What Tool Does the CTP Team Use for Making Minimap Images?
This is the area for questions and answers for all the "How to?" of model creation.

Moderators: Winterhawk99, Mermut, Bannor Bloodfist

Post Reply
User avatar
Pstemarie
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:42 pm

What Tool Does the CTP Team Use for Making Minimap Images?

Post by Pstemarie »

I've made a few new tiles for Maxam's Classic Dungeon - which Nessa has become really familiar with :D - and was wondering what tool the CTP team uses to make the minimap images for tiles?

I read through the Bioware Tileset Construction Tutorial v1.4, but that didn't say much about minimap images other than rendering them in Max then batch-editing the images.

I found a scriptset by Velmar that has a minimap creator built into it - Tileset Creator v2.4, but its for 3DS Max (I use GMax :().

So I guess a side question I have might be: Will a 3DS Max scriptset work in GMax?

User avatar
Bannor Bloodfist
Posts: 1244
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:45 pm
ctp: Yes
dla: Yes
TBotR: Yes
nwnihof: Yes

Post by Bannor Bloodfist »

pstemarie wrote:I've made a few new tiles for Maxam's Classic Dungeon - which Nessa has become really familiar with :D - and was wondering what tool the CTP team uses to make the minimap images for tiles?

I read through the Bioware Tileset Construction Tutorial v1.4, but that didn't say much about minimap images other than rendering them in Max then batch-editing the images.

I found a scriptset by Velmar that has a minimap creator built into it - Tileset Creator v2.4, but its for 3DS Max (I use GMax :().

So I guess a side question I have might be: Will a 3DS Max scriptset work in GMax?
I create the mini-maps for the CTP team, and I ONLY use Velmar's Tileset Creator... but I don't think the mini-map option works in Gmax. Try it, worst case, it won't work!

There are two other ways to create them as well. Veltools for gmax has a minimap creator, and so does nwmax. But I think they only do one tile at a time.

User avatar
Pstemarie
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:42 pm

Post by Pstemarie »

Thanks Bannor - I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Tiberius_Morguhn
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:47 am

Post by Tiberius_Morguhn »

I know this is a year late and many $$$ short, but I am trying to use both nwmax and/or veltools to do minimaps. I load the tile in via nwmax, but the minimap generation button on both nwmax and veltools is greyed out. Anyone have some simple directions or pointers? Beyond that, would anyone be interested in helping a poor soul without 3dsmax (and TSC) to do a complete minimap generation for a tileset? :confused::confused::confused:

lord rosenkrantz
Posts: 165
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 6:46 pm
ctp: No
dla: No
TBotR: No
nwnihof: No

Post by lord rosenkrantz »

Tiberius_Morguhn wrote:I know this is a year late and many $$$ short, but I am trying to use both nwmax and/or veltools to do minimaps. I load the tile in via nwmax, but the minimap generation button on both nwmax and veltools is greyed out. Anyone have some simple directions or pointers? Beyond that, would anyone be interested in helping a poor soul without 3dsmax (and TSC) to do a complete minimap generation for a tileset? :confused::confused::confused:
Hi Tiberius, making minimaps from 3dsmax requires a feature that is sort of misleadingly hidden by NWMax and VelTools. You need to load up the main GUI of TSC (Set Manager), load your .set, and then scroll down to the Create Mapimages section. Once you set all parameters and start rendering, it'll import tiles one by one and output the minimaps automatically. To note, you'll need to run it twice, one for features/groups, and one for the normal tiles.

[edit]

To load .Set Manager on 3dsmax startup:
open the subfolder \Scripts\Startup in your 3dsmax install, there should be a file named "nwn_tsc_startup.ms". Open it with a text editor, and add the lines

Code: Select all

global autostart=true
filein "nwn-set/set-manager.ms"
at the beginning (or I guess technically anywhere else would do), save and launch 3dsmax, the GUI should appear along with VelTools and NWMax.

If for some reason you like pain, you can load TSC manually, but the only way I know is either by finding and running the script from the 3dsmax script manager (tedious), or by going on the side pane in 3dsmax and clicking on "create" then "helpers", then in the rollout where it says "standard" click to select "NWN Tileset", then click on "Tile", scroll down to find "Tools", and finally click on "Set Manager" (even more tedious).

Tiberius_Morguhn
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:47 am

Post by Tiberius_Morguhn »

Hey LR,
Thanks for your reply, and I'm sorry if I was unclear - I don't have 3dsmax. I only have Gmax. However, the nwmax and veltools script sets for Gmax do have the tile minimap options in them. I just don't know how to use it??? Do I load the tile mdl and then do something to get the tools to allow me to make a minimap. Thanks again.

lord rosenkrantz
Posts: 165
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 6:46 pm
ctp: No
dla: No
TBotR: No
nwnihof: No

Post by lord rosenkrantz »

Uh...
Tiberius_Morguhn wrote:without 3dsmax (and TSC)
are you sure you mentioned you didn't have 3dsmax? ;)

Seriously, it's what happens for posting on a thread first thing in the morning. Sorry!

I don't have any direct experience of VelTools/3DSMax with minimaps, I guess it could require selecting the tile model base? Or maybe the feature was disabled in the script and hence is grayed out now (I know of at least another instance in which that is the case)?

User avatar
Pstemarie
Posts: 157
Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 6:42 pm

Post by Pstemarie »

lord rosenkrantz wrote:Uh...

are you sure you mentioned you didn't have 3dsmax? ;)

Seriously, it's what happens for posting on a thread first thing in the morning. Sorry!

I don't have any direct experience of VelTools/3DSMax with minimaps, I guess it could require selecting the tile model base? Or maybe the feature was disabled in the script and hence is grayed out now (I know of at least another instance in which that is the case)?
Minimap tool only works with 3ds - its disabled for GMax (you can click it but it doesn't do anything).

Tiberius_Morguhn
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:47 am

Post by Tiberius_Morguhn »

Okay - thanks all. Anyone interested (that has 3dsmax) to make my minimaps for me??? :D

Post Reply