UESPWiki:Skyrim Map Design Tutorial

Interior Maps Tutorial for Beginners

We often encourage people to help out, and part of that encouragement is a clear set of directions as to how to go about it.  This is a small tutorial on how to create interior maps of Skyrim for use on the UESP.  When you finish, you will have made a contribution and you should have a better understanding of the Creation Kit for future contributions.

Part 1.  Working with the Creation Kit : Acquiring the .dds file

If you have not already done so, use our tutorial to download the Creation Kit. Once installed, then within the Creation Kit.
: 
:: 
:::check box Skyrim.esm - Double Click it 
::: 
:::If both boxes have a black X then
::: 
::: 

 
637|left|Starting the CK  

 
Dismiss any and all error boxes with  
 

 

 
In the Creation Kit
: 
:: 
 

 

 
In the Local Map Creation dialog box
: 
: 
: 
: 
::(repeat these last two steps for as many map files as you want to create)
 

 

You will find the maps stored on your computer. On a Windows PC at:
:C:\ Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam Apps\common\ skyrim\Data\Textures\Maps\Skyrim

At this point you should have all of the cell maps stored in .dds files. Now you need to find out how many degrees they have been rotated.

Part 2.  Working with the Creation Kit : Finding the map rotation

 
  
 
 

: 
 
::in order to find a cell.  Simply type the first few letters of the cell name.
:: 
 

:2. Double click that cell name, it will move to the top of the left hand list 
:: 

 

 

: 
 
  
 
::Simply type the first few letters  ("no" should be enough)
::then double click the NorthMarker object name.  This will bring a   into the Render window.

 


:  4. Now double click that  , the NorthMarker, in order to open the       
::  
::Look for the value of Z (in this example   degrees)


 



You will need to find this Z value, the amount of rotation, for every map you wish to upload. Once you have the maps and know their rotations (write them down) you will no longer need to work with the Creation Kit.

Part 3.  Working with a graphics program : modifying the .dds file

Several tasks remain before uploading any map to the UESP wiki.

1.  Each map needs to be oriented with north being up
2.  Excess black space should  be cropped
3.  Many maps need editing for clarity
4.  All maps need to be converted to .jpg files
5   All maps need to be re-sized to 1024 pixels in width

The recommended (but not mandated) utility for these tasks is:  
::paint.NET   which can be downloaded from download.cnet.com

Using paint.NET has advantages: 
1. It is free
2. It reads .dds files
3. It allows rotation by degrees up to two decimal places
4. It crops
5. If needed, it can be used to edit the map for clarity
6. It converts for saving as .jpg files
7. It re-sizes .jpg files
8. Everything can be done with just one program

Assuming that you have successfully downloaded and installed paint.NET from cnet 
and that you have some familiarity working with software, let's begin.

Open the .dds file using paint.NET
:File tab
::Open option
:::Navigate to your .dds file and double click it.

The .dds map file just loaded will be our background layer, our only layer,
and all operations will be on it.

Part 4.  Working with a graphics program : using paint.NET
 
 
: 
::Angle: 
:::Type in the angle, in this case  
: 

Rotate the map

 

 
:chose  

Now click and drag a selection box trimming off as much of the black area as possible.  Once selected

 

:  (not shown)

Crop the map

 

Now the map may need some clarification.  In this example, Goldenglow
Estate Second Floor, the interior walls of the building tend 
to get lost between the flooring pattern and the ceiling joists.
So the picture was magnified, and the line tool used with a strong brown
color to emphasize the walls.  The zoom here varied from 50% to 200% for
searching out walls.  The color was a reddish brown at 6 pixels width.
Doors are not shown, just door ways by the absence of walls.  Dead zones
may or may not be colored black depending on the original flooring which is
laid down in squares.  Barrels were omitted from this .dds as were sacks 
placed upon the floor.  Beds are shown having small hide blankets, and 
can be confused with hide carpets.  However, this detail was too small to 
matter and so was not clarified.
 
 
:chose  

   

 The zoom choice will vary depending on what you need to see.  Here it is starts at   

The color selected is shown with a tiny white box around it.
 
::The color selection  

Clarify the map

 

File
: 
::File Name:   SR-map- 
::Save as Type:  

 In the Save Configuration dialog window, the quality choice is   

This drops the file size from 65 meg to 2 meg.

Save as a jpeg 

 

 
: 

::Pixel size 
:::Width:  
: 

This further reduces the file size to under .5 meg

Be sure to   the file after you finish re-sizing.

Save at 1024 pixels wide

Part 5.  Concluding with the UESP wiki : uploading the map

The map file is ready for upload onto the wiki.  Check to make sure that the file name is in the following format (for a Skyrim map): 
: SR-map-   
Using this format with the actual in-game place name enables easy tracking of and working with your uploaded map. Please be careful of upper vs lower case, spaces and hyphens. The final request is please do not use the cell's "Editor ID". Now from the left hand column on any UESP page use
   toolbox 

 
 
 

Congratulations!! You are using the Creation Kit to make a constructive contribution to the UESP wiki.  With the confidence you gain here, you can explore more possibilities. They are endless. What are you waiting for? Go learn some more about the Creation Kit.