Remove Camera Bounds Gray Box on Minimap

[Svenski]

I would like to get rid of that hindering gray box in the minimap (in game) when you change the camera bounds to anything other than the full playable map area.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[M0RT]

Create text file, put following lines in it:

[Minimap]
MinimapColorBorder=0,60,60,70

(The first value is alpha, so what are the others doesn't actually matter)
and import it as war3campaignMisc.txt

You could also import it as war3mapMisc.txt, however if you changed anything in gameplay constants, those changes are in war3mapMisc.txt and you would overwrite them.

 

[Svenski]

This is what happens after using the suggested technique from MORT:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It removed the gray border but the camera bounds box remains.

What I'd really like to do is completely remove that dark mask over the camera's bounded area. Is this possible with another simple input into that imported text file?

 

[M0RT]

Oh, I just misunderstood what you wanted then. I actually have the exact same problem, I need to get rid of this box.
I heard that it really was possible by some other means than modifying camera bounds, so I hope someone knows how to do (my guess is that it is a model, so it will be somehow replaceable, but I failed to find this model)
Ok I misundrestood you for the second time. I found this setting in the file UI/MiscData.txt, maybe there is more

EDIT: found following settings:

[FogOfWar]
FoggedTerrain=170,16,16,32
BlackMaskedTerrain=255,0,0,0
DarkMaskedTerrain=230,0,0,0
BoundaryTerrain=230,0,0,0
FoggedBoundaryTerrain=170,16,16,32
FoggedObject=255,64,64,96
BlackMaskedObject=255,0,0,0
DarkMaskedObject=255,32,32,48
BoundaryObject=255,0,0,0
FoggedBoundaryObject=255,64,64,96
ShadowImageColor=170,0,0,0

IMHO DarkMaskedTerrain or ShadowImageColor may solve this. (btw. include in same file)

EDIT: Those values seem to not work at all, these work, try if you can achieve what you wanted:

[FogOfWar]
FogColorBlackMaskAlpha=0
FogColorDarkMaskAlpha=96
FogColorFogMaskAlpha=192
FogColorVisibleAlpha=255

include in the same file (war3campaignMisc.txt)

 

[Svenski]

OK here's some examples of the imported text file and what the box looks like in game:

TEXT FILE:

[Minimap]
MinimapColorBorder=0,60,60,70

[FogOfWar]
FogColorBlackMaskAlpha=0
FogColorDarkMaskAlpha=0
FogColorFogMaskAlpha=0
FogColorVisibleAlpha=0

MINIMAP:

TEXT FILE:

[Minimap]
MinimapColorBorder=0,60,60,70

[FogOfWar]
FogColorBlackMaskAlpha=255
FogColorDarkMaskAlpha=255
FogColorFogMaskAlpha=255
FogColorVisibleAlpha=255

MINIMAP:

So perhaps if you want transparency, what you really want is alpha = 255.

So lets try re-enabling the 'FogMask', getting rid of that black 'Border', and leaving out the 'BlackMask' and 'DarkMask'. This should leave us with a map that looks fully explored but keeping the fog of war displayed as a slightly dimmer area, with alpha at something like 175 lets say.

TEXT FILE:

[Minimap]
MinimapColorBorder=255,60,60,70

[FogOfWar]
FogColorBlackMaskAlpha=255
FogColorDarkMaskAlpha=255
FogColorFogMaskAlpha=175
FogColorVisibleAlpha=255

MINIMAP:

You can see I explored some terrain and the fogged area looks retarded after my hero left sight range of that area. So what I realized from this is that the 'FogMask' area doesn't stack with what I'm guessing is the 'DarkMask' area, or the unexplored area. I'm not sure what 'BlackMask' is used for here. So I guess I didn't realize in the first place that what's inside that box is just the fog of war/unexplored masking and outside of the box doesn't show the fog/unexplored masking. How ugly.

Also from what I can tell you can't actually get rid of the border, changing the alpha to 255 just makes it look black. There must be a texture placed over that black box that changes the color or something.

 

[M0RT]

Well I spent lot of time looking for some border model/texture in the MPQs (I wanted to remove the white box that indicates where your camera points to), but failed. If you find anything, let me know.

I think you got black mask disabled (it's the thing that prevents you from seeing terrain before you explore it). The dark area is something between black mask and fog, however I didn't see it mentioned anywhere else but here, which is strange.

 

[Svenski]

Yeah like you said I think I have the black mask disabled, and that would be the 'BlackMask' field I was curious about.

Also, from what I can tell, there is no way to get rid of that white box that indicates where your camera points to. If you ever find a way to get rid of it, or the gray camera bounds box, I'm all ears.

Thanks for the other help though, I think the minimap looks significantly better after setting the alpha of the DarkMask equal to the alpha of the FogMask. Basically makes it look like you've explored everywhere and doesn't show so much contrast between the camera bounds box and the strips of minimap space outside the box, as well as making the box border black.