BASIC MAP EDITING MANUAL
Copyright © 2010 Dave “Crockett” Jackson. All rights reserved
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Contents Introduction, acknowledgement and credits Section 1 – Getting ready for mapmaking
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Section 2 – Learning to work with the editor Getting started Building road strings and setting relevant options Using prefabs, buildings and models Adjusting height, position and angles Saving and Loading Section 3 – Creating cities and companies Designing your first city Placing your companies Creating and editing definition files Section 4 – Creating ferry ports and routes Adding ports to your map Adding declarations to the configuration files Creating approach roads Section 5 – Adding custom models to your map Creating models and textures Making declarations Adding the model to the map Section 6 – Packaging. Distribution and installation of your map Getting ready for release Release and what happens now? Section 7 – Further reading and help More info
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Introduction Welcome to the map editing manual for ETS v1.2/1.3 which should also be compatible with the GTS and UKTS map editors, this manual is not designed to be read all in one go but rather as a reference to help you along the way. It would be a good idea to print this document so that you can have it to hand when working in the map editor. Most people find that once the basics of mapmaking are grasped then they feel confident in moving on to something a little more advanced, others try to dive in at the deep end and find that they are a little out of their league, this manual is intended to give you the help you need to get started and to build your confidence as your map starts to grow. I am sure you’ll have a lot of fun along the way and I sincerely hope you get as much enjoyment out of map making as I do. Enjoy! Crockett Acknowledgements, shouts and credits Well, there are so many people who helped in my development as a map maker and I would like to sincerely thank everyone who helped me along the way. Most notably: Euro_trucker, Lil truckin’ one, djskydiver, Dannemann, Herbie49, Daniel20, Pumizo, NOD, Nodz, Lone Wolf, Snowman, Hydrolics, Ramses, Watchtalker, Sjur, Ovidiu, dafxf105, frisianbear and Finntrucker. To my good friend Greatty, this one’s for you! To all the gang at Crockett’s Truck Simulator House, eurotrucksimulator.org and Truckpol for all the support, encouragement and criticism you have given me over the years! And, perhaps most importantly, you, the reader, without your support and encouragement, this document would not exist. Thank you one and all and keep truckin’ Crockett
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Section 1 – Getting ready for mapmaking Getting ready There are certain things you need to put in place before you can enter into the world of mapmaking but before you do any of this have a sit down and think about what you want to do and maybe jot a few ideas down on paper. Once you have a clear target, then and only then should you start work on your project. Some applications you will need for your project Notepad, dxtbmp, winzip and zmodeler2 (if you want to create custom models) Let’s get started 1, Find the file base.scs (Usually found in C:\Program files\Euro Truck Simulator) 2, Right click on base.scs and select copy, create a folder on your desktop and call it base, now paste the base.scs file into this folder 3, Open the base folder and right click on the base.scs file and select extract. A dialogue box will open; the directory that the files should be extracted to is the base folder you created. 4, Once this is done, you will see a series of folders in your base folder, have a good look at them as this is the folder structure you will need to create for your project. You can now delete the copied base.scs file. The base folder you created will now be known as base 5, Go back to your desktop and create a new folder, call this map1 or whatever the title of your project is going to be. This will now be known as project 6, open project and create a def directory inside, now open the def directory and then go to base, open the def directory in base and copy the economy and world directories into project/def. This gives you a starting point when you need to start making definitions and declarations. 7, Now browse to the game’s installation directory (usually C:\Program files\Euro Truck Simulator) and create a folder and call it base. This will now be known as mapbase. Open mapbase and create a directory and call it map. It is here where your map will be saved. Now the foundations have been laid, it is time to edit the config.cfg file so that we can enable the game’s console system. You will find the config file in your My Documents/Euro Truck Simulator folder. Once you have found the file, right click on it and select “Open with” 4
Within a few seconds, a dialogue box will open similar to the one shown here:
Scroll through the list of programs until you find notepad, then either double click it or click once to select notepad then click OK. Notepad will then start and you will see something like this:
Now, look for the lines uset g_developer “0” and uset g_console “0” and change the “0” in these lines to “1”. Once this is done, save the file and close it. Now have a look at the picture below, this is the key you’ll need to press when the game starts to access the console.
OK, you’re all set, let’s go!
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Section 2 – Learning to work with the editor Getting Started Now we need to start the game, you will see a screen like the one below. First and foremost, click the advanced tab, now select the screen size (1) but remember the original settings as you will need to revert to these to run the game in full screen mode. Generally 800x600 is good but I personally prefer 960x600 for a larger working area, now click window(2) and ensure the screen size is still showing the mode you want, next, clear the enable sound (3) box as this will give more resources to the editor as generally sound is not used when editing.
