How To Add Maps And Make Col And Lod Files?

[ILOVEFOOTBALL95]

As the title states, I have been curious for so long on how all of this works, such as using 3ds max and how to make the maps hard when entering them, also how to make them render.

 

Any help with these questions would be great, I would love to add Liberty City into my game.

 

I know this is no simple task, I also know it will take Years of learning.

 

Is the first step getting A Limit Adjuster?

 

Thanks in advance

ILOVEFOOTBALL95

[ZAZ]

Ok, read tutorials: 1, 2, 3, 4
and maybe study also my stuff:

Your first edit should be to add an Item Placement to *.ipl file of map folder

The ipl and ide files (Lae.ide, Lae.ipl) are just plain text files and editable with notepad.exe
An advanced texteditor is better and more comfortable, for example sannybuilder or notepad++ can you get for free
A "must have tool" for mapmodding is the MapEditor
read Item_Definition and IPL Definitions

Open GTA SA\data\maps\LA\LAe2.IPL with texteditor
The ipl file beginns with "inst" and as follwing the normal item placements till the list ends with "end", to close the "inst" section

inst17582, stadtplaza_lae2, 0, 2739.21875, -1770.085938, 17.5546875, 0, 0, -0.999048233, 0.04361938313, -1end

The LAe2.IPL have a lot item placements in the "inst" section,so it's a long list
scroll down to the end of "inst" section
there should you find these lines:

710, vgs_palm01, 0, 2730.046875, -1191.328125, 83.5859375, 0, 0, -0.9762960076, -0.2164396197, -1end

add there a line for placement of the explosive Barrel4

710, vgs_palm01, 0, 2730.046875, -1191.328125, 83.5859375, 0, 0, -0.9762960076, -0.2164396197, -11225, barrel4, 0, 2486.3, -1678.5, 12.8, 0, 0, 0, 1, -1end

add placements always to the end of the "inst" section
the explosive barrel is placed in Grovestreet, beside of CJ's house
now test it ingame


Basic informations:
Every model (actor, car, weapons, object (Buildings, Landscapes, tuningparts are also objects) must be defined and have an ID number
actors in data\peds.ide
cars in data\vehicles.ide
weapons in data\default.ide
tuningparts in data\ maps\veh_mods\veh_mods.ide

Buildings, Landscapes and other objects in a lot of files separated in different folders of data\ maps folder

data\maps\generic contains ide and ipl files for small objects for the gameplay like doors, hydrant, shark ect...
data\maps\interior contains ide and ipl files for interior rooms and their accessory
data\maps\country contains ide and ipl files for Buildings and Landscapes of the country as well of area51
data\maps\LA contains ide and ipl files for Buildings and Landscapes of Los Santos
data\maps\SF contains ide and ipl files for Buildings and Landscapes of San fierro
data\maps\Vagas contains ide and ipl files for Buildings and Landscapes of Las Venturas
data\maps\leveldes contains ide and ipl files for the seabeds and for the Liberty City interior world

GTA San Andreas Root Directory|_anim|_audio||__data |. . |__Decision. . |__Icons. . |__maps. . . |. . . |_country (country ide and ipl). . . |_generic (dynamic and gameplay objects ide). . . |_interior (interior and interior properties ide and ipl). . . |_LA (Los Santos ide and ipl). . . |_leveldes (Seabed and LC world and special objects ide and ipl). . . |_SF (San Fierro ide and ipl). . . |_vegas (Las Venturas ide and ipl). . . |_veh_mods (vehicle Tuningparts ide). .. .. .. . gta.dat ("Master file" in txt format: List to load IMG, IDE and IPL files). . default.ide (weapon ide). . peds.ide (pedestrians, charackter ide). . vehicles.ide (vehicles ide). . timecyc.dat (Weather, Game Colouring). . object.dat (dynamic, script and special object settings). . water.dat (water cube coordinates). . weapon.dat (weapon settings)....|__models... gta3.img.. gta_int.img.. cutscene.img.. player.img

The ide and ipl files need to be loaded and requires to insert their filepath (relativ to game root directory) into data\gta.dat
Same for img archivs
Exceptions:
gta3.img, gta_int.img, player.img, peds.ide, vehicles.ide, default.ide are loaded automatcal and don't need to add the path in gta.dat

The most important content of ide lines are
Model ID number/Model name/Texture name
these 3 entries, separeted by comma define the model and allocates the dff file with txd file to an ID number

the ide line contains also more entries, which can be different, each if it is a ped, weapon, vehicle or map object

the meaning of the entries for map objects is:

ID number, modelname, Texturepack, viewdistance, flag
example:

1211, fire_hydrant, dynhydrent, 40, 128

The models itself must be placed in an img archiv and each model must have a *.dff file(3d model), a *.txd file(textures) and a *.col file(collisions model)
A *.col file is an archiv which can contain one more collisions models
the name of the collisions model must be the same as the name of the *.dff file but the *.col file archiv can have any name


