If anyone who has experience with using the bmp2bic program could give me some tips and advice for converting the above image it would be greatly appreciated.
"Tips & advice" unfortunately turns into one of my long, long posts. But since it was a request:
BMP2BIC Method
I mentioned the basics above:
That's the one, although the image has to be square & reduced to a size where one pixel = 1 tile.* Also it has to use a special 16 color palette which is described in the thread. After the conversion a fair bit of cleanup will need to be done in the editor.
* It is possible to make a map larger than BMPtoBIC can handle by cutting it into pieces & then using
Map Tweaker to reassemble it.
The steps I have used are used are -
- Convert the image to a 16 color palette using the graphics program of your choice
- Change the resulting color areas to the palette used by BMP2BIC.
- This is the most time consuming step because often you have to paint pixel by pixel.
- To help myself with this step I made a little chart with the colors, terrain types, & the RGB numbers so that I can have it on screen while I do the work.*
- Reduce The map to a size BMP2BIC can handle - remember that BMP2BIC can only handle square ** .bmp, up to 256x256.
- Use BMP2BIC to convert the .bmp into a map.
- The comment in the quote about doing larger or oddly shaped maps by slicing means to make separate square .bmp, convert them, then use Map Tweaker to join them.
- Open the editor to do terrain clean-up & add resources, start locations, etc.
* my BMP2BIC palette guide:
**
Potential Pitfalls
I did a post discussing the map design problems with
understanding that tiles are single pixels even in game. One fundamental problem is that in .bmp the pixels are a square grid, while the Civ map uses a diamond shaped grid. Here's a post ,with discussion following on in further posts, illustrating the
problems with converting a square, one pixel over another, image into the isometric tile-shaped maps of Civ. To get a decently shaped map the image had to be stretched taller, empty ocean colored bands added to make it square, then the empty ocean had to be cropped off, either in Map Tweaker or the editor, to make a usable map.
Grid Overlay Method
It' still looks like it's going to be a "be-hatch" to do with my limited skills but, I don't think I can pull it off freehand and have it come out good.
This
Map Making thread has a good discussion of how to do a decent freehand map & works very well if the map is already a digital image, as you have. Be sure to read all two pages because several variations are discussed and the best ones (IMHO) come last. The biggest advantage is that you can do all kinds of shapes & sizes of maps. & The method doesn't depend on
your level of artistic skill - just starting with a decent map & patient application of effort.
Comparing The Two Methods
My personal experience is only with 2 posted maps produced so far:
The
Rise of Asia map was done "by hand" using the "grid overlay" method. It has gotten a
lot of favorable comments & has even had a recent revival in terms of download frequency. It only required 2 programs: a graphics editor to do the grid overlay & the civ editor. Straightforward if time consuming - the civ editor step is just to stamp out the map in the editor, following the gridded image as a guide. I draw the coast lines & then quickly fill in using all plains. Then I go back & place the actual terrain tile by tile.
The
MesoAmerica map was done with the BMPtoBIC method. I thought it would be much quicker & it was. But I had to use four programs - a graphics editor to make the .bmp, BMPtoBIC to convert it to a map, Map Tweaker to slice out the part I wanted ( I found cropping easier there after trying unsuccessfully to use the editor), & finally the editor. At that point I had
a map that really showed it was done "quick & dirty". Most of
the problems were caused by the conversion process although it's on me that I posted the map without correcting them. Going back to correct so many errors was almost impossible for me to sort out & track. So for the newer version, which was laid aside unfinished while waiting for RedAlert's return, I chose to
start from scratch with a good image & use the "grid overlay" method (the key discussion that lets you see the "grid overlay" design process in action carries over to the next page).