Now, click OK and when the title screen appears, press the console key (Shown on previous page) and the console will appear and will look like this:
When the console appears, type edit europe, this will launch the map editor and will also load the default map. In a moment or two, you will see a screen like this:
Now let’s have a look at the menu items shown at the bottom of the editor window in more details: New map: Start a completely new map (Note, this option should only be used if you do not want to build your map on top of the existing map. This is not recommended) Load map: Allows you to load an existing map file
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Save map: Use this to save your work; the map file will be saved in mapbase/map Set Defaults: Allows you to set basic defaults for your map Build Map: Do not use this, it is not necessary to build your map Run Map: Again, do not use this, if you do, the game will launch in the same window and will start where it wants, which may be at the other end of the map to where your part of the map is! Quit: Click this to exit the program, make sure you save your changes before quitting! Neighbourhood: Ignore this Settings: Here you can see what your map will look like at night or in bad weather, very useful for testing lights and to ensure your map appears as you want it to. To the right of the editor menu are lists you can select from but it is easier to use shortcut keys, a list of which follows A = toggle background map on or off B = Use the brush tool (use sparingly if at all) C= Camera view (changes from overhead (editor) view to on the “fly” (roadside view) very useful tool to enable you to see how your roads will look in the map and to aid with changing the height of an item D= Delete item E= New item F= Find G=Add sign tool H= Height tool I= Import item M= Move item N= Node properties (rarely used) P= Item properties R= Rotate item 1= Road 2= Prefab 3= Building 4= Model 5= Company (not needed) 6= Services point (allows you to add custom services and refueling points as I did with my last map) 7= Cut plane (creates a zone that the engine doesn’t need to load at start up but will load when you approach the zone (not really used)) 8= Mover (such as hot air balloon, wind turbine, windmill and so on) 9= City (This is the option used to add city entities to your map)
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0= Parking (Do not use, for some reason, this crashes the editor when used) So to put it in layman’s terms, if you wanted to create a new road, you would press “E” followed by “1” to add a prefab, you would press “E” then “2” and so on. Building road strings and setting relevant options As we’re only getting familiar with the editor, we do not need to make any changes to the Europe map yet, so click new map, you will then be asked if you wish to save any changes to the existing map, click no, the editor screen will then be empty, let’s now learn how we can create roads and set options for them. Press E then 1, move the mouse into the editing area and left click, then slowly move the mouse to the right of where you originally clicked, as you move the mouse, you will see a red line, this is the direction the road will take, now, left click again and you should see a screen like this:
Congratulations! You’ve created your first road piece! Notice that at either end of your road piece there are coloured nodes? There is usually a red node and a green node. The red node (or operator node) is the one we use to change the road’s properties and to add signs to etc… the green node (expander node) is the node we use to connect two road pieces together. Now, let’s have a look at our road piece’s properties by pressing P and clicking the red node. You will need to press ALT and TAB at the same time to switch focus to the properties window, you should now see a window like this:
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Here is the road properties screen, let’s look at it in more detail Here we can tell the editor what type of road we want, Road means a piece of road without pavements, city road means a piece of road with pavements and terrain is what you use to create a piece of terrain (for covering gaps etc…)
Half road step: This allows you to create a difference in elevation between lanes that are going in different directions. Experiment with this! No speed signs: This tells the editor that no speed signs should be placed on this section of road. Show in ui map: In v1.0 this had to be ticked to allow your roads to appear in the ui map, in v1.2 and later, you should leave this blank No Traffic: Ticking this tells the editor that ai traffic is not allowed on this section of road.
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No Boundary: With this ticked, you would be able to veer off the road and drive on the terrain No random sign: This tells the editor that no random signs should be placed on this section of road. Cracks: Ticking this will add cracks to the road surface Left hand traffic: Tick this if you want the ai traffic to use the left hand lane rather than the right hand lane, used when building UK style roads.
Now we see 4 drop down boxes, here you can set the road type (whether it be a single lane road up to a 3 lane highway) the look of the road surface (road shader), the look of the centre of the road and the distance type, have an experiment with this to see how these properties affect the look of your road.
