How to modify borders on an existing map

Black_Elk

pps.

@davor-pavlić said in How to modify borders on an existing map:

Oh also I almost forgot, so for that, to soften those borders and clean up the areas around, you might just try using the Blur tool. That one will blend the pixels which allows you to soften the lines. It might not hit exact, but you can use that one to sort of manually feather your lines and control the size of the brush to help keep it focused just on the spots you want to clean up, while blending the opacity at the same time to close out those little gaps.

Here I just quickly stomped the lines on the map you posted earlier. Let me know if that displays any better for you now...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ub4iq1ngqme6ejn/reliefMapModded stomped lines.png?dl=0

I also see what you mean about that gray halo line that is on the base. Not sure of a great way to replicate it. It'd be easier to get rid of it I think. You might be able to use the paintbrush tool at a low opacity with gray to just kinda kiss the edges of the border lines but maybe it's not too noticeable anyway to just ditch that gray? I tend to play zoomed out a little, which makes it harder to notice hehe

It's interesting now that I'm looking at it more closely, the relief I sent you with the healed borders, it's showing some small gaps in transparency all across the map. Like they're showing around lines in TTs we didn't adjust, in random places. That gray line is in the original, but some of those other openings must have happened when I was trying to modify it or something? I'll have to make you a better one this week when I get the time.

My solution for the above was to just expand the border lines for everything by 2 px and then add in a little gaussian blur to try and close in those gaps I mentioned. Like there might be a few places where the line still needs to be widened for the new border lines you created, but I think it closed most of those random holes in the transparency. Basically removed the gray border line effect entirely, replacing that with a more standard blend on the blur, which would hopefully be easier for you to replicate with the regular paintbrush tool in PS if adding new borders.

Not sure if that's sufficient for ya? If not we can try again when I have more time. It'd be easier if we had an image of the relief that just didn't show any borders at all, and then a baseline that wasn't anti-aliased already so we could pull the borders from there heheh, but given what we got to work with, seemed like an alright compromise. The borders do read a bit thicker than I'd prefer for some spots, and that was more an expedient, blunt instrument style, but at least it keeps the ball rolling for now lol.

Davor Pavlić

@black_elk

Im away from the pc right now, i'll check it out later and let you know.

Davor Pavlić

@black_elk Alright this will be a lengthy one.

Okay so i've taken a look, i also booted up TripleA with this relief map, and this is what im noticing :

The blur fixed the 'left-overs' completely, maybe there are small spots somewhere that i'm not seeing, but it seems to be completely fixed. However the blur didn't only affect the outlines, but also made everything pretty blurry, including the actual relief terrain.

It went from this

to this

Blurry lines aren't a huge problem, it would actually be perfect if it was just a little bit less blurry and that would be it, but yeah i don't think i want to ruin the quality of the terrain as well.

I'm not sure if you got rid of the gray halo, but i don't see it anymore, the blur did the job most likely, which is amazing.

Yep yep, i did notice small patches of gaps randomly across the map as well before, now it seems to be gone, well atleast i think, i don't see any.

Finally, here is how blur effect affects the map in-game :

So my conclusion is that the blur is definetly a good solution, it fixed a lot of things and made the new outlines kind of blend in with the rest, the differences are basically minimal which can easily be fixed if i put more effort into nicer outlines. The only downside i see with this is that it ruined the quality of the actual relief/terrain.

What i think with my limited experience is that maybe it would be great if the blur could be applied to only the borders while preserving the quality of the rest of the map. What do you think, is it doable?

So all you did was just use blur? I'm asking so i can know how to try it myself later.

ps. im sorry for spamming screenshots, but i find it so much easier for explaining things lol

Black_Elk

Interesting, yeah I can see the blur effect into the terrain there. I think what we should do next time is try to isolate only the areas immediately around the borders, so that the blur doesn't spill over into everything else.

The Anti-Aliasing on the baseline makes it a bit harder to isolate selections using the color picker from baseline for use in a separate layer, but I think the move would be to isolate the black with the color picker at wherever it lands, then expand the selection out from there to just a few pixels in radius before doing the blur, so it only effects that isolated portion of the map. Like you'd still probably see a little blur bleeding over across a few pixels that way, but not across the entire relief.

Black_Elk

Ok lets see if this one holds up any better...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/snh6vn2shv8zjpa/reliefMapModded gaussian isolated.png?dl=0

I used the image you posted, again selected the black with the color picker, but this time I only expanded the selection by 1px to paint the new black lines. Then I grew the selection another 3px, filter/blur/gaussian at 1.

So basically you have 3 pixels outside the border line that will show some blur to close those opacity gaps, but beyond that it should return to the normal level of sharpness again.

Let me know if that works for ya. I think it healed most of those little gaps, and gave the existing lines a consistent level of blur, without messing with the under terrain too hard. Except for those pixels right on the border areas the rest of the relief should look like the image you posted initially. You might be able to fine tune it from here just with the blur tool if you catch any tiny opacity holes, but I think it nailed most of them.

Davor Pavlić

@black_elk

Just checked the image and checked it in-game as well, it looks great. Thanks a lot!

Okay so i have the basemap, i have a reliefmap,...next thing i could do is add new zones? Split Italy, Poland and island of Sakhalin (i found that it was actually split during the war by USSR and Japan).

Okay, how would i go about this? Obviously i need to draw a border first, but then what? :confused_face:
Is there a guide for XML? Haven't touched that aspect yet.

TheDog

@davor-pavlić
There are examples in the Pact of Steel (PoS) xml file.