The ide files have sections
the normal object definitions are placed between
objs and end
example:

objs1211, fire_hydrant, dynhydrent, 40, 128end

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The ipl files have sections
the normal object placements are placed between
inst and end
example:

inst17582, stadtplaza_lae2, 0, 2739.21875, -1770.085938, 17.5546875, 0, 0, -0.999048233, 0.04361938313, -1end

there're additional sections, mostly empty or the sections for garages or enex have entries
garage entry to define garage area in grovestreet:

grge2502.31, -1699.36, 12.4323, 2508.61, -1699.36, 2502.31, -1691.01, 16.5666, 1, 16, cjsafeend

enex entry to place enex (yellow triangle for teleport into interior)

enex2309.62, -1643.63, 13.8385, 0, 1.6, 1.6, 8, 2308.12, -1643.63, 13.8385, 93, 0, 260, "BAR2", 0, 2, 0, 24end

Stream.ipl

The most part of the item placements are inside of the "stream.ipl" files
These files are placed in gta3.img as well in gta_int.img
These files are assigned by the filename to the ipl files of maps folder
Example:
data\maps\LA\LAe2.IPL is the base ipl
and the assigned "stream.ipl" files are:
lae2_stream0.ipl
lae2_stream1.ipl
lae2_stream2.ipl
lae2_stream3.ipl
lae2_stream4.ipl
lae2_stream5.ipl
lae2_stream6.ipl

the "stream.ipl" files are in binary format, not plaintext
it needs first to extract these files from gta3.img with img tool
then use Binary IPL (De)Compiler to convert the "stream.ipl" into text format as well as back into binary format





About LOD:
LOD models are the low level of detail versions of the original models. This is what you see loaded far away. As you get closer to the LOD model, it should change to the original model if it has one.

The LOD don't need(have) a collisionsmodel because the LOD will be disabled if you come into the range of the stock model
But then the LODs must be linked correct by the their stock model, otherwise the game crashes
This must be done in IPL files
Objects which should link to a corresponding LOD object must have the line number of the corresponding LOD object
LOD objects must have -1 at the end
only objects which should link to a corresponding LOD object must not have -1 at the end

example, 3 objects which links to their corresponding LOD object
mynice_home links to LODice_home at line 3, mynice_garage to LODice_garage at line 4 ad so on

inst5001, mynice_home, 0, 190.6, -1425.8, 19.4, 0, 0, 0, 1, 35002, mynice_garage, 0, 190.6, -1425.8, 19.4, 0, 0, 0, 1, 45003, mynice_shop, 0, 190.6, -1425.8, 19.4, 0, 0, 0, 1, 55004, LODice_home, 0, 190.6, -1425.8, 19.4, 0, 0, 0, 1, -15005, LODice_garage, 0, 190.6, -1425.8, 19.4, 0, 0, 0, 1, -15006, LODice_shop, 0, 190.6, -1425.8, 19.4, 0, 0, 0, 1, -1end

LOD placement can't be done in stream.ipl's but must be done in the ipl files of map folder
so you'll find a lot of object placement lines in stream.ipl's which have a link number at lineend to link to a corresponding LOD object
and in the ipl files of map folder are mostly placement lines of LOD objects

Summery:
The stream.ipl files contain a lot of object placements with link numbers to corresponding LOD objects of ipl files of map folder

[ILOVEFOOTBALL95]

Goodness me, thanks for the reply Zaz, I knew this was going to be hard but I have a lot of learning to do, I am willing though, another question someone like you may know, is how do I get a map file into 3dsmax?

 

I am going to take a few days to fully understand what you have written and thanks for the links to the tutorials and thanks very much for your help.

 

don't read (blasted duplicates )

Edited June 9, 2015 by ILOVEFOOTBALL95

[ILOVEFOOTBALL95]

Goodness Me, I knew it would be hard but my god, I am willing to learn, you've made it quite clear actually Zaz so thanks for that, also thanks for the tuts you have linked, I have ssen X-Seti's work and did a quick read-through of the modelling guide he wrote.

 

If it is okay with you I will take a few days to read through what you've said so I can get maximum understanding.

 

So is it a good idea to have Liberty City And Vice City added into their own ipl and ide's and then add the lines into the gta.dat.

 

or should I have the models converted first?

 

Thanks again Zaz for replying.

Edited June 9, 2015 by ILOVEFOOTBALL95

[miclin]

But gta3 and vice city are already done by gta:united. And I think a team is working on a sa+gta3+vice city map at the moment?

[ILOVEFOOTBALL95]

Hey,

 

I never knew the United team was working on anything like that, never seen any updates from them for years now, that's just me though. I am not definite on making a map mod, or if I do releasing it, I ma just trying to learn for now.

 

Now I have a question for this post; How do I get the maps into 3ds max to convert them for sa?

 

Woops sorry, just read your post and found you didn't say the United team was working on it; Yeah there are a few teams working on things like this, I would really like to learn how it is done though and if I can do one then I can make it how I want.

 

Thanks again

Edited June 10, 2015 by ILOVEFOOTBALL95