Let’s have a more in depth look at these controls: Road height offset: This function enables you to specify a height for the road Shift models: This tool moves any model you have selected to a new position, experiment with this! Model dist: Here you can specify how far apart your selected models appear, particularly useful for determining the distance between pillars of a bridge. 10
Model offset: This allows you to specify the position of the selected model, you’ll need to experiment with this but remember that 0.00000 (default) means the middle of the road piece. Model: From this drop down box you can select a model which will be placed on the road, click the down arrow and use the scroll bar or use your mouse wheel to browse the list and select by left clicking. Invert railing: If you have selected a railing to use on your road, clicking this makes the railing flip to the opposite position (e.g. you have selected outside railings and when you click this will make the railings appear in the central reservation) Railing offset: Changes the position of the railing (see model offset) Railing: From this drop down box you can select a railing which will be placed on the road, click the down arrow and use the scroll bar or use your mouse wheel to browse the list and select by left clicking. Terrain shader: Here you can specify the look of the terrain drawn with the road piece, have a play with this to see the different terrain effects. Quadcount: Here you can specify how much terrain is drawn with your road, again have an experiment with this but as a rule of thumb, the higher the number you enter here the more terrain will be drawn. If you enter 0 here, no terrain will be drawn (ideal for creating bridges) Profile coef. : Similar to the quadcount but this determines how much effect the terrain profile will have, for example, if you set the terrain profile to plain hill near and set a profile coef. To 4.00000 the terrain on the particular side in which you define this will resemble a mountain on the side of the road! Have a play with this one! Terrain profile: Here you can choose from many different terrain effects, have a browse through these and when you click on an effect, a graphic will pop up to give you an idea of the effect on the terrain. Vegetation: Here you can specify what kind of trees or bushes will appear on your terrain. There are 2 vegetation selection boxes for each side of your road so that if you wanted tall pine trees 100m away from the road and small bushes near to the road you can do that. Sidewalk: (works only if city road is selected) Here you can choose the style of pavement your city roads will have. Noise Power: This determines how flat your terrain will be (for example, a noise power of 0% means that the terrain will have no bumps in it whereas a noise power of 100% will have maximum bumps in it) Transition: Never used this myself so you’ll have to experiment with it! Sidewalk size: Determines how wide the pavement will be (again, only works when city road has been selected. Now, lets have a look at the six buttons along the bottom of the window.
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OK: click to accept settings and close the properties window Set as Defaults: Clicking this will set the current settings as default, particularly handy if you are creating a road string with the same settings as the original road piece, if you change any of the properties window’s settings, you can click this again to apply the new settings as default. Use Defaults: This enables you to apply a set of defaults which you defined earlier. Remove signs: Clicking this will remove any signs you have placed on the road piece. Remove stamps: If you have used the brush tool on your road piece’s terrain and you are unhappy with it, you can click this to remove the brush effects. Cancel: If you have changed your mind about altering any settings, clicking this will discard any changes you have made to the properties and will close the properties window. Adding to your road string To add an additional piece of road to your existing piece, press e then 1 and click the green node, move the mouse away from the green node and again, you will see a red line, left click again to confirm the placing of the new road piece, you will now notice that the green node you clicked to create a new road piece has turned white, when you add a new piece to the road string, the white node will turn red. Under no circumstances should you attempt to connect two red nodes together, similarly, you should avoid connecting green nodes together although in some situations, it is unavoidable. Using Prefabs, buildings and models Prefabs – Press E + 2 then use the – and + keys to scroll through prefabs Have a look at the picture on the next page.
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1, Commonly used in cities to allow you to pull into a rest point/service station 2,Used to terminate pavements in cities and used on approach roads to cities. 3, This prefab is used to allow you to leave the highway and enter a city. 4, This prefab is used to allow you to leave the highway you are on and join another highway. 5, This is the standard road junction in cities. This is a selection of commonly used prefabs you will come across. Most prefabs (but not all!) have a uk variant which means that the ai will drive on the left rather than the right, use these prefabs when creating left hand drive roads. To select a prefab, press E then 2 and use the – and + keys to scroll through available prefabs, once you find the prefab you want to use, press ALT+TAB, a window will appear. Let’s have a look at this window in detail.
Prefab model: Here the currently selected prefab is shown, by clicking the down arrow, you can select another prefab type from here REMEMBER: If you are designing a map with left hand drive roads, look for the uk suffix on the prefab name.
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Prefab look: Here you can experiment with different prefab looks, for example, selecting grass_france will make the asphalt on the prefab darker, have a play with this. Origin: This determines at which point in the prefab the red node will be placed, click the down arrow and keep an eye on the prefab in the editor window, notice how it behaves each time you change the number here? Whichever point of the prefab your mouse is pointing at, that is the point where the red node will appear. Rotation Y: Here you can specify any rotation you want the prefab to have, for example, if you are using a prefab to connect two road strings together that run from the top left of the screen to the bottom righr, you might want to try a rotation of 45 degrees so that the prefab lines up with the road. Once you are happy with the prefab’s settings, press ALT+TAB to return to the editor window and left click to place the prefab, now press M and click and hold your road’s nearest node to the prefab and move it to the nearest prefab node and release the mouse to connect road to prefab, you will see the road and prefab join together if you have connected road and prefab together properly. Buildings – press E + 3 then press Spacebar In order to use building strings, you will need to select the building model you want, after you press the spacebar, press ALT+TAB to switch focus to the building properties window, which will look like this:
Click the down arrow, a list will then appear:
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Now, using your mouse, scroll through the list until you find the building type you want, then click it and return to the editor, now, click on your map where you want the building string to start, then move the mouse away from that point, you’ll see a red line similar to the one you see when making road strings, simply click again and your building string will appear. You can join building strings together in the same way you join road strings together (ie green node to red node) Models – Press E + 4 then spacebar To place models in your map, after you have pressed the spacebar, a box similar to the building properties box will appear, press ALT+TAB to switch focus to it and select the required model from the list, go back to the editor and left click to place the model in your map. Adjusting height, position and angles Height – Press H When altering the height of a node (be it a road node, a prefab node, a building node or a model node) press C to go into camera mode, and using your arrow keys, move the view until you are focusing on the node you want to adjust the height of, now, press C again and press H then click that node and press C again, now, using the PgUp and PgDn keys, you can change the height of that node easily and because you are in camera mode, you can see what effect your changes are having. Position – press M If you are unhappy with the position of a road/model etc, you can move it. Press M then click the node of the item you wish to move, then press and hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse, you will see the item move, to stop moving an item, simply release the mouse button. Angles – press R twice The majority of the time you will only need to rotate an item on one axis, the axis in question being Y as X and Z could have undesirable effect on the model you are rotating, press R twice and ensure in the bottom right of the editor screen you see “ Rotate Y” then click and hold down the mouse button on the node of the model you are rotating and move the mouse, you will see the item rotate, to stop rotating, simply release the mouse button. By all means practice with what effects are available as it’s only through practice you will learn how to get the most out of the editor and it’s functions.
