1. Make the project export-ready

RoadCraft export requires a Project V2 project with imported DTM, imagery, and vectors. Open the Editor and resolve any pending imports first. Confirm that the working terrain, vector geometry, mapped materials, and every optional feature you chose to author have finished saving.

Review the RoadCraft checklist and manually complete intentionally skipped optional stations. A valid Start Spawn is necessary for a usable gameplay handoff even though the export job itself can run without one. Confirm that the intended 500 m, 1,000 m, or 2,000 m terrain fits both the project region and the playable area.

2. Queue the RoadCraft export

Return to the project page and select Export. Choose RoadCraft and one available physical terrain size. Open RoadCraft settings before queueing: Road Plans is on by default and exports every unbuffered road baseline; turn it off when you want to author all Road Plans from scratch in Integration Studio. Buffered Ready Roads are unaffected. A disabled size does not fit the saved area; choose a smaller enabled size or deliberately change the project selection instead of forcing the request.

The export runs as a background job. Open its detail page to follow status and logs. A completed job exposes the downloadable RoadCraft archive; a failed job leaves the project intact so you can correct the reported input and queue a fresh export.

3. Download and extract the complete source kit

Download the completed archive from the export detail page and extract it to a new folder. Keep the complete directory structure together. The root README contains instructions generated for that exact scene, while the diagnostics describe terrain, water, trees, buildings, roads, gameplay actors, and optional surface rasters that were emitted.

Do not copy only the .scn file. Its resource sidecars, terrain maps, settings scene, art scene, replicas, cubemap manifest, and generated texture resources use paths relative to the source-kit layout. Keep the metadata and diagnostics with the extracted source for later troubleshooting and attribution review.

4. Replace the generated scene without merging versions

Close Integration Studio before replacing source files. In the extracted kit, identify the generated folder under `mods_source/xscenes/mods/<scene-name>`. In the Integration Studio source directory, check whether `xscenes/mods/<scene-name>` already exists from an older MapToPlay export.

If an older folder exists, move that whole scene folder outside `mods_source` as a backup. Do not merge two generated versions file by file: stale sidecars or terrain resources can survive and make the result different from either export. Then copy the contents of the new kit’s `mods_source` into the Integration Studio `mods_source` directory.

On Windows, the destination is normally below Documents at `Saber\IntegrationStudio\mods_source`; Documents may be redirected under OneDrive. Use the actual Documents location for the Windows account that runs Integration Studio.

5. Launch Integration Studio and open the scene

Run `mod_editor_release.bat` from the RoadCraft installation to start the RoadCraft authoring tools. Open `xscenes/mods/<scene-name>/<scene-name>.scn` from the source tree. The scene name is also shown in the generated README.

Let the scene and terrain finish loading before judging missing content. Check the log and resource tree if the terrain, art scene, settings scene, or stock references fail to resolve. A missing file after a partial copy is a source-layout problem; replace the complete generated folder again instead of creating substitutes by hand.

6. Save, reopen, and review the native scene

Save the opened scene, close it, and reopen the same generated .scn. This round trip catches source resources that appeared only in the first session, failed to persist, or resolve differently after a clean load. Do not continue to packaging while the reopened scene has missing terrain, actors, or dependencies.

Inspect the complete terrain from above and at driving height. Check height and ground-material alignment, the playable edge and its transition to generated background terrain or the stock template far plane, water-bank contact, tree and building positions, road placement, and obvious coordinate mirroring. Use the diagnostics to distinguish a feature that was skipped during export from one that was emitted but failed to load.

7. Validate terrain, surface controls, water, and assets

Use the terrain texture and extrusion visualizers to inspect authored Deformation and Wetness. Compare four representative patches: Deformation only, Wetness only, both, and neither. Confirm their orientation and boundaries, then drive the same vehicle over those patches later in game; Wetness alone must not be treated as permission for firm ground to deform.

