash Course in BMP2CTP2

[Chris B]

Im ashamed to admit, i hve no idea how it works. cthink someone could write a little guide 4 me and others?

[Salvius]

Well, first you probably need the updated version, which I got from Harlan. There are some changes to the color palette, and a somewhat better readme file, but the palette file included (as far as I know) has only been tested with Photoshop.

What you're ultimately trying to create is an 8-bit color bmp file, using the specific palette of colors that bmptoctp2 looks for. It needs to be 2x the linear size that ctp2 uses. For example, for a "Gigantic" map (which ctp2 says is 70x70, although it's really 140x70), you would create a 140x140 bitmap. The conversion program then skips half the appropriate lines to generate the map. It has an option that is supposed to let you use a 140x70 map without skipping any pixels, but I haven't been able to make it work properly - it looks like the horizontal size is one pixel off, so you get this weird diagonal banding effect. This could probably be overcome with some experimentation.

So, the fun part: How do you create this bmp file? What I do is start with a graphic file of the map I want to make, of any arbitrary (but considerably larger than the final) size. I keep the original on one layer, then start coloring in the terrain on layers above that. If you keep different features on different layers, you only have to worry about "staying in the lines" once. For example, I usually have (in order from top to bottom):

Oceans
Rivers
Terrain Features (mountains, forest, etc)
Terrain Base
Original

I'll usually start by creating the oceans, by tracing around the coastlines with the "Shallow Water" color (tip: have the terrain types bitmap that comes with bmptoctp2 open in a second window, and use the color picker to get the right colors). You'll want to use the "Pen" rather than the "Brush", because you don't want any blending between colors. Also, since you're using a file larger than the final map will be, you don't need to worry much about little fiddly bits (they'll disappear when you resize anyway).

Then, continue with the various terrain layers. Since you've got the different "things" on different layers, you can turn the display of layers on and off depending on what you're working on. I usually work my way more-or-less down that list of layers, putting in the "base" terrain last (since, when it's on, it obscures anything else that hasn't been drawn yet). Personally, I generally turn the river layer off after I'm done with it, but leave the other features on while I'm working on the base. Others may have different preferences. :-) As Harlan has observed, the conversion program doesn't do rivers, so you'll need to draw the rivers in a terrain type that will be obviously distinct from the actual surrounding terrain, such as Polar Mountains for most of the world (I switch to Desert when I start getting near the poles, where there actually are Polar Mountains). Remember also that since you're going to resize the final map down to a fairly small size, you need to use a mid-sized brush for them to show up at all.

Once everything is done, you can turn the Original (background) layer on and off, and anything you've missed will show through as white. Once everything really is done, you can delete that layer (if you want), and then prepare for conversion: Flatten the layers, convert to 8-bit palette, and resize to (say) 140x140. When you resize, the resample option you want to use is "Nearest Neighbor" (otherwise, you may end up with, for instance, a fringe of tundra around all your forests). At this stage, you may want to look over the resulting file and fix things, such as connecting any rivers that have been broken in the resize. Run the conversion program and import the text file into ctp2. Go through it to change the Polar Mountains (or whatever you used) to the correct terrain with rivers on them. Get the Continental Shelf around the border between Shallow and Deep water by adding/removing Shallow Water tiles (ctp2 automatically generates Shelf when you do this). Place resources and starting locations, and you're basically done.

How's that?

[Harlan]

I've got a new and improved file about using this program, but I haven't had time to put the pieces together. Some pieces include info from Scorpion on how to use PSP for things instead of Photoshop. Partly why this has been low on my list of things to do is that there doesn't seem to be any demand for it, but now it seems at least someone is interested, I may get to it faster.

By the way, I haven't tried it, but I have an idea on how to get past the shallow ocean /deep ocean problem. Paint all the deep ocean as continental shelf instead. It seems that any square that is contential shelf but isn't next to any shallow ocean becomes reassigned as deep ocean, so it should automatically fix itself that way. I haven't tried it out though, its just an idea.

[magma12]

Maybe someone here can help me. Everytime I run
the program its return something about the size
for example:
I try to convert the testmap1to1.bmp (came with the program) so I run bmp2ctp -1 testmap1to1.bmp testmap1to1.txt
its return "size: 48x96 (should be 4608 bytes, is 4610 bytes)

There is alway 2 bytes extra.

By the way after I got the txt file what do I suppose to do?

[OmniGod]

Two choices after you have the file. Both seem to work but I believe the correct process is to import the map in the editor. The other option is to remove the .txt ending and moving the file to the maps directory and open it directly in the editor. Not sure if any problems stem from this but it does work.

Rich

BTW: A new update to BMP2CTP2? Where and what were the major changes... I must have missed that one I'm actually trying to make use of it now. I'm in the process of a world bmp to create new maps from.

[Harlan]

No, there isn't a new BMP2CTP2, just a new readme file for it that I'm working on, explaining it better so more will use it. Plus updated palatte files and so forth.

Magma12, the problem you mention is no problem. When the conversion works correctly, you will get that error.

[magma12]

Harlan, thanks for the reply but I think I have another
problem. After I load the map (140,70 pixel) using the editor I got error message says, "Error loading map file.
Unexpected end of file found" With every map I convert
including the test1to1map file. Any sugguest?

[Chris B]

My problems are simpler.
What size window do U start with in Paint???
I tried to covert the testmap by renaming it imput and also creating in outputs.txt (all in the BMP2TPII folder) and it didn't work.
What am i doing wrong?

[OmniGod]

To answer the question about what size you should start with.. that depends on what you want to end with and what size your images are that you'll be importing. For my map I created a blank file at 10800x6000 (or something close to that) and have been adding 600x350 images to it to construct the world. I suggest using photoshop (at least that's what I'm using) just because you can keep everything separate until the end... little nip here and tuck there and the map is done. But what you start with depends on what you want to end with. The colour scheme that comes with the editor is a little off... in that I mean forest is actually black. Other than that, I've not found anyother palatte errors and can get all the terrains to be built. Hope this helps.

As for the error that some people are getting, I've found and probably was told by thousands of others that the map you create must be placed in the text format in the ctp2 directory not the ctp2/save/maps. You must load the map by using the /importmap name.txt function in the chatbox (default button is ' ) As long as the map size you want to import matches one of the possible map sizes defined in the const.txt file it seems to work without a problem (I've had problems of it not importing if it didn't match a size in const.txt... not sure if it's me or if it's the game).

Hope that answers the present questions.
Rich

[This message has been edited by OmniGod (edited January 22, 2001).]