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Saving and loading Saving When working on a map of any complexity of design, I recommend you save your work every 15 minutes as not saving your work after three hours and accidentally closing the editor down or having a power cut is very annoying. Remember we talked about the mapbase folder at the start of this manual? Here’s where it comes into play. Click “Save map” you will be asked to enter a filename for your map, for this example, call your map “mapname” then click OK or Save. (if you’ve configured your mapbase folder correctly, there will be a pause of a few minutes then the word “Saved” will pop up on the menu area of the editor. You can now safely close the editor down. Loading OK, so you’ve had a break and decide you want to work on your map some more, what you need to do is browse to your mapbase folder, open the map folder and select all the .bak files you find, then right click on one of them and from the pop up menu, select “Cut”, create a folder on your desktop and call it mapbackup and paste the .bak files into this folder, then go back to mapbase, in the map folder, the only file that should now be there is an .mbd file. Once you have confirmed this click the “Up one level” button at the top of the window and right click on the map folder, from the pop up menu, move the mouse to winzip then in the winzip pop up menu, select “add to zip file” A window will pop up, close to the top of this window, you’ll see a line of text (it will finish with .zip (for example “C:\Program files\Euro truck simulator\base\map.zip)) simply rename the .zip to .scs, Next, to the left of this window, you’ll see “Compression” and directly beneath it is a drop down box, click this box and select “None” then click add. When winzip completes, close winzip down and you’ll see a map.scs file in your mapbase folder, right click on this file and select “Cut” and paste it into your mod folder(Usually C:\My documents\Euro Truck Simulator\mod) You are now ready to run the editor and load your map. When the game starts, open the console and type edit mapname and your map will load.
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Section 3 – Creating cities and companies Designing your first city Have a think about what you want to include in the city and then build the city around those requirements, for example, do you want a service station inside the city or on the approach road? Do you want to situate your companies in the city or create a special “Industrial” area for them (Similar to what I did with my shindig map) Once you have decided this, decide how many roads are going to be in the city and how many approach roads your city will have. Most cities have 2 approach roads which connect the city to the nearest motorway. Also bear in mind that the bigger the city is, the more models you will need to place to occupy it. The main trouble is is that there are not a lot of building models out there and there is a danger that your cities will start to look alike, try to use different building models (or at least place the building models in a different place in each city). It also improves playablility if your city doesn’t have any “Dead end” roads, sometimes it’s necessary to have a dead end road in a city where it would be impossible to link two road pieces together (two red nodes for example) for this you would need to draw a dead end blocker across the road entrance (you can find this in the buildings options aka e then 3) Placing company entities Company prefabs can be accessed by pressing e then 2 and use the – and + keys to scroll through the prefabs until you find the company prefab you want, then, move the prefab to the location that you want it to be placed at but before you click the left mouse button to place the company prefab in your map, move the mouse pointer over the nearest road’s red node, this sets the prefab height to the same as the road and helps to avoid positioning problems. As a tip, keep a pen and paper handy as you’ll need it to help you declare the necessary definitions which we’ll look at now. Creating or editing definition files This is the most tedious but most important bit of city creation. In order for the game to recognize the city and the companies placed therein, you should take note of what the city name is going to be, followed by the name of placed companies. Defining a city 1, Check which countries are available in the game (what I mean is if you are playing GTS or UKTS, there is only one country available and you won’t have to worry too much about which country your city is in. If on 17
the other hand, you are designing the map for ETS, you will need to tie your city to the nearest country (for example, if you create a city in Estonia, the city will be tied to Poland so that the game can configure itself to be able to access and operate that city)) 2, Open (in notepad) the samplecity.sii file included with this manual 3, change the city name from “Sample” to whatever your city name is. 4, change the ui_x and ui_y co-ordinates to pinpoint the location of your city on the map. If you are mapping for ETS, use the grid.jpg file to determine the x/y co-ordinates for your city. 5, Replace the country name “Sample” with the country name that your city is in or tied to (for GTS, enter “Germany” and for UKTS, enter “uk” 6, save the samplecity.sii file remembering to rename it cityname.sii (for example, if your city is called Athens, name the file Athens.sii and save it into project def/economy/city directory (or def/city if playing GTS or UKTS) 7, save your map and exit the editor, zip your project folders into an scs file and place in the game’s mod directory. 8, start up the editor then find your newly designed city, when you find it, press e then 9 to create a new city entity, a window will pop up that will have a list box in it, click the arrow and scroll through the available city entity names until you find your city name. click it then click on your map to place your new city entity. Now it’s time to declare the city’s companies. To define a company that is in your new city, follow these instructions: 1, find the company name’s sii file in your project’s def/economy/company (or def/company) PLEASE NOTE: when editing company.sii files, there is a protocol to follow, you cannot just enter in the information anywhere as this would cause the definition and ultimately your game, to fail. If the file is not formatted, to make it easier on yourself, format it (using the spacebar and enter) until it looks like this: company_permanent: company.permanent.nbfc { name: "NBFC" sound[]: "/sound/environment/chemical_factory_1.ogg" sound[]: "/sound/environment/chemical_factory_2.ogg" sound[]: "/sound/environment/chemical_factory_3.ogg in_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.coal in_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.petrol 18
