Updating mapconv

Updating mapconv

Discuss maps & map creation - from concept to execution to the ever elusive release.

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jcnossen
Former Engine Dev
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Joined: 05 Jun 2005, 19:13

Updating mapconv

Post by jcnossen »

I figure it is best to have a single mapconv version, so I want to put in the changes of the various mapconvs in the CVS.
Which mapconvs should I use? (Links plz).
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aGorm
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Joined: 12 Jan 2005, 10:25

Post by aGorm »

Befor anyone says anything eles...

MOTHERS! (cause it rules....)

However I cant find a link to it on file univers distubingly...

aGorm
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FizWizz
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Post by FizWizz »

I second Mother's. However, if it is possible, I would like to see the auto-grass and auto-tree placement feature implemented too, maybe as a toggle option, because it does have its uses. Heck, make trees and grass seperately toggle-able, and if its not that hard to do, make the colors they get placed on user-definable, along with a fuzziness factor (how far off the RGB can be from the defined grass-placement color).
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aGorm
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Post by aGorm »

I secong Fizwizz...

Also, someone needs to look at the geo placement if we use Mothers, because sometimes it will put down more than one geo on a green pixel, which is a pain in teh back side as you have to keep re-trying in diffrent places... (very rare bug admitadly....)

aGorm
Wannes
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Joined: 23 Oct 2005, 19:39

Post by Wannes »

indeed mothers mapconv is the best version atm

that auto tree&grass thign seems usefull indeed but changing those colors thing doens't seems to ahve any use to me but I might have missed something
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aGorm
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Post by aGorm »

He means... not what colour on teh feature map, but what colour on the texture map. Just incase anyone was reading that wrong...

aGorm
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Maelstrom
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Joined: 23 Jul 2005, 14:52

Post by Maelstrom »

Ive also noted that geo bug. It was really annoying. At times I had about 10 geo's in one big clump. And as I was placing about 3 geo spots on the map, this really made the game run slow. Some small bugs like that to sort out, and add in these features, and there will be a realy cool new Mapconv. Also, if someone wants to make a Sharpmap clone, then that would be good to also add to the CVS.
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zwzsg
Kernel Panic Co-Developer
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Joined: 16 Nov 2004, 13:08

Post by zwzsg »

I was about to ask you to update the CVS with a better mapconv built on mother's one Zaphod!

The best mapconv is the one from mother:
- It is the only mapconv that let me place custom features
- It is the only mapconv where the geo are placed precisely where I want and not on a random location in a large area around the point I wanted.
- It is the only mapconv that let me place tree and grass where I want, and not where it thinks it's green enough.

Here is a link to mother mapconv + source. However, this first version had a big problem. Supposedly because of some "optimisation", it was not working for me. So mother released another version, without the optimisation, found here. But this one doesn't have source included.

Also, when trying to compile mother's mapconv I get:
c:\MyStuff\Jeux\TASpring\CVS_Spring_Source\taspring\MapConv\MapConv.cpp(175) : error C2660: 'SaveHeightMap' : function does not take 6 arguments
I PM'ed mother on Sun Oct 23 but he hasn't answered so far.

I strongly disagree about people complaining they had too much geo. One pure green dot = one geo, so if you put a big clumb of ten green pixel don't surprised to have ten geo. That or your map resolution was wrong. Unless it's a genuine bug I haven't yet encountered of course.

Also, long ago Buggi had made a mapconv that supported very large map. I don't know if mother mapconv is built on it, so if not you'll have to merge both.

So, the best mapconv would be mother mapconv, without the "optimisation" that makes me crash, and merged with Buggi changes to support large maps.
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Weaver
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Joined: 07 Jul 2005, 21:15

Post by Weaver »

I never got mothers mapconv working right, but I'd like have the fetures it offers.

There are some other issues that may be mapconv related, terrain typemaps can give results at borders between defined areas that have a difference greater than on. It appears to be a samplig issue. The ingame resolution of the typemap is half the heightmap resolution which is always an odd number, this produces a half "tile" at south and west edge of the map. - This could easily be fixed by not resampling the typemap.

Coincidentally, this is the same resolution as the gradient map (which you see when you hit F2). This is generated from the heightmap using only even numbered x y co-ordinates, then it compares these on diagonals, halving the resolution again!

This allows a little trick, you can create heightmap features that are invisible to the pathfinding system if no large change occurs in diagonally adjacent points that are even numbered. - I don't know if it would be impractial to fix this, but it would break one of my maps if it was.
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NOiZE
Balanced Annihilation Developer
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Post by NOiZE »

where is he anyway?
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hrmph
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Post by hrmph »

Recently I haven't seen Mother around at all. He is probably taking a bit of a break from TA Spring, atleast that would be my guess. Come back mother! (now the only person I pester is Mong :))
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aGorm
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Post by aGorm »

zwzsg... while I hate to point this out the person complaining aboutt he geo problem is ME. Do you realy think I'm likly to place a big blob of green insted of one pixel, or if I did, not go back and change it and try again?? I mean come on.... be sensible.

It does happen, just rarly. I've yet to figure out what sort of conditions...

aGorm
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Maelstrom
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Joined: 23 Jul 2005, 14:52

Post by Maelstrom »

It has also happened to me. Im complaining to. When I did it, it happend multiple times. I placed one pixel of green. Well, i placed 3 pixels, but over a very wide area, as in one pixel in each corner, and one in the middle. They came out to be big clumps of Geo's. And these were not even regular shaped clumps. These were really random and weirdly saped clumps. I moved the Geo locations, same thing happened. I ended up just remiving the geo's all together.
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zwzsg
Kernel Panic Co-Developer
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Joined: 16 Nov 2004, 13:08

Post by zwzsg »

Then the "Unless it's a genuine bug I haven't yet encountered of course." alinea applies and I apologize. I was just too happy to see my sixteen geo placed exactly where they should when using mother's mapconv and wanted to make sure that is kept.
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FizWizz
Posts: 1998
Joined: 17 Aug 2005, 11:42

Post by FizWizz »

heh, I've had the opposite problem happen to me, where I placed ~20 geos on a map and only 3 successfully showed up. The problem went away though and I don't know how or why, but I'm happy, because other than that Mother's Mapconv has behaved.
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genblood
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Joined: 19 Jan 2005, 03:37

Post by genblood »

Is someone working on updating mapconv? Is Buggi still working
on Sharpmap?

Is it possible to add more tree types or bushes added to the
game itself? Maybe even 7 or 12 types of rocks?
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aGorm
Posts: 2928
Joined: 12 Jan 2005, 10:25

Post by aGorm »

thats is why features were added genblood...

aGorm
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