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gamemanual:mapeditor

Map Editor



The map editor provides the toolset to import and export heightmaps, sculpt the landscape and place towns, industries and assets manually as well as by using automated generators. It is possible to generate the initial street network too.

You may edit downloaded maps from the Steam Workshop as well.

See below for a full description of the available features and information about how to play your own map and share it with other players.

Start Editor

To create a new map for the map editor, select the MAP EDITOR button in the main menu. The menu is similar to the menu for new games. You may either start from scratch or load an existing map.

To start from scratch, select a climate 1 and vehicle set 2 with the big image buttons. As with a new game in free game mode, you can select mods in the advanced game settings, which can be accessed by enabling the CUSTOM checkbox and then clicking on the SETTINGS… button in the top right corner 3.

Next, you select the preferred map size and format 4. Please be aware that it is not possible to change climate, map size and format in the editor itself.

At the bottom of the settings list is a textbox for the seed. This value is a key for randomization at terrain generation and asset distribution. With the same seed and the same settings, the outcome of the generation process is the same every time.

Click on the START button 5 to start the editor itself or press the BACK button to return to the main menu.

Existing maps from yourself or from the Steam Workshop can be loaded by using the LOAD MAP button in the top right corner 6. There you can enable or disable mods as well.

Editor Interface

Basically the interface is the same as in the free game, but some tools are gone while others are exclusively available here. Read the interface documentation for the common tools. Not available are:

  • Station and depot construction for all types of transport
  • Track construction
  • vehicle and line management
  • some data layers associated with the tools above

The main toolbar contains 7 Tools:

Heightmap

The heightmap tool can be opened by selecting the button that you can see on the left side. This opens a menu with three tabs, one for each of the three subtools described below.

All three tools take a while to process the large amounts of data, especially when using large map sizes. During this time, the game may have limited response and you may not see the result immediately. After the generation the map will be visible bit by bit. Any errors on the edges of parts of the map are usually displayed correctly after a short time.

Generate a Map

Select the GENERATE tab to prepare the generation of a new map.

On the left side you can select your preferences for map generation 1. To keep the current heightmap during generation, activate Keep heightmap. If you want to keep the assets but regenerate a new heightmap, activate Keep assets instead.

Depending on the selected climate a generator with individual properties is used. Tweak the sliders and other options to adjust the generated maps according to your needs. At the bottom of the settings list is a textbox for the seed. This value is a key for randomization. With the same seed and the same settings, a map will be created identical each time. Beside the vanilla generators, it is possible to add additional terrain generators with mods, you may find some at the Steam Workshop. They all come with their individual set of options.

Start the map generation by pressing GENERATE in the bottom right corner 2.

Import a Heightmap

If you like to import an existing greyscale heightmap into the game, select the IMPORT tab of the heightmap menu.

In Transport Fever 2, each pixel is has an equivalent of 4×4 meters in game. The optimal resolutions for heightmap files are listed in the map size documentation. The grayscale images need to be .png files with 16-bit grayscale values.

Select the heightmap file you want to import in the list on the left side 1. The files are taken from the heightmaps folder in the userdata directory. See user data locations for more details or have a look at the bottom of the menu ingame to find the right directory on your system. If you added a new file to that folder and it did not yet show up, press the REFRESH button.

Below the list are some options that you should set to the correct values 2. The Range is the minimum and maximum existing height of the heightmap and is used to translate the 100% black - 100% white grayscale values from the source image to the map ingame. A map from sea level to high mountains could have -5 to 800 meter for example. Some landlocked maps are likely to have minimum and maximum values above zero. The Water level sets the height at which the water is. Keep in mind, that Transport Fever 2 has a flat water level all over the map when preparing your heightmap. You can use the preview on the right to check the effects of the parameters above.

Press the IMPORT button in the bottom right corner to start the map generation 3.

Export a Heightmap

To export a heightmap into a grayscale image, select the EXPORT tab in the heightmap menu.

You can enter a filename of your choice in the text box at the top left corner 1. The heightmaps are exported as png files, so you may either call your file with .png suffix or you do not add a suffix at all. Below the textbox is a list of existing files in the heightmaps folder. See user data locations for more details or have a look at the bottom of the menu ingame to find the right directory with the exported heightmaps on your system. If you are going to override an existing file, the game asks for confirmation before doing so.

Below the list are two options 2. If you select the 16-bit grayscale checkbox, the exported file will be 16-bit grayscale instead of 8-bit grayscale. When Write STL is checked, a second file with .stl ending will be generated. It contains a high resolution 3D mesh of the map surface. These files tend to get very big!

To start the export process, click the EXPORT button in the bottom right corner of the menu 3.

Towns / Industries Generation

To automatically distribute towns and industries, another generator tool is available from the toolbar. Select the corresponding button to open it.

Both town and industry generation are used the same way. You may select the one you want to use by selecting the TOWNS or INDUSTRIES tab at the top side of the menu.

