Tutorial: Making your own in-game minimap

[Dimaspy]

Tutorial: In-game minimap - Making your own

I've seen that theres alot of map creators who have problem with creating their in-game minimap.
In this tutorial, I'll tell you that (credits to blu_da_noob on wc3campaigns, I learned this from a thread).

1. Tools - Needed for a beginning

Of course, you cannot make a picture if you havent got the right tools for it. Since we shall make one .TGA picture and convert to .BLP,
we need the tools for it.
First thing first though..
Get a program that can make TGA pictures, like adobe photoshop.
Next, get WC3 Image Extractor II from this page.
Great, let's begin then!

2. The picture - Doing the TGA

Okay, open photoshop (or whatever you use), and create a new picture. It should be 256x256 in pixels.

Some nice things do do on the picture, is if you give it an inner border, dark colors, and do the roads in brown or such.
Make the picture however you want it to be!

3. Converting - A how to guide

Okay, you have your picture in 256x256, and it's TGA.
Now, we must convert it to BLP.
Open the WC3 Image Extractor II (it might not have a DLL file, look on www.dll-files.com)
Now, press on open in the top-left corner.
Choose Image (ctrl+o).
Now, choose your minimap TGA file.
Now you can see on your right in the program.
Press Save, it's next to the Open button.
Save as a blp file, like Minimap.BLP.
On this new screen comming up, just choose 100%, it's not taking too much space anyway.
You now have your BLP!

4. The picture and the editor - Importation

Begin by open your world editor.
Open your map, and push the 'Import Manager' button.
Now, import your BLP file and use the custom path; war3mapMap.blp
Just that, nothing else.

Save your map, and see the results!

Thanks for reading my tutorial, hope you've learned something new, and I wish you luck on your maps!

 

[stavious]

Short... but nice. I wasn't really sure about how to do this until now. Nice tutorial I'll give a 7/10 .
________________________
Pandaren Adventures

 

[Dimaspy]

Well, I tried to stretch it out as much that I could, and it's so simple that even the outmost beginner can make it

 

[Masterfrog]

You know a cool technique I've come up with that I've never seen anyone use? Take a screenshot of your own map in the world editor (without the grid or anything, just plain) from right above so you get the whole map. Then you edit so it is the right size, remove black borders etc, and then import it in this way. The map will probably still be correct, and it will look much nicer

 

[stavious]

Take a screenshot of your own map in the world editor

Hmm.. nice idea , should try that sometime.
________________________
Pandaren Adventures

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

Sorta pointless, I have seen tons of these before really, well good job anyways, I guess...

 

[Jay_Dubbs]

I have a stupid question regarding doing this... if you import a custom minimap, will it still show player movement and buildings and such?

 

[Lobster]

Ya, there should be an option to change that... It makes it look sorta bad.
Edit: Oh, and nice Tut, I use WEU so I dont need to worry about it, but good for non weu users .

 

[WarLuvr3393]

Nice job! New colors too! Awesome style, maybe I should steal it! (JK) I've always wondered how to do this. I think if you import a black minimap screen, you can't see anything. Well, I rate this 5/5, short and to the point. Great job! /

_______________

Tauren Tag​

A new tag map with Taurens as the taggers! Same gameplay ideas, not the same map as Sheep Tag. Runners have to build a base to survive against the Taurens and must last 30 minutes to win. Taurens must pulverize all the Runners within 30 minutes to win. Download Tauren Tag here. Want to learn how to make a tag map? Go to my Tutorial to learn how!

 

[Dimaspy]

I have a stupid question regarding doing this... if you import a custom minimap, will it still show player movement and buildings and such?

Of course, just look at my minimap on the results! Make a custom minimap to a TD and you will still see your towers and such, dont worry

Nice job! New colors too! Awesome style, maybe I should steal it! (JK) I've always wondered how to do this. I think if you import a black minimap screen, you can't see anything. Well, I rate this 5/5, short and to the point. Great job!

Yeah, I thought so too about the minimap.. That + some heavy fog or something, and you will just see the units in just that area.. Also, if they got about 100 in sight range

 

[Sunny_D]

oh, didnt knew an ingame preview was even possible to make! rofl, ive never seen that.

good to know that it is working, thx. and a nice, short tutorial - although this would have been enough for me:

Now, we must convert it to BLP....
war3mapMap.blp

bump +rep

 

[Chocobo]

Remember there is an another way that uses a single line of trigger and that can be changed directly in-game.

Camera Bounds
    Events
    Conditions
    Actions
        Camera - Set the camera bounds for Player 1 (Red) to (Current camera bounds)

Function Comment : This restricts the game camera to the specified rect. Changing the camera bounds does not change the scale of the minimap. This should only be called while the camera is facing north.


In other words, as SFilip said, NOT POSSIBLE.

Change Minimap
    Events
    Conditions
    Actions
        Neutral Building - Change the special minimap icon to UI\Minimap\Minimap-Tower

You may use this trigger to change the minimap image which must be exactly 16x16, but I wonder if you'll have enough precision for the minimap.

 

[Sunny_D]

just want to tell you, that you linked to the edit-post. everyone could edit it... (if theres no protection against it)

 

[Chocobo]

just want to tell you, that you linked to the edit-post. everyone could edit it... (if theres no protection against it)

Erm. Fixed.