Map Editing Manual Section 2 of 7 – Learning to work with the editor

Cara Mengedit Membuat Map Sendiri UK Truck Simulator (UKTS) Euro Truck Simulato (ETS) myspacenote.blogspot
Copyright © 2010 Dave “Crockett” Jackson. All rights reserved



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

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)

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

Copyright © 2010 Dave “Crockett” Jackson. All rights reserved
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