The following is a list of tips and instructions for creating maps for Battlezone II. This list was compiled at Pandemic Studios by BZII Art Director Carey Chico and is not part of the official BZII game documentation published by Activision. The procedures and information offered below are not supported by Activision Customer Support.

BATTLEZONE II EDITOR TIPS

This document is meant to provide an overview to the use of the BZ2, in-engine, editor for use in creating user maps for Deathmatch and Strategy purposes.

First step, before we go anywhere, we need to initialize the bz2 editor by opening up a bzone.exe shortcut with the addition of the following command line text:

/edit

This will enable the editor when the game is launched. 

An alternate method of launching the editor can be performed when launching the game without the “/edit” at the command line. This is performed by opening up the console while in a mission (“CTRL - ~”) and typing in “GAME.CHEAT BZEDITOR.” This will enable the editor at that point.

NOTE: The editor is automatically disabled when entering into a Multi-player game. 

Now, after you have launched the game and are in the game itself, you can press “CTRL – E” to enter the editor. After the little disclaimer about how we aren’t going to technically support your endeavor, you will enter the main interface of the editor.

MAIN INTERFACE

The main interface for the editor consists of a mode bar along the top of the screen, with the tools bar running vertically on the left side of the screen. This setup never changes, however, the tool set will change depending on the module you are in.

MODULES

There are seven modules listed at the top of the screen. These are:

HEIGHT: This is used to modify the actual terrain geometry
COLOR: This is used to modify the colors of the terrain, effectively changing the vertex colors.
TEXTURE: This is used to paint the individual texture tiles onto the terrain geometry
WATER: This is used to define and paint the multiple water layers on the map
ENVIRONMENT: This is used to select regions of the terrain for export to the .XSI file format.
OBJECT: This is used to select, define, and place all objects, including power-ups on the map.
PATH: This module was not implemented at time of release.

These modules can be selected by LEFT-CLICKING on their individual tabs at the top.

NOTE: Once in a module, only that module’s tool set can be used at that time.

VIEWTYPES

In the upper left hand corner of the editor, you will see four buttons. These buttons define the four viewing modes available in the editor. They are as follows:

SOLID: This mode views the terrain as a solid mesh, with textures and colors
WIRE: This mode views the terrain as a gray wire mesh
HEIGHT: This mode views the terrain with elevation-based color changes
COLOR: This mode views the terrain as a wire mesh with the color information

NOTE: If you find the frame rate a bit sluggish while using the editor, try setting the view mode to WIRE, HEIGHT, or COLOR. Rendering just the wire for the terrain will speed up the frame rate appreciably.

HEIGHT MODULE

As stated before, this module is used to manipulate the terrain geometry. On the left side of the editor, you will see the tool set as it defined for this module.

The tool set for all the modules are very similar to that of a painting program like Photoshop. You define a brush size, shape, and painting mode before editing your terrain. In addition, with a two button mouse, you have the option of defining two height values for either button so that if you are constantly painting between two values you can have both available at any time.

The tool set definitions are as follows:

BRUSH SIZE

WIDTH: (Max value = 30) This defines the brush width in eight meter segment intervals. The value can be changed by either typing in a number or moving the slider.
DEPTH:  (Max value = 30) This defines the brush depth in eight meter segment intervals. The value can be changed by either typing in a number or moving the slider.

Since the terrain resolution is eight meters per grid square, the number value defines the number of consecutive grid points that your brush will cover.

SHAPE MODES

There are four shape modes which will define what shape the brush will be as well as how soft of an edge the brush will have when it effects the terrain. These are:

SQUARE: A hard-edged square shaped brush will be used.
CIRCLE: A hard-edged circle shaped brush will be used.
CONE: A hard-edged cone shaped brush will be used.
BELL: A soft-edged bell shaped brush will be used.

NOTE: For soft edges, the best choice to use is the BELL shape. This will give you the most organic looking edges to your cliff sides.

