Mapmaking

[trulsismann 2]

Hello everyone,

Iv'e made a few maps but i can't get the elevation right! Some have advised me to use maps and turn them into a greyscale but i can't get that working because maps usually have text on them, right?
Any advice?

[Constantina 5]

Hello

I can give you a summary: first, the sea level is about 83. It has to be a 8-bit greyscale map of either JPEG, PNG or BMP (the formats I mostly use for mapping).

There is a guide on how to create new regions. The Omnibus by this site has a good guide on how to generate SimCity 4 terrain, using USGS data. If USGS mapping isn't for you another guide by another Fansite.

Creating new regions in SimCity 4

I hope this will give you an idea.

[Bones1 96]

The last time I made a map, it turned out that greyscale value 105 was the sea level.

I'm not sure if that was because I have the Columbus terrain mod installed. I didn't think that affected sea level, but it's possible.

 

In any case, when I used 83 (like the Landscape Designer uses), it resulted in too much water. I did some tests, and sea level was 105. (Could have been 104, but 105 was close enough.)

[delboysim 1]

Trulsismann -What I think you are trying to do is turn a terraformed region back into a map - is that correct ??

 

Sorry to tell you but that cannot be done :-(

 

if this is not the case - can you be more specific with what you mean by I have created some maps - how did you create these maps in the first place ?

 

BONES - in photoshop - on a greyscale of 1 to 100, sea level is around 69 and not 50 as you would perhaps expect - and it certainly looks as though the terrain mod is upping all the elevations

[+Guest]

Date: 1/13/2006 2:44:21 PM Author: delboysim

Trulsismann -What I think you are trying to do is turn a terraformed region back into a map - is that correct ??

Sorry to tell you but that cannot be done :-(

quote>

 

i've been thinking about how you could do that, but it'd be a very complicated, very slow process at first and i'm not at all sure if it is possible, but an idea nonetheless

 

i've seen some pics where a birds eye view of the region has been done, and if my hypothesis is right, then you just have to do that (with unspoiled terrain [without trees or buildings] of course) put it in greyscale and you should have a map

 

since taking that delboy is the expert, i think the possibiltiy to this is left answered to him

[marijntjo 0]

This is the index I made for mapmaking and often use!



One point though, before you render your region make sure cycledogs mod is temporarily removed from your plugins folder, otherwise elevation will come out totally different as expected!

Hope it helps, and try to find some maps without text!

[delboysim 1]

I am by no means the expert tc (without capitols heheheh)

 

When you render a downloaded map, the game uses the greyscale to interperet the shades and make the terrain relevant to the shade.

 

Once you start terraforming a region it saves back the info - you therefore have CHANGED the original greyscale. In my limited understanding of the mechanics of the game the changed formatting of the region is saved back in the region folder in some form of coding, it does not redraw the greyscale in the common sense. That being the case there is no altered greyscale image which could be uploaded to the STEX

 

If you examine the region folders that come with the game you will see that there is no greyscale image contained in the folders - the region is somehow coded within the programming

 

 

edit - woah that greyscale index is excellent - just what I have been looking for !!!! THANKYOU 10/10 and 2 thumbs up lol

[+Guest]

thanx for the index, but just a few things to clarify:

1-the ol' sea level question it's about 50 isn't it?

2-say if the region size (in pixels) is 20x20 for example, would the greyscale (pixel) size be the same

3-i'd have to some editing to make get the number 162 (as there is only 165 and 159) wouldn't i?

 

just so i don't have to terraform all the things myself and take a shortcut

 

delboy i only like my screename without caps as it fits better with the 13 (tc13 or TC13, i see the sans-caps better)

 

just to clarify my last concern: if you flip and rotate the region view to make it at birdseye view with photoshop, you should be able to make it the same as the one you made when rendered as a greyscale

[delboysim 1]

tc - yer right on some things but wrong on others mate - sea level is actually around 69 and not 50 as you might expect

 

the other figures I believe refer to the RGB values - being 1 to 255 on red green and blue

 

Taking an overhead view of a region is not defined enough to get a greyscale image from, and even if you do it that way - the game renders GREYSCALE and not colour images - the work involved in ACCURATELY converting colour pics to playable greyscale is tedious to say the least - take a look at the 2 dollar bill map - no effort made whatsoever to convert colour image to playable greyscale

 

 

Edit - I emphasise the word PLAYABLE greyscale when converting from a colour image - of course almost any paint prog will convert a colour image to greyscale - but the shades will usually be all wrong, and unsuitable for a PLAYABLE map, and I'm sorry to keep ranting about it but the 2 dollar bill map is a classic example as is the stray cats map - OR WHATEVER ITS CALLED

[+Guest]

ah okay, just the idea seemed good at the time,a nd thanx for clarifying the sea level, i knew it was round there but wasn't too sure so i went for the most round number (50 in this case)

cheers

[obliq 0]

The terrain is stored as a greyscale bitmap in the saved city file (.sc4) I can extract it using Datagen; however, the bitmap is stored in the DBPF without the bitmap file header and Datagen doesn't supply one for the extracted file. This means the file can't be read by a paint program.

Datagen v0.6.0.41650

[delboysim 1]

oblig

 

I thought that might be the case - but even if you could read it, there could easily be over 100 of them in a large region - to reconstruct a greyscale region from individual pieces, city by city, would take forever lol

[obliq 0]

Date: 1/14/2006 12:21:33 PM Author: delboysim

oblig

I thought that might be the case - but even if you could read it, there could easily be over 100 of them in a large region - to reconstruct a greyscale region from individual pieces, city by city, would take forever lol

quote>

 

It would take some time. It looks as though SimCity stitches the region together on the fly. Only city files are saved. Something in the .sc4

file stores its position in the region.

[delboysim 1]

Oblig

 

You have got me curious now - I am going to attempt what you suggest - it will be a mammoth task, but I am curious to see if it can be done - if it can,  then it will open up some great possibilities for the exchange of terraformed regions !!! Its is fair to say that many would like to be able to do this - so I invite experienced map makers to give it a try and together perhaps we can resolve this issue once and for all