On the left are some properties to configure the distribution 1. The slider allows you to specify how many towns should be generated. The maximum possible value depends on the map size. If you have already placed or distributed some towns on the map and want to use the automated tool again without removing them, enable Keep existing towns. As with the map generator, there is a textbox for the seed. This value is a key for randomization. With the same seed and the same settings, the town distribution on this map will be identical each time. You can use the preview on the right to check the effects of the parameters above.

The generation of towns can be started by clicking on the GENERATE button in the bottom right corner 2. The procedural generation can be seen by small clouds of dust appearing at the positions where towns are placed. The progress bar at the preview map shows the overall progress of generation.

The generation of industries uses settings analogous to the town generator.

Main Street Connections Generation

When starting a new game, the towns are initially connected by a network of roads to allow individual car traffic to move from town to town. To generate this network in the map editor, select the button in the toolbar to open the menu.

This generator tool allows fully automated generation as well as manual adjustments. At the left side, you can reset the connection graph by pressing CLEAR 1. To calculate the default network, press the DEFAULT button next to it. If you like to preserve existing streets between towns, check the Keep existing streets checkmark below the buttons.

In the preview 2 the planned main street connection graph is symbolized by grey dots for the towns and thick gray bars between them for connections. It is possible to add new connections by clicking on a start and an end town dot:

To remove a connection from the graph, simply click on it:

With a click on the GENERATE button in the bottom right corner 3, the graph can be transferred into an actual street network.

Road Construction

The full description of the road construction menu can be found in the infrastructure section. Keep in mind that station and depot construction for streets is disabled in the map editor.

Town Placement

Beside the automated town distribution described above, it is possible to place towns manually with this tool.

You can adjust the initial capacity of the city with the slider. It correlates to the size of the city. Further you can select an accepted cargo for both the commercial and the industrial district of the town.

By clicking at a location on the map, the town is generated there. A small progress indicator in the top right corner gives feedback on how far the generation proceeded.

If you like to alter the cargo demand of a town at a later point, select the town name and switch to the EDITOR tab. There you can reselect the cargo demands. To change the name of the town, click on the button and edit the name.

To delete a town, select the tool and click on the town name. After a confirmation, the town is removed and the terrain is reconstructed as good as possible.

Transport Fever 2 does not limit the size or number of towns, but be aware that maps with more towns, more streets and more vehicles lead to much more pathfinding calculations. If you place towns close to each other, you increase the number of reachable destinations for every inhabitant and you need stronger hardware to handle the late game.

Industry Placement

Like towns, industries can be placed manually as well by selecting the industry tool in the toolbar. Then select the industry you like to build in the list of industries at the bottom.

You can adjust the initial production level of the industry and select, if the industry should automatically change its production level in response to the demand and input level it receives. Further it is possible to turn off the input need for industries that are consuming and producing cargo like food factories.

By clicking at a location on the map, the industry is generated there. If you like to alter the configuration of the industry at a later point, select the industry and then the CONFIGURE button on the bottom edge of its window.

To delete an industry, select the tool while not being in the configuration mode (with the white overlay) and click on the industry. After a confirmation, the industry is removed and the terrain is reconstructed as good as possible.

Terrain Tool

The terrain tool works as in the free game. See the Terrain and decorations section for detailed information about its functionality.


Even though costs are displayed while editing in the map editor, they do not affect the actual gameplay afterwards. It is even possible to set the financial aspects (cash and credit) in the bottom left corner.

Playing and Sharing a Map

When you like to finish editing the map, press the power button in the top right corner to open the session menu. There you can select SAVE MAP to save the map in the scenario folder.

To play a stored map, go to the main menu, select FREE GAME and click on PLAY MAP › in the top right corner. The new dialog offers a list of available maps to play on as well as the options known from the dialog to load existing savegames. See there for a detailed explanations of the available options. To share a map via the Steam Workshop, you can press the button.You can edit the name and a descriptive text as well as some changelog notes in the dialog 1. If the map is uploaded for the first time, it will create a new item in the Steam Workshop, if it is updated, the old item will be replaced. Be sure you are willing to accept the Steam Workshop terms of service. If you want to read them (again), use the VIEW TERMS button on the left 2. Finally click on UPLOAD in the bottom right corner to upload the map 3. This may take a while.After a successful upload, the detail page of the Steam Workshop item will be opened. There you can add additional images, descriptions, contributors and more information. See the Steam Workshop section in the modding manual for further details on this topic.

The reference of uploaded map and the encapsulating mod that is used for the Steam Workshop item is stored in a .txt-file with the map name. It contains an individual key that is used by the game to find the correct mod in the staging area. This key is not equal to the Steam Workshop ID of the item, thus recovery is tedious if this file is lost. Keep it if you want to update your map at a later point.


gamemanual/mapeditor.txt · Last modified: 2024/01/11 19:52 by marlon