hello everybody... first question

[caldera]

hi all, i'new in this forum, hope you can help me...
just trying to understand spring mapping. i could follow the mapping-wiki to the point where mapConv.exe (I used 60b1MapConv) puts out some files: mapname, mapname.smt, mini.bmp and mini.dds. But now i dont have any idea how to go on. (perhaps someone who knows how it works should edit the wiki and explain it a bit more detailed )
do i now have to pack these files into an archive, or do i have do edit them? the wiki sais i should use a texteditor to make a smd file, but what the hell does it mean?

[aGorm]

Use 7zip to unpack an existing map and you'll be able to see were everything goes...

Take one of the basic maps like volcano island, tahst not to complicated.

I prommis when I get some time I'll make a BRAND SPANKING NEW wiki page.

aGorm

[caldera]

thanks, that helped a lot. i can even see the minimap in tasclient now. just have to find out why spring crashes while loading the map....

[Weaver]

just have to find out why spring crashes while loading the map....

Common problems;

Using a greyscale metalmap, this will create thousands of geothermal vents which causes the crash.

Setting start points outside the area of the map.

[caldera]

startpoints...knew i forgot something :)

[FizWizz]

also, startpoints correspond to the pixel coordinates on the texture map.

[caldera]

hi, still have problems generating a map for spring:

I have created the bitmaps like told in the tutorials: 24bit, 5120x5120 for the texture.bmp, 641x641 for the metalmap and the heightmap.
I used the 60b1 MapConv that runs but getting an error about the tilefile grass.bmp
Probably here is still something wrong, but i dont know why the tilefile makes problems, perhaps you could have a look at it, its in the bitmaps archive.
Despite the error i used the smf and smt file and packed it together with an smd i created with maelstroms 3.1 tool.
i packed them with 7zip and renamed the file to .sd7
After that i copied it into spring/maps-folder.
then i opened it within the battleroom.
Spring starts then, but at loading "creating overhead texture" spring stops and afer 5 min. a windows-errormessage pops up,: not enough virtual memory....

hope you can help me
thx
caldera


Files:
bitmaps (metalmap, tile, heightmap)
http://files.filefront.com/bitmapszip/; ... einfo.html

texture (in original a 24-bit bitmap 5120x5120) but compressed for presentation here to jpeg because of the size of 75mb
http://files.filefront.com/texturezip/; ... einfo.html

sd7
http://files.filefront.com/testmap7z/;4 ... einfo.html

[SwiftSpear]

what mapconv are you using? If mothers you need a typemap... if the default it should be applying grass to any green spot on the texture map. I'm not sure, but this could possibly cause a crash if there's too much grass?

[caldera]

thats a good idea
i didnt use mothers, but i compiled with default typemap in the mapconv i found...how do i create a typemap? (1/8 resolution of texturemap+1px?)

[zwzsg]

You don't need mini.dds nor mini.bmp, they can be thrown in the trash bin. You need to create a .smd, open the .smd of another map in Notepad to see what's inside, and read Spring changelog to see the new smd tags.

[Weaver]

how do i create a typemap? (1/8 resolution of texturemap+1px?)

That will do, I think only the red channel is used so you can still use a grey map. I suggest that you use values like 0,0,0 1,1,1 etc as there is sometimes you get value half way between on borders which can cause problems later.