Custom Civ 5 maps are usually shared as screenshots, which either show only part of the map in-game or a zoomed-out view with all the cities but none of the terrain. This program renders the entire map as a single, detailed image instead.
You can generate a physical map, showing terrain, or a political map, showing civilization borders and major cities. Either way, it converts a .Civ5Map file into a PNG image.
The map filename can either be a .civ5map or .json file. To start using this application, you can use any of the map files in the maps/ folder or you can load a .civ5map in your game directory.
If you generated the map image and want to modify the map, you can export the .civ5map as a .json by providing an output filename with the file extension .json and reuse the exported json as the map filename.
./Civ5MapImage.exe -map=[map filename] -mode=[drawing mode (optional)] -output=[output filename (default is output.png)]
-input is also accepted as an older alias for -map.
The default map mode is physical, which shows the different types of terrain.
./Civ5MapImage.exe -map=earth.Civ5Map -output=earth.png
To generate a political map with the civilization and city state borders, you must pass in -mode=political to specify the drawing mode.
./Civ5MapImage.exe -map=maps/europe1939.json -mode=political -output=europe1939.png
To generate a replay, provide the base map and the replay file of a game. Passing -replay alone implies -mode=replay and defaults -output to output.gif:
./Civ5MapImage.exe -map=[map filename] -replay=[replay filename]
which is shorthand for the fully explicit form:
./Civ5MapImage.exe -mode=replay -map=[map filename] -replay=[replay filename] -output=[gif filename]
| Flag | Expected extension(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
-map |
.civ5map or .json |
The base map. Use the same map the replay was recorded on. |
-replay |
.civ5replay, .civ5save, or .json |
The replay event log. A .civ5save is read and converted on the fly (see Extract Replay From Save File below). A .json here must be a replay previously exported with -mode=exportjson. |
-output |
.gif |
Replays are always GIF-encoded; any other extension is rejected before rendering. |
-maxturns |
(integer) | Render at most this many turns instead of the whole replay; omit it (or pass 0) to render every turn. Useful for a quick preview. |
Any other extension on -map or -replay is also rejected immediately. Before rendering, the map and replay are cross-checked: grid dimensions, tile-by-tile geography, and whether -map's filename matches the one the replay recorded (a mismatch there is only a warning). A geography mismatch fails fast with a descriptive error instead of rendering a wrong or partial animation.
A .civ5save can be passed directly as -replay, no conversion needed:
./Civ5MapImage.exe -map=[map filename] -replay=[save filename]
To instead save the extracted replay events as reusable .json (e.g. to avoid re-parsing the save file each render), convert it with -mode=exportjson first, then render using the resulting json as -replay:
./Civ5MapImage.exe -mode=exportjson -input=[save filename] -output=[json filename]
./Civ5MapImage.exe -map=[map filename] -replay=[json filename]
Set -mode=exportjson and output to have a filename ending in .json. No image will be generated.
./Civ5MapImage.exe -mode=exportjson -input=earth.Civ5Map -output=earth.json
This project has unit tests for the fileio and graphics packages. To run the full test suite:
go test ./...
To see individual test names as they run, add -v:
go test ./... -v
To check test coverage:
go test ./... -cover
For detailed technical specifications of the Civ5 file formats, see FORMAT.md.
This document covers:
- Map File Format (.civ5map) - Complete structure and data types
- Replay File Format (.civ5replay) - Event data and civilization information
- Save File Format (.civ5save) - Compressed game state data
The format documentation is intended for developers who need to understand the binary structure of Civ5 files or want to extend the functionality of this tool.