PAINT MODES

There are five different types of painting modes which define the method to which your changes effect the terrain. Most of these will effect how quickly a pre-modified height value will reach a set one. In this way you can sculpt the terrain as gently or harshly as you wish. The modes are as follows:

PAINT: This mode will use the FOREGROUND or BACKGROUND values as set heights. It will automatically change a pre-modifed height to a set height. Once reached, the value will not change regardless of how long you hold the brush there.
SPRAY: This mode will use the FOREGROUND or BACKGROUND values as set heights. In contrast to the paint mode, however, the change starts at the pre-modified height and gradually rises to the set height. The speed at which the height value reaches the set height is defined by the PRESSURE value.
RAISE: This mode disregards the FOREGROUND and BACKGROUND set height values. Rather, the FORGROUND becomes an increase in height while the BACKGROUND becomes a decrease. This paint mode is constant, and will paint as long as the mouse button is down. The speed at which the height value changes is defined by the PRESSURE value.
EYEDROP: This mode does not paint any heights, but rather will sample a height value that you select. It will then update either the FOREGROUND value or the BACKGROUND value depending on which mouse button you clicked to sample it.

Three things effect the paint mode, pressure sensitivity, foreground height, and background height.

PRESSURE: This is a percentage value between 1 and 100.  It determines the speed at which a brush effects a height value. The higher the value, the faster it reaches your set height,
FOREGROUND: This value determines the set height for the left mouse button. In RAISE mode, it is disregarded.
BACKGROUND: This value determines the set height for the right mouse button. In RAISE mode it is disregarded.

COLOR MODULE

This module changes the vertex colors at each grid point on the terrain mesh. It effectively gives color to the texture. There is only one color value per grid point. 

BRUSH SIZE: This tool works exactly the same as described in the HEIGHT module.
SHAPE MODES: This tool works exactly the same as described in the HEIGHT module.

PAINT MODES

There are five different types of painting modes which define the method to which your changes effect the terrain. They are the same modes that are found in the HEIGHT module, with the exception that they effect color rather than height.

PAINT: No change.
SPRAY: No change.
RAISE: This tool now performs a dodge and burn operation dependent on which mouse button is used.
EYEDROP:  This tool samples a color value in this mode.

The pressure, foreground and background settings work the same way as in the HEIGHT module, except they deal with color instead of height. 

PRESSURE: No change.
FOREGROUND: There are three values corresponding to the RGB scale of color production. The value ranges from 0 to 255.
BACKGROUND: There are three values corresponding to the RGB scale of color production. The value ranges from 0 to 255.

TEXTURE MODULE

Texturing in Bz2 is very different from the system used in Bz1. In Bz1, there were solid tiles, caps, and diagonals which needed to match the edge areas between different texture areas. Needless to say, it was a complicated system with not a lot of tolerance and variation.

In Bz2, we have successfully removed the necessity of cap and diagonal tiles to meet up with the various textures used on the terrain, and have provided instant blending between different texture areas.

On the right side of the screen, you will discover a bank of images which correspond to the different textures available for this terrain. These texture references are found in the .TRN files for each map that you create.

CHANGING THE TEXTURES

In order to change the textures displayed and used by a map, you need to load up a .TRN file and scroll down to the end where you will find a list that looks like the following:

[Texture]
TileTexture1 = "dune1.tga"
TileTexture2 = "dune2.tga"
TileTexture3 = "dune3.tga"

The word “Texture” in brackets is the header that the engine looks for to identify the texture string listed after it. It is required to read the textures out of the .TRN file.

The number of the texture corresponds to its slot in the editor bank on the right side of the screen. Tile texture 0 is the topmost left square, tile texture 1 is the topmost left square, and so on like reading a page of text. If a TileTexture number is missing, you will see a vacant square with no texture image present.

