Just wanna say thank you for this. I used this as a reference to fix the Map Misalignment on High-Quality Pip-Boy Map. Looks and works wonderful now.
I was wondering, though - does Far Harbor and Nuka World not need a fix like this? I haven't reached those areas yet, but if they do have the same issue, I would like to fix the map before arriving there.
Cool! Yeah, that mod looks really good. I especially like the addition of the buildings. Too bad that it apparently does not include the realignment this mod offers; would be great to have the best of both worlds.
Since you fixed yours, maybe you could ask Giblib for permission to upload yours to the Nexus (you certainly have mine). I'm sure many people would appreciate that.
On to your next question: yes, unfortunately, Far Harbor needs some realignment as well. I tested a little bit over there, and its map seems just as bad as the commonwealth one at first glance. While I haven't been to Nuka World just yet (busy with modding and other stuff first), I suspect its map also requires some fixes.
I plan to work on those when I actually get there, but that might take some time, considering my schedule. I still haven't even actually started playing the game yet, lol!
Giblib replied to my comment and said they would look into it, once they have a chance. I sent them my PSD and the map I made - to make it as easy as possible for them.
I'll look into the alignment in Far Harbor and Nuka World, once I get there.
How did you approach this? Did you just open the map at different locations and mark down where you are shown vs. where you are supposed to be and then later align all the reference points, so it fits? That's how I would do it, but that's probably very tedious.
Yes, that's how I did it. Tedious, but decently precise. I suggest taking one corner as anchor (I went with top-left, since that's where the game starts), and then stretch/resize from there.
Too many edits will mess up pixel precision, so remember your adjustments or note them down. After it looks good in-game, repeat all adjustments on a fresh vanilla map texture as efficiently as you can to retain as many of the original pixels as possible.
Looks good! I might have something that you might like, too.
I have been using Photopea as a Photoshop replacement myself, because screw those greedy Adobe tossers. The UI is very similar to PS, plus it also comes with DDS compatibility - you (probably) won't need any additional converters.
Cool. Also note "GIMP" and "Paint.net" (both completely free and no ads) natively handle dds files - Paint.net even goes up to BC7 compression (whereas GIMP, last time I checked, could only go up to BC5 compression - though there's plugins/workarounds etc). Irfanview (another completely free program) can also view dds files (not sure about BC7 ones though) but not edit/save them as dds - still, that can be very handy for a quick look when searching through a large folder of dds files and comparing/checking.
Finally took the time to get the hang of Photopea. I can't believe how familiar it feels! Thanks again for the suggestion, very handy. And yeah, it also does *.dds without the need for Nvidia plugins. Super!
I suggest using Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/). It's a recreation of Photoshop and can instantly open and convert images into .dds formats. Saves me tons of me.
I noticed the misalignment seems to be more north east than what it's supposed to be, this makes me wonder if the glowing sea is part of the reason why due to the fact that a few glowing sea markers go outside the "boundaries" of the map texture which you can see that the lines that make up the borders are at the edge in the north and east side but the west and south let you scroll a bit past it, and i presume you already accounted for this and has tested places in the glowing sea too.
Hey! That could very well be the cause of the original misalignment indeed.
Whatever the case, it should be fine now. Hard to test, but seems good at first glance. There's only one main road that leads through the Glowing Sea, and it's mostly destroyed due to intense radiation, landslides and subsidence.
There's a lore-friendly explanation for the GPS being inaccurate, of course - whatever satellite the Pip-Boy pings has drifted slightly out of orbit in the last two centuries, so everything's off. I installed this in the middle of a game and headcanoned it as "while I was in USAF Station Olivia fighting raiders, I was able to reposition the satellite."
Seriously tho, this is a nifty QoL boost, and really ought to be rolled into Midnight Ride and other "turnkey essential" modlists.
We now have several scenarios which could explain the misalignment: the evil cartographer, a Pip-Boy glitch, satellite out of orbit, and landslides caused by nukes or shifting poles. Even though they're all kinda plausible and lore-friendly, I personally much prefer the map just being accurate, lol.
"This one requires no mod managers, as it's just one loose file. Drop the contents of the downloaded archive into your Fallout 4 folder."
This is not just wrong, it's dangerously wrong. If I was to drag the contents of your mod archive over my Fallout 4 folder, Windows would ask me if I wanted to overwrite the existing Data folder. If I was to say "Yes", it would completely and irrevocably eff my entire FO4 install.
