Ryandor.com

Hi everyone. I am hoping someone won't mind answering some really basic questions for me.

When painting forests, do you have to use a random brush in Photoshop, or do you simply use a solid color and Dragon takes care of the randomization?

Also, if someone wouldn't mind, would it be possible to get a .bmp version of a map with indexes of the colors for reference? I've looked at some maps online, but they all seem to have been sent through Dragon before posting. I would like to see how my map should look before it goes through the ringer.

Thanks for your time and any help you give.

Iron
vonski3@attbi.com

Yes.

Look at the color chart, it's in the dragon folder somewhere (I believe in "Addon).

Yes, use the random brush, or yes, just solid?

Also, when we compiled the map in Dragon, the Forest0 didn't drop any trees, it's just an area that is raised to about 5-10z. Anyone know why this would happen? Thanks!

The painting of the map control only the map's surface and elevation. The actual trees are randomly placed within those areas you paint forest. So don't even think about where individual trees will go.



Here's how my forests are done:
The dark green is grass, which is used as clearings in the forest. The meduim green through light green is forest. The light green being small hills in the forest. Trees will be randomly placed everywhere, except for dark green (grass). I could have made it solid forest, but the clearings alloy aeras where players could put houses if desired.

-Ryandor

That helps a lot and will also save time and map size

The other issue we ran into was the Forest0 color, when compiled in Dragon, didn't display any trees, only an area shaped like a blob that sits about 10z off the grass. Any explanation or advice you can give? Thank you for your response before, very helpful!

Make sure you are running DragonSP to place the trees. There's a post in the FAQs about it. As for the Forest 0 putting something at grass 10, it sounds like your color table might be messed up. (This could also affect trees being placed) There is an example bmp in the Dragon/addon folder thet you can use as a started map to help. It has the correct colors in it. Use that as a guideline to start, or just copy and paste what you have done so far into that map. If it doesn't paste correctly (the colors get messed up) then it is in fact the color table isn't correct on your map.
When all else fails, post a screenshot so I can see exactly what's going on.

-Ryandor

I have tried many variances to figure out my Z issues. I still continue to get the Forest0 about 10Z above the grass. I don't know what I did wrong in Dragon or DragonSP, but there are remainders of houses and lampposts still in the clean map. Those also are "floating" about 10Z above the grass. I've checked all the swatches, I've checked the colors against the sample map in Dragon, I've erased and re-written the colors on the map to see if anything makes a difference and it doesn't. *frowns*

Anyone run into anything like this before?? Oh, swamps and desert transition fine into the grass. It's just the pre-existing items that didn't get erased and the Forest. I'd love to hear your ideas. Thanks!

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Some say, "This glass if half full." Some say, "This glass if half empty." I say, "Hey, are you gonna finish that?"

one of 2 fixes for you:
1: Make sure you answer YES to the "clear statics?" question when you run DragonSP.
2: Make sure your paths are correct for the statics files, and clear your world save file.

You are not seeing anything that Dragon or DragonSSP is creating, rather you are seeing leftovers from the previous statics and world save files. That is the problem. If you've got multiple installs of the UO Client, make sure you are working with the right one. Make sure that you have the right version of the map and statics files in that folder. Check the date time stamp on the statics files. The simple way to clear your world file would be to sue the appropiate command in game. In UOX it would be 'iwipe, then target the tile you are standing on twice. In Sphere I think it's .nuke (someone correct me?).

This should fix your problem.

-Ryandor

Another sure way to clear statics and map files, and really recomended..
Use World Forge Fill/Clear.
I keep a folder in the World Forge folder called 'muls' just for this purpose. To ensure that the Fill/Clear function only associates the mul files in that folder, and not mistakenly clear my existing muls in any other UO folder.
- Select tile group or enter tile id -
Select water, and set to -5. and hit "Go"
now you know for sure that only what Dragon makes, is on your files

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Forget what you know, know what you forget.