in_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.diesel in_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.acid in_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.chemicals in_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.hchemicals in_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.fertilizer out_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.acid out_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.chemicals out_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.hchemicals out_cargo[]: cargo.permanent.fertilizer city_names[]: prague city_names[]: edinburgh city_names[]: copenhagen city_names[]: gothenburg city_names[]: bergen city_names[]: groningen city_names[]: Sheffield prefab_names[]: 44 prefab_names[]: 44 prefab_names[]: 44 prefab_names[]: 44 prefab_names[]: 44 prefab_names[]: 44 prefab_names[]: 44 } Now, lets say for example, your city was called Athens, under the last city_name declaration, add: city_name[]: athens and copy one of the prefab_names[] lines and paste it under the last prefab name entry. Now you can save the file. Now, we need to enter some information into the initial_save directory which you should copy from base def/economy/initial_save and paste it into project def/economy/initial_save. Open the initial_save directory and you will see three directories, each of these directories contain the same files but all have to be added to. The three directories are called Normal, Preview and Quick. Let’s look at these files, you will need to make changes in each of these to make your companies work. Game.sii
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Your game.sii file looks very bewildering at the start, but the only portion of this file you will be working with are the company declarations, a list follows (Taken from crockett’s euro shindig)
companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.berne companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.lisbon companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.warsaw companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.bordeaux companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.rome companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.berlin companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.madrid companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.sheffield companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.york companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.carlisle companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.gothenburg companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.oslo companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.lahti companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.krakow companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.lockerbie companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.napoli companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.coimbra companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.dortmund companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.eindhoven companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.nantes companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.zaragoza companies[]: company.volatile.euroacres.newcastle companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.berlin companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.prague companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.paris companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.berne companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.brussels companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.vienna companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.barcelona companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.milan companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.warsaw companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.london companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.york companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.manchester companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.inverness companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.arhus companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.copenhagen companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.oslo 20
companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.lahti companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.birmingham companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.aberystwyth companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.geneva companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.genoa companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.porto companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.groningen companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.eindhoven companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.lehavre companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.zaragoza companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.gdansk companies[]: company.volatile.eurogoodies.belfast companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.newcastle companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.london companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.belfast companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.inverness companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.carlisle companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.aalborg companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.helsinki companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.geneva companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.coimbra companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.stuttgart companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.seville companies[]: company.volatile.stokes.exeter companies[]: company.volatile.bcp.exeter companies[]: company.volatile.bcp.dublin companies[]: company.volatile.bcp.salzburg companies[]: company.volatile.bcp.manchester companies[]: company.volatile.fcp.avignon companies[]: company.volatile.fcp.lehavre companies[]: company.volatile.fcp.lyon companies[]: company.volatile.itcc.genoa companies[]: company.volatile.itcc.bari companies[]: company.volatile.itcc.milan companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.bordeaux companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.berne companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.brussels companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.madrid companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.frankfurt companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.belfast companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.copenhagen companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.napoli companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.groningen 21
companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.gdansk companies[]: company.volatile.kaarfor.paris companies[]: company.volatile.lkwlog.edinburgh companies[]: company.volatile.lkwlog.arhus companies[]: company.volatile.lkwlog.bergen companies[]: company.volatile.lkwlog.lockerbie companies[]: company.volatile.lkwlog.dortmund companies[]: company.volatile.lkwlog.gdansk companies[]: company.volatile.lkwlog.munich companies[]: company.volatile.nbfc.prague companies[]: company.volatile.nbfc.edinburgh companies[]: company.volatile.nbfc.copenhagen companies[]: company.volatile.nbfc.gothenburg companies[]: company.volatile.nbfc.bergen companies[]: company.volatile.nbfc.groningen companies[]: company.volatile.nbfc.sheffield companies[]: company.volatile.posped.aalborg companies[]: company.volatile.posped.helsinki companies[]: company.volatile.posped.bilbao companies[]: company.volatile.posped.aberystwyth companies[]: company.volatile.posped.coimbra companies[]: company.volatile.posped.porto companies[]: company.volatile.posped.eindhoven companies[]: company.volatile.posped.seville companies[]: company.volatile.posped.salzburg companies[]: company.volatile.posped.lisbon companies[]: company.volatile.sanbuilders.paris companies[]: company.volatile.sanbuilders.milan companies[]: company.volatile.sanbuilders.lisbon companies[]: company.volatile.sanbuilders.munich companies[]: company.volatile.sanbuilders.manchester companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.prague companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.berlin companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.rome companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.barcelona companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.vienna companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.amsterdam companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.london companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.newcastle companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.exeter companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.edinburgh companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.aalborg companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.lahti 22
companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.geneva companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.stuttgart companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.seville companies[]: company.volatile.sellplan.munich companies[]: company.volatile.tradeaux.avignon companies[]: company.volatile.tradeaux.lehavre companies[]: company.volatile.tradeaux.lyon companies[]: company.volatile.trameri.carlisle companies[]: company.volatile.trameri.stockholm companies[]: company.volatile.trameri.birmingham companies[]: company.volatile.trameri.genoa companies[]: company.volatile.trameri.bari companies[]: company.volatile.trameri.porto companies[]: company.volatile.trameri.rome companies[]: company.volatile.transinet.dublin companies[]: company.volatile.transinet.krakow companies[]: company.volatile.transinet.bari companies[]: company.volatile.transinet.groningen companies[]: company.volatile.transinet.nantes companies[]: company.volatile.transinet.zaragoza companies[]: company.volatile.transinet.amsterdam companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.frankfurt companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.lyon companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.inverness companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.arhus companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.gothenburg companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.bilbao companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.napoli companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.dortmund companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.nantes companies[]: company.volatile.tree_et.madrid companies[]: company.volatile.wgcc.frankfurt companies[]: company.volatile.wgcc.stuttgart Notice that the company declarations are grouped by company name? this is to make it easier for you to find the right place to declare your city’s companies. Also, you must remember to copy the linux new line symbol ( )ڤTo each and every new declaration you make otherwise your company declarations will not work. Also, remember that when you have finished adding your company declarations, save the game.sii into each of the three directories (quick, normal, preview) this will ensure that the files are identical in these directories and thus are less likely to fail.
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Companies_new_game.sii The companies_new_game.sii adds additional information regarding the companies to the game.sii file at runtime and therefore should also be updated with your company declarations but the way the companies are declared in this file is slightly different. The easiest way to add declarations to this file is to copy an existing declaration of the same company and change the city name to the name of your city. For your information, a sample list follows: (Taken from crockett’s euro shindig) ############# EUROACRES ############
company: company.volatile.euroacres.berne { permanent_data: company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.lisbon { permanent_data: company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.warsaw { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.bordeaux { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.rome { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.berlin { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres }
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company: company.volatile.euroacres.madrid { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.sheffield { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.york { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.newcastle { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.gothenburg { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.oslo { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.lahti { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.krakow { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.lockerbie { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres 25
} company: company.volatile.euroacres.napoli { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.coimbra { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.dortmund { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } company: company.volatile.euroacres.eindhoven { permanent_data:company.permanent.euroacres } As you can see, there is a structured way to make declarations in this file, the curly brackets as well as the linux new line symbols are critical for successful operation. Now save this file in the same manner as game.sii, package project up into an scs file and paste the scs file into your game’s mod directory then test. Siting companies on the city’s approach roads rather than in the city Sometimes it is not possible to ensure your company prefabs fall within the city entity, you can site them outside of the city but you need to add another city entity to make your companies work, press e then 9, select your city name from the drop down list but untick the box labelled “Show in ui map” then click OK, the city will be “Invisible” to the game but will still allow your companies to work. Common Company Errors Kdop link errors These errors occur when the height of the company prefabs are higher or lower than one another in your city or the prefabs are higher or lower than 26
the height of your city entity. To fix, ensure your company prefabs are within your city entity and are not plus or minus more than .03 units to the height of your city entity. For example, if your city entity has a height of 17.35 units but your company prefabs have a height of 18.00 this will cause kdop link errors, reduce the height of your company prefabs until they either have a height of 17.38 or 17.32 NEVER set the height of your company prefabs at the same height exactly as your city. Dangling pointer errors These errors occur if you have declared your company prefab in the companies_new_game.sii but not in game.sii (or vice versa) check your declarations, it may even be something as simple as a missing dot or bracket.