Users must either A) drag the image file into the correct sub-folder, or B) do the easy and safe alternative of using a mod manager.
I thought it was common knowledge to merge instead of overwrite, but I'll adjust the wording a bit to avoid having people messing up their game because of my faulty instructions.
That's... that's not how windows directory merging works. At all.
Windows merges matching subdirectories when moving things. It does not overwrite directory contents like it does a file. I'm not sure how you have such a fundamental misunderstanding about how Windows file system works, and how you're so aggressive about this misunderstanding.
Do an experiment right now. Make a directory on your desktop named "Test", and fill it with some random files. Make another identically named directory in My Documents or somewhere and fill it with other files, maybe even some of the same files as the original Test directory. Now move the one from My Documents onto your Desktop. The WORST that will happen, if you have identically named FILES inside the directories, is that Windows will say "The destination already has a file named "blabla.txt"" and you will get to decide whether to replace the destination file, skip it, or compare info.
For the 30 years I've been using PCs (yes, I'm that old ) what I described has been the case. Or so I thought. At any rate, it's informed my practice, and I've been careful to avoid overwriting folders.
It looks as though the world has caught up, or I've been left behind, because the folder merging that EthicsandArete describes seems to have taken over. My testing confirms their advice, making my initial comments quite wrong. Apologies, and thanks for the correction.
However, there is still a benefit to using a mod manager. If you directly install your mod into the FO4 sub-folder, you will over-write the original file. Using manager, you can restore that if you need to.
Re: Windows - I've been using Windows since 3.1, and reguarly since 95, and it has never replaced an entire folder but would merely overwrite that one file if you go ahead. Dferstat must have misunderstood what Windows was saying, or be thinking of another OS.
And there's no particular benefit to using a mod manager - indeed, managers can be glitchy and always add a layer of complication, especially unnecessary for a simple loose mod like this. And managers aren't always great/capable with loose files, nor do you really save any space over manual modding (plus FO4 is incredibly easy to mod manually). Simply add the loose file where it needs to go and if Windows alerts you that this would replace an existing file then cancel, check what mod that file came from, then decide if you can/want to replace it. If still replacing then don't just overwrite the pre-existing file but rename it (e.g., filename - thingymod).
Yeah, I'd rather keep things old school myself as well. It's precisely how you said it: managers add an extra layer of complication, at least to my mind. But heck, if people prefer managers instead of manual installation, then that's cool too.
I always figured that the map was imprecise on purpose because having a faulty Pip-Boy that gets people lost sounds just like another evil Vault-Tec experiment.
Ha, lol! I'm imagining an evil genius cartographer. His work is subtle enough to get mistaken for incompetence, but dangerous enough to land you right in a field full of aggressive mongrels. Or a sinkhole.
32 comments
I used this as a reference to fix the Map Misalignment on High-Quality Pip-Boy Map.
Looks and works wonderful now.
I was wondering, though - does Far Harbor and Nuka World not need a fix like this?
I haven't reached those areas yet, but if they do have the same issue, I would like to fix the map before arriving there.
Thank you.
Cool! Yeah, that mod looks really good. I especially like the addition of the buildings. Too bad that it apparently does not include the realignment this mod offers; would be great to have the best of both worlds.
Since you fixed yours, maybe you could ask Giblib for permission to upload yours to the Nexus (you certainly have mine). I'm sure many people would appreciate that.
On to your next question: yes, unfortunately, Far Harbor needs some realignment as well. I tested a little bit over there, and its map seems just as bad as the commonwealth one at first glance. While I haven't been to Nuka World just yet (busy with modding and other stuff first), I suspect its map also requires some fixes.
I plan to work on those when I actually get there, but that might take some time, considering my schedule. I still haven't even actually started playing the game yet, lol!
I sent them my PSD and the map I made - to make it as easy as possible for them.
I'll look into the alignment in Far Harbor and Nuka World, once I get there.
How did you approach this?
Did you just open the map at different locations and mark down where you are shown vs. where you are supposed to be and then later align all the reference points, so it fits? That's how I would do it, but that's probably very tedious.
Too many edits will mess up pixel precision, so remember your adjustments or note them down. After it looks good in-game, repeat all adjustments on a fresh vanilla map texture as efficiently as you can to retain as many of the original pixels as possible.
