Tutorial: Adding a minimap!

[SW_elite]

This is a quick tutorial that will teach you have to add minimaps to all of your maps.

Step 1: Start by adding a region to your map's base layer. To make aligning the map easier later on, make sure the region is a square and position it so it encapsulates the area your map is going to display.

Step 2: Name this region "mapbounds" and set it's type to "mapbounds".

Step 3: Now for the tough part... You have to draw the map yourself. Open an image editor that can save tga files, and create a square image that is a power of two in size (usually 256x256 or 512x512 pixels). Draw the map, then save it into the same folder as your map's '.wld' file using the name "***_map.tga" (replace the stars with the name of your map). Also, the image must be a 'type 2' tga file, 24bits/pixel, 16 million colours, no compression (Thanks to OGEB1103 for pointing this bit out). If you're not sure how to set these options the easiest thing to do is copy one of the game's original mini-maps, open it, copy-paste your new map over it, save, and then rename the file.

Step 4: It should already be there, but make sure something like this is in your map's '.req' file:


REQN
   {
      "texture"
      "***_map"
   }


If it isn't there, add it manually. (Again, the stars represent the three letter name of your map)

Step 5: Munge the world and that's it.


NOTE!!! To make the map drawing a lot easier try this:
- In ZeroEditor, switch view to "height" mode
- Open the "Camera" menu
- Select "Top-Down view"
- Select "Orthographic view"
- Use the "r" and "t" keys to zoom in/out to see the whole map
- Select "Save screenshot"

Now you can sort of "paint" over this screenshot to get things lined up correctly.

Tutorial from GT. Originally posted by archer01. http://www.gametoast.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=6375