Overview
Pack File Manager tutorial for editing environment and weather effects/lightingScroll to the pictures at the bottom to see what you can do with this tutorial.
Pack File Manager
For this you need PFM, there are other guides online where to find and how to install PFM, Once you have it, right click, add from pack;
select data.pack in warhammer 2 folder
Add weather section
The weather files
The files on the left are all the individual weather and environment types for the different types of maps in the game. Brt = Bretonnia, Emp = Empire, etc..
-=-=-=-=-=-UPDATE-=-=-=-=- [IGNORE THIS IF FIRST TIME READING THE GUIDE]
Some environments will get used more than others in campaign, while some may never get used. I still don’t know exactly how the game connects the maps to the campaign environments.
For example: Norsca has 7 environments;
nor_01
nor_02
nor_04
nor_05
nor_06
nor_07
nor_snowy_coast
But in the campaign, battles in norsca will almost all use nor_01 and nor_02
This means if you change for example nor_01 to rain, approximately 50% the battles in norsca (campaign area) will be rain, even if there are 6 other norsca environments.
The other norsca environments in this case only get used in unique settlements or chokepoint/ambush battles.
Some others examples
Emp_08 = Only appears in the ‘sigmar statue’ minor settlement map in campaign, nowhere else
Emp_fort = Only appears in the Empire forts, nowhere else
The Dwf_ files rarely get used. subterranean dwarf battles use deep_01, sub_01, sub_02, rift_01.
Overground dwarf settlement battles (the maps surrounded by mountains) almost always use the Pass_ files (pass_01 – pass_04)
Hope this helps.
-=-=-=-=-=- [CONTINUE GUIDE] -=-=-=-=-=-=-
Finding the corresponding maps in-game
To see your changes in-game you can use ‘Battles_Tables’ in DATA.pack
The names under screenshot path represent (normally) the names of the map in custom battles in-game
While the name under battle_environment represent which weather file it’s using
The values
Now for the values..
The highlighted ones are the ones I’ve noticed matter most/make the most difference
From top to bottom;
environment_prefab=’prefabssky____.bmd’
= The skybox that the map uses
The different sky boxes are found in data.pack / skyboxes
JPGs of the Skyboxes (converted by Hazard)
Bret_01
Sun_colour_scale=’______’
= The brightness or range of the light coming from the sun. You can try different values but normally it’s between 10,000 – 100,000
Sky_colour_scale=’_________’
=The brightness of the sky, and brightness the sky emits on the rest of the map. Values normally between 40,000-300,000
Dynamic_light_scale=’_____’
= the power/brightness of other lightsources (lamps, torches, fires, also some underground maps have spotlights on units, this is also affected. Normally this is set to 0.25 (25%)
lut_texture_file=’______’
= Probably the most important one, this changes the overall tone of the lighting in the map. The different values are:
I’ve written some notes on these to save myself some time, you may use them as guides but they may not be 100% accurate.
Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation
= Pretty self-explanatory
Fog density=’______’
= The density of fog in the distance, lowering this value will allow you to see clearer maps
height_top=’_____’
= the height of fog in the map
height_density=’______’
= the density of the fog in the map (different from distance fog)
definition_name=’_______’
=The type of weather in the map. The different types can be found in weather_definitions file in PFM. For example:
‘rain stormy’
‘rain gusty’
‘dry breezy’
‘ash’
‘snow gusty’
etc..
Should have no effect on gameplay, it’s just particle effects for snow/rain/ash
sun_scale=’______’ and sun_flare
= the scale of the sun and sun flare (not lighting, this is the literal sun itself) Values are normally between 0.1 and 0.4
You can also alternate between sundisk1.dds and moondisk1.dds, by default there are no actual textures in the game for either, so you will have to create, or import one if you wish to have a texture.
render_skydome=’false/true’
= True/False depending on if you want the sun/moon to be visible or not. (sun scale must have a value greater than 0.0 for it to appear)
That’s mainly it. There are other values you can mess around with but i found them not worth the time.
EDIT*
A few other values:
‘materialsenvironmentbattle_ss_snow.xml.material’>
Used to add snow. Add the above after ‘post process=’ on the top of the file to enable snow textures in the map
snowing_Intensity=0.0000
This normally is set to 0. If you have snow enabled as post_process, this decides how intense the snow is.
0.2 = light snow on textures
0.4 = medium snow
0.6 + = full snow, basically the whole map will be covered white
deep_water_colour & shallow_water_colour
Affects the color of both deep water and shallow water. I recommend leaving this untouched..
Possibilities
With the different amount of things you can change and the options there are nearly endless possibilities of what you can do, heres just a quick example changing the sky, lighting texture file, and weather effects
——If there are things that others think should be added to this guide, let me know. I have other details i could probably share, but since few people edit environments, and even fewer see this guide, i’ll only put the effort if someone requests it.
I’m mainly waiting for Warhammer 3, since the environment files slightly changed from WH1 to WH2, i expect 3 to be the same. Hopefully it brings new skyboxes and weather options.