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[Tutorial] How to create new maps with spawns and minimaps using KWE:

Junior Spellweaver
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Some explanations:

KCM: Kal client map (to store your painted hills, rivers and map textures)
OPL: Object positioning list (to store your objects, their high, rotation and scale)
KSM: Kal server map (to store your collision zones, save zones, town zones, portal zones etc)

This programms are used:

KWE:
(Kal World Editor)

Link:
http://forum.ragezone.com/f315/re-release-stuff-129-files-904234/

Gimp 2.0 with dds plugin:
I use it to make color and minimaps. You can also work with photoshop or any other program that can handle dds files.

Link:

Link to the dds plugin:


DDS to GTX Converter:
To convert your minimap files to gtx.

Link:
Its attached since i could not find a working link here ;)

A Spawn Tool:
To make spawns for your map. You find some of them here at ragezone, i used the one from Jürgen.

Link:
http://forum.ragezone.com/f315/small-easy-tool-genmonster-coords-738940/

Setting up KWE:

The first time you start KWE, you have to insert the paths to your files (see picture):



After you have done that, save but do not restart KWE^^

Now you need an older n.env (its a file in the MAPS Folder and kwe needs it to work correctly). In my case, i use the n.env from 21.2.2008. Newer ones can cause problems. You only need it to edit the maps, if you go ingame to see how your map looks like you should use the newest n.env or it may cause problems too and you cant see the map. Thats why i always make a copy of the MAPS Folder, one with the new n.env, one with the old one.

You can download the n.env i use below as attachment.

Now you can start KWE to create a new map:

Step 1 (KCM Hills, Rivers):

First you have to make the KCM. In KWE go to file, new KCM file and enter the coordinates of your new map (see picture):



Just hit ok for the second message that appears in the background.

Then go to File, Save KCM File as and enter the map name with the same coordinates you used above (see picture):



Now set up the high for the whole map (see picture):



To move the map hold ctrl & the left mouse button then move the mouse to change the high. The same goes for painting (textures, KSM) and object placing.

The high of the water in kal is 1580, so you can either move the KCM under the water level and you get a big sea or up the water level (for land maps).

Now its time to paint your hills and rivers. You can do this using heigh brush and set high (see picture):



If this is done use flatten to smooth up the edges (see picture):



Take your time to make it nice, because all you gonna do now is based on this KCM and if you wanna change things later you have to edit all other files too ;)

Step 2: (KCM Texture Painting)

Now you can start texturing your map. Go to KCM file, texture center and choose 1-6 textures you wanna use (see picture):



As you can see in the upper field, we could even choose 7 textures (0-6), but for me it never worked (KCM is messed up)!
So better only use 6! The textures you see in the lower field have id's (for example TID #53).
The first texture you choose must have the lowest id and it must be in a row till the end (last texture has the highest id). If you do not so, the textures will be messed up!

Now its time to paint the texture layers (see pictures):



Texture Map #0 is the first texture you have choosen above, and so on...



Important: If you paint different textures on the same place, its always the texture with the highest id that will be shown on your map!

Known Bug: If you paint for example at the south boarder, it will dissolve the painting on the north boarder at the exact same high. Or if you dissolve the painting on the west boarder it will paint the same amount of color to the east boarder (it has no affect when painting outside the boarders).
Solution: If you have to paint on all boarders you can only cover up things by using a texture with a higher id. You could also place some objects there to make parts of the map invisible ;)

Step 3: (KCM Grass Paint & Color Map)

Go to grass paint to paint some grass to your island (see picture).



The different grass types do not work, its always the same grass, but still nice :)

Now go to KCM file, render colormap. Enable "show water", render it the new way and export it to file.
This image file you can now open with Gimp. Brighten up the image and take away some saturtation (see pictures).





If you wanna see the original texture, take away all colors!
To save just overwrite the old jpg file.

Now go again to KCM file, render colormap, click import to colormap and choose the just changed picture.
Click save (to save the new colormap to the KCM, see picture):



Now save the KCM itself!
If you make only one map you can skip step 4.

Step 4: (Boarders)

When making more than one map and they should fit together, you can go to KCM file, boarder center. Save the boarder you wanna connect to another map. Open the other map and load the boarder to the side of the map where they connect (see picture):



Now adjust the KCM high to the new boarder using high brush, set high and maybe flatten^^

Thats it, the KCM part is done ;)

Step 5: (OPL, placing your objects on the just created KCM)

Go to file, new OPL file and enter the same coordinates as above^^ then save it the same way like you did with the KCM.
Go to OPL file, add node and move your mouse pointer to the place you wanted to add the object and press left mouse butten.
Now you see a node (the round something), click on it and press the button on the left side (models) to choose your object and save it (see picture):



Positioning, scale and rotating i guess i dont have to explain. Just try it out and you will see ;)

You can copy existing nods by pressing ctrl & d!

Known Bug: You cant enter the object high manually, it simply does not work.
Solution: If you have enabled "snap to map" the marked object will fit to the map high when you move it. Normally its what you want, but if it does not fit and you wanna place something in a hill for example, so move it a lil bit down the hill (at the high you wanted to have it) then disable "snap to map" and move the object back to the place where it should be.
You could also use Paulus OPL editor to place special object like this.

Step 6: (KSM, define your collision, save zones etc)

There are 6 different zones, no special (mobs can walk there), one and two way portal (portals to enter and/or leave a zone), town zone, pk free and castle.

First make the normal and collision zones.
Click file, new KSM and save it the same way as before.
First draw the high (KCM) based (move the high just a little bit under the water choose collision zone and press down. All that is under water will then be collission zone (see picture):



Then draw the object (OPL) based, choose the smallest paint size and the collision zone and press go!

Now adjust all zones with brush manually.

