Map Builder's

So I've been building Maps for over a Year now and in that time I've learned a lot in the editor and I'm still learning new things with every map I build, But there are still some things I'm not embarrassed to admit I don't know wtf they do and the reason I think this will be a good topic for the new builders in the community instead of topic after topic just ask here, ill start it off by asking the following couple of questions...(With Pics)

After adding a distribution I noticed the 'Seed' line on the bottom right that I've never noticed before, What is this?

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And also I've always noticed the 'Density' and 'Scale' and I know exactly what Density does but was never sure exactly what Scale does? I've never even tried it or played around with it is it just sizing stuff up?

0_1550421237141_2.jpg

I consider myself pretty educated in the editor but as you can see even the most educated might not know everything, Don't be shy to ask questions people.

@smaronenine I believe the seed is to make each distribution different from the others by giving each distribution a random seed by default to change where the plants are placed. So if you made two distributions with the same plants they would still be different.
The Scale option is to change the size of the plants. The red is smaller and the yellow is bigger. You can use this to make all the plants a little bigger in an area or I like to use it to shrink down the small rocks a little when I find they're too big.

@SmarOneNine
Speaking of both density and scale, I watched a developer video on YT a while back about the creation of the map for FarCry 5 and it mentioned something that applies here. Naturally, forests will have larger trees and more of them near the middle, and smaller more sparsely spaced trees around the perimeter. Makes things look a lot more natural than having a bunch of big trees right up to the edges of a patch of woods. Trees gradually increase in size and density as you get closer to the middle of the forest.

Hmm, I think I’ve seen that somewhere too.

last edited by RiskyWisky

@mexican_420 Good Point Man, With the newest map I'm currently working on now I'm trying a lot of things outside my comfort zone, Things I've never tried before for example I'm using the cliff overlay which I've never done before because I was very unfamiliar with how it works but I basically just taught myself how to use it and I'm applying it to this new map , And I plan to use that scale thing so I'll keep that in mind with the tree sizing.

As others have said, seed is just another way to say random basically. Sometimes when placing a distribution I'll just change the seed if the original placement bothers me for whatever reason.

When using the scale option, the randomize option is pretty handy to keep things well... random. I often use scale along with randomizing on rocks to create a large variety of sizes.

@smaronenine

Ill do a video on scale. Scale can really make some cool looking things. Ive learned to use it. My only problem with scale is once you apply it, its near impossible to get it back to the way it was. Its very sensitive.

@RoughRider : i agree it is really tough to get back to 'standard size' w/ the scale option.
_some other things i do
_I use the common/brushes xml to make more across the board changes in scale and the density of items in a dist. (i use it a lot actually) .
_I find for ex: 'ferns' 'canes' 'mud chunks' etc, etc. to be a little heavy overall (amount of) for my liking, and turn down (or up) the 'plants per block' for the asset. i usually change the placement of the street lamps so they are not so far from the overlay (road), and the distance between poles. looks more real to me.
_and so on..

Thats something else i havent tryed yet was that xml tweak to increase the amount of distributions.

@picsoul the 'seed' thing, For me it does not allow that value to be changed. I attempted to on several different distributions. hoping you could offer a little advice, on how you got it to accept a value change??? ANY HELP WITH THIS IS APPRECIATED,

from 'Fuzzball's Editor Guide' (not suggesting that the info is wrong, at all. it just doesn't work for me)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1583079240
"Plants are distributed randomly up to the mapped density. (There's no reason to use the Randomize checkbox for density because it will just decrease the average density.) Since the random distribution is not drawn and is therefore out of your control, the editor seeds the random function with a fixed value which you can control. This value is kept in the Seed property."
_ I'm fairly familiar with the workings with the editor, and I have not seen/found the 'Seed' property anywhere expect in the, Scene side menu drop down in a map.
0_1550676266299_Scene menu.JPG

@rufus said in Map Builder's:

from 'Fuzzball's Editor Guide' (not suggesting that the info is wrong, at all. it just doesn't work for me)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1583079240
"Plants are distributed randomly up to the mapped density. (There's no reason to use the Randomize checkbox for density because it will just decrease the average density.) Since the random distribution is not drawn and is therefore out of your control, the editor seeds the random function with a fixed value which you can control. This value is kept in the Seed property."
_ I'm fairly familiar with the workings with the editor, and I have not seen/found the 'Seed' property anywhere expect in the, Scene side menu drop down in a map.
0_1550676266299_Scene menu.JPG

Only one 'Z' in Fuzball. 🙂

Either I got it wrong, or the editor has been updated since I wrote that. You are right that it's now impossible to change the seed from within the editor. If you really want to change the seed, you can hand-edit your level's XML file. (It's easy to read and modify in your favorite text editor.)

I'm not particularly fond of editing the seed, though. If I want a plant in a particular place, I place it by hand. If I want a plant not in a particular place, I make sure the distribution density is 0 in that place.

@rufus You can change the seed of a distribution before you create or add the Map file.

@rufus

You are correct, changing the seed does not seem to work within the editor anymore.

last edited by PicSoul

@chris-nelson- thanks for jumping in Fuzball, i agree that with the recent changes in the Editor, things are not the same, and they are changing a little bit w/ each update. but that doesn't take away from the awesomeness of your work!:smiling_cat_face_with_open_mouth:

_ this has been a question for me, The Terrain BRUSH. is there any way to adjust the fade-blend amount? I find a sharper/softer edge would be great, at times.
_Rufus

@rufus said in Map Builder's:

@chris-nelson- thanks for jumping in Fuzball, i agree that with the recent changes in the Editor, things are not the same, and they are changing a little bit w/ each update. but that doesn't take away from the awesomeness of your work!:smiling_cat_face_with_open_mouth:

Thanks! I agree that the editor (and game) are a moving target. Hopefully I'll remain motivated to keep the BBMMM updated after I've finished my current map. :p

_ this has been a question for me, The Terrain BRUSH. is there any way to adjust the fade-blend amount? I find a sharper/softer edge would be great, at times.

I would love this as well, but I don't know of any way to modify it. For a harder edge, I come back with smaller brush to touch up the edge. For a softer edge, I come back with a bigger brush to softly clear the edge.

You can edit the distribution map in your favorite bitmap editor, of course, but then you lose the surrounding context. (An external editor is also useful for restoring the random scale distribution that you were discussing before.)

Got a question, How much is too much for a map? I'm currently working on a 1024x1024 and am about 90% percent done then all of a sudden I start having problems with rebuilding the terrain and freezing up. It was going just fine I was rebuilding and saving constantly then the forementioned problem occurred.

@08_jk_
I used to have similar problems with the old SpinTires. I haven't so far with MudRunner, so I don't know if it fails in the same way.

Things that helped me before:
Delete the contents of your levels directory to force a completely fresh rebuild with nothing cached.
Restart the editor immediately before rebuilding so it is using minimum memory when it starts.

Other things to try:
Make an archive copy of your XML file, then start taking things out of it until the rebuild works.
Distributions tend to make the most work for the editor, so take them all out and see if that helps. If so, put them back in one by one until it fails again. See whether there a particular distribution that always fails, or do you simply have too many? Either way, you might need to either simplify your distributions (fewer brushes) or decrease their density so that fewer plants are placed.
If it's not the distributions, keep trying the delete and replace strategy with the other feature categories.

Good luck!

@chris-nelson

Yep. I havent ran into this issue in mudrunner, but thats how i used to solve it