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Section 4 – Creating ferry ports and routes Adding ports to your map I’m sure by now we recognise what the prefabs pictured below are, but can you tell the difference between them?
The difference between them is simple, the top prefab is for left hand lane (UK) traffic and the bottom one is right hand lane (Europe) traffic, when adding a port to your map, ensure you use the correct prefab, they are easy to identify, the left hand lane traffic port has a uk suffix where the other one doesn’t, now, let’s place the port prefab into your map and 28
configure it for correct use. Press e then 2, press alt+tab to switch focus to the prefab properties window and from the drop down list select the correct port prefab and set the origin to either 1 or 2 so that the red operator node is on one end of the junction where the approach road meets the prefab and not within the port as shown in the pictures, move the mouse to the position you want the prefab to be placed then left mouse click to place the prefab. Now, we need to configure the port to make it operational, we do this by first adding an overlay to the port, because there is no shortcut to the map overlay, you will need to press e then click on the current item type and select map overlay, you will also see a “Ferry” option there, we will use this in a moment. Now go back to the editor and left click at the bottom of the ramp into the port, a purple node will appear where you have just clicked, press p then left click the purple node, press alt+tab to switch focus to the overlay properties window (as shown below) and from the drop down list, you need to select “Harbor” then click OK.
This tells the game that this is an active port and also places the little “anchor” icon into your ui map. Now move to the destination place, place a port and add an overlay like you have just done for this port. Now, press e and click on the current item type and select “Ferry” (do the following for both ports) Zoom into the ferry and left click approximately one third into the ship, now press c and move the camera to focus on the purple node you have just placed, you should see something like this:
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You may have to adjust the height and position of the node so that it is not sunk into the floor of the ship and is roughly between the yellow lines. Now, see the green line? This is giving an indication to the game that this is the path the vehicle will take to exit the ship, you will need to rotate the node so that the green line points exactly the opposite direction to the direction being shown ( ie out of the ship not into it) the green line must also be parallel to the yellow lines for the ferry to work, to rotate the node, press r twice and click and hold the node while moving the mouse towards you, keep checking on the alignment of the green line with the camera (press c) until your ferry node looks like this:
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The ferry node above has been placed and aligned perfectly and should now work. Now you have to configure the ferry nodes but to do this you need to create two files, see the next chapter for this.
Adding declarations to configuration files Open base and copy the directory def/economy/ferry into project. Now, look inside the ferry directory and you will see some .sii files, open one of these, it will look something like this: ferry_data: ferry.uk.hull { name: "@@ui_hull@@ -> @@ui_zeebrugge@@" price: 425 time: 655 connection : ferry.uk.zeebrugge } (if you are using GTS or UKTS you won’t need the uk prefix) Change the ferry data to the name of your starting port (eg ferry.uk.felixstowe) and change the names to the names of your starting and destination ports (eg name: “@@ui_felixstowe@@ -> @@ui_rotterdam@@”) Now, change the price to reflect the price you want and also change the time to reflect how much time should elapse before reaching the destination ferryport. Also change the connection to the name of your destination ferryport (eg connection: ferry.uk.rotterdam) HINT if using ETS, define all your ferryports as uk ferryports, it saves time and makes it less confusing!) Now save the file into your project/def/economy/ferry directory giving the file the name of your ferryport (eg Felixstowe.sii) while the file is still open, swap round the names of the ferryports so that where Felixstowe was Rotterdam now is and vice versa and save the file as Rotterdam.sii You have now finished declaring your ferry ports for the route you have built into your map, you now need to go back to the editor and head for your starting port, press p and left click on the purple ferry node, then press alt+tab to switch focus to the ferry properties window which looks like this:
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From the drop down list, select the name of your starting ferry port then click OK, do the same for your destination port. Once this is done, congratulations! You have now planned and configured your first ferry route! Follow the same process for any other routes you want. Creating approach roads You create approach roads for the ferry port in the same way you would create ordinary roads but you will need to adjust the height of the road as it approaches the ferry port so that the outer fences of the ferryport do not cut into your road, you should also define the last part of your approach roads as bridges as it comes into connection with the prefab’s junction, this gives a much neater finish to the port. It would also be a good idea to add some water terrain to the ship area of the port, simply press e then 1 and from the road properties window, click terrain and draw a road string in the normal manner but change the grass to water (ocean) in the road item properties window in the usual manner. This will give your port a much more realistic feel.
