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PCM.daily Tips & Tricks Section
The Ultimate Stage Making Guide
By: The Hobbit | Average Rating: 4.33 | Game version: PCM13 The Ultimate Guide to Stage Making
This is my guide which will hopefully enlighten both the new and the more experienced into the fascinating world of stage making. It will obviously omit some details, after all I can't check, so PLEASE ADD YOUR OWN IN REPLIES. Still despite everything I felt I may as well endeavour with my tip making campaign to help out, and I don't want the others to out tip me!!!
Starting off
The first thing you need is pcm, well duh. You must open up the game but on he launch menu click the stage editor. Then go to file and click new. This will bring up a menu. You need to click the stage name, this is not important but the game will use it. Normally stages are named as the start town- finish town/climb. Then click the region. This is meant to show the game where it is taking place, but it know of no practical use really. Also when you have to edit the stages in later it also gives you a choice, but it's still better to keep on top of things and select the regions. Then select the terrain style and the building type. The terrain style is the generic colour given to the landscape, so for example the alps will be green but the med will be a yellowy colour to befit its arid environment.
Then comes the really difficult bit. There are three options for how to start off a stage, and one is split into two! The first is most commonly used and I think it is called, elevation data or something (can't check!) we'll return to this later. Next is the one where you just start with a pan flat track and can shape it (or not )to your wishing, and add a start altitude. Finally there is the one for which you need an elevation map, which is a special file, but I have no idea how to get one. Now let's return to the first, and most widely used option.
First of all you can create a square map using latitudes and longitudes which will surround your ideal route, but don't try and map the entire world as there are size limits! There are lots of websites on the internet you can find which will tell you where positions are. Finally there is the option I make sure to use, where you upload a GPX file to the editor. See GPX files, for more info. Once you've pressed this then you can find the involved files and use them. Now it's time to create.
GPX and DEM Files
As previously mentioned there are two particular types of file which are instrumental in the stage making process. First the GPX files. These files contain where the race takes place, allowing you to build elevation data built on that location. It also contains the route, which is loaded up later and superimposed onto the map. To get a GPX file you must make it, thankfully it is a pretty simple process. There are quite a few websites such as bikeroutetoaster in which you can create one. You simply click on the route, go onto summary and save it as a GPX. This is then in your files to use later. We'll demonstrate how to use the route later.
DEM files are rather different. These contain the real elevation data for all of the world, well if you have enough DEMs that is. The game only comes with the European ones and a few Americans I believe, but many more are to be found here: https://pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread....ost_770377 to download just take in all the files and unpack them, this varies by OSs I believe, but it's something like zzip extract here, then move them to the games DEM files in program files cyanide pcm13 data dem. If you do not have DEMs for a region then you cannot make the stage, so many try to make it somewhere else and pretend it's somewhere else, like my tour of Indonesia,which is in France and the uk.
Beginning to Create
Now is the most important stage of the entire process, but also the most daunting. On your left will be a list of pictures representing tools, most self explanatory, but others a bit confusing, so simply hovering over them will reveal all. Above will be 3 options, the default 3d view, a useful 2d top (Birdseye) view, and a profile view, but you'll have to create a route to utilize that. Above that there will be hundreds more little tabs, like file, city, etc etc etc. on your left will be some more panels, with baffling symbols like paint brushes and jigsaw pieces. To this day I still have no idea why they are like this, but oh well. Later these will have different options on
The first thing I would do is go onto top view. This shows all the contours and makes it easy to see where rives and seas are, as they appear pan flat at sea level. Use the tool which creates bodies of water to build them, or the river tool. If you know the area well and want to create everything as realistically as possible feel free to use the field tool and forest tool to decorate everywhere, but this isn't necessary.
Using the GPX
To use a GPX go into top view. Then click the paint brush option on the right. There will be an option later which goes load GPX or something. Then find your GPX and load it up. The map will lose some of its colour, but another wondrous thing will also happen. A black line will appear along the course of your route. Rather annoyingly it doesn't tell you where to start and finish, but you hopefully will know if it snakes south or north and whatever else.
