VidiotMaps for Issue 24 and Beyond

[WanderingAries]

8 hours ago, jubakumbi said:

I run the game out of downloads just fine, no problems, I use these maps and the Icon fixes.

Running the game in downloads is not different than running from any other HD location.

 

How is it, in any way, a 'bad idea', at all?

 

HD space is HD space until you start talking about inner and outer platter speeds or something...

 

What 'headache'?

What was said above in response as well as that there are folders (Download included) that the system likes to treat different from say C:/Games in that it likes to protect them. Often AV software will also be focused on them as well by default.  Normally I'd be ok to put the game in something like "Program Files", but this isn't a production company supported app and thus probably has signature issues that might Also get flagged by AV. If it works for you, then great, but the guides in existence are designed specifically to avoid 'possible' issues intentionally to reduce any troubleshooting.

[catsi563]

so im having an issue where ive extracted everything have it in the coh pigs folder 

 

I just did all of atlas all the echoes perez and KR but now im in Steel and there no overlay  im checking other zones but steel so far is empty am I missing something here

 

quick edit I just check Steel Skyways talos and indy brix and FF 

 

Steel and skyway no overlay

 

Talos overlay but white background Indy port no overlay AND White

 

Brix no overlay and white and FF no overlay

 

haven't check any of the other hazard zones or hollows yet

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by catsi563

[jubakumbi]

13 hours ago, WanderingAries said:

What was said above in response as well as that there are folders (Download included) that the system likes to treat different from say C:/Games in that it likes to protect them. Often AV software will also be focused on them as well by default.  Normally I'd be ok to put the game in something like "Program Files", but this isn't a production company supported app and thus probably has signature issues that might Also get flagged by AV. If it works for you, then great, but the guides in existence are designed specifically to avoid 'possible' issues intentionally to reduce any troubleshooting.

Been a computer professional for years. 🙂

If you want to say, 'do not put things there, the AV programs will treat them differently', great, say that. 🙂 

 

That was my point...fully explaining works IME to get people to have less ambiguous fear when they understand what is happening on their machines over ambiguous language that just makes people fear what is inside their machines...

[Blondeshell]

16 hours ago, catsi563 said:

so im having an issue where ive extracted everything have it in the coh pigs folder 

I'm pretty sure this is your problem right here.

 

Everything that would be in the original collection should automatically go in the proper folders. The trick will be the More Maps collection that you have to do manually. Nothing of that should be in your \piggs folder. Instead, it should overlap what is already in the \data folder, following the \data\texture_library\etc... path structure. Double-check for a \data folder that's put into your \piggs folder. If you've got one, move everything back up one level (into your main game folder) and it should restore the new textures as intended.

[catsi563]

20 hours ago, Blondeshell said:

I'm pretty sure this is your problem right here.

 

Everything that would be in the original collection should automatically go in the proper folders. The trick will be the More Maps collection that you have to do manually. Nothing of that should be in your \piggs folder. Instead, it should overlap what is already in the \data folder, following the \data\texture_library\etc... path structure. Double-check for a \data folder that's put into your \piggs folder. If you've got one, move everything back up one level (into your main game folder) and it should restore the new textures as intended.

Only one issue I cant find a Data folder at all

 

in C:\Users\catsi563\Downloads\City of Heroes theres no data folder listed just a bunch of icons and a few folders for costumes etc and the pigg folder of course

 

cant take a screenshot for some reason ill try to figure that out later.

 

are you saying I should be moving stuff from the pigg folder into the texture library map folder or vice versa???

 

sorry for being a pain here 🥺

[Blondeshell]

3 hours ago, catsi563 said:

Only one issue I cant find a Data folder at all

 

in C:\Users\catsi563\Downloads\City of Heroes theres no data folder listed just a bunch of icons and a few folders for costumes etc and the pigg folder of course

 

cant take a screenshot for some reason ill try to figure that out later.