I have been using Photopea as a Photoshop replacement myself, because screw those greedy Adobe tossers. The UI is very similar to PS, plus it also comes with DDS compatibility - you (probably) won't need any additional converters.
I use B.A.E. to extract from *.ba2 files, aconvert.com to convert *.dds to *.png and *.png to *.dds online, compresspng.com to compress *.png files, and both Online PNG Tools and LunaPic to edit *.png files. Nearly all of these require no downloads or accounts, and are free to use.
I also abuse good ol' WindowsXP Paint every once in a while, for pixel precision.
It's a recreation of Photoshop and can instantly open and convert images into .dds formats. Saves me tons of me.
I'm gonna have to try it out one of these days.
Thanks for the tip!
Whatever the case, it should be fine now. Hard to test, but seems good at first glance. There's only one main road that leads through the Glowing Sea, and it's mostly destroyed due to intense radiation, landslides and subsidence.
There's a lore-friendly explanation for the GPS being inaccurate, of course - whatever satellite the Pip-Boy pings has drifted slightly out of orbit in the last two centuries, so everything's off. I installed this in the middle of a game and headcanoned it as "while I was in USAF Station Olivia fighting raiders, I was able to reposition the satellite."
Seriously tho, this is a nifty QoL boost, and really ought to be rolled into Midnight Ride and other "turnkey essential" modlists.
We now have several scenarios which could explain the misalignment: the evil cartographer, a Pip-Boy glitch, satellite out of orbit, and landslides caused by nukes or shifting poles. Even though they're all kinda plausible and lore-friendly, I personally much prefer the map just being accurate, lol.
Glad you like it!
"This one requires no mod managers, as it's just one loose file. Drop the contents of the downloaded archive into your Fallout 4 folder."
This is not just wrong, it's dangerously wrong. If I was to drag the contents of your mod archive over my Fallout 4 folder, Windows would ask me if I wanted to overwrite the existing Data folder. If I was to say "Yes", it would completely and irrevocably eff my entire FO4 install.
Users must either A) drag the image file into the correct sub-folder, or B) do the easy and safe alternative of using a mod manager.
I thought it was common knowledge to merge instead of overwrite, but I'll adjust the wording a bit to avoid having people messing up their game because of my faulty instructions.
Thanks again.
Windows merges matching subdirectories when moving things. It does not overwrite directory contents like it does a file. I'm not sure how you have such a fundamental misunderstanding about how Windows file system works, and how you're so aggressive about this misunderstanding.
Do an experiment right now. Make a directory on your desktop named "Test", and fill it with some random files. Make another identically named directory in My Documents or somewhere and fill it with other files, maybe even some of the same files as the original Test directory. Now move the one from My Documents onto your Desktop. The WORST that will happen, if you have identically named FILES inside the directories, is that Windows will say "The destination already has a file named "blabla.txt"" and you will get to decide whether to replace the destination file, skip it, or compare info.
Thanks for the further explanation!
For the 30 years I've been using PCs (yes, I'm that old
It looks as though the world has caught up, or I've been left behind, because the folder merging that EthicsandArete describes seems to have taken over. My testing confirms their advice, making my initial comments quite wrong. Apologies, and thanks for the correction.
However, there is still a benefit to using a mod manager. If you directly install your mod into the FO4 sub-folder, you will over-write the original file. Using manager, you can restore that if you need to.
I'll adjust the description a bit, as to recommend a mod manager, seeing many people prefer to use those.
And there's no particular benefit to using a mod manager - indeed, managers can be glitchy and always add a layer of complication, especially unnecessary for a simple loose mod like this. And managers aren't always great/capable with loose files, nor do you really save any space over manual modding (plus FO4 is incredibly easy to mod manually). Simply add the loose file where it needs to go and if Windows alerts you that this would replace an existing file then cancel, check what mod that file came from, then decide if you can/want to replace it. If still replacing then don't just overwrite the pre-existing file but rename it (e.g., filename - thingymod).
Yeah, I'd rather keep things old school myself as well. It's precisely how you said it: managers add an extra layer of complication, at least to my mind. But heck, if people prefer managers instead of manual installation, then that's cool too.
Hmmm yeah, that might just exactly be Bethesda.