The format as shown above is a required constraint for the engine to read the textures. You must have TileTexture(#)= “name of texture . texture extension.” The name of the texture can be any naming convention you choose but must be limited to a maximum of eight letters or numbers prior to the extension. The extension is directly related to the image format of the texture. The engine supports .BMP’s, .TGA’s, and the Softimage .PIC file format (not to be confused with the Mac format of the same name.) They should be created and saved in 24-bit format and be tileable in one direction on all four sides. 

Most tiles you will find in Bz2 are saved in grayscale format. This is because much of the coloring is derived from vertex colors as painted in the COLOR module. For details that are at a much smaller resolution than 8 meters, you will want to have colors in your textures. For example, if I wanted a road texture with a dotted line down the center, I would create a road texture with a yellow dotted line down the center.

TEXTURE LAYERS

In the Bz2 scheme for painting textures, we have a layering system to permit smooth blending between textures. On the left hand window you will see a text title “LAYER” with five buttons underneath. Bz2 has up to four layers available for painting textures. Typically, each layer should have one texture assigned to it (you assign textures simply by clicking a layer and painting in a texture). You may choose to have more than one texture per layer, but in doing so you will need to make sure that those textures sharing a layer are not painted too close to one another or you will have edge problems. Textures only blend over layers—not within layers.

The Solo Button

At the end of the layer buttons you will see a button with an “S” on it. This is the “Solo Layer” button. This button is used if you want to see only one layer and hide the rest of the layers. To use it, click on it to turn it on, then click on the layer you wish to solo at that point. The highlighted layer remains visible while the rest of the layers turn off.

NOTE: Since LAYER 0 is the bottommost layer, solo has no effect on it.

TOOLSET

For the most part, the tool set parameters on the left respond exactly as described in the HEIGHT module section of this document. The exceptions are as follows

RAISE: This automatically makes the FOREGROUND value 255 and the BACKGROUND value zero, basically permitting you to erase or reveal more or less of the painted texture.
BLEND: This now performs a smoothing function to blur out harsh edges between textures.
EYEDROP: This tool now has the function of sampling the texture under the selection point. It will update the selected texture on the left had side as well as define the ALPHA value of that sampled point.

NOTE: The ALPHA value is a value used to determine transparency at the edge of a painted section. Each grid point for each layer has one ALPHA value set to it. ALPHA values range from 0 (fully transparent) to 255 (fully opaque). It is this method which is used to blend different textures together.

PRESSURE: This is now a percentage value (0 – 100) used to determine the speed at which a value reaches the desired value.
FOREGROUND: In this module, this value determines the set ALPHA value of the paintbrush for the left mouse button.
BACKGROUND: In this module, this value determines the set ALPHA value of the paintbrush for the right mouse button.
TEXTURE: This value is the same as choosing the texture from the right window bank. These numbers correspond to the “TileTexture” numbers listed in the .TRN file.

WATER MODULE

The water module is used to lay down up to sixteen levels of water in localized regions. The values are as follows: Each water layer actually consists of two layers each. These two layers give the impression of rippling on the surface when they traverse opposite directions from each other. Other effects are possible with a little experimentation. For example, turning glow on will change the blending mode, effectively making the water look toxic or light emissive.

WIDTH: Defines the number of water tiles to lay down horizontally
DEPTH: Defines the number of water tiles to lay down vertically.
LAYER: Defines what layer (0 – 16) you are painting on.

NOTE: Each layer can have its own texture and color definition different from every other layer.

HEIGHT: Defines the height at which the water tiles are created (in meters)
VELOCITY: Defines the scroll speed of the water layer.
REPEAT: This defines the number of times the texture repeats within a single water tile.
DIRECTION: This defines the direction that the water tile scrolls.
TEXTURE: Defines the texture used for that water tile. Must include full texture name in box.
COLOR: Defines the color for that water layer. Displayed as a RGB value set.
ALPHA: Defines the transparency of that water layer.
GLOW: Changes the blending mode to additive (ONE ONE MODULATE - effectively makes the layer glow).

