Terrain Editing

[Ben]

Are there any programs available that can edit terrain?
Thanks.

[T*AnTi-V!RuZz]

Krom's Map Editor.

[Lewin]

Given that Ben is one of the most experienced map makers out there, I'm guessing that he's not enquiring about map editors
Do you mean editing the actual terrain tile sprites? (to add new terrain types or edit the existing ones) There is no editor for that although I think the format of the files is known. It's easier to do it in the Remake as we just use compressed TGAs. If you're really interested I could show you how to do this, (you just need one of our tools to decompress the TGAs then you can edit them in Photoshop and re-compress them) but be warned that you can't add new terrain as all 256 tiles are taken. (in the map format the terrain type is 1 byte) We might eventually allow custom tilesets in the Remake as that would certainly add some variety to the game.

[T*AnTi-V!RuZz]

Given that Ben is one of the most experienced map makers out there, I'm guessing that he's not enquiring about map editors
Do you mean editing the actual terrain tile sprites? (to add new terrain types or edit the existing ones) There is no editor for that although I think the format of the files is known. It's easier to do it in the Remake as we just use compressed TGAs. If you're really interested I could show you how to do this, (you just need one of our tools to decompress the TGAs then you can edit them in Photoshop and re-compress them) but be warned that you can't add new terrain as all 256 tiles are taken. (in the map format the terrain type is 1 byte) We might eventually allow custom tilesets in the Remake as that would certainly add some variety to the game.

Ah, misunderstood the question then

[Krom]

We also open to changing the concept of fixed tiles transitions into more flexible overpainting, that can take advantage of alpha masking. E.g. like these dirt tiles are made: http://pics.gameparadigm.org/mallet/dirt_tiles.jpg

[Ben]

Given that Ben is one of the most experienced map makers out there, I'm guessing that he's not enquiring about map editors

Thanks for the compliment

Do you mean editing the actual terrain tile sprites? (to add new terrain types or edit the existing ones) There is no editor for that although I think the format of the files is known. It's easier to do it in the Remake as we just use compressed TGAs. If you're really interested I could show you how to do this, (you just need one of our tools to decompress the TGAs then you can edit them in Photoshop and re-compress them) but be warned that you can't add new terrain as all 256 tiles are taken. (in the map format the terrain type is 1 byte) We might eventually allow custom tilesets in the Remake as that would certainly add some variety to the game.

I am most interested in helping with the remake, but my lack of knowledge in coding is obviously a problem. I've tried a few things, but none of them worked out. I thought I'd try editing terrain so there is a larger support for mixing (mostly with mountains, since the "iron mountains" can only mix with deep snow, while the "gold mountains" can only mix with the shallow snow).
I don't know how good I will be at this, but I want to try, so yes, I'm most interested, but I can't promise anything.

[Lewin]

Krom's idea might work well for grass and dirt, but mountains and water should be done by hand to get the right look. (the rocks scattered around the edge) My only concern with Krom's idea is that games like that often have very jagged and irregular edges, (when KaM terrain is so flowing) but of course we can customise to algorithm to suit KaM
Also maybe it would always look a bit artificial, but we would have to try and tweak it to find out.

Your ideas are good Ben, but unfortunately we can't add any new tiles while remaining backwards compatible with KaM maps. (so we would have a new Remake map format that would not load in KaM, but of course KaM maps could still be loaded in the Remake) I think we should wait a while before implementing this, but feel free to make the new transition tiles whenever you like and we can start using them when the time comes
Here's an image of the current KaM tileset

[CuDi]

It would be pretty cool to have custom "skins" available for download when the remake is complete. Sort of similar to how Minecraft has texture packs.

[Krom]

Lewin, we can have these sort of tiles in number of combinations (soft-edged, hard-edged, blended or masked). Water-Grass transition could have a strip of gravel inbetween, just like in KaM.