[HowTo] Map making with Paint Shop Pro

[diztorded]

This will walk you through making a map from start to finish using Paint Shop Pro. I have also included EXAMPLE.ZIP which contains a logfile and 3 graphic files you can use to test with. I have also included mapperfr.xml which can be used if you live in France and mapper.xml does not work for you.

Things you will need

1. Paint Shop Pro.
2. Perl
3. Mapper.xml (attached to this post)
4. Inkscape
5. DDS Plug-in (attached to this post)
6. Blank map (attached to this post)

Step One

1. Download and install Perl. Install it to C:\Perl. The reason is because we will be using a Dos command that is limited in how directories are named.
2. Make a folder called C:\Maps. We will be putting our logfile in here.
3. Start Notepad and enter in the following text, c:\Perl\bin\perl "c:\maps\mapper.xml" "c:\maps\logfile.txt" > "c:\maps\map.svg"
4. Save it as Map.bat.

Step Two

1. Goto *\EverQuest II\logs\server\character and rename the logfile that is there. If one is not there, skip this part.
2. Goto *\EverQuest II\cache\ioplans\
3. Start EQ2 and go to the area that you want to map.
4. Create two macros. One will be Location to do the /loc command and Map Line with the command /emote You start new map line.
5. Put those two macros on you button bar so that you can access them easily.
6. Now do a /log which will start a logfile in your *\EverQuest II\logs folder. (It may help to go into your chat settings and turn off everything that you do not want to be recorded)
7. Now go around the room running the Location macro at all corners along the walls.
8. At each break (i.e. a doorway or to stop there and to go start somewhere else), run the Map Line macro.
9. When you are done, do /log again to stop the recording.
10. Write down the file name of the file found in *\EverQuest II\cache\ioplans\ that matches the time/date of when you was making your map. (i.e. qey_village03+qey_adv01_oakmyst.iop)
11. Goto *\EverQuest II\logs\server\character. There you will see your logfile.
12. Copy this logfile to C:\Maps and name it logfile.txt

Step Three

1. Download the attached Mapper.xml and save it to C:\Maps
2. Download the attached map_blank.dds and save it to C:\Maps
3. Click your Window's Start button then select run. Enter in cmd and click OK.
4. Type in C: and press ENTER. Now type in cd maps and press ENTER. You will now be in the C:\Maps directory.
5. Type in map and press ENTER. This will run the map.bat batch file we created earlier.

Step Four

1. Download and install Inkscape.
2. Click File, then Open. Goto your C:\Maps folder and select map.svg. Click OPEN.
3. Press 4
4. Check out your map. If it is not ok, you will have to edit it by hand. This may involve adding a start new mapline in your logfile or editing the graphic it's self. Either way, that is beyond the scope of this How-To.
5. Click File then select Export Bitmap.
6. Select the Drawing button at the top of the window that appeared.
7. In the middle, you will see Bitmap Size, change the largest of the two numbers in that area to 512.
8. Change the filename to C:\Maps\map.png.
9. Click Export