 

are you saying I should be moving stuff from the pigg folder into the texture library map folder or vice versa???

 

sorry for being a pain here 🥺

Don't move your pigg files! There should be a data folder in the same place that has the piggs folder, "C:\Users\catsi563\Downloads\City of Heroes\data\etc..." It's in there that the texture_library folder would go that contains all the other MAPS folders, resulting in "C:\Users\catsi563\Downloads\City of Heroes\data\texture_libray\MAPS\etc..."

 

One other thing you should consider is moving your game installation to a different folder that's not in "Downloads," such as "C:\Games\City of Heroes." This was discussed just a few posts above yours between WanderingAries and jubakumbi. It'll help people provide troubleshooting advice and also help prevent any antivirus software you have from causing problems with protected folders.

[catsi563]

21 hours ago, Blondeshell said:

Don't move your pigg files! There should be a data folder in the same place that has the piggs folder, "C:\Users\catsi563\Downloads\City of Heroes\data\etc..." It's in there that the texture_library folder would go that contains all the other MAPS folders, resulting in "C:\Users\catsi563\Downloads\City of Heroes\data\texture_libray\MAPS\etc..."

 

One other thing you should consider is moving your game installation to a different folder that's not in "Downloads," such as "C:\Games\City of Heroes." This was discussed just a few posts above yours between WanderingAries and jubakumbi. It'll help people provide troubleshooting advice and also help prevent any antivirus software you have from causing problems with protected folders.

 

ok so I made a data folder and moved the texture file into it. my results were about the same

 

Ive got the overlay in several zones no problem

 

but the following zones don't have the overlay and I checked on different characters and different shards

 

Steel

Skyway

FF

Hollows

Croatoa

TV

Eden

Striga

 

couldn't heck DA and the Hive as was only 43 but beyond those 2 the results were the same zone missing each time

[Blondeshell]

2 hours ago, catsi563 said:

 

ok so I made a data folder and moved the texture file into it. my results were about the same

 

Ive got the overlay in several zones no problem

 

but the following zones don't have the overlay and I checked on different characters and different shards

 

Steel

Skyway

FF

Hollows

Croatoa

TV

Eden

Striga

 

couldn't heck DA and the Hive as was only 43 but beyond those 2 the results were the same zone missing each time

Based on the zones you listed here, I'd say you've only downloaded the More Maps collection. If you download the Original PC collection you should see all of those zone maps update, but you'll need to make sure you recopy the More Maps versions after that because they'll have been overwritten with old versions.

 

Try that and post back here with the results.

[catsi563]

Ok think that fixed it yeah. I misread the original post because ima  doofus and thought the vm verison was the whole thing all zones missing stuff are now updated. thanks again for the help

Edited July 31, 2019 by catsi563

[Blondeshell]

4 hours ago, catsi563 said:

Ok think that fixed it yeah. I misread the original post because ima  doofus and thought the vm verison was the whole thing all zones missing stuff are now updated. thanks again for the help

Glad to hear you got it to work. One question for you: Can you check to see if the Brickstown map looks okay? There's been some back-and-forth about whether that map is broken or not. (It looks fine on my system with the texture from the More Maps collection.)

[catsi563]

5 hours ago, Blondeshell said:

Glad to hear you got it to work. One question for you: Can you check to see if the Brickstown map looks okay? There's been some back-and-forth about whether that map is broken or not. (It looks fine on my system with the texture from the More Maps collection.)

Ok so I decided to start over I deleted everything and redownloaded this time the right way new fresh main files then new upgrade packs

 

then I basically overwrote the new files with the old ones.

 

I checked Faultline and it was upgraded to the new map

 

 I checked Brickstown and I had no issue with the overlay or the map.

 

So at least for me and for the moment everything seems to be working as intended

 

if I have any issues ill message here

[Rodumas]

I'm getting this and I am pretty sure I've installed everything correctly.

