Spring RTS Engine

The other side to this problem is load times - the majority of data in the sm2 is in a DXT1 compressed texture format - which can be loaded directly into opengl or DirectX so is reasonably fast. If we could store the sm2's in a decent, fast to extract zip file (or similar) then it'd slow the loading...

Its easy to assume -c 0.0 to be lossless. however it depends how the uniqueness values (faststats) are worked out. The amount of information in the tile graphic is reduced from 32x32x24 bits (24576 bits) to a faststat which is 9 integers (288 bits) so its possible that some tiles might have the same...

... And can someone explain to me what "FastStat" does!? -Buggi Its used to hold the "uniqueness" of the tile. Its uses some stats algorythms to create a number of values like average brightness on R,G,B channels etc. The stats are then used to find an existing tile that's close...

It might be the CBitmap class having some problems with different formats. I use Paint Shop Pro for all my bitmaps and works ok. I'll investigate.. err.. those two bitmaps are the same file. :? update: I've just tried it with that bmp and works ok for me, sm2 built: test: Metal map: 256x256 - the fi...

2 most important questions : are the sm2 files decompressable back to their original form ? and when maps are compressed, is the compression lossless ? because the program says "lower quality"....... no - the format is lossy - It would be possible to split the sm2 out into the 3 "sou...

I've got a map ready, but when I use your mapconv to add tree, it crash... i've got a 4096^2 texture map, 1024 metal map and 513 heightmap. Hmm - works for me.. must be something strange with the bitmaps you're feeding it. :? I noticed that trying to put tree too close to the edge of the map will c...

you mentioned you were lazy now I believe you.

alignment seems to look ok - pasted sections to (0,0) (4096,0) (0,4096) (4096,4096) Get source here: http://www.floridasun.co.uk/tas/GI_Source.zip You need v0.6 of MAPConv. cmdline I use: mapconv -l -c 2 -x 210 -n -45 -o "Green Isles v2.sm2" -m GI_V2_m.bmp -a GI_V2_h.bmp -i -e -t GI_V2_c.bmp

The main problem (as far as I can see) with the current format is that each map contains its own tileset which accounts for about 75%(guess) of its size . If we move that to a seperate file then multiple maps could use the same tileset (with maybe a smaller internal tileset for unique features). Onl...

I´d like to know how you rendered at 8096 . I thought that wasn´t possible with tertexgen ? Also I´d be interested in the Textures themselves, if you don´t mind taking all the work off me :D . You're right - Terrtexgen is limited to 4096 - so I cheated and chopped my height map into 4 a...

Thanks for the comments - I'm actually more of a programmer than a map designer (as you can probably tell :lol: ). I'm not going to be tweaking the map anymore, but gonna start working on some better tools for editing them. If anyone wants the source bitmaps for this map, to continue its development...

We need to work on a new map format, not put bandaids on the existing format. -Buggi I totally agree - hey, I was just sharing the changes to Mapconv that I used to make my life easier, a few simple changes made it work better for me (and hopefully other people too). What's the progress on the Map ...

As promised, MAPConv 0.6 is available: http://www.floridasun.co.uk/TAS/MapConv_v0_6.zip It combines all previous patches: allows larger than 26x26 maps No trees or grass on green of main texture new command line option "-e" to use my edge priority compression method Feature placing using t...

if you use 0 red 0 blue and 200green you can place trees with nitrus's mapconv but im not sure his is the one that goes beyond the 26x26 limit The last version didn't have the > 26x26 patch - but I've got that code now from CVS (thanks SJ) - so I'll do a rebuild and put it on Fileuniverse later tod...

Looks great - are you using the original textures from OTA or have you found some decent hires replacements?

I've made a few improvements - thanks for the creative criticism :wink: http://www.floridasun.co.uk/TAS/Green_Isles_v2_minimap.jpg http://www.floridasun.co.uk/TAS/GreenIsles_v2_2.jpg Metal Patches look a bit better <cheers zwzsg> but still not ideal. textured at 8192 (rather than a blown up 4096) so...

Metal map must be 2^n and not 2^n+1 no? (i've made a map and it work good like that) Yeah - I reckon you're right. Mine are probably misaligned too - but maybe because the scale is bigger (1025 rather than 257) the slight discrepancy isn't as noticable. GrOuNd_ZeRo: got any pictures showing the pro...

Editors/Tools too.. I've been tinkering around with the MAPCONV program - as you've probably seen from the MAPS forum. Started programming about 20years ago .. does that make me the oldest here? I've done almost every language from Z80 assembly to VB.NET.... not bragging - i'm an addict :( Comp Sci ...

With Green Isles - my Heightmap and Metal map were the same size (1025x1025) the main texture was 8192x8192. And it all seemed to line up ok.

What sizes are your other bitmaps (Height and Tex)?

Yeah - you're right. This map was really a proof of concept and getting the toolset together.. I you like playing it then great - if not, play another map. I've got a load of ideas for future maps .. they'll be more balanced. I promise! :wink: Making natural looking maps that are balanced is difficu...