How to import png files to CC3

[Chronist]

Good morning Cartographers trying to use some of mouse free textures in DD3 brought me to the question how to import pngs to CC3/DD3 in general.

More specific the question splits into two:
1. How to import textures to use them as FloorStructure.
2. and how to use/import pngs to my Symbolcatalog (is it enough to make new folder and put all the pngs i fin in the web into it?)

thnx for giving me some ideas

[Mouse]

Hello Chronist

Before you even start incorporating new textures into your maps that are not either part of the Profantasy set, or don't come with specific installation instructions like the CSUAC or Bogies Mapping Objects, the first thing you need to do is make a new folder called 'User' (or your name) in the right place to hold all the fills that you as a user want to install. This new folder has to be inside the 'Tiles' folder, like this:

C:\ProgramData\Profantasy\CC3Plus\Bitmaps\Tiles\SUE


The exact path to your Tiles folder may differ slightly from the example above if you didn't use the default settings when you initially installed CC3+, but once you find the Profantasy folder the rest should be the same from there.

In practice it isn't good if you have too many textures all in one folder, so I have upwards of 20 subfolders within my SUE folder. These are called things like 'Terrain', 'Vegetation', and 'Water' and have immediately obvious contents. Since your working methods and the type of map you want to create is probably quite different to mine, you might want to classify your fills into different groups to the way I have done it, using a different classification system. That's totally fine, as long as you classify things right from the start and don't try to move things around later on.

The reason all these files and folders need to stay where they are in relation to one another once you have started using the fills they contain, is that a CC3 map will 'lose' a fill that's been moved after you loaded the fill into the map.

Because of this little problem with having to leave stuff exactly where it is if you want to be able to continue using your older maps, its worth spending a bit of time deciding on your classification system and naming your subfolders before you even start downloading the textures that will eventually go inside them.

Give me a shout when you've done that, and I'll write the next step

[Chronist]

Understood & Done
in my case it looks like this -H:\ProFantasy\CC3Plus\Bitmaps\Tiles\Textures ...subfolders will follow

[Mouse]

Before we move on, please can you tell me if your "Tiles" folder already contained other PF folders such as "Dungeon", and "Overland" when you opened it?

EDIT: the reason I am asking is because I think I might have been a bit vague in my first instruction. The only folder you should have needed to create is the one you have named "Textures". The other folders should already exist on your system wherever you installed CC3+

[Chronist]

No "Dungeon", and "Overland" - just the CSUAC_2 Folder

[Mark Oliva]

No "Dungeon", and "Overland" - just the CSUAC_2 Folder

If you're having trouble with any of these free CC3 Plus add-ins - Bogie's Mapping Objects, the CSUAC 2, the Dundjinni Archives and/or the Vintyri Cartographic Collection - please contact our free support service at

info@vintyri.org

We can handle support requests in English or German.

Servus,

[Mouse]

I am sorry for the very long delay in responding, Chronist. Reality intruded on my day.

The reason I am hesitating in this description is because I have never installed my home made textures in any other place than directly inside the existing CC3+ installation on my C drive, where this folder hierarchy already exists as part of the installation.

If you are somehow using an external drive to store your private collection of additional or third party bitmap textures, I am afraid that my experience does not extend to being able to give sound or reliable advice on how to fetch remotely stored bitmaps into the running CC3+ app. I simply do not have the experience you require.

Unless Mark is able to give this advice, or unless Waldronate (who is one of the Profantasy Team) steps in to advise you, you may be better off asking this same question on the Profantasy Forum where Waldronate and some of the other PF coders are more likely to spot it and offer their assistance.

My meagre handful of home made fills is a separate thing to the CSUAC. The two are not related, and where the CSUAC may come with code of its own to make this remote storage possible, my individual fills do not, so I can't guarantee that you would be able to store and use them in the same way as you do the CSUAC.

I will still be reading this thread, since I am now very interested to know for myself if I could also move my textures to an external drive and free up a lot of badly needed space on my hard drive!

[Mouse]

Symbols are handled slightly differently to textures, and unless they come with their own premade catalogue file (filename.FSC) you will need to create one to use them properly in your maps.

Again, however, if you are intending to use your external drive, I do not have the necessary experience to be able to instruct you, since I have only ever created new catalogues within the existing catalogue system on the C drive - inside the existing CC3+ Symbols folder.

[Chronist]

Hey Mous no worrys . i´m glad that u help me out these days. I am very patient.
My H: drive is not a external drive just a partition of one of my hard drives, it should work fine. But is it really that easy? I download the texture fom your link and copy it in H:\ProFantasy\CC3Plus\Bitmaps\Tiles\Textures for example? or do i have to do something else?

[Mouse]

Ok

I will describe how this is normally done when the textures folder containing your home made fills is located within the CC3+ installation folders. With any luck you might be able to work out anything that you need to do differently if you have them stored elsewhere.

1. Open CC3+ and the map where you want to use the fill.

2. Click "Tools/Import bitmap fill styles" from the menu bar.

3. Use the Browse button in the dialog box that opens up to locate the textures you want to import, and double click any one of the textures in that folder to tell CC3+ "These are the ones I want".

(I have chosen one of the folders in my "Sue" folder, so that you can see how CC3+ automatically constructs the path syntax in the box at the top of the dialog)

Import fill 1.jpg

(In the case of storing the textures separately to the original CC3+ installation path as you appear to be doing, I am unsure which of the three path options you should be using, but the default is the top option - "relative to CC3 path", which is the one that I use every time)

4. If this is the first time you have imported this set of fills into a CC3+ map you will need to tick the "Create other resolutions" tick box, and decide whether the fills you are importing are High resolution, or Very High resolution. Most people leave it set on Very High. The fills in the album you linked to in your first post are extremely high resolution (some would say unnecessarily high) by CC3+ standards, where the size of a Very High resolution fill is normally around 1000 - 1500 pi square.

5. It is up to you if you want to set a scale for the fills as you import them, or set the scale individually through the Fill Style Properties dialog after importing them. Whichever way you choose to set the scale of the fills it is an adjustable variable that can be altered at any time by the user.

6. When you click ok and the dialog box disappears there will be a short wait while CC3+ creates the other resolutions for each fill, and imports them into the map (a shorter wait if this step can be skipped if this is not the first time you have imported this set of fills). When this is done CC3 will let you know how many fills have just been imported, which is the signal that it is ok for you to continue mapping - using the fills you have just imported.

And that's all there is to it.

I hope that you are able to use this basic description. I think the only issue you may have a bit of trouble with (where I won't necessarily be able to help you) is at point 3, where the path to the fills is decided.