You will need to change the xml & the following files;

centers.txt    -the TT center-ish point, seen when moving 2 or more TTs
place.txt      -how the units are placed in a TT
polygons.txt   -outline of the TT

But just ask, when you are ready to do this stage.

Davor Pavlić

@thedog

I see, alright ill get into it once i have all the outlines

Black_Elk

Sweet! Glad to hear it worked

Haha yeah so for a general how to guide, I know at various points people had planned to put some stuff together, but I don't know if it materialized? Maybe there's an older thread Lafayette or Cernel or somebody might recall. I'm not sure that the process is all that well documented though, or least not from the perspective of like first step, or step by step. Or like from the perspective of being kinda green with the whole thing.

I've helped to make a few maps, but that part is always a bit like a magic trick or something, whenever I see it go from an image to the actual game lol.

Maybe we could write a guide as we figure it out I guess. I really only know how to do a few things, and I almost got those down pat but other stuff has me kinda out of my depth. I was hella impressed with Frostion and Hepps just banging out maps, so all their threads are probably worth checking out, but they're at a pretty high level. The Shogun map is another cool one that has a lot of fun stuff in it. I've been meaning to start up another campaign there just to take the edge off haha. Iron War is a fun map though, like I can definitely get into this one again. Frostion put a lot into it, but then I think got a little burnt on WW2 and turned his attention more to Dragon War and building out the fantasy materials and sci fi materials. I still think this one is pretty top shelf though. Like it's probably my favorite tripleA map overall for solo entertainment value, so you know I'll show out lol

Oh bam there ya go! the Dog beat me to it haha. Yeah the Pact of Steel game has a ton of info, it's sorta like the main resource I think for learning how to tango with xml type stuff in tripleA.

Davor Pavlić

Oh man this XML thing seems tough to crack.

I've copied my baseTile map so i can go back to it if i mess something up, and on the new copied map i've drawn borders for splitting the TTs, like so :

I haven't touched anything else for fear of not messing it up lol. So i didn't do centers and polygons for this updated map yet, and i think i cant do it anyway because i need to edit the XML first and add the territories.

I took a look at the documentation (https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/blob/master/docs/map-making/tutorial/creating-custom-map-xml.md), from my understanding, in order to split Italy i could rename 'Italy' into 'North Italy', and add another TT and call it 'South Italy', like so :

Is that right?

Then it seems i need to make connections to other TTs that it is bordering, which i could do like this i guess :

I'm still scared to attempt this to not make a huge mess hahah

TheDog

@davor-pavlić
These files are a set, they must all match the changes you make.
centers.txt
place.txt
polygons.txt
MapName.xml

These files can be edited manually, if you work out the new entries.
centers.txt
place.txt
MapName.xml (Yes to Northern & Southern Italy)

However polygons.txt is too complicated and should be generated by the map tools.

Notepad++ will aid you as its a good text editor.
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads/

Davor Pavlić

@thedog

I keep getting this whenever i attempt to run Automatic Placement Finder. I've removed italy from XML and added 'Northern Italy' and 'Southern Italy', included them in XML, connected them to neighboring territories, and i still get this.

Note : I started getting this as soon as 'Italy' was removed from centers, so im confident i didn't mess anything up in XML editing. It keeps looking for Italy and showing up as error.

Possible solutions?

TheDog

@davor-pavlić
Do you copies of the files you need?

Then open these 4 files in Notepad++
centers.txt
place.txt
polygons.txt
MapName.xml

Search them for just Italy and remove the line with it on, as Italy does not exist anymore.

Try running Automatic Placement Finder, assuming you have run Polygon grabber.

Davor Pavlić

@thedog

Okay that took a while. I deleted Italy, East Prussia and Sakhalin lines from centers.txt, polygons.txt, places.txt and ironwar.xml.

I managed to do the new centers and polygons, finally Automatic Placement Finder ran, and i also deleted the previous baseTiles and replaced them with the new map.

I tried to give it a go in-game, and it doesn't want to run. This is what i get this time.

beelee

@davor-pavlić you might try saving all your current triplea downloadmaps saved games, then delete triplea and install again and just put all the new stuff in.

Sometimes stuff hides and triplea keeps looking for it. i don't fully understand it but worth a shot

TheDog

Try this, I have not read it.
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/438/solved-game-fails-to-start-no-data-of-type-centers-for-territory

Davor Pavlić

Nevermind, i didnt delete everything from XML, there are still loads of stuff in there such as unit placements and some attachments that contain ITALY, EAST PRUSSIA and SAKHALIN. The game probably tries to place units in those territories but there aren't any territories named like that.

Davor Pavlić

@davor-pavlić

Nope, didnt work, no idea what i am missing.

I searched the keywords in the XML, deleted everything, but the game still keeps looking for those territories.

Can i send someone the whole folder to check it out? I have no idea what i am missing.

beelee

@thedog said in How to modify borders on an existing map:

Try this, I have not read it.
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/438/solved-game-fails-to-start-no-data-of-type-centers-for-territory

It seems a naming error which i think 2.6 does different now. At any rate, looks as if Davor still deleting some stuff

Davor Pavlić

@beelee

I took a look at that thread and tbh i cant find any naming issue, especially since it worked
until now and i didnt rename anything.

I deleted the lines in XML which mentioned Italy, East Prussia and Sakhalin because those territory names no longer exist on my map. For the lines that add units and other attachmebts i changed every single one that again mentioned those territories, with my logic being that the map isnt running because the map keeps looking and placing stuff on non-existant territory.

Maybe i missed something somewhere, i dont know.

I have a backup copy of Iron War files so its not a big deal if i mess something up big time, but yeah, ill see what i can do tomorrow.