The second set of values are settings for the second water tile set for each layer. This effectively makes the water “ripple” effect.

ENVIRONMENT MODULE

This module was discontinued and the options were transferred over to the OBJECT module. The only remaining use is for selecting a region to export to the Softimage .XSI file format.

OBJECT MODULE

This module is for the placement of all objects in the game. This includes, vehicles, buildings, environmental objects like trees and rocks, and power ups.

As you can see in the left hand interface, you will discover that pretty much all of the options have changed. The tool set changes are defined as follows.

MODE

PLACE: Used to place objects in the world. When you select an object from the object list on the right side of the screen, that object becomes your cursor. LEFT – CLICKING allows you to place the object in the world.
ERASE: This lets you erase an object previously placed in the world. Depending on the mode you have selected, the object will hightlight in a variety of ways.
EYEDROP: This allows you to sample an object, including all its parameters from a previously placed object.
MOVE: This allows you to move or re-orient a previously placed object.

CURSOR

GROUND: This button determines toggles the height placement mode. When turned on, the PLACE mode observes the actual ground height. When turned off, the PLACE mode observes the height setting of the interface.
ALIGN: This button toggles the snap to grid feature of the PLACE mode. When turned on, objects will be restricted to 32 meter intervals. This will also restrict object rotations to 90 degree values. When turned off the object PLACE mode turns off the restrictions.

NOTE: Orientations are implemented by the RIGHT mouse button when in PLACE mode. When align is turned on, RIGHT-CLICKING once will rotate the object 90 degress. When align is off, you must hold the RIGHT mouse button down and move the mouse to reorient the object. 

OTHER SETTINGS

HEIGHT: Defines the pre-set height that the PLACE mode will abide by when GROUND is turned off.
CONFIG: This is the object name as defined by the root .ODF name. ODF stands for object definition file. It defines the various attributes for an object. If the .ODF file is named “motree01.odf” for instance, you would type “motree01” in this box to load that geometry.
LABEL: This box is usually entered automatically. It is simply a label for the object in the world. In most cases it is fine to leave it as it is.
NAME: The name of the object as defined by the .ODF. It gives a definition of what type of object it is.
TEAM: For team related multi-player issues, this value sets the team number for the object being placed. It is important when placing spawn points for multi-player games and when placing flags for CTF matches. For Team-based multi-player games, spawn points for team one are defined by number 1, and for team two by number 6. The same numbers apply for Flag placement in CTF.

This value also has meaning when playing a single player mission of some sort. Objects that are team 1 are on the default players team (usually yours), while objects set to team 2 are the enemy. Objects set to team 3 are neutral objects which will attack either side. This is the team number that creatures are defined.
GROUP: The group number defines which location in the FUNCTION KEY group that object or vehicle is located. If left on zero, the group numbers will be defined automatically.
SKILL: This defines the skill level for an A. I. unit.

LIST: This section opens up the respective object class lists on the right side of the screen. The title of each button defines the type of object that they list.

SAVING YOUR MAP

So you have finished your map and you are ready to save it out to its file. To save a map, press CTRL – S. This in most cases should minimize the game and open up a window box specifying the addon directory as the default save location. This is fine and will permit the game to find that file when attempting to load. The addon directory overrides any other directory that your file may be placed in. Type the name in and click okay. The files saved are as follows

BZN: This file contains all object and mission information, including A. I. Pathing and team information.
TRN: This file contains information regarding the textures used in that map. That’s about it.
TER: This file contains all terrain information, including height map, color values, and texture assignment.
WAT: This file contains all the information in regards to the water layers, if any, on the map.
SKY: This file contains all the information regarding atmosphere, weather, fog and effects, sun angle and time of day, sky graphics, ambient color, and visibility distance.

This should definitely get any user going on creating a wide range of map ideas that he/she may have. This document does not endeavor to explain tips and hints on good map making, nor does it list the myriad of console based commands used to define the SKY variables.

Enjoy!!!