Feature of editing forest/water (update 5.202)

[Vendigo]

Anybody remembers the feature of editing water and forest on maps, which was added in update 5.202? 

Spoiler

Experimental features for editing water and forest maps have been added to the editor: to enable them you can add the line full_editor = 1 to the [SYSTEM] part of the data\startup.cfg file. Water and forest map changes you make in the editor will be visible in the game in Mods On mode. The landscape change menu will be also accessible, but it is intended for enthusiast teams who are working on the new maps (an existing map with an altered landscape won't load in the game in Mods On mode and will result in an error during loading).

Choose Maps -> Enable Editing.

Then in the leftmost box in the toolbar that just appeared, it should say either "water", "forest_map" or "forest_cut". Click this box to change what you're editing (Left click with Shift key pressed paints while right click + Shift deletes). 

 

I remember I played around with it then and I still keep the edited mission (with some treelines removed) but today I try to use it again and although I have the "Maps - Enable Editing" in Full Mission Editor menu - when I select it the cursor doesn't change to a round shadow anymore. I remember the cursor did change with selection of "forest_map" or "forest_cut", but now it's just a normal arrow cursor so I am wondering - am I forgetting something or maybe this feature is not workable any more..

Btw, the mission I edited in 2025 still has those treelines removed and can be played with "Enable mods: ON" only. 

Any advice appreciated! 

       

 

 

 

Edited March 22 by Vendigo

[sandmarken]

With @Jaegermeister s help the big concrete runway was removed from Manston Airfield in my campaign war in the channel. Jaegermeister made a file that was put into the campaign folder, and a command was used to run this file instead of the original map file. With this file, the need for "mods on" was no longer required for the campaign missions. I can't say I really understood what happened; I just did exactly as Jaggermeister told me. It did, however, work very well.

[Vendigo]

Just now, sandmarken said:

With @Jaegermeister s help the big concrete runway was removed from Manston Airfield in my campaign war in the channel. Jaegermeister made a file that was put into the campaign folder, and a command was used to run this file instead of the original map file. With this file, the need for "mods on" was no longer required for the campaign missions. I can't say I really understood what happened; I just did exactly as Jaggermeister told me. It did, however, work very well.

Thanks but what you're describing is a different way of terrain editing; I have used it and I found it has some peculiarities, too.. (things don't always work as they should for reasons unclear).

 

  

[Jaegermeister]

On 3/24/2026 at 7:15 AM, Vendigo said:

Thanks but what you're describing is a different way of terrain editing; I have used it and I found it has some peculiarities, too.. (things don't always work as they should for reasons unclear).  

You would have to look back at the Dev blogs for specific details on that. The texture editing I have done mostly has to do with the ground textures. They are tedious to edit because if you don’t have the right files in the new texture folder for the mission, you get big white patches on the map when they don’t load.

I never used the tree editing feature because I thought it requires having “mods on”.

@AEthelraedUnraed uses that feature more than I do and would have your answers

Edited March 25 by Jaegermeister

[AEthelraedUnraed]

20 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

You would have to look back at the Dev blogs for specific details on that. The texture editing I have done mostly has to do with the ground textures. They are tedious to edit because if you don’t have the right files in the new texture folder for the mission, you get big white patches on the map when they don’t load.

I never used the tree editing feature because it requires having “mods on” and is considered a mod, so I can’t use it in official release files

@AEthelraedUnraed uses that feature more than I do and would have your answers

Actually, tree editing does not require "mods on". It does however require you to edit a few more files compared to just textures. The placement of trees is defined in forest_map.wtr. This file is linked in height.hini, which in turn is linked from the .Mission file. That means that to have custom forests, you need to:

• Make a copy of forest_map.wtr and height.hini (data/graphics/LANDSCAPE_mapname folder) and either rename them or store them somewhere else.
• Edit your new height.hini file:

   height_map="graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su\height.dat"
   water_map="graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su\height_w.dat"
   normals_map="graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su\normalmap.bmp"
   forest_map="path_to_new_forest_map.wtr"
  [...]

• Edit your .Mission file:

  # Mission File Version = 1.0;
  
  Options
  {
  [...]
    HMap = "path_to_new_height.hini";
  [...]

• Delete the .msnbin file and load the mission in the Editor.

You should now be able to modify the tree maps, while "mods on" shouldn't be needed (since it doesn't modify any game files; it only adds two).

Edited March 25 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Jaegermeister]

That clarifies it, Thanks @AEthelraedUnraed! Get out the chainsaw!