How to make visible a picture above the ground tiles ?

[maitrebongo]

I soon ask this question in another thread but it was not the same subject and i think the developpers maybe didn't show it. That's why i created this new subject (and for knowing the opinion or suggestions of everybody too).

I would like to use a custom picture (a hand draw map) instead of the terrain generated in the scenario editor.
I would like that picture to be visible when i play that scenario.

Such possibility soon exist in the scenario editor to help us drawing the terrain with a custom overlay behind the terrain tiles but don't transfert it on the final playable scenario.
What i would like is that kind of custom overlay could be displayed above the terrain tiles in the playable scenario (like a decoration).

I know we could use the "decoration.txt" and the "decoration" folder to make some custom things on the map but i don't managed to obtain a decoration which could exceeds the limits of one hexagone.
All my attempts are always limited by the edge of the hexagon. Is there a way to create a .png file which could exceed this limit ?
It would be a partial solution to my problem.

Otherwise, is it possible that such a feature appears one day in editor ?

Thanks for your answer.

[Erik2]

This would probably be useful for those who like to play in board-game mode.
I always search hard & long for the most suitable back-ground maps when I create scenarios.
Unfortunately, I don't think many of them are suitable for playing on. So someone would probably need to create an over-lay map which is clean and does not clutter the display.
But you obviously got the skills to make them .

[maitrebongo]

I think that from a graphical point of view, I could easily make maps, but before beginning this kind of work I must know if it is possible technically to integrate them into the game.
That's why i asked it here.

Why don't imagine something like that ? (It is just an example, a rough draft...)

[maitrebongo]

I hoped that developers would be willing to answer the 2 questions that I post here...
I admit to be a little disappointed to have had no answers from them.

Maybe are they occupied somewhere else... But a little bit of help from them would have been welcome.

It does not matter.

I managed to find a way of making (a trick, in fact) which allows to put, in game, an image on top of the map...





Now, i can play all my gameboards with this game engine

Fine...

[adherbal]

That looks very interesting Wonder how you achieved this?

We'll look into supporting this properly, but I can't promise it's very high on our (very long) to-do list at the moment.

[maitrebongo]

Hi,

First of all, thank you very much for your answer.
It is pleasant to see that there is a follow-up of this game on technical questions, in particular concerning the scenarios editor.

To manage to show a foreground image in a scenario, I argued from a graphic point of view.
Apparently, the game uses layers for the display of the various graphic coats ; the last one being the decoration's layer (the most forward plan).

I decided to cut the map picture in so many hexagons as necessary and to implant them in the scenario as so many decoration tiles.

It is a binding operation : it is necessary to create 400 tiles for a map of 20x20 hexagons (900 tiles for a 30x30 map...)

As I did not know if the game's software could support this manipulation and as I did not want to make manually all this work in vain, I tried to automate as much as possible these tasks.

So, i created a specific script in my graphic software which completly automated the cut (in the pixel near) and save (as separate .PNG files) operations on my map.
I also created a little software which generate a Decorations.txt file with 400 (or 900...) entries (one for each different decoration tile).
I created and saved too, some generic scenarios with generic decorations tiles, like that I do not have more than to replace tiles in the Decorations folder of the game to create future maps.

All these operations allow to create a complete map and to integrate it into the game in more or less one hour and almost all the work is doing by my computer.

It is relatively fast and effective for me.
But I think that this method could be largely improved if real game's programmers dealt with the question, because I am only an amateur in this domain and I have no access to the source code of the game.

Several proposals to implement that function in the game :

1 - Create a fourth layer in which we could put down a .JPG file (much less heavy than a .PNG file) which would cover all the map, exactly in the same way as it is possible to make it at present in the scenarios editor.
By far the most practical solution and I do not see the difficulty implanting it quickly and easily in the game especially that this feature already exists in the game, at least in the editor (but as I said, I am not a programmer).

2 - Simply give the possibility to a .PNG tile of the decoration's layer to be able to display beyond the edges of the hexagon which contains it.
It would allow to use an larger picture in a single piece to leave, for example, the most upper left hexagon to display on the whole map.
And the possibility to use .JPG files instead of .PNG (we don't need transparency for this use).

3 - Make nothing...
Some modders, as me, could relatively easily implant hand-drawn maps in the game, but it requires to have a powerful computer, expensive softwares and minimum to know how to make in programming (or to have long, long time to spent doing this manually).
It would be really a pity to go without the skill of some modders that could create magnificent maps for this game...

For the solutions 2 and 3, there is still a question : which size of .PNG files can support the game's engine ?
For example, a map of 20x20 (400 tiles) represents 42 Mb of graphic files.
What will it take place for a map of 100x100 (10 000 tiles) ? It would represent almost 1Go of graphical data by using .PNG files (a lot, much less by using .JPG files).
The game's engine could support it ?

I really hope that you will know how to find a simple and not too binding solution in programming to implant this function in the game.

It would be really nice.

[maitrebongo]

Hello,

After finishing a long modding job on Heroes of Stalingrad (Matrix Games) I come back to see if things have evolved on Order of Battle and can be launching me into creating a counter mod for the latest version of it .

But before I start I would like to know if the developers intend to do anything to allow the insertion of maps drawn by hand or not.
I think this is a very important element for the graphic customization of this game and I would be very happy to have a response from the developers on this subject before starting a graphic work.

Thank you.