The guide is available on http://aceofspadeswiki.com/index.php?title=Mapping

This is a first draft. I focused on basic conceptual and technical information - what to think about in making a map, what AoS expects from maps, etc. It still needs details on "how to use Slab6" and "how to use the bitmap converter." It could also use more step-by-step on the features of Voxed, pictures, etc.

I also have an older tutorial from weeks and weeks ago sitting on these forums somewhere, which I should probably find and pull into this guide. If you've written a guide, I humbly ask for your text/image/video to come onto the wiki so that we can make an "ultimate mapping guide."

Following my first mapping attempt("desert", played on JukelProNabb's server), I started working on an update with a better color palette and more details. I quickly discovered that making voxel-perfect vegetation and buildings is time-consuming, but also a lot of fun. Let's share our work in this thread.

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Mini-tutorial for making prefabs in slab6

1. Get slab6:
http://www.advsys.net/ken/download.htm#slab6

You'll start seeing a grey ball. Left click+mouse move the camera, as do WASD.

2. Decide on your color palette. You can leave this for later but it's a good "artistic" way to start. Hit enter to open the palette and slice editor, and move your cursor over to the palette entries. Right click to select one. Use numpad 1-6 to adjust that entry, and then use the interpolate feature (numpad .) with the mouse cursor over another nearby entry to make a gradient.

3. Block out the total space your model will use( [ ] adjust brush size, { } adjust brush "speed," home and end add/remove voxels.) One voxel in slab6 = one voxel in the game. It's ok if you start big, because:

4. Now you'll destroy nearly all of those voxels, because if you're working on fine details like most AoS-scale structures, you want to do it one voxel at a time. slab6 isn't too great at working one-at-a-time in the 3D view, so you'll be working with the slice editor.

5. Move the mouse cursor over to the slices(if you closed the slice/palette view hit enter again). Hit numpad-star a few times to make the view bigger and click-drag them into whatever arrangement you like.

6.1. Now you'll build the model back up inside the slice editor.

a. Use the pageup/pagedown keys to navigate through slices.
b. Right click on a voxel to pick up the color. Note that "inside voxels" lose their color.
c. To place, press space. To flood-fill(within the slice), press f.
d. To erase, press delete, or press backspace to "pick" the transparent color.

6.2. Specific modelling techniques

a. If you're building a complex structure like most buildings, build it "in wireframe" first. Start in the z axis and build some "floor plans" for each floor, then switch to x or y to build up the corners of the structure. Don't completely fill anything in until you have to, because you want to keep things visible in the 3D view.

b. The inside voxels of a bulky shape will have no color, so don't be surprised when you expose them again and they look white/purple. This is both annoying and it affects flood fill operations, so it's another reason to build the skeleton first.

c. Save often, because this program does crash!

7. Once you're done, you can apply more colors either in the slice view, or by holding down space(single) or shift-space(brush) in the 3D view. When you're done you can use the blend keys ' and ; (they use the palette in different ways, but for most models it won't matter which one you use.)

AoS doesn't obey regular voxlap lighting for terrain, so just make it look as good as possible when unlit. The strategy I've been using is to splash two colors over the model in a camo pattern and then blend them.

8. The final format should be kvx, not kv6. Voxed treats kv6 as a sprite, not a piece of terrain. Once you're done you can test it in voxed by pressing u and selecting the kvx file.

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Content from "Mesa"

Two buildings, a tall 3-story and a short 1-story, both with roof access.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/254701/aosmaps/mesa_buildings.zip

The original terrain mesh used in Mesa:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/254701/aosmaps/mesa_terrain.zip

An empty map with water color:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/254701/aosmaps/ocean.zip

A cactus:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/254701/aosmaps/cactus.zip