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Section 5 – adding custom models to your map Creating models and textures Being able to create custom models for your map is a great way to make your map unique and adds that personal touch, for this, you will need zmodeler2, you can download this from www.zmodeler2.com Once you have downloaded zmodeler2, you should register your copy, doing so will enable you to import existing models into zmodeler and there are no other restrictions, on the down side it costs at least £60 but this is a one off fee, once you have registered, you can get lifetime updates to your zmodeler. Before you attempt to put together your first model, you should first import a model so that you can learn how the software works and the structure necessary to build successful models. Once you have done this, you will be in a far better position to build models that not only work but will add individuality to your map, I sincerely recommend you take the zmodeler tutorials as this will give you the necessary building blocks you need to learn how to make 3d models. To make textures for your models, you use dxtbmp, you can create a texture easily from an existing image by simply opening the image from within dxtbmp. So, you’ve read the tutorials and have made your first model, what happens now? Read on…. Making declarations In order for you to add your new model into the game, you need to add some detail to the file models.sii, this file is found in def/world.copy this folder to Project. Open it up, you will see a list of text that looks something like this: model_def : model.300 { model_desc: "/model/flats/1bedflats.pmd" distance_type: 2 } Simply copy the last entry in the file and paste it at the end of the copied statement, then change the path and name of the model with the name of your model. Save the model.sii file in your project/def/world folder and package project up into an scs file and drop in your mod folder and test, you will now be able to select and work with your new model in the editor.
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Adding the model to the map This is a simple process, press e then 4 and use the – and + keys to scroll through the models until you find yours, then simply left click to place your model into your map, you can then manipulate it’s height, rotation and position to best suit the purpose of the model within the map. Section 6 – Packaging, distribution and installation of your map Getting ready for release OK, you’re at the stage now when the nerves start to really jangle! Go to any forum you have a WIP topic on for your map and ask for testers, I recommend this as it’s easier to make changes as directed by your testers than to release your map onto a wide audience only then to face a barrage of questions and complaints. Depending on the size of your map, you may need anything upto 12 testers, once you have the testers in place, it’s time to package project up into an scs file and do some more testing before it goes out to the testers Creating scs files Browse to the project folder and go into it, you should see a list of directories including def, sound, material and so on, make another directory and call it map, place your final map mbd file into this directory. Now, back up to the list of directories, click and hold the left mouse button and drag over all the directories until they are all highlighted, then, right click on one of the directories and in the pop up menu that appears, look for winzip, move the mouse to winzip and another menu should appear, click “add to zip file” the winzip file creation dialogue box will open, at the top of this box, you will see some highlighted text, at the end of the line, you will see something like filename.zip, change the filename to the name of your project remembering to use underscores “_” instead of spaces and change the .zip extension to .scs Now, look to the left of this dialogue box, you will see a drop down box labelled “Compression” click the drop down box and select “none” then click add, it may take a moment or two for your scs file to be created but once it is created, paste it into your mod folder. Job done! Now, be sure to test all aspects of your map, once you are completely happy with it, then and only then should you send it to your testers, ask them to send you their reports ideally within the week, this shortens the waiting time you have to endure before you can finally release your map.
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Release and what happens now? OK, you’ve had the reports back from your testers and have made any necessary alterations, now is the time for release. First of all, make a folder on your desktop and call it maprelease, now, using notepad, create a readme.txt file telling users about the features of your map and giving credits where required, also, remember to include credits for your testers and any special instructions you want to pass on to the player. When you are happy with the readme, save it into your maprelease folder. Next, copy your map scs(s) into the maprelease folder. At this stage, I recommend you create an installer for your map to make it as easy as possible for users to install your map, I recommend install creator by clickteam (www.clickteam.com) This will give your map a professional install wizard and will make implementing your map a breeze but remember when asked by the installer creation wizard where the setup should install to, to point it to the user’s my documents\ Euro Truck Simulator\mod directory. Then build the installer and save it to maprelease, now you need to find a host for your installer. Use somewhere like filefront (www.filefront.com) or megaupload (www.megaupload.com) to host your installer, upload it and when it has finished uploading, the site will give you a link to the file, it’s this link you add into your forum posts for others to be able to download it. Now, simply sit back and bask in the praise that is lavished upon you for a great map well done!
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Section 7 – Further reading and help More info You can always get further info from the fansites and forums you visit, you may be able to pick up other titbits of knowledge and advice from the game’s website(S) listed below: www.eurotrucksimulator.com www.germantrucksimulator.com www.uktrucksimulator.com Fan sites and forums that are packed with useful information for mappers and indeed modders of any kind www.crockettsetshouse.org.uk/forum www.eurotrucksimulator.org/forum www.truckpol.proboards.com Information on zmodeler2 can be found at www.zmodeler2.com The latest version of winzip can be downloaded from www.winzip.com Install construct installer creator can be downloaded from clickteam at www.clickteam.com * * * * * * Well, that’s just about it! I hope this manual helps you to create many brilliant maps and helps you gain a reputation as a good map maker and gives you all the enjoyment you need, mapmaking can sometimes be hard work but with this manual and the supportive comments from people on forums it should be all worthwhile in the end. Enjoy mapmaking, enjoy the game, enjoy life! Cheerio! Dave “Crockett” Jackson
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