 

I am wondering if verifying the gamefiles at any given time may have something to do with this?

Edited August 5, 2019 by Rodumas

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi,

I'm trying to do this for the first time.  I use Tequila to launch CoH.  The path to Tequila that is set up is:  C:\City of Heroes\Tequila.exe".  I have my CoH folder at the following address:  C:\City of Heroes.  So, assuming from the instructions, I need to do VidiotMaps installation first, I downloaded that .exe.  I launch the .exe hit the browse button and point it to the C:\City of Heroes.  I then went into the game to see if it worked.  When I launched, the updater 'updated' for a bit.  I then got into the game but it would seem as if the Update from the VidiotMaps .exe didn't work.  I still have the same original maps. 

 

So, I have 2 questions.  They are:  1). does anyone have any idea what I did wrong?  I would have thought I followed this correctly; 2). I downloaded the moremaps4u zip.  When I open it, there is a folder for "texture library".  Within that folder are 3 subfolders:  a). GUI; b). Maps; c). V_Maps.  Assuming I get the Vidiot Maps installation working, I'm not clear what I need to do here.  I'm interpreting the directions that I will need to drag and drop the 3 subfolders (GUI; Maps; V_Maps) into the C:\City of Heroes?  That said, there are no texture library folders or even GUI/Maps?V_Maps folders to be seen in the C:\City of Heroes folder.  The only file I see with anything mentioning texture_library is a pigg file in the HC Beta folder.  Any help / guidance on these 2 issues would be greatly appreciated!!  Thanks!

Edited August 11, 2019 by Dax Doomslayer
Added some additional information

[WanderingAries]

3 hours ago, Dax Doomslayer said:

I have my CoH folder at the following address:  C:\City of Heroes.

So based on this, then when you run the vm_mappack_i23.exe you want it aimed at that folder (mentioned above). This will create a folder called data so that you end up with C:\City of Heroes\data that contains the original vidiots maps. Then you need to unzip the moremaps4u.zip file normally in whatever folder you choose as it's going to create a folder called moremaps4u. Inside this new folder will be the added maps housed within a folder called....data. You can then simply drag that folder into the C:\City of Heroes folder as is. Whenever it asks about replacing files/folders tell it yes. Now you can start the game and the files will be correctly installed!

[Dax Doomslayer]

Thanks WanderingAries.  I did point the installer to the C:\City of Heroes.  Nothing seemed to happen.  That said, I just tried to run the installer again - pointing to the C:\City of Heroes folder.  When I do this, oddly enough, in the installer, it shows a data folder.  However, when I look at this folder with File Explorer, there is no such folder.  When I run a word search on "data" in the C:\City of Heroes, nothing comes up.  It's really kind of weird...

 

Update:  I think I figured this out.  I need to change the write permission to the folder and uncheck the  "Read Only" status.  Once I did that, the installer worked and I see the data folder.  I then moved the data folder in the moremaps4u into the C:\City of Heroes and it looks like it worked!  Yay!  How can I tell if the new data folder is installed?  Is there a map that I can go to, to check?  It looks like VidiotMaps worked as I see the markers etc. in Atlas.  Thanks for you walking me through this!!

Edited August 12, 2019 by Dax Doomslayer
Updated Information

[Vohrtechs]

Having the same issue with Brickstown map.

[WanderingAries]

19 hours ago, Dax Doomslayer said:

Thanks WanderingAries.  I did point the installer to the C:\City of Heroes.  Nothing seemed to happen.  That said, I just tried to run the installer again - pointing to the C:\City of Heroes folder.  When I do this, oddly enough, in the installer, it shows a data folder.  However, when I look at this folder with File Explorer, there is no such folder.  When I run a word search on "data" in the C:\City of Heroes, nothing comes up.  It's really kind of weird...

