Creating a map using blueprint

What you will need to get started (The Tools)

Blueprint: https://github.com/jk3064/Map-Blueprint 

The only other tool really needed is "Mapconv". The other tools available are there simply to make your life easier. A list of common mapping tools are as follows:

Mapconv

SMFED

Grout

SMD Creator

Start Position Editor

Das Bruce's Mapconv frontend

These tools have been compiled into a zip available here: http://springfiles.com/spring/tools/mapping-tools

Keep in mind that mapconv is still being developed, so it may be necessary to update the included Mapconv to a later version, located here: http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=21458

Creating a Texture Map

Texture map size is related in pixels and in spring map size. 2x2 MapSquares in spring are equal to 1024x1024 Pixels. Texture maps mus be in multiples of 2. I.E. 2x2, 6x10, 12x16, 16x16, etc. No odd sizes are allowed (Example: 15x10).

This tutorial assumes that you understand how to make a texture map and it also assumes that you know how to use terrain generation software. 

Commonly used terrain generation programs are:

Spring Map Edit (Does not work on 64bit machines)

L3DT

WorldMachine

Bryce3D

Carrara

Example Texture Map (generated by Carrara):

Creating a Heightmap

Height Maps are Texture Map size / 8 + 1 pixel. In other words, if your texture map is 8192x8192 (16x16), 8192 / 8 + 1 = 1025x1025

You will need a good image editing program to make heightmaps. Many of the aforementioned terrain generation programs will also generate heightmaps as well, but you can draw them by hand. They can be either 8bit or 16bit greyscale PNG. If you have photoshop or the gimp, you can use these programs to help you create your heightmap.

Here is an example of a 16bit heightmap:

Heightmaps work upon the idea of height according to color values. Black is the lowest, white is the heighest. In spring mapping, the waterline is defined by a negative height value. In other words, you define the heights of the map,  anything below 0 is under water. So on this heightmap, you might use -50 for the lowest value and 300 for the highest height value. The aforementioned tool "Mapconv Gui (a.k.a Das Bruce's MapConv Gui) has a waterline calculator that will help you calculate the correct waterline for your map.

Creating a Metal Map

Metal Map dimensions are Texture Map size / 8 + 1 pixel. In other words, if your texture map is 8192x8192 (16x16), 8192 / 8 + 1 = 1025x1025

In Spring, metal maps are used for the built in resourcing scheme (Metal/Energy). You do not have to use this scheme. In fact, there are several games for Spring who use their own resourcing systems added on using Lua. If you are creating this map for one of those games, a metal map is not strictly necessary (in other words you can just us a black image), however, it is always nice if you can make your maps as compatible with other games as possible, but this is a choice left entirely up to you.

Metalmaps show metal areas on a map based upon the amount of red on the image (make sure red is the only color used!). On this map you can see that the "Patch Technique" is used, which is pretty common among spring maps, but you are not limited to using this scheme.

If you do want perfect metal patches, use a 6x6 pixel pencil in your image editor with a red value of 255. This combined with setting the "MaxMetal" tag in the definitions to 1, will result in a perfect 2.0 metal generation per patch (using Balanaced Annihilation values). The game use isn't the point however. The fact is that if you can predict how much each spot will output (typically), using the "MaxMetal" parameter, you can easily scale the values up and down. As an example of another extreme, Evolution RTS dictates that all metal patches will output 0.5 metal regardless of the map settings. So whether you need to put a lot of thought into your metal map values depends entirely upon the game for which you are creating the map.

Example Metal Map:

Creating a Feature Map

Feature Map dimensions are Texture Map size / 8. In other words, if your texture map is 8192x8192 (16x16), 8192 / 8 = 1024x1024

Feature maps used to be quite complicated, but all that changed with the advent of Smoth's FeaturePlacer (short featuremap history below).

Now featuremaps are use simply for the purpose of placing grass. Grass coverage is defined by blue pixels on the feature map. The more blue the pixel is (the closer to blue 255 it is), the thicker grass will be at that location. Grass is entirely optional, but can be customized via map parameters and adds a nice touch to your map.

Example Feature Map:

A brief history of featuremaps

Feature maps were (and still are) a single RGB image where features such as grass, geothermal vents and trees, as well as structures, etc were "placed" using pixels on the image. This method was extremely imprecise and involved recompiling the map many times in order to simply move a tree from one location to another.

Thankfully, features can now be placed via LUA, ingame and in realtime using FeaturePlacer.

Compiling your map

Texture Specifications

Texture map size is related in pixels and in spring map size. 2x2 MapSquares in spring are equal to 1024x1024 Pixels. Texture maps mus be in multiples of 2. I.E. 2x2, 6x10, 12x16, 16x16, etc. No odd sizes are allowed (Example: 15x10).

Height Maps are Texture Map size / 8 + 1 pixel. In other words, if your texture map is 8192x8192 (16x16), 8192 / 8 + 1 = 1025x1025

Metal Maps share the same sizing formula as heightmaps.