If you make portals, you have to add it to the etc.txt (server side) with the correct coordinates to make it work! For example:

Code:
(portal (country 2) (from 0 8980 9938 8984 9946) (to 30 183222 20068 22499))

How to make a KSM for a dungeon:

First we need the dungeon minimap.gtx. They are located in data/Hypertext/MiniMap. We take the newest int dungeon as sample. The name for the first minimap is: minimap_Dungeon_d_tower_01_002.gtx. Copy the file and drag it over the converter (gtx to dds). Open the dds file with Gimp and export it as normal jpg.
Now start KWE and look in macro.dat where the dungeon is located. You see something like (orgPatch 8 2). Make a new KSM, save it as n_008_002.ksm and restart KWE!
Make a new KCM and enter 08 02 as coordinates (you dont have to save, its just for the spawns and to paint the KSM). Go to render colormap, press import to colormap and load the jpg you saved before. Press save and load the KSM you have saved before but do not paint it over the KCM (see picture):



Disable "show water" and it should look like that (see picture):



Now start painting, the problem is that you only have a very small window where you see how you edit the KSM, it takes some time but its the only way ;)

Step 7: (Making the minimap)

Render and export the colormap again to file (KCM file, render colormap) and open the image with Gimp. See at the pictures below to see what kind of filters i use.
The filter and color settings are (sorry for the german):

Filter 1 (Ölgemälde): 8 5 (rest default)
Filter 2 (bump map): 135 35 65 0 0 0 0 (rest default)
Filter 3 (selektiver grauscher Weichzeichner): 2 50

Filter pictures:







Colors 1 (Helligkeit/Kontrast): 10 15
Colors 2 (Farbton/Sättigung): 0 0 10 100 (rest default)

Coloring:



Use again Filter 3 with same settings and export the image file as dds (default settings)!

When done:



This is just my way, for sure you can adjust all the filters and colors to your desire!

Now convert the dds file to a gtx file using the dds to gtx converter and save it.
Rename it to the minimap file from your edited island and put it in client side/hypertext/minimap/e.

Step 8: (Spawns)

The easiest way to make spawns is to open your map in KWE where you always see the coordinates when you move your mouse (so you dont have to go ingame and type /coordinates everytime).

If you wanna make a spawn, first take the coordinates from down left of the spot and write them down.
Then move the mouse to the upper right corner of your spawn and write down the coordinates again.
You should now have something like:

Code:
231513 248065 234507 249205

Now use the spawn tool to calculate the rectangle or divide each number by 32.
In this case this would be:

Code:
7235 7752 7328 7788

With this numbers you can now make a spawn in genmonster.txt (server side). For example:

Code:
(genmonster (index 1) (map 0) (area 6000) (max 20) (cycle 10) (rect 7235 7752 7328 7788))

Thats it, i hope it will help some people to make new maps.

Have Fun, Fritjef
 

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Junior Spellweaver
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thanks bro :) thats really important and will help alot here thanks one more time
 
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awesome tuturial special for begginers great job.
 
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Junior Spellweaver
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Step 6 is updated with how to make dungeon KSM's, forgot that when i released it the first time :laugh:

Hf, Fritjef
 

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Step 6 is updated with how to make dungeon KSM's, forgot that when i released it the first time :laugh:

Hf, Fritjef

It's missing one thing (or i just fucked something) There's an "Layers" option and this option allowed me to lay the minimap texture over the ksm @the main window of kwe ;d But like I said maybe I did smth wrong. Anyway, epic tut ^^
 
Junior Spellweaver
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It's missing one thing (or i just fucked something) There's an "Layers" option and this option allowed me to lay the minimap texture over the ksm @the main window of kwe ;d But like I said maybe I did smth wrong. Anyway, epic tut ^^

Yes true i forgot to mention that part. I did not really use the layers option because you can not save anything to the kcm (atleast for me it did not work). But for painting the dungeon minimap it can be useful, never tried it that way :)
 
off@kal. - on@gw2/d3 :)
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yew... i love the old non bugged version of KWE (the one we all payd for!) created some nice thinks with...

Some1 still got it ?

265269_166656340070037_5699021_o - [Tutorial] How to create new maps with spawns and minimaps using KWE: - RaGEZONE Forums 265945_166656270070044_3485501_o - [Tutorial] How to create new maps with spawns and minimaps using KWE: - RaGEZONE Forums 266417_166656173403387_748825_o - [Tutorial] How to create new maps with spawns and minimaps using KWE: - RaGEZONE Forums 266489_166656200070051_5457185_o - [Tutorial] How to create new maps with spawns and minimaps using KWE: - RaGEZONE Forums 266745_166656506736687_2542023_o - [Tutorial] How to create new maps with spawns and minimaps using KWE: - RaGEZONE Forums

hm.. alot more but well.. then not x'D
 

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yea paid version was alot better less buged and less crashes also nice tuturial i vote for sticky.
 
Junior Spellweaver
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yew... i love the old non bugged version of KWE (the one we all payd for!) created some nice thinks with...

Some1 still got it ?

View attachment 132737View attachment 132738View attachment 132739View attachment 132740View attachment 132741

hm.. alot more but well.. then not x'D

Hmm i paid for KWE too, but i never got a better version than the one that is released here, its exact the same version as i had from 2009-2010 (then i was inactive till now). Was there an update (new version) after 2010? Just wondering...;)
 
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This is a great tutorial, I made it sticky so it can stay alive :)
 

ToF

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I may still have the old less buggy version but it needs to be cracked since Koen shutdown the license server when he released the buggy free version of KWE.
 
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i have the full buggy free one.... i just need a crack for it.....

Fritjef - [Tutorial] How to create new maps with spawns and minimaps using KWE: - RaGEZONE Forums
 
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