Map design software?

hughperkins · Post by **hughperkins** » 01 Dec 2006, 17:10

New release. The file at http://manageddreams.com/csai/MapDesigner.zip has been updated.

This is primarily a bug-fix release.

Changes:
- crashdump added
- file dialog defaults to maps subdirectory
- issue with editing height near East or South side of map corrected
- issue with editing splat blend texture near East or South side of map corrected

Post by **jcnossen** » 01 Dec 2006, 18:19

Update: note that there was an issue with height editing close to East or South edge of map. A new version will be released soon.

That was the cause yes.

Is it possible to set a hardness for the texture-paint? So you can make blendmap values other than 0 or 255?
Very nice job so far, this will help both spring and osrts a lot!

EDIT: Here is a screenshot of the flatten bug:
http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/7908 ... tenfq3.jpg

Its really weird, it goes completely beyond the max height, and seems to vibrate or something (The peak goes up and down every frame until you stop pushing)

hughperkins · Post by **hughperkins** » 01 Dec 2006, 21:03

jcnossen wrote:Is it possible to set a hardness for the texture-paint? So you can make blendmap values other than 0 or 255?

Texture paint is cumulative. You can change the speed by changing the speed value in config.xml in the heightediting section (texture editing speed is read from this section). You will need to restart MapDesigner for the change to take effect.

jcnossen wrote:Here is a screenshot of the flatten bug:
http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/7908 ... tenfq3.jpg

Hmmm, interesting. Here's the flatten logic, in MovementAndEditing/HeightEditor.cs, lines 104-107:

Code: Select all

if( CurrentEditBrush.GetInstance().BrushType == BrushType.Flatten)
{
   mesh[thisx, thisy] = mesh[thisx, thisy] + (mesh[x, y] - mesh[thisx, thisy]) * brushshapecontribution * timemultiplier / 50;
}

... where x,y is the centre of the brush, and thisx,thisy is a member of the set of points contained by the brush. mesh is the heightmap.

If brushshapecontribution or timemultiplier are very high, then this will overshoot, and exhibit the behavior that you describe.

Brushshape contribution should vary between 0 and 1.0, line 85:

Code: Select all

brushshapecontribution = 1.0 - distance / brushsize;

...where distance is distance of point from brush centre.

Timemultiplier will be high if the framerate is very low, lines 68 and 69:

Code: Select all

double timemultiplier = ((TimeSpan)(DateTime.Now.Subtract(LastDateTime))).Milliseconds * speed;
LastDateTime = DateTime.Now;

If you're getting framerates of at least 10fps or so, then you're running at the same frame rate as the development machine, and shouldnt see an issue.

Hypothesis: maybe speed is set very high, or framerate is very low, and is causing both the texture paint 0/255 issue, and the flatten spiking issue?

Edit: note that speed in default config.xml is set to 0.6

hughperkins · Post by **hughperkins** » 02 Dec 2006, 20:22

New release 0.3d. File at http://manageddreams.com/csai/MapDesigner.zip has been updated.

Primarily bugfixes and convenience defaults.

Changes:
- Whakamatunga_Riri.sm3 can now be loaded from inside any directory called "Maps", even if the directory is not a direct subdirectory of MapDesigner
- added try...catch around mainloop; should silently catch most exceptions, log to console, then continue
- default texture is white
- Add Texture Stage will create a new texture stage of type "Blend"
- It's no longer possible to remove all texture stages
- Errors reading numbers from config.xml will now generate descriptive warning messages
- Locale forced to en-gb, so floats in the config.xml will need a decimal separator of ".", rather than changing from country to country

hughperkins · Post by **hughperkins** » 03 Dec 2006, 20:19

Jelmer,

Couple of questions:
- what is the recommended way for mappers to add tiles to an SM3 map? , eg metal spots
- what will the standard map format for osrts be?

Post by **jcnossen** » 04 Dec 2006, 01:08

Couple of questions:
- what is the recommended way for mappers to add tiles to an SM3 map? , eg metal spots

Right now, the only way is adding an extra layer. Maybe someone can fix this by adding decals to the map formats, so you can use the decal system (now used for tracks/explosion marks) to add stuff to the map.

- what will the standard map format for osrts be?