Don't rush into building roads!
A lot of people, including me, are at this point very tempted to rush in and pave the route then do all the nitty gritty work later. But this is the hard way to do it, you'll get better results if you stay in top view and use a little trick. Items like fields, forests, and cities have lots of problems if you try and place them on top of a road, and this can result in them doing absolutely nothing. So, what i do is look at the route, and plaster big squares f fields and forests across the route, with maybe a few cities or buildings. These are made with little dots, so right click to place all the dots, then make sure to join them up to the original to create a shape. On the right there are several different options for the graphics of these, even if they have no effect, so you can have different woods and crops in different places. Try it out and fins which one you like best.
In the top right there is one of those drop down menus whose name escapes me. Sorry as it is quite important. At the end of most stages click on it and press Check stage. It'll make a list of problems, which we'll explain at the end.
Now it's time to build up the roads
Next click the road tool. To press a road right click, then right click the next point, and the next, and the one after that. Be careful not to click off as it creates an intersection with only two ways, explained later. Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, and move with the arrow keys, but add shift for faster movement, as the normal fashion can be painfully slow. Then continue to move along. Try and follow the route closely, but absolute accuracy is unimportant. As Pcm uses a 1:10 scale the road will curve and be far larger than you'd expect, but it's the price we pay for a bearable game! This don't worry too much, and in fact adding too many route points can have a negative effect. But so can too few, and the balance can make the difference between a good stage maker and a bad one, ( I probably fall into the bad category)! Then click off and your stage's roads have been built, but you're not done yet. I'd check the stage again here we'll see why later. Road surfaces can also be chopped and changed so they are as you want, and there are hundreds of patterns and colours, from the road striped to the colour of dust on them! You can also add cobbles and gravel, but only the former makes an effect. The cobbles are one of the early options for road surfaces, but again I cannot check.
Adding a route.
Next up you need to add the route. Most of this process is described better in my circuit tip, but I'll go over it again first. Starting at the first point add a route point by right clicking at every point of interest. These include intersections and other things, as these can be confusing for the game. Over than that you should be all right, and the self made route will be green triangles, and auto route points will be green squares. If there are no auto squares then you have come across a problem, see below. Now you should be able to see the profile, if not there's another problem!
Editing your stage.
Now you have created a basic route. This is probably playable, at least once you've checked and fixed issues, but largely you will want to make sure that your stage is top quality before you begin to play it. The most easy way to do this is to do it mostly in profile. From the profile you are likely to see that your stage is not much like the Cyanide's and the route goes up and down at ridiculous gradients when it should be flat. These either result from deviating from the route or issues moving between scales. If there are bumpy roads which look odd then they are normally simple to solve. Either delete the road sections by clicking on that point on the profile and pressing the delete key, or just move them around until you have got it right, you can download a program on the forum which smooths road surfaces but I don't know much about it so I won't provide a link as I have little experience. This should solve all difficulties and if not just persevere, there are many difficult little niggles but generally they are quite rare.
Saving and Exporting
I would also like to take the opportunity to explain the differences between exporting and saving stages. A saved stage is a file format which can be loaded up by the stage editor and work can be carried on with it. This is called something like zctx file, can't quite remember, and I'm writing this with an iPad, so I cannot check. To do this go file save.
An export is radically different. This is a file which will be loaded up by the game, but the stage editor cannot run it. It creates two different files, a CDS, and (I think) a ZCES file. The CDS file contains the profile and other stage data file while the ZCES contains what is actually run by the computer. There is a special way to name these files, but then again only part of it is necessary, but it's a good idea if only to keep organised, and at least some of it is vital. The method is Class_Abbreviation of race_stage number_year.
Class is the UCI classification.
Top for UCI world tour
2hc for stage races of high importance, 21 and 22 for others. Use 1... For a classic
Abbreviation is the abbreviation of the race which will be used later when editing in.