 

Update:  I think I figured this out.  I need to change the write permission to the folder and uncheck the  "Read Only" status.  Once I did that, the installer worked and I see the data folder.  I then moved the data folder in the moremaps4u into the C:\City of Heroes and it looks like it worked!  Yay!  How can I tell if the new data folder is installed?  Is there a map that I can go to, to check?  It looks like VidiotMaps worked as I see the markers etc. in Atlas.  Thanks for you walking me through this!!

Weird, I'm gonna have to look into Why so many of you are getting user created folders set as Read Only. Are you running Win10?

 

You know it worked if you have a data folder. When you go in-game just load the map and you'll see all sorts of special pointers and added text referencing them.

[Dax Doomslayer]

I am running Windows 10.  The really odd part of this that as I indicated earlier, was that when I re-ran the installer, it was showing those folders there and yet they were not.  I wonder what would have happened if I manually added a data folder and then tried to install.  That said, ensuring that 'read access' was unchecked did the trick and I have no issues now.  Thanks again for helping me get this working!

[sethmaster]

I used to have this in the old times, I downloaded it now and its not working...in texture there is 3 files data, MAPS & P_MAPS . Is this wrong?

[GM Capocollo]

6 hours ago, sethmaster said:

I used to have this in the old times, I downloaded it now and its not working...in texture there is 3 files data, MAPS & P_MAPS . Is this wrong?

Drag the contents of the zip file into the folder where homecoming.exe is.  There's no need to manually put anything anywhere.

[Thrak2]

I use Cream Soda but have also downloaded tequila to try to get vidiotmaps to work. I have no game file... it all goes through one of them. Both of their paths lead to this folder but I cannot install the original VM or the update to them since they're not an option. I have Windows 10. Any feedback would be very much appreciated. 

[Blondeshell]

22 hours ago, Thrak2 said:

I use Cream Soda but have also downloaded tequila to try to get vidiotmaps to work. I have no game file... it all goes through one of them. Both of their paths lead to this folder but I cannot install the original VM or the update to them since they're not an option. I have Windows 10. Any feedback would be very much appreciated. 

 

Regardless of which launcher you use (Cream Soda or Tequila), you should have a \piggs folder somewhere. The parent folder that contains that folder should have your executables (i.e., tequila.exe, homecoming.exe, cityofheroes.exe). It's into that parent folder that you should point the VM installer. (For a lot of people that seems to be the \Downloads folder.) It will create a \data folder in that same parent folder. Then you extract the MoreMaps archive into the same location, choosing to overwrite any existing folders.

 

Also, make sure your folders aren't set to read only, as mentioned a few posts above yours. That seems to also happen a bit on Win10.

[Vandalin7]

I'm having the same issue with the brickstown map. I tried manually dragging map_city_04_02.texture into the data> maps> static folder, but that didn't change anything,

[Thrak2]

22 hours ago, Blondeshell said:

Regardless of which launcher you use (Cream Soda or Tequila), you should have a \piggs folder somewhere. The parent folder that contains that folder should have your executables (i.e., tequila.exe, homecoming.exe, cityofheroes.exe). It's into that parent folder that you should point the VM installer. (For a lot of people that seems to be the \Downloads folder.) It will create a \data folder in that same parent folder. Then you extract the MoreMaps archive into the same location, choosing to overwrite any existing folders.

 

Also, make sure your folders aren't set to read only, as mentioned a few posts above yours. That seems to also happen a bit on Win10.

I located the piggs file but it doesn't show up when I try to install the map packs. I copied the "data" folder to my piggs file then launched the game but nothing has changed. 

[Blondeshell]

3 hours ago, Thrak2 said:

I located the piggs file but it doesn't show up when I try to install the map packs. I copied the "data" folder to my piggs file then launched the game but nothing has changed. 

The \data folder doesn't go in the \piggs folder. They should both be at the same level (i.e., have the same parent folder), so you'd ideally end up with this:

 

..\<game folder>\data

..\<game folder>\piggs