Eastern Front is a free mod for Company of Heroes. Following the ethos of mimicking a Relic Entertainment expansion pack, Eastern Front has succeeded in adding two full new factions, the Soviet Red Army and the German Ostheer, packed with unique and exciting units to the existing armies - a feat never before achieved in the Company of Heroes world.

Report RSS Tutorial: Adding action markers to your map

This is a tutorial created by MaxiKing (EF Head Mapper) which explains how to add effects like fire, grounddust and smoke to your map.

Posted by on - Intermediate Level Design/Theory

Here's how to add some extra brilliance to your map, means the inclusion of "Action Markers", which are responsible for visual and sound effects on Company of Heroes maps.
First of all, you'll need to own either Corsix Mod Studio or this SGA extractor to unpack the needed files, however I recommend Corsix (you can also use Corsix for modding, SGA packing and other tasks).
The files you need to unpack are "WW2Art.sga" and "WW2Sound", you can find them in "&#xyo;urCOHdirectory%\WW2\Archives".
Using Corsix, you have to follow these steps:

  1. Go to the folder you have Corsix in and execute "ModStudio.exe"

  2. Click on "Load Single SGA Archive" in the middle of the window

  3. Browse to your COH directory > WW2\Archives folder and open the desired file

  4. Right-click on the line "data" that appeared in the upper left corner, select "Extract all files in this folder"

  5. It appears a new window, you will choose "Go!" and choose a folder to extract the files to, this may take a while and the program may not respond, ignore this

  6. When completed, cut the extracted "art"/"sound" folder from where you extracted it to and paste it into "COHdirectory\WW2\Data\


Action markers can be moved, either using the gizmo or simply dragging them aroung with your mouse. For changing the height, you have to use the z axis of the gizmo. Action markers can be rotated by pressing "R", however the direction e.g. smoke is flying to depends on the wind setting in the maps Terrain Properties, additionally, you can copy an Action Marker, holding LMB on the marker plus the C key, then dragging the marker around will create an exact copy of the marker you selected before.
Now you are able to use action markers in your WB without any problems, however, how that works, I'll describe now:

  1. Open your WB, and open an existing/a new project, select the marker tool (small red flag)

  2. To the right, you can see that "Scar Markers" is selected as default, you'll need to change it to "Action Markers"

  3. Right-click where you want to have your Action Marker on your map, we'll use a crater as example

  4. Select the marker and click on "Edit Action" to the right

  5. Choose, depending on your choice, either fx_attach or sound_attach under New Command

  6. To add effects or sound, click on "..." next to "fx"/"sound"

  7. Browse to your COH directory > WW2\Data\Art\fx or WW2\Data\sound\ambiences, depending on your choice

  8. Go to "fx_ambient"/"ambiences" folder and select a .bfx/.bsc file of your choice, we will add burning coals to our crater

  9. Now, if your crater looks like this, you did well (you can elevate and move it to match your imagination)


Have fun with this, I hope for many many maps with added sound/effects in the future. :D

-Maxi

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ctohasht
ctohasht - - 1 comments

Hello Dear
I do this operation step by step, but when i place a Action Marker in my map even new maps but list of Commands is still empty in WB. please help me, thanks a lot.

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