SM3 for terrain, especially now that you made an editor

There will be a lot of changes in the total map specification, because it should be able to use multiple lights and multiple geometry types, but the texture stage system will remain.

hughperkins · Post by **hughperkins** » 04 Dec 2006, 01:12

SM3 for terrain

Ok good!

Re tiles, one implementation could be to specify their locations directly in the SM3, and they are added after all other layers, with blend enabled. Allowing 50 characters per tile entry, that would take up 25k for 500 separate tiles, which seems trivial?

hughperkins · Post by **hughperkins** » 04 Dec 2006, 02:04

Basically the way this could work is:
- we update the format, in a backwards compatible way, to include tiling
- osrts and mapdesigner work with the new format
- spring can choose to upgrade to new format at some point

hughperkins · Post by **hughperkins** » 04 Dec 2006, 08:00

New release, 0.4

New release, 0.4. File at http://manageddreams.com/csai/MapDesigner.zip has been updated.

Major changes:

- feature placement

Minor changes:

- removed try..catch around mainloop. Prefer crashbug message, which will be sent to me.

Feature Placement

To add features, click a feature then left click map to add feature, rightclick to remove.

The available features are taken from the .s3o files in MapDesigner/objects3d, so store your feature s3os in that directory.

You'll need to add the corresponding unit textures in the MapDesigner/unittextures directory.

You dont need to generate unitpics because they're generated automatically

Screenshots:

objects3d directory containing s3o files:

Features control panel:

Some dead fleas:

LBPB · Post by **LBPB** » 04 Dec 2006, 11:35

OMG thats simply wonderful

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 04 Dec 2006, 20:21

Hey, I have a cool idea about placing metal spots... what if it could read the source image's alpha (if present), and use that to interpret the blendmap? Might be an easy way to get metal spots to be one-click-easy, and would probably have some other uses as well.

Relinquished · Post by **Relinquished** » 04 Dec 2006, 22:44

I love how this is coming. I can see it turning into a full-fledged map editor/compiler/everything eventually. Keep up the great work! :D. I just have two requests, can you add the ability to export a height contour map? and to export the textures as a single .bmp texture file? I know you don't need that for sm3's but for older formats it would be nice :).

And out of curiosity, is there a way I can set it to render things at high quality from farther away? because even if you zoom out a tad it looses it's shape...

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 04 Dec 2006, 22:57

got a error that "jpeg62.dll" couldn't be found when i ran mapdesigner.exe

It does work though after that. it looks really Cool!!!

Would be cool if we could rotate/tilt the camera more..

Relinquished · Post by **Relinquished** » 04 Dec 2006, 23:11

One question, how do you rotate the camera? I've been looking for about 30 minutes and I can't figure out how... :S. A help file might be nice

hunterw · Post by **hunterw** » 05 Dec 2006, 01:30

the HELLO WORLD of metal fleas.

lol

i'm a rather prolific ut2004 mapper. i might just have to kill a couple days this december and make a really badass spring map.

Deathblane · Post by **Deathblane** » 05 Dec 2006, 01:41

Heh I remember playing some of your UT maps :)

Relinquished · Post by **Relinquished** » 05 Dec 2006, 01:45

NOiZE wrote:got a error that "jpeg62.dll" couldn't be found when i ran mapdesigner.exe

It does work though after that. it looks really Cool!!!

Would be cool if we could rotate/tilt the camera more..

I got the same error, but it seems to work anyways

AF · Post by AF » 05 Dec 2006, 13:07

Please use the same camera controls and movement controls as spring. I was a bit flummoxed when I saw you'd imagined a totally new control interface for moving around and was quite baffled by it.

Post by **jcnossen** » 05 Dec 2006, 14:44

flummoxed and baffled? On which planet do you live?

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 05 Dec 2006, 14:55

Hang on... is this a feature placer?? Or am i imagining things? !!! !!! !!!

Is thius part of that SM3 terrain maker prog I've seen nocking around!?

HELP, SOMEONE EXPLANE!!!

OMG, will make my current map SOOO much easier to make!

Ok, ill stop being an idiot now... I'll download all this tonight and give it a whirle... about time I tryed this new map format me thinks....

aGorm

Spring RTS Engine

Map design software?