Overview

This is a manual, or tutorial, on how to create custom Ballance maps, dedicated to players who are still interested in Ballance. We hope you read through this page before starting to understand some basic information. At the bottom of this page is how to get started with mapping, or you can choose your preferred chapter from the sidebar menu.

Warning for New Mappers!

We selfishly hope that you are a person with sufficient curiosity and the ability to draw inferences, because this manual and its related resources are not responsible for explaining everything comprehensively (the maintainer's personal energy is always limited).

Mapping work is exceptionally tedious, and you may encounter quite a few problems. Some problems may be something we have not yet been able to identify and solve (Ballance really is quite old), if you think you can overcome numerous difficulties just to create completely new levels for others to play, then we very much welcome new mappers to join!

Community & Support

Welcome to join the Ballance Chinese Community (player exchange groups can be found here) and the Ballance Discord Server. Currently, all resources and materials have been gradually accumulated by the Ballance player community through years of exploration and development. You can communicate with other game players and mappers to inject new vitality into this community.

We recommend joining the Ballance Mapping Exchange Group to discuss all issues related to Ballance mapping. If you encounter any issues while reading the documentation, need feedback or suggestions, you are also welcome to join the group to provide feedback.

Plans & Contributions

Another manual similar to this one is A-Peek-Into-Ballance-Mapping (mainly authored by yyc12345), which records problems that may arise during the Ballance mapping process and some common operations in the form of notes.

This project was originally intended as an extension of the above manual, copying and pasting organizing and summarizing most of its content, making the manual more organized and professional to read. In the future, we hope this manual will become a complete Ballance community creator guide, although it currently only covers the mapping section.

This manual will be continuously maintained in the future (of course, that depends on whether there are still new people who want to create maps), with plans to add more advanced production technique guides. Additionally, guides on scripting mapping are also planned.

If you would like to provide feedback or contribute, please feel free to submit an Issue or Pull Request!

Special Thanks

Thanks to yyc12345 for developing BallanceBlenderPlugin which made Blender mapping possible. Also thanks to yyc12345 for writing A-Peek-Into-Ballance-Mapping, which is the root and source of inspiration for this project.

Also thanks to everyone in the Ballance community who has contributed to this old game. Without their dedication, we would not have the achievements we have today.

Enough Talk! Let's Start Mapping!

This manual is mainly divided into two parts: Mapping Manual and Progressive Tutorial:

1. The manual section mainly explains knowledge points related to mapping, including basic knowledge, mapping methods, etc. You can choose the required chapters from the sidebar on the left to read as needed
2. The progressive tutorial is mainly written for people who are using Blender to create Ballance maps for the first time, aiming to guide new mappers step by step to create their first custom map.

Must-read manual recommendations:

• If you are new to Ballance mapping, you can start reading from About Mapping to understand the basic concepts and methods of mapping.
• If you need to understand the composition and mechanisms of Ballance maps in detail, you can read the Mapping Basics section first. These contents are very useful for you to consolidate your foundation, but you certainly don't need to read them all before starting to map.
• To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. The first step in mapping is definitely Tools Installation and Configuration.
• If you have a certain understanding of the basic map composition but lack practical experience, you can try our Progressive Tutorial, following the tutorial step by step to create your first custom map.
• If you previously used 3ds Max for mapping and are migrating from 3ds Max to Blender, you can check Migrating from 3ds Max.
• If you already understand and have mastered basic mapping (whether Blender or 3ds Max), and want to try using scripts to implement more amazing creative ideas, you can check Scripting Mapping.

Good luck!