Map Unconverter?

[mistahnice]

Hey folks,

I was wondering if there was a way to split a map.smf file into its constituent texture/height/metal maps. I wanted to tweak a few maps I've been playing recently to make them more friendly to some LAN buddies.

Thanks!

[genblood]

mistahnice,

PM .. the one that made the map and ask if they
would add a few changes ...

[very_bad_soldier]

L3DT is able to disassemble maps AFAIK.
It's still a good idea to contact the original creator.

[mistahnice]

mistahnice,

PM .. the one that made the map and ask if they
would add a few changes ...

I would do this, but the changes are kinda specific and I don't think they'd go over well with the general public. For example.. we love to play bridge battles, but don't like how much metal there is in SpeedMetal, so I'd like to make an actual metal map for it, you know?

[Forboding Angel]

Hey folks,

I was wondering if there was a way to split a map.smf file into its constituent texture/height/metal maps. I wanted to tweak a few maps I've been playing recently to make them more friendly to some LAN buddies.

Thanks!

TBH with this you're kinda asking to get flamed, however, L3DT can disassemble maps like you want.

Generally it's bad for to change up someone's maps. I have before, but only on a few conditions:

The creator asks me to.

The original creator didn't understand how to control fog settings (Riverdale/conqurers isle are good examples), meaning that the fog is so think that it obscures your view in normal topdown view.

I have also done remakes based on other peoples maps before, but only a few times. Reasons generally being - textures or bad layout.

For example, conqurers isle remake. Conq, is an awesome map, but it has some real issues, like omgwtflag forest fires, texture was made in Annihilator (OTA mapmaking program), and the waterlines don't match up.

So I made conq isle remake.


Generally it's a bad form to label anything as a remake if it doesn't improve anything, graphically or playability.

It sounds like what you want to do is SMD tweaking (probably on metal or wind amounts). TBH a better way to do it is to make a super small mutator of whatever mod you're playing with the adjusted amounts built in. It's actually a lot easier to do it this way, and you will for the most part catch very little flak for it.

If you are using them for just you and a select group of friends, then I would say it's ok, but if you are planning to throw it up on UF, the file will probably get deleted and you will most likely get flamed into oblivion.


THis brings up something I had thought about in the past. As I have said before, anything in my maps are available for use by other people, now, that as a general rule doesn't apply to heightmaps because that equates to a blatant ripoff. However I've never really worried about it, because I believe that anything anyone could come up with in maps I have made, I can outdo them.

However, just you asking this could cause a lot of unrest in the mapping community, cause most of us spent many many hours on our maps. In the case of Whakamatunga Riri, I spent upwards of 90 hours on it, and much of that texture is had drawn, so personally I place a very high value on it. I imagine many other mappers feel the same way.

Personally like I said, try making a mutator for the mod you are playing. If it is a TA based mod then you can redistribute the mutator freely on UF or whereever, if it is non TA content, ask the mod creator. Even if he says no, redistributing a mutator among jsut your friends would most likely be ok, however, that depends on the licensing.


Confused yet?

[Forboding Angel]

mistahnice,

PM .. the one that made the map and ask if they
would add a few changes ...

I would do this, but the changes are kinda specific and I don't think they'd go over well with the general public. For example.. we love to play bridge battles, but don't like how much metal there is in SpeedMetal, so I'd like to make an actual metal map for it, you know?

Oh ffs, you can do whatever the hell you want with speedmetal... Trust me, no one will mind, and if they do, they will most likely get flamed back into the hole they came from.

Wish you would have said speedmetal in the first place.

[Forboding Angel]

WHEE Triple post. Loook on UF for speedrnetal <notice the spelling. It's by picasso and has a decent metal map on it.


Aha, found it : http://www.unknown-files.net/spring/1066/Speedrnetall/

BTW, if that's still not what you want, let me know and I'll make it for ya.

[mistahnice]

WHEE Triple post. Loook on UF for speedrnetal <notice the spelling. It's by picasso and has a decent metal map on it.

BTW, if that's still not what you want, let me know and I'll make it for ya.

Thanks a ton, I'm checking it out now.

edit: This is much cooler, however, I'd like it to not be.. heh, speedmetal. Maybe I can change the extractor radius so that, say, there's only enough room for 10 or so mines per side of the map?

By the way, I'm familiar with the ethics of mapping and I appreciate you typing out that huge post on it. I wouldn't ever re-release anything that was tweaked.

[Forboding Angel]

With the extractor radius, sounds like a good plan...

You'll have to do some tweaking to the metal amount tho, cause the wider the radius, the more metal is being extracted.

BTW if you want to rename the map, just rename the smd and the smf files DO NOT TOUCH THE smt.

If you mess with the smt the map will not work.

[mistahnice]

With the extractor radius, sounds like a good plan...

You'll have to do some tweaking to the metal amount tho, cause the wider the radius, the more metal is being extracted.

BTW if you want to rename the map, just rename the smd and the smf files DO NOT TOUCH THE smt.

If you mess with the smt the map will not work.

Thanks for the help, I know a lot more about maps now. Everything worked out great, and we managed to have a pretty massive 4 player lan. The bridge battle lasted two and a half hours, it all ended when a lucky shot from a big bertha ricocheted into my friend Tim's maho metal makers. He just so happened to have two clusters of reactors, with a line of maho metal makers between them. It was pretty glorious.

Thanks again!

[Decimator]

There is one other time when we've remade maps. Oki river remake is an example of a map that had a wonderful heightmap, but poor metal layout. We couldn't track down the original creator, so Forb remade it and now it's one of the favorite E&E maps.

[Forboding Angel]

There is one other time when we've remade maps. Oki river remake is an example of a map that had a wonderful heightmap, but poor metal layout. We couldn't track down the original creator, so Forb remade it and now it's one of the favorite E&E maps.

Quite honestly I should remake it again and add stuff like features, and sensical metal in the top part, but that was the original metal layout, so I just went with it. I should made an individual metal map for it but, meh.


It is quite a fun map tho.

[Decimator]

Go for it. I actually liked the original's texture style better as well.

[SinbadEV]

if you have a computer with at least about 2GB of ram and a CPU with a math co-processor it's very very very easy (while ridiculously complicated to figure out the first time) to make simple maps if you don't care about texture/features yourself... if your interested I'm sure 12 people would be happy to you point you in the right direction.