Step Five

1. Download and install Paint Shop Pro.
2. Download DDS Plug-in and place it in your *\Paint Shop Pro\PlugIns folder. Install to C:\Maps.
3. Start Paint Shop Pro
4. Click File then Open. Goto your C:\Maps and select map_blank.dds then click Open.
5. Click File then Open. Goto your C:\Maps and select map.png then click Open.
6. Select the Map.png window. Do a CTRL+A then a CTRL+C (this will select the entire image of map.png and copy it)
7. Select the map_blank.dds window.
8. Press CTRL+L (This will paste your map onto the blank as a new layer.)
9. On the left, you will see a column of icons. Select the Deform Tool, 2nd icon down, and move your map to the proper place on the blank. If you must resize, do so via the Scale X(%) and Scale Y(%) on the tool bar (F4 to toggle this bar). Make sure you keep these the same! (i.e. 95% and 95%)
10. On the left, you will see a column of icons. Select the Magic Wand Tool. (5th one down, looks like a wand)
11. At the top, you will see a toolbar for the magic wand tool now. (Press F4 to toggle it) Change the settings to Mode: Replace; Match Mode: RGB Value; Tolerance: 65, Sample Merged, Contiguous; Feather: 0, Anti-Alias, Outside.
12. Click inside the main wall of your map. A dotted line will appear along all the borders. A shadow will be coming from this dotted line so hold down the SHIFT key and select the areas inside the main wall of your map that you do not want a shadow coming from. As you select these areas, the dotted line that surrounded them will go away.
13. Once you have finished, click Effects, 3D Effects, then Drop Shadow
14. In the window that appeared, change the Attributes to: Opacity: 45 Blur: 8.00 Color: Black
15. Change the Offsets to Vertical: 5, Horizontal: 5
16. Click Ok
17. Now repeat the shadow changing the offsets to -5,5 then -5,-5 then 5,-5
18. This will have made a shadow going all around your map. Now press F12. Change type to DDS *[*.dds]. Name it map_****.dds where **** is the part of the file name you wrote down earlier (i.e. qey_village03+qey_adv01_oakmyst.iop would be map_qey_adv01_oakmyst.dds) and click Save. Click Yes at the promt.
19. Change format to DXT1 ARGB [1 bit Aplha], 2D Texture, No MIP maps. Click Save
20. Save it as JPG if you want to post a picture of it for people to see.
21. Your done!!

*** If you want to get the ZONERECT, read on***

Tonyis3l33t has made a great little tool that will figure out the zonerect for you. My only problem was when I tried to use it, it required Excel, which I do not own. Instead, I downloaded the free office suite called Open Office...


Step Six

1. Download eq2log XYZ + Zonerect + Elevation Extractor.
2. Run the script. It will ask you for the logfile's name. Put that in.
3. For the output, make it a slightly different name and end it with .TXT.

Open Office

1. Click File then Open.
2. Change files of type to: Text CSV
3. Select your output file and click open.
4. Under Seperator options, deselect TAB, select OTHER and put in %
5. Click OK.

Excel

1. Go to Data->Import External Data->Import Data
2. Find and open the OUTPUT file
3. Check the Delimited Option, say NEXT
4. Click in the OTHER field, type in %
5. Click Finish, OK

Once the file is loaded, you will see all your /loc. Scroll down to the bottom of these and you will see the zonerect.

[demonwebb]

The url given for inkscape links to corrupt or damaged zip file, navigate to www.inkscape.com instead

If using Windows XP with SP2 - you will need to enable the automatic download by clicking the bar at top as it is blocked by default as a security measure.

[diztorded]

Originally Posted by demonwebb

The url given for inkscape links to corrupt or damaged zip file, navigate to www.inkscape.com instead

If using Windows XP with SP2 - you will need to enable the automatic download by clicking the bar at top as it is blocked by default as a security measure.

It is not a zip file, it is a directory.

[ScorchingIce]

4. Create two macros. One will be Location to do the /loc command and Map Line with the command /emote start new map line.

I had to change this to be /emote You start new map line

Since they changed the way emotes are sent and you yourself see yourname does suchandsuch

[sstair]

I followed your directions, using the free trial download of version 10.3 of Paint Shop Pro and the "dds.8bi" file from the Photoshop plugin you link to in this thread.. After installing the DDS plugin, I get errors opening DDS files.

I tried using the "dds.8bi" file from the ZIP file in the tutorial, and it worked.
Just download the ZIP file, and extract the "dds.8bi" to the "Paint Shop Pro\PlugIns" directory.

[diztorded]

Originally Posted by ScorchingIce

I had to change this to be /emote You start new map line

Since they changed the way emotes are sent and you yourself see yourname does suchandsuch

Fixed. Thank you.