Creating minimaps the cheap and dirty way

[Legacy_boodah83]

               

I post this in case someone some day will be in a similar situation as I am; that is wanting to make minimaps for their tile mdls but not having 3dsMax and the Neverblender's minimap creation toolkit (link) not working properly for them.

 

Why cheap and dirty? Well, you only need free software, but you also have to get your hands a little dirty and do some manual editing (as opposed to just using one of those cool 3dsMax scripts that do all the work for you). 

 

All you need is NWN Explorer (link) and GIMP (link).

 

1. Open NWN Explorer

 

2. Go to File --> Options

 

3. Check the "View models in orthographic projection" box on the bottom left

 

 

4. Set a value for the orthographic view size (m)

   

This value depends on what size you want your minimaps to be.

   

   16 x 16 = 320m

   32 x 32 = 160m

   64 x 64 = 80m

   128 x 128 = 40m

   256 x 256 = 20m

   

I use 32 x 32 minimaps, but to get a slightly more detailed map, I set the size to 20m (256 x 256) and rescale the image later in GIMP to 32 x 32.

 

5. Click ok

 

6. Click on Open, select your mdl file (or the hak it is in) and click Open again. Make sure the explorer window is maximized.

 

 

I recommend putting the mdls you want to make minimaps of in a hak file (with all the required non-vanilla NWN textures if any). This will make it easier a little later on since this way your mdl will show up (almost) in the center of the screen (because of the hak structure panel on the left side). It's also a little more convenient selecting mdls this way when creating more than just one minimap.

 

7. Hit the print key on your keyboard to make a screenshot

 

8. Open GIMP

 

9. Go to File --> New

 

10. Set the image size according to the size you choose before.

 

     

You can make templates for all relevant sizes to speed up the process when you have to create large numbers of minimaps

 

11. Click ok

 

12. Click on Edit --> Paste (or hit Ctrl+v)

 

13. The map image should show up almost in the center (a little down to the left of it for me). You might have to drag your pasted screenshot a little around to make it fit exactly.

 

     

   13.a (optional) If you want to get really fancy, draw a blue line where (if any) door nodes are on your tile

     

   13.b (optional) Click on Image --> Scale Image if you need/want to size it down and set to appropriate size

 

 

 

14. Go to File --> Export As

 

15. Enter the name of your minimap (standard is mi_name-of-your-tile.tga, for example mi_bdh04_c12_02.tga). Don't forget to change the file extension to .tga

 

16. Click on Export and then on Export again

 

17. You're done!

 

 

 

Maybe someone could modify NWN Explorer so that it exports minimap icons itself, but until then, the above method works pretty decently and is even quite fast once you get into the workflow.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

What I do is have a custom script that positions each tile at a specific place in the GMAX view window, in top down view. Then I set paint shop pro 7 to take as many pictures as I need every time I click print screen, and it grabs an image and creates a window for it in paint shop. Then I save them all out as Image###. Then knowing the order I took the pictures in, I rename all the files first given a scripted list of the actual model names I need. Then I have an external program that uses a custom bitmap class to locate the exact coordinates in the saved screen shot image of the corners needed to crop just the map image out. (based on my known screen size). Then it parses every file in the directory, crops the needed part, and sets them to the size I need them. I wrote this back in 2010 for visual basic. I'd like a faster way to do it, but it works for me.

 

What I'd really like to do is teach a program to read a specific part of the screen, define that box, then multi-capture that with access to the filename of the model being shown. But I'm not skilled in reading resident memory from one program into that of another. That would be ideal.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               

What I do is have a custom script that positions each tile at a specific place in the GMAX view window, in top down view. Then I set paint shop pro 7 to take as many pictures as I need every time I click print screen, and it grabs an image and creates a window for it in paint shop. Then I save them all out as Image###. Then knowing the order I took the pictures in, I rename all the files first given a scripted list of the actual model names I need. Then I have an external program that uses a custom bitmap class to locate the exact coordinates in the saved screen shot image of the corners needed to crop just the map image out. (based on my known screen size). Then it parses every file in the directory, crops the needed part, and sets them to the size I need them. I wrote this back in 2010 for visual basic. I'd like a faster way to do it, but it works for me.

 

What I'd really like to do is teach a program to read a specific part of the screen, define that box, then multi-capture that with access to the filename of the model being shown. But I'm not skilled in reading resident memory from one program into that of another. That would be ideal.

 

It would likely be easier to just fix the parts in Velmar's TilesetCreator to actually work in gmax.  I believe that the main reason that set of scripts do not work correctly is the way the variables are handled.  It is unfortunate that Velmar never released an update to convert those scripts over from 3dsmax to Gmax.  That TSC is designed to automatically scan through a .SET file, find the appropriate tiles in whatever folder you specify (meaning you can work with less than the full tile-set if you so choose by only placing the tiles you wish to work with into a sub-folder, anyway it scans the .SET, cross matches with existing files in folder specified, and creates a mini-map for every physical tile that exists, auto centers and expands to full screen each tile, screen caps it, and generates an appropriately named mini-map file according to the entries in the .SET file specification for each tile.  Meaning you can name each mini-map to your own names OR allow it to auto-name according to standard definitions etc...

 

I tried to convert them, but unfortunately I am not skilled enough to accomplish the task.  Velmar, Thrikreen, and Joco were the only 3 folks that I knew to have the skill required, and all of them have long left the community.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Michael DarkAngel]

               

It would likely be easier to just fix the parts in Velmar's TilesetCreator to actually work in gmax.  I believe that the main reason that set of scripts do not work correctly is the way the variables are handled.

 

I believe I had mentioned this once before, but can't remember where or when.  The reason we can't create minimaps with gMax, is gMax is missing the rendering engine that 3DSMax/Velmar's Tools uses to create the scene from which the bitmaps are created.

 

MDA

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               

Pretty much what you are saying is that GMAX, being a lesser demon, cannot produce for you a bitmap handle which you can access in MaxScript, and therefore cannot export that bitmap.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Michael DarkAngel]

               

Pretty much what you are saying is that GMAX, being a lesser demon, cannot produce for you a bitmap handle which you can access in MaxScript, and therefore cannot export that bitmap.

 

Basically, yes.  In 3DSMax we have two buttons (highlighted in the image below) which allow us to render a scene and provides us with a pop-up window of the rendered scene.  In the pop-up window we have the ability to save the rendered scene in a variety of ways.

 

 

This is what Velmar's Tools is using to create and save the minimaps.

 

I did find a plugin for gMax which is supposed to give gMax a rendering engine, which may give us the ability to create minimaps.  I haven't tested or tried anything yet (just found the plugin today).

 

MDA

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Pstemarie]

               

Great tutorial Boodah. Sometimes I'm not happy with the minimap results I get from 3dsMax - this is a nice alternative method to create them if 3dsMax borks them.