Stage number is what number it comes in the race, ignore for classics.
Year is what year this first happens, only in use if you'll add variants but I'll put it in just in case.
File Placement
Now you need to know where to put the two export files. They go in...
My documents ... Pro cycling manager... Mod... Cm stages... Put them in there.
Editing them in
Use Lluiigis tip for adding races and stages to put them in.
And You're done!
Unless of course you've been faced with one of a myriad of problems the stage editor encounters from time to time.
Problems
First the check stage problems
Intersection with only two ways. This generally occurs when you have clicked a road, clicked off and then tried to join it to the original again, for some reason the stage editor doesn't allow this. To fix add a third 'way' to the intersection by creating a new road leading out.
Road Overlap. This occurs when two sections of road are overlapping with each other. The fix is rather harder. Either delete the offending section, move it around a bit, or click on the section of road, and use the two lines which protrude from it to manipulate the tightness of the corner.
Incompleted spline object. This happens when you have started to build one of the decorative objects, like fields, woods, etc. but not completed it, to fix just delete all the points on it and start again.
Route too steep. This is pretty self explanatory, but can be had to fix. Either delete the road section, may have to delete more than one, or move it so that the slope is more gentle and constant.
Not enough distance between two points on an intersection. This normally happens as an issue when you've created a circuit, see my other tip, but it has gone wrong. This is normally a killer problem and you may have to delete the route and/or start again.
Bad Route. This is not insulting your planning skills, but rather informing you of your error when laying down the route, you must have missed a point of interest and the editor doesn't know, whoever obvious it seems to you, which way it can go.
Others, please ask in the comments or PM.
Now the other issues.
Cities not appearing. This can happen for multiple reasons but often it is because you did it at the wrong point or other things, try pressing rebuild cities, but not rebuild all, as that generally crashes it, but click on each city and press rebuild.
Profile not appearing. I for one have no idea why this happens, but also if it is too zoomed in simply save the stage and open it again.
GPX file not existing. You do not have a DEM file so either download the above link, or if not / if you already have, try something else.
Can't find the race in your game. Your file is not edited into the game
The race can be found but follows the Classic de Plouay route! You have not named/placed the files correctly, no I don't know why Plouay either?
Stage editor crashing. This happens from time to time, save regularly.
Riders move jolty/in wrong direction in pcm, this happens when the corner is too tight.
None of the decorative spline objects work, is your graphics up to scratch? If so then try and edit the stage till it works.
Others, ask via reply or PM.
For fixing the profile, the space bar works as well. Also avoid narrow roads (apart from cobbles and .HC summits) for gameplay's sake. For the rest, I don't think there's anything missing.
There are 4 types of checkpoints in pcm. The start line, the finish line, KOM sprints and intermediate sprints. To access this put route sprint on the top menu. One the jigsaw menu you can now see them all. Click on add and right click along the route to put it on. The start Line can only be put on 2 km in, and the finish 2km out, so bare that in mind. Different start lines can be chosen, including TT ones which are different, so bare that in mind.
Then there are the mid race ones. KOM sprints can also be named and given a KOM classification. Sprints can be chosen from TT check, normal sprint and ladder sprint, I don't understand them tbh. The finish line also has lots of helpful drop downs which can be used to choose the type of race it is and how the game runs it etc.
I have 1 question... Is there possible to delete part of the road (just delete)? The programe automatically connect point before with point after that one I delete. Is it possible or not? If it is how?
I have a problem. I have loaded my gpx file and the terrain loads fine and also the route. Creating the bodies of water is the problem though. After finding out that creating smaller bodies at a time eliminates massive chasms occuring with no water, I have tried doing that. Works good but the problem is that the big lake I am trying to fill in has 4 smaller sections to it so far all of varying heights. The individual points are all on the same level so it shouldn't be a problem but if you zoom down and look at them as a cross-section you can see they are staggered. Any help to solve this would be appreciated.
