Hey guys, I'd like to apologize if this topic has been brought up before, or if the questions I'm about to ask have been asked before, but this mod in the modpack is killing the game for me.
I love floris, all the gameplay and mods it brings together really is the only way to play M&B IMO, just everything is so much better and more dynamic with it, but World Map HD v1.1 always kills it for me.
If you don't know what World Map HD v1.1 is, it's the mod that Floris uses to make the world map darker, grittier, and subdue the colors. I always loved native's vibrant and saturated colors, as well as the sort of blotchy world textures, it was very upbeat and served as a real palate cleanser after pillaging a village or killing 100 men hold up in a castle. I'm going to be completely honest and say that World Map HD v1.1 really bums me out, it's just too dark and depressing to what is already a pretty morbid game.
My question is, would anyone be able to help me in gutting this mod from my game? It's really ruining the experience for me.
-edit: Actual instructions that work this time lol. It's gonna be long and tedious. Brace yourselves.
It's a bunch of texture replacements. Here's how to really do it. Be warned it isn't for the faint of heart or those uncomfortable with modifying game files. Just do things slowly and carefully and you'll be fine for the most part.
It will require you to use OpenBRF to edit certain files. Due to how Floris files are named, there is no way to skip using OpenBRF or doing all this unless you ask somebody to do all of it for you, and then they'll have to use OpenBRF and do all this. I won't because it's too tedious lol.
You may also need Paint.NET or another program that can open .dds files (like Photoshop or GIMP) if you wanna see what some textures are but it isn't completely necessary as OpenBRF can already preview the textures just fine. It also greatly helps to already know how to use Windows' search function in the folders. I dunno what it looks like in Windows 8 but Windows 7 and XP have had it forever, so Windows 8 probably has it just fine too.
1. Back up the necessary files. In this case you only really need to back up module.ini and min_map_materials.brf (located in the Floris Expanded Mod Pack 2.54/Resource/ folder), but it doesn't hurt to back up the entire folders if you want.
2. Open up Floris's module.ini file and add a line like this: load_resource = textures. I put it as the first resource loaded before all of the other load_module_resource lines, after the #Materials and textures comment line, and this is where I recommend you put it too since it fits. If you did it right, your module.ini file should look like this:
Code:
#You can also use load_mod_resource instead of load_resource to make sure you are reading files from module directory.
#Materials and textures
load_resource = textures
load_mod_resource = min_env_materials
load_mod_resource = min_bui_materials
load_mod_resource = min_fac_materials
Note this is just a section of it. You can search for the line #Materials and textures in Notepad or whatever program you use to edit .txt/.ini files.
3. If you have installed OpenBRF properly you should be able to open .brf files by simply double-clicking. Open up min_map_materials.brf now.
4. Go to the default Textures folder, located in the base game's folder. In a Steam version installation it is located at <wherever you installed Steam>/steamapps/common/mountblade warband/Textures. Keep this folder open for reference. This is actually optional if you know what you're doing with OpenBRF, but I recommend this as a safe route.
5. Alternately (or as a complement to the above step), open the default Textures.brf file, located in the CommonRes folder also in the base game's folder. We'll need this for reference to know which textures are which.
6. Now for the tedious/fun/roflmao part. In the min_map_materials.brf file you'll see a bunch of entries in the Material tab. Among them are the entries for map_bridge, map_desert, map_plain, etc. We'll be editing those entries.
Let's use map_desert as an example because it's a fairly simple one with all of the things we need to get you going on the rest.
7. Click on map_desert. You should see a weird wavy purple thing on the right panel, covering up what looks like a desert texture. In between the list and the right panel is a middle section entitled "Data". We'll be editing the values in that section.
Shader: Do not touch the Shader section unless you know what you're doing. You can't actually break your game here though it looks kinda weird without it. These Shaders are the same ones that Native uses anyway so we don't really need to edit them.
DiffuseA: Type in "desert" (or "desert.dds", doesn't matter). As you do so you'll notice that it changes into the desert texture that Native uses. Check out Textures.brf (that you have open in another window, right? Right?) to verify that you got the right one.
DiffuseB: Don't edit.
Bump: This is the bump map for the texture. Type in "desert_bump" (or "desert_bump.dds", again doesn't matter). A bump map is those purple wavy lines (in the case of the desert texture; it might look like speckles or cracks for some other textures). The game uses them add a bumpy, speckled or cracked texture to other textures. Otherwise most textures look flat. It's cheaper to use a bump map (old game tech) than it is to make the ground mesh (3d model) very complex (new game tech, unnecessary in most cases and most certainly unnecessary in Warband's world map).
In the case of the desert it looks like flat soil or clay without the bump map, so don't skip this. Also it should be noted that not all world map ground textures have a bump map. If they don't have a bump map, just put in "none" just like the other fields.
How do you know which has a bump map or not? I'll go into detail in #8 just below.
Ignore all of the other sections of Data for now. If you did it right it should look like this:
8. Now do this for the other entries yourself. It's basically the same deal for all the ground entries but you replace the DiffuseA and Bump with whatever matches in the Textures folder or Textures.brf. I like using the Textures folder because I can just type in a part of a file name in the Search bar in Windows explorer and it'll show me all matching files. For example, if I type in "desert" it'll show me that there are files called desert.dds, desert_bump.dds and desert_trees.dds. The desert_bump.dds file is the bump map texture for desert.dds.
If I search the folder for plain (for map_plain in min_map_materials.brf) it'll show me that plains.dds is the only matching file and it doesn't have a plains_bump.dds, meaning the plains texture has no bump map.