Inspect every exported water feature at its banks and center. Long unlocked waterways may contain several overlapping flat actors; check their joins as well as the terrain basin. Check tree density, the automatic stock grass on Forest Ground, forest borders, steep slopes, and route clearances. Check each building’s orientation, terrain contact, entrances, and collision space. Stock RoadCraft assets resolve from the installed game; the lightweight Editor previews are not copied into the source kit.

Review the playable terrain edge and distant surroundings from several headings. When the project contains terrain beyond the selected map, the source kit includes an imagery-textured background ring following that surrounding relief and removes the overlapping stock far plane. A dense ring appears in the Outliner as several numbered `m2p_background_terrain` actors; they are automatic parts of one continuous, smoothly shaded background, so keep them together. Check the seam, elevation, texture orientation, lighting continuity, and coverage against `diagnostics/background-terrain.json`. When no surrounding region is available, the stock template far plane remains instead.

8. Review native gameplay and roads

Check all four Start Spawn slots for terrain contact, heading, vehicle clearance, and access to a usable route. Check each Recovery Point’s position, target name, radius, and surrounding clearance. Compare Ready Road overlays with their painted terrain footprint at bends, junctions, crossings, and terrain edges.

When Road Plans was enabled for this export, inspect every emitted spline together with its generated runtime points, lanes, zones, domains, and locators. If you edit a Road Plan spline in Integration Studio, select only that changed plan and run Generate again; then recheck its domains and locators. Do not regenerate an unchanged plan merely as an opening step. When the setting was off, the source kit intentionally contains no MapToPlay-generated Road Plans.

MapToPlay does not finish objectives, player-built infrastructure requests, facilities, links, or AI verification routes for the scenario. Author the gameplay systems the map needs in Integration Studio and verify that their zones and connections agree with the exported roads, start, recovery points, and terrain.

9. Build the .pak and test in game

Open Window → Mod Manager. If no existing mod entry contains this generated scene, select New Mod, enter the required mod information in English, select Add Scene, choose `xscenes/mods/<scene-name>/<scene-name>.scn`, and confirm the dialogs. On later builds, reuse that mod entry and confirm the scene is still included instead of creating a duplicate. The official RoadCraft build guide shows the same first-time mod and scene setup.

Select the mod entry in Mod Manager and select Build in the top-right corner. Wait for the `.pak` build to finish and resolve every reported error before testing. Keep the editable source kit and the exact built package together so later fixes come from known source.

Older MapToPlay source kits that contain a standalone generated background model can fail during Integration Studio packaging. If that happens, queue and download a fresh export, close Integration Studio, and repeat the complete whole-folder replacement described above. Current exports place the supported background terrain directly in the generated scene, so copying individual files from an older kit can restore the failing dependency or omit its required texture resources.

Start or restart RoadCraft and open Mod Browser. Link a PROS account if prompted on first use, select the local mod, and press F to enable it. Open Start Game → Custom Scenarios, select the map, and select Start Scenario. The official Play with Mods guide illustrates this launch path.

Start a new test session and verify spawning, recovery, Ready Roads, any Road Plans included or authored later, water behavior, building and tree collisions, terrain materials, deformation, wetness, map-edge behavior, and the scenario interactions you authored. Test from a driving view as well as from any overview tools.

When MapToPlay project data changes, queue a new export and repeat the whole-folder replacement and native review. Do not mix selected files from the new source kit into the old generated scene and assume the result represents the latest project.

Final handoff check

Before sharing the mod, confirm every item below against the exact source folder and `.pak` you intend to publish.

• The generated scene folder came from one export and was not merged with an older version.
• The scene opens, saves, and reopens with its terrain, resources, and supported actors present.
• Terrain, materials, optional Deformation and Wetness, water, trees, and buildings were inspected where used.
• Start Spawn, Recovery Points, Ready Roads, and every Road Plan present in the final scene were reviewed; only edited Road Plans were regenerated.
• Required objectives, requests, facilities, links, and verification routes were completed separately where the scenario uses them.
• The mod entry includes the generated scene, Mod Manager built its `.pak` without unresolved errors, and that exact package passed an in-game Custom Scenario test.
• `maptoplay-roadcraft.json`, the generated README, and attribution information remain with the editable source archive.