This will walk you through making a map from start to finish using Paint Shop Pro. I have also included
EXAMPLE.ZIP which contains a logfile and 3 graphic files you can use to test with. I have also included mapperfr.xml which can be used if you live in France and mapper.xml does not work for you.
Things you will need- Perl
- Inkscape
- DDS plug-in
- Blank map (attached to this post)
- Mapper.xml (attached to this post)
Step One- Download and install Perl. Install it to C:\Perl. The reason is because we will be using a Dos command that is limited in how directories are named.
- Make a folder called C:\Maps. We will be putting our logfile in here.
- Start Notepad and enter in the following text, c:\Perl\bin\perl "c:\maps\mapper.xml" "c:\maps\logfile.txt" > "c:\maps\map.svg"
- Save it as Map.bat.
Step Two- Goto *\EverQuest II\logs\server\character and rename the logfile that is there. If one is not there, skip this part.
- Goto *\EverQuest II\cache\ioplans\
- Start EQ2 and go to the area that you want to map.
- Create two macros. One will be Location to do the /loc command and Map Line with the command /emote You start new map line.
- Put those two macros on you button bar so that you can access them easily.
- Now do a /log which will start a logfile in your *\EverQuest II\logs folder. (It may help to go into your chat settings and turn off everything that you do not want to be recorded)
- Now go around the room running the Location macro at all corners along the walls.
- At each break (i.e. a doorway or to stop there and to go start somewhere else), run the Map Line macro.
- When you are done, do /log again to stop the recording.
- Write down the file name of the file found in *\EverQuest II\cache\ioplans\ that matches the time/date of when you was making your map. (i.e. qey_village03+qey_adv01_oakmyst.iop)
- Goto *\EverQuest II\logs\server\character. There you will see your logfile.
- Copy this logfile to C:\Maps and name it logfile.txt
Step Three- Download the attached Mapper.xml and save it to C:\Maps
- Download the attached map_blank.dds and save it to C:\Maps
- Click your Window's Start button then select run. Enter in cmd and click OK.
- Type in C: and press ENTER. Now type in cd maps and press ENTER. You will now be in the C:\Maps directory.
- Type in map and press ENTER. This will run the map.bat batch file we created earlier.
Step Four- Download and install Inkscape.
- Click File, then Open. Goto your C:\Maps folder and select map.svg. Click OPEN.
- Press 4
- Check out your map. If it is not ok, you will have to edit it by hand. This may involve adding a start new mapline in your logfile or editing the graphic it's self. Either way, that is beyond the scope of this How-To.
- Click File then select Export Bitmap.
- Select the Drawing button at the top of the window that appeared.
- In the middle, you will see Bitmap Size, change the largest of the two numbers in that area to 512.
- Change the filename to C:\Maps\map.png.
- Click Export
Step Five- Download the DDS Plug-in and install it.
- Start Photoshop
- Click File then Open. Goto your C:\Maps and select map_blank.dds then click Open.
- Click File then Open. Goto your C:\Maps and select map.png then click Open.
- Select the Map.png window. Do a CTRL+A then a CTRL+C (this will select the entire image of map.png and copy it)
- Select the map_blank.dds window.
- Press CTRL+V (This will paste your map onto the blank as a new layer.)
- Press V to select the Move Tool and move your map to the proper place on the blank.
- If you must resize, press CTRL+T and adjust theW and H on the tool bar. Make sure you keep these the same! (i.e. 95% and 95%)
- In the Layers Pallet, right click the new layer (Layer 1) and select Duplicate Layer then click OK.
- Click the eye beside Layer 1 to make it invisible.
- Click Layer 1 Copy to select it.
- Press W to select the Magic Wand Tool.
- At the top, you will see a toolbar for the magic wand tool now.Change the settings to Tolerance: 65, Contiguous and Anti-Alias.
- Click inside the main wall of your map. A dotted line will appear along all the borders. A shadow will be coming from this dotted line so hold down the SHIFT key and select the areas inside the main wall of your map that you do not want a shadow coming from. As you select these areas, the dotted line that surrounded them will go away.
- I am still working on the best way to do this.. will update soon!
- This will have made a shadow going all around your map. Now press F12. Change type to DDS *[*.dds]. Name it map_****.dds where **** is the part of the file name you wrote down earlier (i.e. qey_village03+qey_adv01_oakmyst.iop would be map_qey_adv01_oakmyst.dds) and click Save. Click Yes at the promt.
- Change format to DXT1 ARGB [1 bit Aplha], 2D Texture, No MIP maps. Click Save
- Save it as JPG if you want to post a picture of it for people to see.
- Your done!!
*** If you want to get the ZONERECT, read on***
Tonyis3l33t has made a great little tool that will figure out the zonerect for you. My only problem was when I tried to use it, it required Excel, which I do not own. Instead, I downloaded the free office suite called
Open Office...
Step Six- Download eq2log XYZ + Zonerect + Elevation Extractor.
- Run the script. It will ask you for the logfile's name. Put that in.
- For the output, make it a slightly different name and end it with .TXT.
Open Office- Click File then Open.
- Change files of type to: Text CSV
- Select your output file and click open.
- Under Seperator options, deselect TAB, select OTHER and put in %
- Click OK.
Excel- Go to Data->Import External Data->Import Data
- Find and open the OUTPUT file
- Check the Delimited Option, say NEXT
- Click in the OTHER field, type in %
- Click Finish, OK
Once the file is loaded, you will see all your /loc. Scroll down to the bottom of these and you will see the zonerect.