HowTo: Edit the map shown when using Cartography

[Dracarys]

So you have a custom map for your shard? And now you tried using cartography and found out that all your maps still show the ugly map of Britannia?

Here is the solution.

You need:

1. Cartograph Editor (Download it here)
2. Photoshop (Or any other graphics editor)
3. This tutorial :-)

- Extract the files from the Cartograph.zip into a new folder. The folder should be close to your HD root. I for example use C:\RunUO1.0RC0\MULs\Cartograph\. I will use %CARTOGRAPHDIR% as a shortcut in the tutorial.

- In the directory should be 4 files. Cartograph.exe, Encode.bat, Decode.bat and Readme.txt. We will not use the two batchfiles for encoding and decoding. Instead we will decode the map manually.

- Open a new explorer window and locate the file multimap.rle in the directory where you installed Ultima Online. Copy this file to your Cartograph directory (%CARTOGRAPHDIR%).



- Now open a MS-DOS prompt. Under Windows 95/98/ME you will have a "MS-Dos Prompt" link in Start Menu -> Programs. Under WinNT/2k/XP/03 click on Start Menu -> Run and type cmd in the box. Then click OK.



- Go to the directory where you have put your Cartograph.exe. You do this by typing CD (which is a shortcut for ChangeDir) followed by the actual directory. In our example we would type CD %CARTOGRAPHDIR% or in plain text: CD C:\RunUO1.0RC0\MULs\Cartograph\. Press Enter. Now you are in the directory that contains Cartography.exe



- Now type: Cartograph.exe -decode multimap.rle map.bmp and press Enter. In case you get an error you made some mistakes. Usually you should see this:



- Don't close the DOS-Prompt. In your %CARTOGRAPHDIR% you should have a monochrome bitmap called map.bmp with the dimensions. 2560x2048. Use your graphics editor to edit this file. Not that it MUST stay monochrome. Do not change the dimensions either. If you are finished, save your work.

If you are using Photoshop v5.0+ you don't have to draw the map manually. Instead open the bitmap in Photoshop you used to make your map0.mul with Dragon.

Click on Image -> Mode -> Grayscale to discard all color information.

Now use Filter -> Stylize -> Find Edges to get a hand drawn look.

You will have to manually correct Brightness / Contrast to get a perfect look.

Convert to monochrome.

- Save the file as map.bmp in your Cartograph directroy (overwrite the existing file).

- Now go back to the MS-DOS Prompt and type: cartograph.exe -encode multimap.rle map.bmp.

- Copy the newly edited multimap.rle file from your Cartograph directory to your UO directory.


EDIT: Sorry most of the screenshots are in german. I guess you still understand how it works. :-)