Again as an alternative you can view all of this in the Textures.brf if you sort the entries to make it easier, but I don't recommend you save it (even though technically it should not cause problems; I just don't like messing with default game files). To sort entries in OpenBRF, click on Tools in the menu bar and it should be there (Tools->Sort entries).
And that's that! Sorry but I won't walk you through all of it because it's quite tedious like I said and I'm not interested at all in changing all of my game files just to show you how it's done. o_o I'm quite fond of the new textures so I have no interest in really doing all that work in my game, but hopefully this little guide points you in the right direction.
If you get lazy or forget to edit all of the relevant ground textures, it might look weird in game because of the difference of the texture quality.
Some files are named a bit differently and I'm not sure which one goes where. You'll have to do some trial and error. For example, in min_map_materials.brf, there's an entry called map_stone. I think this handles cliffs and stuff. I'm not sure if the relevant texture in Native is stone.dds or ground_stone1.dds, or if it's even either of these at all, though my guess would be stone.dds. You're going to have to try them out yourself.
The Flags part in the Data section might need to be edited for some textures, but it should be fine even if you don't edit it. Maybe. I haven't touched it but I noticed that the Native flags are different from the ones that Floris has set (mostly 100 for Floris, which is the Blend flag, and it varies in Native, from 0, which is no flag, to a bunch of texture size flags that you can't set yourself for some reason).
Have fun lol. I hope it's all worth it for you.
Btw I have tested this and it works but it looks like crap in my game since I only edited map_plains and map_desert lol. They both featured really dark cliffs and surroundings. I should've taken a screenshot as a demonstration image.
Worked like a charm. Uploading the .brf file for anyone else who doesn't want to do it themselves: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2dwP5m96PxcY1pfMzBnT1FDckk&usp=sharing
Just remember to edit the module.ini for it to work correctly. However, the towns and battlefield ground is still black. I'll keep looking into it.
Thanks Hanakoganei
EDIT: Got the ground in towns and battlefields to kinda work, link updated with the files changed, place them in 'Modules/Floris/Resource'. Looks mildly weird, personally I can live with it, better than everything being a black hole. Also, noticed that the hands are black. Desert battlefields are all black.
EDIT2: Most ground textures should be as vanilla now. Skyboxes are not, not sure how I should go about to change them yet. Probably should mention that I'm only testing on Linux, so I don't know how it will look on Windows.
So, Kleiner, I have to ask, are you also getting a spear head pattern as your ground texture for battles in the Khergit Steppes? Hehe. No big deal. It actually showed up as one of the map textures I got when I was tinkiering around blind, before Hanakoganei posted the tutorial. Overall your brfs are working great. Thanks to both of you for the work so far. I've linked this in the Linux thread which is stickied, so it should keep being easy to find, even if this thread gets buried.
EDIT: No, I do not get a a spear texture as the ground. I only get a black rectangle over my head when I enter a battlefield, which go away after 4 seconds.
EDIT2: However, the Khergit steppes are pretty dark. I would guess it have to do with the skybox not being loaded correctly. But what would I know, I'm not in the know of M&B Warband modding.
Is it dark even in Native or just in Floris? It's possibly a shader issue, though by default all of the min_map_materials are using the same shader (map_shader_bump). Still, shaders are one of the most likely causes of light/dark difference if you're using the same texture. Shaders can affect a bunch of things, from enhancing bump maps and noisy textures to adding shadows or tinted glow to certain spots. It's another cheap and effective trick to make textures look less bland.
Kleiner, yeah, I get that black box too... not sure what it is. It's all good, though. Mostly just trying to work out which bugs are bugs and which are just me breaking things while I try to figure out what everything does.
Hanakoganei: Well, I did add the line, which I would assume is why most everything else is working... my guess is that since Kleiner isn't getting it, then it is probably residue from my earlier tinkering. Some file or another that I moved around and didn't put back in the right spot. I guess I didn't notice that it was the mouse icon since mine is displaying as your typical desktop wedge. I figure I'm probably going to go back and do a fresh instal... maybe in a few weeks once I'm done messing around. Also, give the both the studio and mod devs time to patch things.
Oh, and the dark textures and shaders are only really a problem in Floris. Whoever the studio has answering questions over at steam has mentioned a few times that modded or imported shaders are going to be broken until they are specifically reset for whatever open GL voodoo they did in the Linux conversion.
Thank you very much Hanakoganei for tutorial and Kleiner for creating the files and sharing them!
According to Kleiner's post, I can confirm that the problems which are on linux also exists very similarly on Mac.
I used his files and i got the fixes that he did and the problems with autodidacticphd's game also persist for me after replacing the files and adding module.ini line as well.
Hands are black.
Towns grounds are still kinda black although most of it is fixed.
and sky totally doesn't work as intended by the mod.
I hope other people join this topic to make this mod available on the Linux and Mac as fast as possible. Im not gonna play it till most of the things are fixed since i don't want to ruin the fun. This is a great mod so maybe i download warband from steam on my windows and play the mod on that, though fans of a macbook goes crazy on windows since it becomes very hot.
By the way,
For people who get a red replica of themselves on the sky at nights, go to video options and disable "Fast Water Reflections".
Big thanks to Hanakoganei for helping us all out with this, and big thanks to Kleiner as well for making it so much easier.
I am getting the cursor all over the ground, and while it is totally ignorable having played with it for days, it is pretty unimmersive. I do have the proper line in module.ini, and I was wondering if you have any possible solution to this issue.
Are you also on Linux? I can't figure out why else it would cause that issue if you did the steps properly and have the proper line in the module.ini. It works perfectly on my end.
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